AP Photo Carson confidant accuses ex-aides of cozying up to Trump

Armstrong Williams, a longtime confidant of Ben Carson and influential presence in his presidential campaign, on Friday lashed out at two ex-aides for airing their grievances about the retired neurosurgeon's political operation.

Williams posted a screed on Facebook, taking former campaign manager Barry Bennett and former communications director Doug Watts to task for venting about him and for sharing inside information about the campaign as revealed in a story reported by POLITICO Thursday night. He also accused them of jockeying for a position with the campaign of GOP poll leader Donald Trump.


"The unmitigated gall of Barry Bennett and Doug Watts: To attempt to curry favor with the Trump campaign by delivering Dr. Carson's campaign infrastructure on a platter is nothing short of amazing, Williams wrote on Facebook. "Watts and Bennett did a great service is helping to guide his campaign — a service for which they were amply compensated. But they do an equally great disservice by holding lectures, going in front of the media and betraying Carson in an attempt to curry favor with Trump."

Bennett, who managed Carson's campaign for most of 2015 and resigned on New Year's Eve, says he has no intention to work for another presidential campaign this year. In an interview Wednesday, he and Watts described a high-flying campaign with a chance to win as late as mid-November only to plummet after Carson's shortcomings on foreign policy became glaring. Williams, they argue, had exacerbated the situation by secretly setting up interviews, often with Carson's cooperation, that ended up exposing his weaknesses as a candidate.

Bennett also has predicted that Trump would win the Republican nomination and urged Carson to endorse the New York mogul ahead of the Feb. 1 Iowa caucuses.

In his Facebook post, Williams rejected the assertions and offered a defense of Carson and his candidacy, which he's been working to revive since tumbling in polls throughout December.

"Dr. Carson has built the most substantial, comprehensive and valuable grass-roots communications infrastructure of any of the current Republican candidates. Despite fluctuations in the polls, Carson remains a beloved figure who draws adulation from throngs of people wherever he goes," Williams wrote.

"But just to make it extra clear:," he concluded, "neither Bennett nor Watts has any influence whatsoever over who Dr. Carson may ultimately endorse in the primary should the occasion arise."