That inspiring stories sets the foundation for his campaign. NPR’s political editor, Domenico Montanaro, joins me now to talk about why a part of the story has become controversial. Hi.
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DOMENICO MONTANARO, BYLINE: Hi there.
According to Politico, Carson claimed in his book, “Gifted Hands”, that as a 17-year-old he “was introduced in 1969 to Gen. William Westmoreland, who had just ended his command of USA forces in Vietnam, and the two dined together”. People start looking into your past and seeing if all the stuff you’ve said about yourself is true. Furthermore, the Politico article noted, because all accepted students receive full funding from West Point, there’s no such thing as a “full scholarship” on offer by the academy. “He never said he was admitted or even applied”, Watts added.
“Candidate files where admission/acceptance was not sought are retained for three years; therefore we can not confirm whether anyone during that time period was nominated to West Point if they chose not to pursue completion of the application process”, West Point spokeswoman Theresa Brinkerhoff said in an email to Reuters. So I applied to only one school. “Now you’re saying that something that happened, the words “a scholarship was offered” is a big deal but the President of the United States, his academic records being sealed is not?” Did Carson “fabricate” his West Point story? It was at an event in Detroit, and the idea of a scholarship was discussed. Carson, in his book, claims to have met Westmoreland on Memorial Day after being chosen to march in a Detroit parade.
Far from hurting Ben Carson, this whole flap may strengthen his standing with Republicans, as they rally to defend him. “You should want to know too”, Carson answered. It’s sort of unconfirmable, so it’s hard to know.
We will have more on the story as is develops. He lacked the experience of a Jeb Bush and the pizazz (if you would call it that) of a Donald Trump.
Earlier this week, CNN published a story casting doubt on Carson’s description of himself as a violent teenager, a description that is central to his often told story concerning his religious conversion, yet a story reporters can not verify. Carson wrote that the professor told students their final exams had been “burned”, and they would have to finish a new, more hard test. Carson said he was the only student to complete the new exam, which was actually a test to determine the “most honest” student in the class. He purportedly was given a $10 bill for finishing the exam, and his photo was taken for Yale’s student newspaper.
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SIEGEL: OK. Thank you, Domenico.
