Carson looks for right campaign balance on foreign affairs
Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson is seeking to take control of his struggling presidential campaign, saying in an interview that his drop in the polls is the fault of his advisers and that he plans to shake up his staff in the coming days.
Earlier, in an interview with the Associated Press, Carson said “everything is on the table” regarding changes to his campaign.
Republican presidential candidate Dr. Ben Carson speaks during an interview with The Associated Press in his home in Upperco, Md., Wednesday, Dec. 23, 2015. Asked whether he thought Carson was being well-served by his staff, Giles said in a text message, “Ask me that question in two weeks”.
This one’s about why he chose to be a pediatric surgeon: “With a kid you can operate for ten, 12, 15, 18, 20 hours and if you’re successful your reward may be 50, 60, 70, 80 years of life, where as with an old geezer you spend all that time operating and they die five years of something else, so I like to get a big return on my investment”, Carson laughingly told employees at the tech company Dyn in Manchester. “We have come a long way and accomplished great things together, and together we look forward to winning in Iowa and beyond”.
“I’m extremely sensitive about budgets, growing up poor”, Carson said.
“It’s one of the things we’re looking at: making sure everyone’s salary is in line with the standard”, Carson told the Washington Post.
“Everything. Everything is on the table”, he said of the potential changes.
Disagreements within the campaign’s highest ranks have broken out into the open on numerous occasions, pointing to a persistent and sharp division between Armstrong Williams – Carson’s longtime business manager who is not formally part of the campaign – and Bennett, a Republican operative. As an example, he noted that Trump had complimented him during the most recent GOP debate in Las Vegas.
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. His campaign had raised the most out of any other Republican in the running – $31 million by late September – but far exceeded his rivals in spending. “Why don’t I have that conversation and call you back”. That “is not true, but I’m now talking about it”.
Carson, calling himself a “maverick” and misunderstood, also told Lemon that he had full confidence in his campaign, stressing that only a team of his caliber could elevate him to his position in the Republican race.
Carson acknowledged those issues in the AP interview, saying “The issue that has been put out is 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”.
As recently as November, Carson had challenged real-estate billionaire Donald Trump as the front-runner in national polls.
“They have a global strategy”, Carson said, arguing that the USA must match it.