The head of an activist group hoping for a Ben Carson 2016 presidential bid downplayed supporters’ hopes that Carson might announce his candidacy at the Conservative Political Action Conference Saturday.
Vernon Robinson, campaign manager for the National Draft Ben Carson For President Committee, spoke to a group of Carson fans in the lobby of the Marriott Hotel outside the CPAC venue at Maryland’s National Harbor complex.
In a followup phone call, Robinson told National Review Online that his committee does not speak for the Fox News contributor.
“There’s a line and Eric Holder is the attorney general and you want to be as far from that line as possible,” Robinson told NRO. “So we don’t talk to Dr. Carson.”
Robinson said that at the meeting there was a discussion of Carson’s commitment to do God’s will regarding a potential White House bid. Carson supporters listening to Robinson’s pitch expressed hope that Carson, a retired neurosurgeon at Johns Hopkins University, would announce a presidential bid when he speaks at CPAC Saturday afternoon.