WEBSTER CITY, Iowa — Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson dismissed recent remarks from his former campaign manager Barry Bennett Thursday, saying they don’t matter “one way or another.”
Responding to Bennett, who half-heartedly praised his former boss Wednesday but said it’s hard to see how Donald Trump loses the GOP nomination, Carson argued that any comments coming from him at this point are “irrelevant.”
“I don’t really think anything of them, one way or another,” Carson told the Washington Examiner during a phone interview. “They’re irrelevant.”
“The fact that he’s out there talking about such things — you know, what does that tell you?” Carson asked. “And why should we be concerned about that?”
In an interview with CNN’s John Berman and Kate Bolduan, Bennett said that while Carson has the “best head” and “best heart,” he refused to offer up an outright endorsement of Carson.
“Well I think Ben Carson has the best head and the best heart,” Bennett said. “Well you know, I’m a realist, and I believe in data, I believe in polls. And I have not seen a plan out there that is going to take down Donald Trump quite yet.”
“All you’ve got to do is compare the size of everyone’s rallies. And that’s really a demonstration of grassroots support,” Bennett told the hosts. “Donald Trump is having 10,000, 12,000 people show up at rallies. A lot of these guys are having five or six people show up at their events in Iowa. There’s just not a comparison. You know, the Establishment can fret about it all they want, but this is the new reality.”
“He’s got the support out there right now, and unless something cataclysmic happens, he’s going to win,” Bennett said.
