Carson campaign manager Barry Bennett accused Kyle Cheney, the author of the explosive Politico report, of omitting sections of his statement.
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The bad news is that it’s only because the mediahas dug up a separate, seriously damaging fabrication from Carson’s past: that he was neither accepted nor offered a scholarship to West Point, as he’s claimed.
Ben Carson admitted Friday that a key piece of his storied biography-his oft-told tale of transformation from a poor kid with anger problems in Detroit to a world-famous neurosurgeon-was made up.
Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson is standing by his claim he once was offered admission to West Point, though acknowledges the offer was “informal”.
Carson has hardly shied away from discussing his supposed West Point scholarship offer on the campaign trail.
The only African-American in the Republican 2016 class, Carson grew up in inner-city Detroit and often speaks about his brushes with violence and poverty during his early years.
“The next question is from Bill”.
And Carson’s narrative is his main selling point.
Bill, that is true.
“Dr. Carson was the top ROTC student in the city of Detroit”, Bennett told Politico upon being confronted with West Point’s refutation.
“I don’t like to generally bring them in, the names I used for instance are fictitious names because I don’t want to bring people into something like this because I know what you guys do to their lives”, Carson told reporters in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. “I had exactly ten dollars, so I could apply only to one”.
“Vote for me. I never said I went to West Point”, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee said Friday at National Religious Liberties Conference in Des Moines, Iowa, according to Bloomberg.
It has also been noted by Politico and others that there is technically no such thing as a “full scholarship” to West Point, as the military covers the costs of all who are admitted to the elite academy.
The Carson campaign concedes that certain details of the doctor’s story, including the date he met General Westmoreland, are inaccurate, as described by POLITICO.
Did Ben Carson admit to fabricating a story about his application and acceptance into the U.S. Military Academy at West Point almost 50 years ago?
Editor’s note: This story was updated after publication. The statement doesn’t really apply to Dr. Carson.
This led to an encounter with General William Westmoreland, who was at the time a West Point administrator, and other veterans, who visited Carson’s school. The cable news network spoke to 10 friends of Carson’s from that time period, none of whom could concretely confirm the events or the anonymous stabbing victim. “I think it’s pathetic, and basically what the media does is they try to get you distracted”.
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But Carson maintains that after meeting Gen. William Westmoreland, the highly-decorated general from the Vietnam War told him he could get him into the military academy.
