Ben Carson’s meeting with top army general in Detroit reportedly doesn’t match

Watts noted that he had not yet spoken with Carson about the point in the story where he discusses the Yale Daily News photographer. Plenty of people have gently pointed out that this isn’t possible because service academies don’t offer scholarships. Considering he was a teen when applying to colleges, this is a probability.

The Carson campaign said Politico’s coverage was a “purposeful twisting of the facts”. Embellishing about entrance to a military academy doesn’t look good, especially for someone who has built his campaign on honesty and integrity. But the Carson campaign disagrees with Politico’s framing, going so far as to call the report “an outright lie”.

Ben Carson’s story has been told many times.

Carson’s stories might seem like rather mundane details, but they do play an important role in the candidate’s overall narrative and appeal.

MONTANARO: Right. A report in Politico today looked into his claim, and they found that he actually never applied to the elite military academy. He made that claim in his book, “Gifted Hands”, and in several media interviews, including during an appearance on Charlie Rose last month. The network said it couldn’t find anyone from his school at the time, with the names Mr. Carson said, who remembered the incident. I think it is perfectly clear.

Carson told Charlie Rose as recently as October: “I was offered a full scholarship to West Point, got to meet General Westmoreland, go to Congressional Medal dinners, but decided really my pathway would be medicine”.

Asked about his saying he had been offered a West Point scholarship, Carson said, “it was an offer to me”. Carson claimed that it was those instances in his past that caused him to find God and assume a calming temperament.

“In fact, the general’s records suggest he was in Washington that day and played tennis at 6:45 p.m”. In the book, he wrote that he met with Gen. William Westmoreland – the commander of US forces in Vietnam – in 1969, when Carson was 17 years old.

Politico initially published a story leading readers to believe that Dr. Carson lied about going to-or considering going to-West Point when he was in high school. He did not offer a reason why such questions should be raised.

The question now is whether Carson’s past will prove too much of a stain in his hopes for a presidential future. But splitting hairs on the technicalities between an informal offer of admissions, tuition waivers, and scholarships should not be a part of the process.

As his candidacy has become more serious, his past has been more closely scrutinised. Many Americans, at this point, haven’t decided who’s worthy of their vote. “The headline and the lead are a complete injustice to good journalism”.