Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson said Sunday that he is facing an unprecedented level of scrutiny about the veracity of his life story and questioned whether the issues dogging him over his autobiography are important to the nation’s search for the next president.
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Politico published a bombshell report last week showing that Carson falsely said he had turned down a “full scholarship” to the prestigious U.S. Military Academy at West Point despite the fact that he’d never applied or been accepted there. Carson’s team responded that he never admitted fabricating anything and that being urged to apply to West Point (which is free) was essentially the same as being offered a scholarship.
Look at this from the point of view of a committed Carson supporter: The West Point thing is just nit picking.
“Well, you notice I said ‘was offered.’ I didn’t say I received it”, Carson said. Carson said he was the only one who passed the test, and was rewarded with $10 and had his photo snapped for the student newspaper. But that was not something I wanted to take. But for those who know the date of Obama’s birth, the President would have already been three years old when the march occurred in 1965. “I’ve been through it for 26 years and life ain’t fair, I’m telling you”.
As more information emerged, Politico softened its story, but says it stands by its reporting.
In an effort to dismiss Ben Carson’s charges of media bias, on Monday, NBC’s First Read condescendingly proclaimed: “Welcome to the Big Leagues, Ben Carson”.
For Carson, 67% of Republicans said that’s the case – while 20% said the more they hear about him, the less they like him.
When pressed about the complete lack of endorsements, most lawmakers insisted it was too early or there were too many candidates to choose from – not that Mr. Trump and Mr. Carson are too far outside the mainstream to risk associating themselves with them.
At his news conference Friday night, Carson said, “It was an offer to me”.
Carson, who appeared separately on “This Week”, said he was the victim of a “hit job” in a piece by Politico on Carson and West Point.
“Uh, I don’t agree with that statement”, Earnest told reporters, saying Carson shouldn’t be surprised that he’s going through a tough vetting process since he has risen to the top of the polls.
In it, he tells of trying to stab a close friend when he was a teenager.
Both pollsters found erosion in Trump’s support since their last sampling of Republican opinion in South Carolina – Trump fell 12 percent with PPP and 3 percent with Monmouth.
“I hope that will break through over time”, Graham said.
Unless the media can find something truly damaging on Carson they seem to only be helping him.
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He told Meet the Press on Sunday that he fully endorses media scrutiny of Ben Carson, as long as the coverage passes the “damn emails” test. Although Chuck Todd asked him about Carson “because you have seen a few people leak out stuff you wrote 30 and 40 years ago”, Sanders did not take the opportunity to get sympathy by bringing up his own media war stories, although he also had a few complaints to share to whatever volunteer ombudsman might have been listening.
