Ben Carson’s campaign manager, spokesman quit GOP race

Williams disputes this. In a brief phone conversation with NBC News on Thursday, he said he knew Bennett and Watts “had issues with me” but held no ill will towards them, and that he hadn’t orchestrated the staffing changes.

Carson’s campaign manager Barry Bennett and communications director Doug Watts stepped down just five weeks before the first contest for the Republican nomination in Iowa on February 1.

But Bennett and Watts have been unhappy with Williams’ role with Carson, especially as Williams publicly criticized the campaign’s struggles, such as the Republican Jewish Coalition speech where Carson repeatedly mispronounced the name of Palestinian group Hamas.

Ben Carson spokeswoman Deanna Bass will remain on the campaign.

Watts confirmed the news in a statement to the Register: “Yes, Barry Bennett and I have resigned from the Carson campaign effective immediately”. After once leading national polls and in Iowa, Carson has lost his footing in the past two months in the aftermath of terrorist attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, California.

The former neurosurgeon’s campaign later told CBS News that “there will be no staff shake-up”.

Several operatives in early voting states, and Iowa in particular, have charged that the campaign has relied too heavily on organic support and online fundraising without making sufficient attempts to organize that energy in a more tangible way.

The campaign followed the interviews with a statement about the “100 percent confidence” Carson had in his team, but Williams wrote that off as spin. “They work very hard for Dr. Carson”, Williams told Politico when asked Tuesday about the potential staff shakeup.

Carson is “one of the smartest men I’ve ever worked for”, Bennett told the Associated Press, but added that he believes Carson has become Williams’ “script reader”. “He has since fallen to 10% in the latest CNN/ORC poll, which ties him for a distant third place with Marco Rubio, behind Trump and Ted Cruz“.

Taylor said the campaign turnover was not unexpected and that Carson is actively engaged with the decision making. I’m sure in your newsroom, you have differences of opinions.

“General Dees is going to run the organization”, Williams said, rejecting reports that veteran political adviser Ed Brookover would be taking over. You can see it when you look at Hitler’s Germany. “Dr. Carson is an outsider”.

Bennett says that foreign policy adviser Robert Dees will now be “running the show”.