Carson says campaign changes coming next week

WASHINGTON, Dec. 29 (UPI) -- After dropping several hints that his campaign is due for a shakeup, Dr. Ben Carson says he will announce changes next week.

Carson told Fox Business on Tuesday afternoon: "We're going to certainly be altering some things in the campaign, and we will be talking about that quite publicly next week."

In recent weeks, Carson gave interviews to The Washington Post and the Associated Press, both times alluding to some kind of change coming in his camp.

"I'm looking at every aspect of the campaign right now. Everything is on the table, every job is on the table. And we're going to analyze it very carefully," Carson told The Post just days before Christmas. "It's not perfect, and we're going to work on it."

Hours later, Carson clarified that he was not discussing staffing changes, despite the Post's report that Carson was interviewing consultants and excluding his campaign manager Barry Bennett from the meetings.

"We had our standard 3:30 p.m. call and I asked him about the story. He said he has 100 percent faith in the team," Bennett said. "Dr. Carson was talking about the campaign and the mechanics, not the people."

Carson sidestepped a question about whether or not staffing changes were coming, instead saying he may focus on slight tweaks to his message.

"I think The Washington Post quite frankly had their story already written before they talked to me, and they were convinced that I was going to fire everybody and we were going to go in a completely different direction," Carson told CNN last week. "I think the people that I have are spectacular."

However, earlier that day, the Carson camp told CNN in a statement that he was "refining some operational practices and streamlining some staff assignments to more aptly match the tasks ahead."

The confusion over Carson's campaign comes after his steady decline in polls. RealClear Politics shows Carson polling at a 9.4 percent average after nearly reaching 25 percent in early November.