Carson fabricated West Point story

CNN this week questioned Mr. Carson’s story that he tried to stab someone in a fit of rage as a teenager.

CNN reported this week that nine friends, classmates and neighbors who grew up with the retired neurosurgeon say they have no recollection of violent incidents that Carson has claimed, including fights and an attempted stabbing. He has said he had an encouraging meeting with General William Westmoreland in 1969, and that West Point officers later told him he could get an appointment if he applied, thanks to his grades and his ROTC accomplishments. “Can someone tell me why please?”

That report, Carson said, is a “boldfaced lie”.

That story was initially headlined “EXCLUSIVE: Ben Carson admits fabricating West Point scholarship”.

In last week’s Republican debate on CNBC, a moderator who pressed Mr Carson to respond to allegations that he had close ties to a controversial nutrition supplement company was roundly booed by the partisan audience.

In the end, Bennett confirmed that Carson had not applied.

In a post Wednesday on his Facebook page, Carson wrote that “every signer of the Declaration of Independence had no elected office experience”. And while West Point doesn’t give scholarships, it’s not hard to see how encouragement from authority figures-You’re a shoo-in-becomes, after years of telling and retelling, the tale of an offer and a scholarship. “None of these areas held any real interest”, he said.

He told reporters, “My job is to call you out when you’re unfair, and I’m going to continue to do that”.

Those stories, and the apparently false claim that he got a full ride to the Military Academy at West Point, are garnering attention. Bill, that is true. Afterward, Sgt. Hunt” – his high school ROTC director – “introduced me to General Westmoreland, and I had dinner with him and the Congressional Medal winners. “I want to know”.

Even so, in an interview with CBS News’ Nancy Cordes on Friday evening, Carson insisted his story about West Point was not deceitful.

Also, a senior Trump adviser, Michael Cohen, tweeted: “One of the things Ben Carson has going for him is people think he’s trustworthy”. In one passage of the book, Carson describes a 1960s knife attack on a boy who was identified only as “Bob”.

“This is a bunch of lies”, Carson told CNN on Friday. Other childhood friends mentioned in the book could decide for themselves whether to come forward, he said. Recent polls show him neck and neck with Republican Presidential Candidate Donald Trump.

Whether any of this will adversely affect Mr Carson’s standing in the Republican presidential race is an open question.