Resigning staffers blame Ben Carson’s business manager, Armstrong Williams, for problems in the campaign

In a major meltdown, Ben Carson’s top three campaign managers all resigned yesterday, along with 20 staffers; and they’re blaming the campaign’s dysfunction on Carson’s business manager Armstrong Williams.

After announcing his resignation from the Ben Carson campaign, former campaign manager Barry Bennett tells ABC News that the staff changes were revealed in a scheduled call this morning. The main change Carson wanted to make was with his Communications Director Doug Watts, Bennett says.

Bennett told the Republican presidential candidate on the call he would not support that decision and told Carson “it’s time for me to go.” Bennett said Carson was surprised and asked him to think about staying on as his campaign manager to which Bennett quickly told him no.

“[Carson] tried to blame some of the problems in the campaign on silly things and I said Ben we all know the root of our problems, let’s not pretend it’s not Armstrong Williams,” Bennett told ABC News on the phone. “Ben said I’ll talk to him, I’ll talk to him. But I’ve heard that for nine months now.”

Williams, you may recall, is the disgraced journalist who was paid $240,000 by the Bush administration to promote its “No Child Left Behind” law, and is also notorious for allowing his nationally syndicated radio show to be used as a front for promoting the dishonest propaganda of the tobacco industry.

This latest Ben Carson disaster gives us a revealing glimpse of the people pulling the strings behind the Republican presidential campaign.