The story notes Carson wrote he was offered “a full scholarship” to West Point after meeting Gen. William Westmoreland in 1969.
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Dr Carson’s campaign has contested that interpretation.
Campaign spokesman Doug Watts says Carson was an ROTC student in high school, and his supervisors told him they could help him get an appointment.
The academy has occupied a central place in Carson’s tale for years.
A West Point spokesman on Friday said the academy “cannot confirm whether anyone during that time period was nominated to West Point if they chose not to pursue completion of the application process”.
“He considered it but in the end did not seek admission”, Bennett said.
In his book “Gifted Hands”, Carson wrote that he received a “full scholarship” to the academy.
“I was offered a full scholarship to West Point, got to meet General Westmoreland, go to Congressional Medal of Honor dinners, but decided really my pathway would be medicine”, Carson said in October. “That’s what it is”, Carson said early Friday on CNN.
And in the wake of pushback from the Carson campaign – which called the story an “outright lie” – Politico softened its headline, removed the “fabrication” language, and changed a few key details – even as it said it was “standing by its story”.
There is one fact on the surface that immediately throws Carson’s story into doubt: West Point, along with the Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard and Merchant Marine, provides free education for all accepted students.
Carson’s camp hit back at the report, saying the Republican presidential candidate never claimed to have been admitted to West Point, never applied and added the campaign never “admitted to anything”, as Politico’s initial story suggested.
Carson’s West Point story is the the latest episode in a string of seemingly shifting inspirational stories Carson often tells about his personal life. “It’s nearly 50 years ago”.
“Politico, as you know, told a bold-faced lie”.
Pressed further by reporters, Carson said: “What about the West Point thing is false? I think it’s pathetic”.
A CNN report this week found no support for Carson’s oft-repeated claim that he tried to stab a close friend as a teenager.
The story sparked a rapid response via Twitter from Donald Trump, who is running atop the polls with Mr. Carson. “They have been called out on that by The Washington Post and by The New York Times and I’m sure there will be several others who will call them out on that because there are actually a few people with integrity in your business”.
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Carson said the outbursts he described in his book happened in private settings, and he declined to publicly identify the people involved. “They have been talking to everybody I’ve ever known and everybody I’ve ever seen”, Carson said.
