Friday, November 06, 2015

Let's Put The Ben Carson "Lie" On West Point Into Perspective

Ben Carson is now being accused of lying about an opportunity he says he turned down in high school to attend West Point. Politico, which is renowned for fabricating stories about politicians they don't like, claims Carson when confronted by the online political website admitted that he fabricated a story he has often told about being offered the opportunity to attend the esteemed military academy, but that he turned down the offer. Indeed, there are no records of Carson ever applying or being offered a slot at the academy as Politico learned. Carson vehemently denies he admitted to Politico that he fabricated the story. Here's a statement Carson's campaign released to the Daily Caller:
“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. 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. There are “Service Connected” nominations for stellar High School ROTC appointments. Again he was the top ROTC student in Detroit. I would argue strongly that an Appointment is indeed an amazing full scholarship. Having ran several Congressional Offices I am very familiar with the Nomination process.
Again though his Senior Commander was in touch with West Point and told Dr. Carson he could get in, Dr Carson did not seek admission.
The Politico story is an outright Lie. Dr. Carson as the leading ROTC student in Detroit was told by his Commanders that he could get an Appointment to the Academy. He never said he was admitted or even applied.
The campaign never “admitted to anything”
This is what we have come to expect from Politico.” 
So it is true Carson never received a formal offer to attend West Point after applying for admission with the support of a congressional sponsor as is the normal procedure for getting into one of the three military academies. Carson insists he was approached about a "Service Connected" offer to the academy as a "stellar High School ROTC appointment," which is quite plausible.

I have a nephew who was admitted to the Naval Academy after going through the rigorous application process and having a congressional sponsor. I also have identical twin nephews who never applied for admission to any of the academies but who were approached by a recruiter for the Air Force Academy, which expressed interest in their admission based on their outstanding academic records and as a standout basketball players on their high school team. The Air Force Academy reached out to them; they never contacted them or expressed interest in the academy. They weren't interested in military service and did not act on the invitation extended to them.

It makes a lot of sense that the military academies would have been reaching out to standout minority candidates to recruit in the late 1960s as Carson says occurred with him. He never claimed he applied and then turned down a formal offer that was made to him. He certainly didn't lie about his military service as some candidates and elected officials have been caught doing, and it seems Politico is really stretching it to claim Carson lied about turning down an opportunity to attend West Point. It seems to me the media is playing "gotcha" now with Carson at every turn. They've played that game incessantly with Trump, and he's got the fortitude to successfully fight them back like a tough-nosed street fighter where most candidates are overwhelmed by the media onslaught.

UPDATE: Carson fought back in a press conference last night and called the media out for its continued refusal to this day to question why all of Barack Obama's record remain sealed as they demand answers from him on whether or not he received an offer to attend West Point.
 

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow, just spin it Gary, spin it. Its only a lie if Joe Biden says it. Its not a lie if Ben Carson says it. Spin, spin, spin. I can tell you this, it vindicates what Trump has been inferring about Carson's truthfulness. And I bet Carson's numbers never again hit 24%. He's done. Watch him inch down as Rubio inches up. People are just beginning to talk about his stupid theory about the pyramids of Egypt being grain silos. I heard two tables talk about it at lunch today. Huckabee, Cruz, Carson. Wait till the press starts really delving into what they believe. Mr. Carson, how old do you believe the earth really is? Do you believe in evolution, even a little bit? He's a religious zealot from teabagistan. Next.

Anonymous said...

No worries about the Press digging into anything at all given the blow job they did and continue to do for Obama.

Anonymous said...

Anon 2:54 YES! Give usa card carrying community organizer over a surgeon who has achieved proven success on his own merit.

Gary R. Welsh said...

Again, I don't support Carson for president. His stance on the issues is fair game, and he's said some things that are very difficult to defend. The media plays these gotcha games with politicians they disfavor. They cover up or refuse to talk about the serious problems with Hillary Clinton, a serial liar and abuser of the law, while they use stuff that really doesn't make a difference as the deciding factor on whether a candidate like Carson should be president. Don't vote for him because he wants to do away with Medicare or thinks the Egyptians built the Pyramids to store grain, but don't play games with what he did or didn't do before he graduated from high school.

Anonymous said...

I'm sure Doctor Carson did go to Westpoint, but only for breakfast and a photo op. He may have even stopped at the gift shop for a T-shirt.

Of course he's not a liar, after all, he never claimed to have invented the internet, right?

Rememeber, it's fine with the Lamestream Media to attack Al Gore, but Carson and Sarah Palin are off limits.

Anonymous said...

If only the people who are so up in arms about this Ben Carson thing paid half as much attention to the lie that is Barak Obama's past... the made up one proved to be forgery after lie after deception.

Lord knows what they will do and say when it comes to Ted Cruz.

Anonymous said...

There is nothing the extremist leftist liberal Democrats fear more than a (truly) Conservative Black Man as President. NOTHING. They will do anything and everything to destroy this intelligent, self motivated, producer. ANYTHING.

Anonymous said...

What does it have to do with the left? This is Republicans choosing their candidate for the election. They have, what, 14 in the election, maybe 12, still debating? Don't blame Obama, the media or the people watching this sideshow. This is Republicans choosing Republicans from the best the Republican party has to offer. If we Independents were commenting we'd be laughing our butts off over Huckabee and Cruz and Santorum and even Carson as the best you've got. I don't think any of them are qualified to run the military. At least Rubio seems to have some decorum. The others, to me, are just such inappropriate choices. No wonder Trump leads. He's the only one with the cahones to take on Clinton in a general election.

Anonymous said...

We have a conservative black man sitting on the Supreme Court, and he's roundly considered to be lazy, intellectually shallow, a knee jerk uncle tom conservative, and to have completely abandoned a black community he seems to despise, with his white wife and Washington political lifestyle. So don't tell me liberals against conservative blacks is a problem. You Repubs have a bunch of Christian ideologue hypocrites as your leaders and nobody really likes or trusts them. That's your problem. Blaming a brilliant speaker like Obama who swept into power on a wave of love is all you've got? Calling him a secret African not American? So afraid of Hillary Clinton you'd make up this Benghazi nonsense when it pales in comparison to Reagan's embassy bombing. The Republicans are just honestly and fairly turning off the younger generation by being deceitful. Period. Huckabee. Can't stop talking about sex. What's that about?

Anonymous said...

One cannot receive an offer to West Point without first applying but we'll let Trump hammer out the details. Uncle Ben, make room for Tio Taco Rubio or Canadian Cruz or any other of the other clowns invited to the tea party. GOP, who did you think you were running? Eisenhower?

Anonymous said...

I was going to add my two cents, but everybody else has hit my talking points.

This is a Republican against Republican contest for the presidential nomination, and has nothing to do with what which Democrats did what when.

That Carson thinks the pyramids were built for grain storage is such nonsense it doesn't merit consideration. Fiorino's business bona fides are bogus. Trump is, well, Trumpian. The Canadian-born Cruz is a megalomaniac. I could go on.

Where are the serious candidates? The ones we'd trust to have their fingers on the nuclear trigger? Surely there are some Republicans who aren't looney tunes!

Anonymous said...

Yes, Gary, let's put this into perspective -- Carson seems to have a pattern of claims, statements, and beliefs that defy credulity....or any scrutiny....he is not qualified to be elected to anything....that this clown has ever been at the top of any polling shoes how far low the GOP has fallen and how dumb the base has become...what a bunch of idiot bigots, racists, and just stupid people...both the candidates and base....and yes, let's fall back to blaming the mainstream media for this joke of a political party...

Anonymous said...

If Carson is discredited and so horribly stupid why don't the Democrats want him running? I'd think discredited and horribly stupid would give their either golden girl Hillary or Bernie the Commie a decided advantage, yes?

Unless... Carson isn't as discredited or so horribly stupid as they'd have everyone believe....

I'll vote for who makes the left screech the loudest....

Gary R. Welsh said...

I'm not about to call someone an idiot who got into Yale University, earned a medical degree, became the director of pediatric neurosurgery at John Hopkins University at the age of 33 and successfully separated conjoined twins who shared a brain after 22 hours of surgery.

Anonymous said...

The media did the same thing to Herman Cain, and everyone fell for it.

Just shows how stupid folks really are to believe our media these days!

When folks talk about Obama and his past, move along, there's no story here!

Anonymous said...

Muslims can't be president. The Great Pyramids were grain silos. I got a full ride to play football at West Point. This guy's a Moonbat, Gary. The Republican Party continues to unravel. I take no joy in it. I'm a conservative, but these guys simply do not have game. If they can't handle the press, they most certainly cannot handle a guy like Putin.

Josh said...

"What difference – at this point, what difference does it make?"

Anonymous said...

Anon 7:54 -- who said the Democrats don't want him running? I am an independent, and of course can't speak for the Dems, but I think they would welcome Uncle Ben as the GOP nominee in a heart beat! His candidacy -- and defeat - would make Barry Goldwater or George McGovern look formidable.

Gary, (8:16) There is no question about his credentials. He certainly has accomplished a lot in life....but these claims, and this calm, moral certainty he exhibits when saying the goofiest things scares the hell out of me. The grain silos in Egypt, the West Point BS, these references to his violent past that no one can verify or remember, and this lack of knowledge of the Government, how it works, public policy, etc. I can go on and on. This guy is a joke.

Anon 9:11 - Herman Cain? Are you serious? That guy was almost as bad as Carson, and had his 15 seconds of fame....I trust he is doing well in Uzbekistan.

Don't blame the Dems, the left, Independents, or the mainstream media for these candidates, and the laughingstock the GOP has become.