Poll numbers

Carson: Trump's poll numbers are 'horrible'

By Eliza Collins

Ben Carson — who supports Donald Trump — thinks the billionaire Republican front-runner has “horrible numbers.”

The retired neurosurgeon and Trump surrogate was on Fox News’ “The Kelly File” Thursday when he was asked if it was possible to raise someone’s likability.

“What do you think — when you were still in this race, one of the things you always did very well on was likability and honestly and trustworthiness. Is it possible to advise somebody on how to raise their likability, their favorables? How would you suggest that be done?” Kelly asked.

“Well, first of all, it is interesting, I did have high favorables. People liked me but they didn't vote for me. And Trump has horrible numbers, but they vote for him,” Carson responded, chuckling. “I don't know that there's a great correlation there.”

The former presidential candidate also said he supported Trump’s decision to bring in extra help in order to plan for the Republican National Convention in July. On Thursday, Trump announced an expanded role for his new convention manager, Paul Manafort.

“There's no question he has to up the ground game. He's got to cultivate the delegates. And if you don't play that part of the game, you're going to lose 100 percent of the time. So that was the right move to make,” Carson said.