Ben Carson Plans to Shake up Campaign

Republican presidential candidate Dr. Ben Carson poses for a photograph following an interview with The Associated Press in his home in Upperco, Md., Wednesday, Dec. 23, 2015. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

UPPERCO, Md. (AP) — Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson said Wednesday he is moving toward a major shake-up of his struggling campaign, with just six weeks to go until early voting begins to select party nominees.

In an interview with the Associated Press at his Maryland home — conducted without the knowledge of his own campaign manager — Carson said “personnel changes” could be coming, suggesting he is about to sideline his top aides.

“Everything. Everything is on the table,” he said of the potential changes. “Every single thing is on the table. I’m looking carefully.”

Carson’s longtime business adviser Armstrong Williams put more bluntly: “Dr. Carson is back in charge, and I’m so happy to see that,” he said. Williams himself has publicly feuded with the paid political professionals brought in to run Carson’s campaign.

Campaign manager Barry Bennett declined to make any immediate comment when told of Carson’s remarks. “I’m getting ready to have a conversation with him. Why don’t I have that conversation and call you back.”

The apparent rift between the candidate and his political team comes after his weeks-long slide in the polls. The political newcomer — a celebrated pediatric neurosurgeon — briefly surged to the top of the GOP field in October, riding public appeal for more anti-establishment candidates, while making headway with Christian and conservative voters.

With the spotlight came scrutiny. Carson publicly lashed out at media reports questioning details of his celebrated autobiography.

Terrorist attacks in Paris and California shifted the focus of the race to foreign policy and national security, sometimes highlighting Carson’s lack of experience. Another challenge: He is soft-spoken in a race dominated by media-savvy, tough-talking figures including real estate mogul Donald Trump and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz.

“I certainly don’t expect to get through a campaign without some scratches and bruises,” Carson said. “That’s the nature of the beast.”

Then came the internal disarray.

Carson had raised $31 million by the end of September, more than any other Republican in the race, but he’s outpaced the competition on spending — mostly on fundraising costs rather than critical political infrastructure.

“I recognize that nothing is perfect,” Carson said. “And, yes, we’ve had enormous fundraising, but that requires that you be efficient in the way you utilize the funds. And, yes, we are looking at all those things.”

Carson acknowledged that some of his difficulties were of his making.

He said he must prove to voters that he is up to the challenge to be commander-in-chief.

“I think I have to directly address the issue,” he said, sitting in his basement game room, where the walls around him are covered in decades’ worth of accolades.

People think that “because you are soft-spoken and nice, you can’t possibly be tough, you can’t have the strength to deal with the incredible security problems we now face,” Carson said. That “is not true, but I’m now talking about it.”

In recent campaign stops, Carson has started offering more specifics on foreign policy, such as detailing how U.S-led coalition forces can work to retake the Syrian city of Raqqa, the de-facto capital of the Islamic State group’s so-called caliphate.

Carson said he plans to put emphasis on his strategy for Libya when he returns to the trail after Christmas. He maintains that too many U.S. leaders, including some of his GOP rivals, have zeroed in on the Islamic State group’s activities in Iraq and Syria, while failing to acknowledge that they pose a threat beyond those borders.

“They have a global strategy,” Carson said of the militant group, arguing that the U.S. must counter it.

Carson said the rough-and-tumble nature of the 2016 race has not outweighed his favorite campaign moments. “The patients,” he said with a smile, explaining that he often meets former patients on the campaign trail who are eager to share their stories with him.

He recalled meeting one patient to whom he’d given a hemispherectomy — removing half the brain — as an infant. “He had graduated from college number one in his class — with half a brain,” Carson said. “These are incredible stories.”

Carson said a retooled campaign will not involve personal attacks on his Republican rivals, though he said he will look to place greater emphasis on their differences in policy and experience. He repeated his pledge to support the eventual GOP nominee if he does not win the nomination, explaining he’d respect the voters’ wishes.

Besides, Carson said, he likes his opponents — including bombastic Trump.

“There isn’t anybody there who is unpleasant,” Carson said. As an example, he noted that Trump had complimented him during the most recent GOP debate in Las Vegas.

“Then he came up to me during the break,” Carson recalled, “and said, ‘I really meant it.'”

___

Follow Julie Bykowicz on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/bykowicz and Bill Barrow at http://twitter.com/billbarrowAP

 

Copyright 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Comments

comments