--- title: Ben Carson's Former Campaign Manager On Decision To Leave description: Former Carson campaign manager Barry Bennett spoke to TIME about problems within the Carson campaign and his decision to resign canonical: https://time.com/4165079/ben-carson-campaign-manager-interview/ author: Tessa Berenson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-12-31T21:18:54.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:41:55.179Z article:section: Politics og:title: Ben Carson's Former Campaign Manager Speaks About Leaving og:description: "My frustration level was boiling over" og:url: https://time.com/4165079/ben-carson-campaign-manager-interview/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt54914438c4ed8713/698872652dce0185079e69f7/ben-carson9.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5016 og:image:height: 2822 og:image:alt: Dr. Ben Carson at a news conference in Henderson, Nev. on Nov. 16, 2015. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Ben Carson's Former Campaign Manager Speaks About Leaving twitter:description: "My frustration level was boiling over" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt54914438c4ed8713/698872652dce0185079e69f7/ben-carson9.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Ben Carson's Former Campaign Manager Speaks About Decision To Leave > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=4e098ef8-0625-42bc-83e1-9354816f3541&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: TIME Raw: Ben Carson Confronts West Point Scrutiny [Watch (HLS stream): TIME Raw: Ben Carson Confronts West Point Scrutiny](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/YAJGDKND.m3u8) (1:57)  _Published 2015-11-07. TIME Raw: Ben Carson Confronts West Point Scrutiny_  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Dec 31, 2015 9:18 PM UTC  Dr. Ben Carson at a news conference in Henderson, Nev. on Nov. 16, 2015. Dr. Ben Carson at a news conference in Henderson, Nev. on Nov. 16, 2015. John Locher—AP  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Dec 31, 2015 9:18 PM UTC Ben Carson’s presidential campaign went through a big shakeup Thursday, with his two top aides [resigning at once](http://time.com/4164999/ben-carson-top-aides-resign/?xid=tcoshare). Communications director Doug Watts and campaign manager Barry Bennett both quit after simmering tensions within Carson’s camp boiled over, with much of the resentment focused on Carson’s relationship with political commentator Armstrong Williams. Williams has no official role in the campaign, but holds sway over the candidate and has gone rogue in recent weeks, organizing media appearances without consent of the official campaign. Bennett spoke to TIME about the Williams problem and his decision to leave. **TIME: What led to your decision to resign?** Bennett: I had a call scheduled with Ben this morning at 9:30 to go over the end of the quarter, and I called him to tell him that we’d raised more money than any other Republican candidate again this quarter, that we’d even broken our own record from last quarter, but that my frustration level was boiling over and I thought that it would be best if I resigned and he found somebody else to run the campaign. **What contributed to that mounting frustration?** The straw that broke the camel’s back, per se, was the interviews that he \[Carson\] did on December 23 that Armstrong arranged that we didn’t know about, where he said that [every job was on the table](http://time.com/4160572/ben-carson-campaign-shake-up/)… And I’m like, we have 150 staff people who all went home for Christmas thinking that their jobs were on the line. And that was stupid. First of all, that’s not a good press story… Two.. we ruined everybody’s holiday. So I spent the holiday talking to everybody trying to convince them that everything was fine, and I just got angrier and angrier about it. And I prayed about it, and the Serenity Prayer came to mind, you know, there’s some things you just can’t change. **So Armstrong arranged those interviews with Dr. Carson and you guys didn’t know that he was thinking about a shake up or that those interviews had been set up?** Correct. **What else has Armstrong done that you’ve taken issue with?** The [New York _Times_ \[story\] about Dewy Clarridge](http://time.com/4117135/ben-carson-foreign-policy/). He insisted on a Sally Quinn interview with the Post that was extremely harmful and literally every appearance on New Day. He also leaked to the press that we were going to Jordan before we even took off, putting our lives at risk. **Armstrong doesn’t have an official position in the campaign, so why do you think he has such influence on Dr. Carson?** I don’t know. I think they need some psychologists to figure that out. **Did Doug’s decision to resign come from a similar thought process?** Yeah. **What do you think your and Doug’s departure means for the campaign moving forward?** Well, you know a lot of people have left today, not just us. But we leave millions of dollars in the bank, and a good ground game going, great data operation going. The people we’ve left behind are smart, competent people… They need to work very hard and find a way to win Iowa. **How did Dr. Carson take the news that you were resigning?** He was surprised when I told him that I was resigning, and he asked me to think about it, and I told him I had. **What’s up next for you?** Hopefully some sun and sand. ## Transcript It was an offer to me. It was specifically made. You interpreted it as an offer or was it? I interpreted it as an offer. I made it very clear. I don't remember the names of the people. Its almost fifty years ago. I bet you don't remember all the people you talked to fifty years ago. But anyway You know they told me this was available to me because of my accomplishments and that they would be delighted for me to do it. And I told them immediately that my intention was to become a physician, it always has been and I was very honored, but I would not be pursuing that. I also made it very clear in my book That only applied to one college. I only had enough money to apply to one college. And I decided to apply to the college championship in college ball. And that year the grand championship was between Harvard and Yale. You can go back, I'm sure, and find the records that it was in fact between Harvard and Yale. And that Yale demolished Harvard. Let me just say one other thing. I do not remember this level of scrutiny for one president Barack Obama when he was running. In fact I remember just the opposite. I remember people just, oh well, we won't really talk about that. We won't talk about that relationship. Well, Frank Marshall Davis, well we don't wanna talk about that. Bernardine Dohrn, Bill Ayeres, he didn't really know him. All the things that Jeremiah Wright said, not a big problem. Those that To Occidental College doesn't do all that well, and somehow ends at Columbia University. Well, I don't know. His records are sealed. Why is his records sealed? Why are you guys not interested in why his records are sealed? Why are you not interested in that? Let me ask you that. Can somebody tell me why, please? Why do you think they are? I'm asking you why it's sealed. My job is to call you out when you're unfair and I'm gonna continue to do that. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4165079/ben-carson-campaign-manager-interview/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4165079/ben-carson-campaign-manager-interview/"},"headline":"Ben Carson's Former Campaign Manager Speaks About Decision To Leave","datePublished":"2015-12-31T21:18:54.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:41:55.179Z","description":"\"My frustration level was boiling over\"","url":"https://time.com/4165079/ben-carson-campaign-manager-interview/","keywords":["2016 Election","2016 Election","Dr. Benjamin S. 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