by digby
CHAOS: I am on phone w/ Armstrong Williams as he gets the news. Carson calling him on other phone. “Doctor? Doctor, wait a second. What?”
— Robert Costa (@costareports) December 31, 2015
This is kind of sad because all those millions in donations probably came from conservative evangelicals and probably some African Americans who had grown up with him as a hero:
Two top aides to Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson resigned from the campaign and predicted a wave of departures to come Thursday, casting the troubled campaign into uncertainty with just a month until the Iowa caucuses.
Campaign manager Barry Bennett and communications director Doug Watts resigned over conflict with Armstrong Williams, a Carson adviser the campaign has said has no official role, according to the Des Moines Register. In a statement provided to NBC News, Watts said the resignations are effective immediately.
[…]
Days before Christmas, Armstrong and Williams invited The Washington Post and Associated Press for a sit-down at the candidate’s Maryland home about upcoming staffing changes to the campaign – without Bennett’s knowledge, the Post reported.“I spent the holidays hearing every day that I had lost my job,” Bennett told the Post in an interview Thursday. “My relationship with Carson was always good and friendly but being campaign manager in that kind of situation, where outside advisers are in essence driving the campaign and setting up interviews and raising questions about everything, it’s not the right atmosphere.”
[…]
Although dogged by a dip in recent polls, Carson’s campaign had just announced it raised $23 million in donations during the fourth quarter of 2015, outpacing Sen Ted Cruz’s (R-TX) reported $20 million haul. In a statement, Carson said of the departures: “it is necessary to invigorate my with a strategy that more aggressively shares my vision.”
It’s all small donations from average Americans. You have to wonder how many of them will ever want to donate again. This kind of thing is disastrous for the small-donor funding base.
Happy New Year everyone!
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