Is Ben Carson Lying About Having No Involvement With Questionable Nutrition Company?

At Wednesday night’s GOP debate Ben Carson adamantly denied he had any involvement with a questionable nutrition company that paid $7 million to settle a false advertising lawsuit. But a fact-checker rates Carson’s claim as “false.”

“I didn’t have an involvement with them,” Dr. Ben Carson said Wednesday night at the GOP debate in Colorado. “That is total propaganda. And this is what happens in our society – total propaganda. I did a couple speeches for them. I did speeches for other people. They were paid speeches. It is absolutely absurd to say that I had any kind of relationship with them.”

What was Carson so adamant about?

“This is a company called Mannatech, a maker of nutritional supplements, with which you had a 10-year relationship,” CNBC’s Carl Quintanilla had said to Carson. “They offered claims they could cure autism, cancer. They paid $7 million to settle a deceptive marketing lawsuit in Texas, and yet your involvement continues. Why?”

Politifact notes “Mannatech sells nutritional supplement pills made from larch tree bark and aloe, ingredients with disputed health benefits.”

The ultra-conservative right wing National Review back in January published an article on Carson’s “troubling connection” with Mannatech, stating that a “20/20 investigative report” showed Mannatech sales associates touting its “signature drug” as a “miracle cure that could fix a broad range of diseases, from cancer to multiple sclerosis and AIDS.”

The Wall Street Journal earlier this month reported that Mannatech “in 2009 settled false-advertising charges brought by the Texas attorney general’s office, which alleged Mannatech had permitted “deceptive” and “illegal” miracle-cure testimonials at sales meetings and allowed materials circulated by associates suggesting its products could treat or even cure Down Syndrome, cystic fibrosis, autism, cancer and other serious ills.”

And Politifact calls it “a stretch” for Carson to claim he had no involvement with Mannatech, writing Wednesday night that “it’s hard to see the speeches he’s delivered, as well as other promotional work, as anything but a full-throated endorsement of the product. Further, Mannatech appears to view Carson as a product promoter.”

Slate went one step further, calling Carson’s denial “one of the most convoluted, nonsensical, bald-faced lies of the entire campaign.”

TIME’s Washington Bureau Chief tweeted out this image Wednesday night, pointing to the Manatech logo in the upper right corner:

Carson in one speech said he thought about using only the company’s supplements rather than undergo surgery for prostate cancer, saying, “I started taking the product, and within about three weeks, my symptoms went away.”

“We rate Carson’s claim False,” Politifact reports.

Here’s a screenshot of what Manntech’s website looked like on May 6, 2014, via the Internet Archive. Note Carson’s photo in the lower right corner:

 

 

Image, top, screenshot of Ben Carson via YouTube