Chaos in Carson

Chaos in Carson campaign as top aides resign

Campaign manager Barry Bennett and communications director Doug Watts both resigned, as Carson's operation struggles to regain momentum.

By Kyle Cheney

Ben Carson's campaign manager and a number of top aides resigned on Thursday, throwing the old man's presidential run into turmoil as a controversial general prepares to lead the campaign's comeback effort.

Campaign manager Barry Bennett and communications director Doug Watts both resigned, effective immediately, after weeks of speculation about a shakeup. Carson last week indicated such a move, saying that "everything" was "on the table" as far as changes with his campaign, though he later walked that back and said, “I think the people that I have are spectacular.” Bennett told POLITICO that a slew of other senior operatives had stepped down, too, from the campaign's general counsel to its controller.

Armstrong Williams, a close Carson confidant, told POLITICO that Robert Dees, a Carson advisor and retired Army general, will now chair the campaign, filling a leadership role that's been vacant for months. "General Dees is going to run the organization," Williams said.

It's unclear who will fill Bennett's post as campaign manager, handling the daily staff operation, but early reports indicated that the duty could fall to Ed Brookover, a veteran campaign strategist. "Brookover’s a good guy," Williams said. "Very responsive, people like him ... You have no idea what General Dees is going to ask of Brookover or anybody else."

Williams said Dees would bring more than foreign policy heft to Carson's campaign leadership. "This guy has managed many operations around the world. He’s managed people. He knows how to lead," he said.

Williams also suggested that Mike Murray, a consultant handling much of Carson's direct mail operation, would become more involved in the campaign's financial side.

And he said Carson is ready for a fresh start. "Dr. Carson is a new man. He’s at peace today," Williams said. "He’s very comfortable ... He understands people move on. He has a mission, and that mission is going to go into high gear."

Though the campaign revealed on Wednesday that it had raised $23 million in the quarter that ended Thursday — likely setting the pace among Republican candidates — the operation had been beset by staff-level dysfunction and exorbitant spending on small-donor fundraising efforts.

The announcement also comes as Carson has struggled to halt a dramatic slide in his poll numbers amid doubts about his grasp of foreign policy issues after the Paris terrorist attacks and the accuracy of his personal narrative.

"Barry Bennett and I have resigned from the Carson campaign effective immediately," Watts said in a statement. "We respect the candidate and we have enjoyed helping him go from far back in the field to top tier status." Bennett, a veteran campaign operative with long connections to Ohio Sen. Rob Portman, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Carson first signaled that a shakeup was imminent in interviews he granted just before Christmas. But he quickly backed off the comments and blasted reporters for the suggestion, insisting he had “100 percent” confidence in his campaign leadership, which also includes Brookover.

Tension had been simmering between Bennett and Williams, who has no formal role in the campaign but often speaks on Carson’s behalf. Bennett told POLITICO last week that he recently had a “tense” call with Williams over his comments to The New York Times about Carson’s canceled trip to Africa, which had been scheduled for this week. Williams told the paper that Carson called off the trip because of a security threat from terror group Boko Haram, a suggestion he later acknowledged was conjecture.

That exchange was emblematic of a series of conflicts between Williams and Carson’s senior campaign team, who frequently were not on the same page in media interviews, creating the appearance, at times, of a struggle for influence with Carson.

Bennett told POLITICO he grew frustrated about Williams' outsize influence on Carson, and his frustration reached a peak two days before Christmas, when Williams arranged for Carson to sit down with reporters and telegraph a shakeup. Bennett said he had "150 staffers going home for Christmas all of them thinking that they might be fired."

He said his decision to resign surprised Carson Thursday morning, but he said he still thinks the neurosurgeon can win Iowa. "It’s going to require him not listening to Armstrong Williams anymore," he said.

Williams on Thursday expressed confidence in Carson, calling the candidate rejuvenated. Two days ago, Williams had kind words for Bennett and the campaign, despite their public clashes. “I am not going to criticize the campaign. They work very hard for Dr. Carson,” he said Tuesday. “With the exception of what happened after the terrorist attacks in Paris … They’ve done very well for a long time. I am not going to judge them for what I’ve seen over the long haul.”

Terry Giles, who helped organize Carson’s campaign structure in the spring — including bringing in Bennett and Brookover — before he was elbowed out over strategic differences, said in an interview with POLITICO on Thursday that the shakeup is Carson’s best chance at rebounding in the primary.

“I think he has a better chance of recovering without these folks in his campaign than he would’ve had if they were still there,” said Giles, a Carson friend since the two were inducted into the Horatio Alger Society in the 1990s.

He said Carson’s campaign leadership had forced out top allies who cared deeply about Carson — from former deputy campaign manager Steve Rubino to businessman Bill Millis — replacing them with professional political operatives who understand the process but were susceptible to mistakes.

“The politico consultant class is, in my opinion, helping to destroy leadership in this country and the way that they do it is they have a tendency to turn politicians into vanilla,” he said. “They don’t want their candidate to get into the weeds of the issues. As a result, they don’t let them have the time to get properly prepared. What they do with the money and how they spend the money is outrageous.”

Millis told POLITICO last month that he left the Carson campaign over strategic differences, and he singled out Bennett as an obstacle to Carson’s prospects. Carson’s campaign leadership, he argued, had encouraged Carson to avoid releasing policy positions until January, a decision that hurt him as foreign policy surged to the fore. He said Thursday that Bennett and Watts did a "remarkable job" before departing, but that Carson needed new leadership.

If Dees, a Texas resident who retired from the Army in 2003, does take over the campaign, it likely won't come without controversy. The general has made notoriously hardline comments about Muslims, once telling an interviewer "trying to appease the Muslim religion by saying that they are a peace-loving religion is problematic … they need to demonstrate how their religion does not lead people to a final end state of violence and oppression.”

He's also made comments about African-Americans that are sure to resurface, writing in his book that "America has worked hard to repent of its 'original sin' of slavery, and if anything has 'overcorrected' to the detriment of African-Americans (witness the 'Great Society' which created an addiction to entitlements)."

Carson briefly led the presidential pack in early November and was ahead of GOP poll leader Donald Trump in Iowa, earning the mogul’s criticism and scorn. But after Carson's remarks in the wake of the Paris terror attacks exposed his lack of foreign policy depth, he slid to the middle of the pack in polls.

Over the weekend, in an interview on CBS’ “Face the Nation,“ Carson suggested that he intended to take a more aggressive posture in responding to attacks and criticisms. He told Fox News Wednesday night that he wanted the campaign to be a closer reflection of who he is as a person.