UPDATED: Ben Carson Was Never ‘Offered A Full Scholarship To West Point’

Ben Carson’s campaign Friday was forced to admit a central theme of his life story is a complete fabrication.

“I felt so proud, my chest bursting with ribbons and braids of every kind,” Ben Carson wrote in his book, Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story. The now GOP presidential candidate was retelling a story from his high school ROTC days. “To make it more wonderful, we had important visitors that day. Two soldiers who had won the Congressional Medal of Honor in Viet Nam were present,” Carson wrote. “More exciting to me, General William Westmoreland (very prominent in the Viet Nam war) attended with an impressive entourage.”

“Afterward,” Carson writes, his high school ROTC director “introduced me to General Westmoreland, and I had dinner with him and the Congressional Medal winners. Later I was offered a full scholarship to West Point.”

Politico, which first published the story (and the words from Carson’s book,) reports that didn’t exactly happen, and the Carson campaign was forced to admit key details were fabricated.

“Ben Carson’s campaign on Friday admitted, in a response to an inquiry from POLITICO, that a central point in his inspirational personal story was fabricated: his application and acceptance into the U.S. Military Academy at West Point,” Politico reports, adding that a West Point spokesperson says the Academy has no records of Carson.

Carson’s campaign manager, Barry Bennett, tells Politico, “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,” Bennett adds, according to Politico. “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.”

The question that now stands before Carson is, does he believe someone can be Commander-in-Chief when they lied about getting into West Point – and on a “full scholarship,” to boot?

The question conservatives and Republicans have to ask themselves now is, will they continue to support a candidate who has a proven track record of lying, a candidate whose entire campaign is predicated on his personal record.

Editor’s Note: The basis of this story is Politico’s story, which throughout the day they have changed without making clear what those changes are. Based on Politico’s changes, we have changed the title of this article. UPDATE: Politico has now added an editor’s note.

 

Image by Gage Skidmore via Flickr and a CC license