The original headline on the story read “Ben Carson Admits Fabricating West Point Scholarship”. It seemed like the sort of story that had the potential to ruin Carson’s ambitions for the presidency.
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But the Politico story was not accurate on a few key points.
Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union”, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump went after his rival Dr. Ben Carson for the recent media criticisms about his past life stories. “The story online includes additional details now, as well, that bolster this account”.
The rewritten article did not initially include a correction or editor’s note, although a note was later added on Friday. Carson said he had an epiphany after the incidents and became the famously calm man he is today.
As a result of this meeting and support from his commanders, Carson said in his book, “Later I was offered a full scholarship to West Point”. A West Point education is free for all its students, so there are no scholarships per se.
“What you are not going to find with me is somebody who is just going to sit back and let you be completely unfair without letting the American people know what’s going on”. “And, you know, every single day, every other day or every week, you know, they’re going to come out with, ‘Well, you said this when you were 13.’ And the whole point is to distract the populous, distract me”.
Carson was answering questions at a news conference when a reporter implied he said he received a full scholarship.
The news comes as Carson – whose popularity in the polls has been rising – faces questions over claims he has made regarding his past.
The Politico story also discusses army records that show that General Westmoreland wasn’t in Detroit on Memorial Day in 1969.
When moderator John Dickerson pointed out that everything working out fine for Carson would mean beating Trump for the GOP nomination, Trump amended his good wishes to say, “not that fine”.
Carson claimed in his autobiography, “Gifted Hands”, that he was a violent teenager who grew up in Detroit with a “pathological temper”.
Trump and Carson, the two national Republican front-runners, have largely bonded together over the course of the campaign, most recently using their leverage to try and force changes to the debates organized by the Republican National Committee.
Carson took a moment to clarify reports he lied about being offered a scholarship at West Point when he was seventeen-years-old. “The Politico’s representation of that is demonstrably false and is not something Carson claimed”.
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Politico’s description of the campaign having “admitted” that “a central point in his inspirational personal story was fabricated” enraged the Carson camp, which hotly denied that it had “admitted to anything”.
