After breaking a story on Friday morning charging Ben Carson with “fabricating” an account in his autobiography about being accepted to West Point, Politico was forced to change its headline.
Politico’s original headline read “Ben Carson Admits Fabricating West Point Scholarship.” By the end of the day, it had been changed to “Carson claimed West Point ‘scholarship’ but never applied.”
Politico changes headline and lede on Ben Carson piece — removes line that his campaign admitted to “fabrication” pic.twitter.com/9LIyT8QCvE
— Alex Pappas (@AlexPappas) November 6, 2015
In his autobiography, Gifted Hands (1990), Carson wrote that he turned down a “full scholarship” to attend West Point to pursue medicine instead.
As reported by Western Journalism, some key accusations in Politico’s story were: 1) West Point does not offer “scholarships”; 2) The academy had no record of Carson applying; and 3) Gen. Westmoreland, who Carson claimed to have met, would not have had the ability to simply offer Carson admission.
The Carson campaign responded to the Politico story earlier today, calling it “bunch of lies.”It released a full statement to the Daily Caller later in the day concerning the matter.
Dr Carson was the top ROTC student in the City of Detroit. In that role he was invited to meet General Westmoreland. He believes it was at a banquet. He can’t remember with specificity their brief conversation but it centered around Dr. Carson’s performance as ROTC City Executive Officer.
He was introduced to folks from West Point by his ROTC Supervisors. They told him they could help him get an appointment based on his grades and performance in ROTC. He considered it but in the end did not seek admission. There are “Service Connected” nominations for stellar High School ROTC appointments. Again he was the top ROTC student in Detroit. I would argue strongly that an Appointment is indeed an amazing full scholarship. Having ran several Congressional Offices I am very familiar with the Nomination process.
Again though his Senior Commander was in touch with West Point and told Dr. Carson he could get in, Dr Carson did not seek admission.
The Politico story is an outright Lie. Dr. Carson as the leading ROTC student in Detroit was told by his Commanders that he could get an Appointment to the Academy. He never said he was admitted or even applied.
The campaign never “admitted to anything.”
This is what we have come to expect from Politico.
Carson told the New York Times, “I don’t remember all the specific details. Because I had done so extraordinarily well you know I was told that someone like me – they could get a scholarship to West Point. But I made it clear I was going to pursue a career in medicine.” He added, “It was, you know, an informal ‘with a record like yours we could easily get you a scholarship to West Point.’” GOP rival Donald Trump was quick to jump on the Carson is a liar about West Point bandwagon.
“@swargcoming: @AnnCoulter @rushlimbaugh @greta @OANN @FoxNews IS CARSON HALLUCINATING? NOW LIES ABOUT WESTPOINT? https://t.co/lvv0MRfgtH” — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 6, 2015
Others came to Carson’s defense.
Logic also dictates if he was told he would be accepted he was offered a full scholarship #WestPoint https://t.co/HtUqGqPJ2H — Nathan Hale (@NH92276) November 6, 2015
West Point characterizes them as scholarships. See: pic.twitter.com/VMGHAVB6x3 https://t.co/O6m2zCHTyN — Gabriel Malor (@gabrielmalor) November 6, 2015
As a West Point graduate, my take, as the story broke, is it had the feel of a tempest in a tea pot. Carson’s explanation appears entirely plausible. A young man, with stellar grades, who was a leader in his high school ROTC unit, and also happened to be a minority was told by academy officials that they could make an appointment happen. Carson did not have to formally apply or be accepted by the academy to feel that he turned down the opportunity. h/t: Breitbart