UPDATED: Politico SMEARS Ben Carson, says he admits to fabricating story when ABSOLUTELY NOT TRUE

by The Right Scoop

(UPDATED BELOW)

Politico ran a hit piece on Ben Carson today, alleging at the very beginning that Carson admitted to Politico that he fabricated his West Point story:

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.

But this isn’t true at all. Carson never claimed he was admitted to West Point, nor did his campaign tell Politico that his story was false. This is what his campaign told Politico:

When presented with these facts, Carson’s campaign conceded the story was false.

“Dr. Carson was the top ROTC student in the City of Detroit,” campaign manager Barry Bennett wrote in an email to POLITICO. “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 added. “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.”

So, where’s the admission that this is false? Once again, Carson never claimed he was admitted into West Point in the first place.

Dave Weigel shows us what Carson said in his book Gifted Hands:

Carson made clear he never was admitted to West Point. He didn’t even try because he wanted to be a doctor and thus went on to apply for Yale and was accepted.

Here’s something Carson wrote on this more recently:

Politico points out that there are technically no full scholarships to West Point, but everything is paid for:

An application to West Point begins with a nomination by a member of Congress or another prominent government or military official. After that, a rigorous vetting process begins. If offered admission, all costs are covered; indeed there are no “full scholarships,” per se.

Dana Loesch tweeted this from Ben Shapiro at Daily Wire:

So once again Carson comes under fire by the media who completely has their story wrong. Here is Ben Carson’s campaign representative explaining it to CNN:

 
Allahpundit tweeted this, which I think sums it up pretty well:

UPDATE: Well this is interesting:


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