Former Carson aides: Trump likely to win GOP nomination

Former top aides with Ben Carson’s presidential campaign predicted that GOP front-runner Donald Trump will win the Republican nomination — but that the next president may be a candidate not currently running.

Carson’s former campaign manager Barry Bennett and former communications director Doug Watts on Wednesday night weighed in on the upcoming race, saying that an outsider candidate is likely to win the general election. 

{mosads}”I think it’ll either be an insurgent or Joe Biden,” Bennett said, eliciting audience laughter during a discussion at Georgetown University’s Institute of Politics and Public Service about insurgent campaigns and insight into the retired neurosurgeon’s White House bid. 

Both Bennett and Watts expect unforgettable conventions leading up to the general election.

“I think the conventions are going to be fantastic theatre,” Bennett said. “This will be the convention you’ll be telling your grandkids about.” 

On the Democratic side, Watts predicted a protracted primary between Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). Watts said Sanders will likely “play a tremendous role in the convention” and predicted the Vermont senator wins Iowa and New Hampshire and several liberal strongholds. 

“He’s going to walk in with more than a handful of delegates,” Watts said. 

Late last month, Bennett and Watts resigned their posts amid a campaign shake-up. In a December interview with The Hill, Bennett blamed Carson’s close friend and adviser Armstrong Williams for derailing the former neurosurgeon’s campaign. 

The two elaborated on Wednesday night about the fallout with Williams, adding that it’s “not unusual to have friction between amateurs and professionals.” Watts said Williams didn’t want involvement in campaign operations, while Bennett noted that “certain people” on the campaign wanted to receive credit. 

“Armstrong never wanted to participate and he wanted to remain entirely unaccountable,” Watts said, noting the campaign upheaval “caused us to lose 20 points in three days” in the polls. 

Insurgent, or outsider, campaigns have emerged in the 2016 election as voters grow more frustrated with government. At one point, all of the leading Republicans were candidates who have never held elected office. 

Watts explained that campaign staffers studied then-Illinois Sen. Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign, labeling it an insurgent campaign in the digital era. Watts said he wanted to emulate Obama campaign’s strategy for Republicans. 

“I was a student of Obama effort in early 2007 and followed it religiously throughout the whole campaign,” Watts said. “It can be done with Republicans and you can wake people up and that was our objective,” he added. 

Watts said he “never considered” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) to be an outsider. He added that former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina has “some legitimate claim” to that label despite her 2010 Senate run in California. 

“Our messaging was anti-Beltway – not anti-government, anti-political class,” Watts said about Carson’s campaign. 

As national security came to the forefront in the election, Carson started sinking in the polls amid his inability to demonstrate his bona fides on those issues. 

Bennett said Carson “fell into a little bit of a trap” when demonstrating his knowledge on foreign policy because he didn’t understand the “Washington lexicon.” 

“He doesn’t know how to talk about it in a Washington way, which made him seem ‘undisciplined,’” Bennett said.