The day Ben Carson's campaign died

The campaign, as well as Williams - who was not officially a part of the campaign but frequently appeared as an Carson surrogate in news interviews - tried to walk back Clarridge's statements and the broader view that their candidate was a national-security novice.

But it was too late. The early December terror attack in San Bernardino, California, further cemented foreign-policy themes into the Republican primaries.

Carson's poll numbers were in a free fall. Within a week, he had dropped four points. By mid-December, he'd lost half of his support.

At the same time, Trump's support swelled to record highs. By Christmas, the mogul reached an all-time high in the average of polls. On New Year's Eve, with Carson's support dipping below 10%, Bennett and the campaign's communications director, Doug Watts, abruptly resigned, with Williams' influence cited as a large reason for the upheaval.

The changes didn't end up helping Carson, who first burst onto the political scene in 2013 after unleashing a scathing critique of US President Barack Obama while the president was seated next to him at the National Prayer Breakfast.

Carson's polling numbers continued to plummet, falling to just under 8% by the February 1 Iowa caucuses, where he finished fourth. As more and more candidates began to drop out of the race, Carson was unable to pick up any of their voters.

Although the January FEC report showed that Carson had nearly as much cash on hand as Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, the retired doctor continued to finish near the bottom in each race since, with this past week's "Super Tuesday" primaries being one final disaster. Carson did not finish better than fourth in at least 11 of the 12 states that voted.

With just eight total delegates, and after Williams and his campaign chair, Bob Dees, both said they saw no path to victory, Carson finally decided to suspend the campaign.

"Even though I might be leaving the campaign trail - you know there's a lot of people who love me, they just won't vote for me," he said Friday at the Conservative Political Action Conference. "I will still be heavily involved in trying to save our nation," he added.

Soon after making the announcement and telling the crowd he would be taking a job with My Faith Votes, a nonpartisan group focused on getting US Christian voters to turn out, Carson talked about a regret that likely led to the bombshell Times story.

"I regret not choosing my own people early on," he told WABC. "Letting other people do that and trusting them. That was clearly a mistake."