Carson defends West Point story, calls news media ‘unfair’

Carson admitted Friday that he had not received a formal offer to attend West Point, as his book had suggested, but said he had received informal encouragement to attend the military academy that he interpreted as an offer.

When presented with these facts, Carson’s campaign conceded the story was false.

That means Carson may have been referring to the offer of help to get an appointment as an offer of a full scholarship, since no cadets pay for their education.

Politico has already begun to backtrack its explosive story accusing Ben Carson of lying about an acceptance to West Point, deleting its claim that Carson had confessed to “fabricating” his admission.

“I also represented the Junior ROTC at a dinner for Congressional Medal of Honor winners, marched at the front of Detroit’s Memorial Day parade as head of an ROTC contingent, and was offered a full scholarship to West Point”.

Despite Politico’s claim that Carson had fabricated an application and acceptance to West Point, earlier statements by the candidate show that he’s readily admitted to never applying to West Point. 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”, Bennett continued.

“He considered it but in the end did not seek admission”, Bennett said. But West Point told CNN on Friday that it does not keep records of decades-old applications, and would not be able to know if Carson was offered an appointment because he did not attend.

“It’s clear that what the Politico writer, with what he was trying to gain with the headline, did not substantiate it with his article”, Williams told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer. On Thursday on the campaign trail, when pressed by reporters about the incident and also in an interview with Fox News, Carson said that Bob’s name, along with a few other names in the autobiography, were pseudonyms that he used to protect the privacy of the people he was writing about. On Facebook in August, Carson took a question from someone named Bill, who “wanted to know if it was true that I was offered a slot at West Point after high school”. “WOW, one of the many lies by Ben Carson!”

The admission from Carson’s campaign comes at a time when several news outlets have attempted to verify a few of the Republican front-runner’s tales. “So next week it will be ‘my kindergarten teacher who said I peed in my trousers.’ I mean, it’s ridiculous!” Asking if he had made a mistake in recounting the story, he said, “I don’t think so”.

The story sparked a rapid response via Twitter from Donald Trump, who is running atop the polls with Mr. Carson.