Granted, I've only been at this for about six years now, but I cannot recall ever seeing a campaign adviser slam the candidate they're currently advising.
The New York Times details Ben Carson's struggle with foreign policy including a damning quote from one of his own advisers.
“Nobody has been able to sit down with him and have him get one iota of intelligent information about the Middle East,” Duane R. Clarridge, a top adviser to Mr. Carson on terrorism and national security, said in an interview. He also said Mr. Carson needed weekly conference calls briefing him on foreign policy so “we can make him smart.”
While this is amusing, I wouldn't necessarily say Clarridge himself is a paragon of good judgement.
The man responsible for telling Ben Carson during a phone conversation that the Chinese military is operating in Syria is apparently one of Clarridge's private operatives.
Mr. Clarridge, a former C.I.A. agent who had connected Mr. Carson with the operative in Iraq, said on Monday that the information was wrong. The operative in Iraq had “overleaped” in suggesting Chinese troops are in Syria, Mr. Clarridge said, adding of the operative, “You know how it goes when people are desperate for some headline.”
Yeah. No big deal. You know how it goes.
One fool advising another.
The more we learn about the Carson campaign the more moronic the entire endeavor appears to be. Carson really believed he had access to be better sources than the Pentagon because he spoke to some crank operative on the phone; an operative hired by a man (Clarridge) who was indicted for lying to Congress during the Iran-Contra scandal.
It didn't even occur to Carson that maybe he had been sold a box of goods. It didn't strike Carson as odd that no one else in the world had reported Chinese intervention in Syria. He made no attempt to verify these claims before blurting them out during the last GOP primary debate. He simply took them on faith and at face value.
I imagine that's true for the overwhelming majority of insane things Carson has said.
Ben Carson is profoundly gullible and dumb.
Update... the Carson campaign has responded by essentially saying Clarridge is a senile old man.
"He is coming to the end of a long career of serving our country. Mr. Clarridge's input to Dr. Carson is appreciated but he is clearly not one of Dr. Carson's top advisors. For the New York Times to take advantage of an elderly gentleman and use him as their foil in this story is an affront to good journalistic practices."