Some advisers to Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson say he is struggling to grasp the complexities of foreign policy, his closest confidant said Monday, acknowledging their frustration while adding the political newcomer is making progress.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d say he\u2019s 75 percent of the way there,\u201d said Armstrong Williams, Carson\u2019s longtime business manager. \u201cThe world is a complex place, and he wants to get it right.\u201d<\/p>\n
A story published Tuesday by The New York Times quoted one of Carson\u2019s advisers as saying the retired neurosurgeon, who is making his first run for public office, is having trouble understanding foreign policy despite intense briefings on the subject.<\/p>\n
\u201cNobody has been able to sit down with him and have him get one iota of intelligent information about the Middle East,\u201d Duane R. Clarridge, a former CIA official, told the newspaper. Clarridge added that Carson needs weekly conference calls to brief him on foreign policy, so \u201cwe can make him smart.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Carson campaign reacted swiftly to the Times\u2019 story, casting Clarridge in a statement as \u201can elderly gentleman\u201d who isn\u2019t part of Carson\u2019s inner circle.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe is coming to the end of a long career of serving our country. Mr. Clarridge\u2019s input to Dr. Carson is appreciated, but he is clearly not one of Dr. Carson\u2019s top advisers,\u201d said Carson spokesman Doug Watts.<\/p>\n
But Williams, who has no official role with Carson\u2019 campaign but regularly talks to the candidate, acknowledged in an interview with The Associated Press that advisers beyond Clarridge are distressed at the pace of Carson\u2019s progress.<\/p>\n
Williams estimates Carson has been spending \u201c40 percent of his time\u201d in foreign policy briefings in recent weeks.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know they\u2019re frustrated,\u201d Williams said of the team advising Carson. \u201cThey know that Dr. Carson is bright. He understands. … There\u2019s just so much there.\u201d<\/p>\n
For his part, Carson said Tuesday in Iowa that he is treating his foreign policy education like medical education, diving into reading materials and discussions with experts with diplomatic and military backgrounds.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s an ongoing process,\u201d he said during a satellite interview on WHO-TV in Des Moines. \u201cIn medicine we have something called CME \u2014 continuing medical education \u2014 that recognizes that you never become a know it all, you always are continuing to learn.\u201d<\/p>\n
Carson recently mistakenly suggested that China is militarily engaged in the Syrian civil war and offered sometimes meandering answers in an interview with Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace a few days after the Paris attacks.<\/p>\n
Williams added that too much is being made of Carson\u2019s appearance on Fox News Sunday. Along with delving into the hypothetical of a shooting war with Russia, Carson demurred when Wallace pressed him on which countries he would call first in attempting to build a coalition to fight Islamic State militants.<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course he knows the answer to that question,\u201d Williams said, arguing that Carson was \u201cbeing dismissive\u201d because he didn\u2019t think the question was relevant to the bigger picture.<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes it\u2019s a matter of style, not substance,\u201d Williams said, adding that it\u2019s \u201coutrageous\u201d to suggest Carson can\u2019t name existing or potential U.S. allies.<\/p>\n
Williams, meanwhile, told AP that Clarridge is entitled to his view, but rejected the notion that Carson is less qualified or capable than any of his rivals.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know anybody on that stage who has extensive experience in foreign affairs,\u201d Williams said, adding: \u201cThey depend on researchers. They depend on staff. They all depend on talking points.\u201d<\/p>\n
Williams, who sometimes advises Carson on how to deal with journalists, said he spoke with the candidate Tuesday about having to engage with questioners even if he doesn\u2019t like the format or the questions.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had a very deep conversation today,\u201d Williams said. \u201cHe realizes he has to get better at all of it. He can and he will.\u201d<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
Associated Press writer Catherine Lucey in Des Moines, Iowa, contributed to this report.<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
Follow Bill Barrow on Twitter at: http:\/\/twitter.com\/BillBarrowAP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Some advisers to Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson say he is struggling to grasp the complexities of foreign policy, his closest confidant said Monday, acknowledging their frustration while adding the political newcomer is making progress. \u201cI\u2019d say he\u2019s 75 percent of the way there,\u201d said Armstrong Williams, Carson\u2019s longtime business<\/a> manager. \u201cThe world is a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[65],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-21209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-nation-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21209","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21209"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21209\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21209"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=21209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}