WASHINGTON - Another poll shows Donald Trump and Ben Carson well ahead of the Republican presidential field, while Trump reversed his earlier criticism of the war in Afghanistan during an interview on Tuesday.

Trump maintains the top spot in the CNN/ORC survey at 27%, followed by Carson at 22% — the only two GOP candidates in double digits. Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio are tied for third place at 8% each, followed by Mike Huckabee and Rand Paul at 5%.

Another outsider candidate, Carly Fiorina, is tied for seventh place at 4% along with Chris Christie and Ted Cruz.

The CNN poll came a day after an NBC News/Wall Street Journal survey also showed Trump and Carson well ahead of the field, a month after the last Republican debate in California. The GOP candidates meet again Oct. 28 in Boulder, Colo.

Meanwhile, in an interview Tuesday on CNN, Trump defended the 2001 U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, reversing comments he made to the network earlier this month.

In an Oct. 6 interview, Trump said he wondered whether U.S. troops were going to be in Afghanistan “for the next 200 years” and “we made a terrible mistake getting involved there in the first place.”

On Tuesday, Trump said: “We made a mistake going into Iraq. I’ve never said we made a mistake going into Afghanistan.” (Agencies)