Ben Carson Discusses Campaign Shakeup, Ted Cruz's Eligibility
Philadelphia (CBS) - Presidential candidate Ben Carson explained the shakeup in his campaign staff, saying a change was needed to stay viable in the race for the White House moving into 2016.
Carson, during an interview with Chris Stigall on Talk Radio 1210 WPHT, explained that new voices and new thinking were necessary to rise above the crowded Republican field.
"I spent many years in corporate America, Kellog and Costco, and one of the things that I learned is when something isn't working, you really have to do a deep dive into it and analyze it. Figure out why it's not working. What we had worked very well up to a point. But, we're moving into a different level now. You have to, sometimes, change if it doesn't grow with the situation and we didn't have to ability to operate and to get things done. We had a good ability to talk about them, but when you move to the next level, it requires a different level of execution and that's what was missing. Therefore, I decided to add that in and some of the people who were there in leadership just felt that was too threatening to their positions. So, we gave them the opportunity to resign. But the organization is functioning at much higher level now."
He also admitted there were some flaws that he hopes will be cleared up in the way his campaign communicates with the media and the public.
"The ability to actually execute, to get things done. The ability to work well with the media, rather than in an adversarial way the media. Those are very important factors for a campaign...There's a difference between [dealing with adversarial media] and somebody's asking for an interview and saying, okay, okay, I'll get back to you and not getting back to them."
Carson also rejected fellow presidential candidate Donald Trump's assertion that Texas Senator Ted Cruz will run into legal difficulty if he wins the nomination base on the status of his citizenship.
"The laws are on the books and it very clearly states what qualifies or who qualifies as a naturally born citizen and he meets the qualifications because his mother was an American citizen."