Ben Carson, a Tea Party favorite and so far the only black contender for the presidential race in 2016, brushed back rumors Saturday that his campaign is in disarray, according to CNN.
The speculation comes amid reports of departures by several senior officials, which have thrown his campaign into turmoil, the report notes.
The Washington Post said Friday that the departures “gutted the core of Carson’s apparatus and left the 63-year-old first-time candidate with only a handful of experienced advisers at his side as he navigates the fluid, crowded and high-stakes contest for the Republican nomination.”
While attending a weekend gathering hosted by freshman Iowa Republican Sen. Joni Ernst, the retired neurosurgeon dismissed the Post’s report as “yellow journalism.” Recent polls show Carson joining front-runners in the teeming Republican field.
“There were four members of our staff who planned to transition off when we went from an exploratory committee to a campaign,” the retired neurosurgeon told CNN’s Dana Bash. “And they were going to move to another area, and they had to be separated from the campaign for a certain period of time before they could do that. That was completely planned, and in terms of turmoil, things could not be better.”
Terry Giles, a former Carson campaign chairman who left to start a new super PAC and was named in the Post article, dismissed the rumors about Carson’s campaign, calling the story “complete crap” and “disgusting,” CNN writes.
Read more at CNN and the Washington Post.