Lying Liar Ben Carson Now Admits He Made Up Story About West Point Scholarship Offer
Jesus Christ, can Ben Carson go a goddamned day without being caught making shit up about his life experiences or saying something that makes absolutely no sense? On the same day Carson got all self-righteous about the so-called liberal media being all unfair to him and other conservatives, his campaign had to admit that the retired neurosurgeon and frontrunning GOP Presidential candidate fabricated a story in his acclaimed autobiography Gifted Hands.
In the book, Carson stated that he was offered a “full scholarship” the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1969 towards the end of his senior year in high school. Per his account, he met with a four-star general at a banquet due to his being a top ROTC student in the Detroit area. The general then told him that he was so impressed with the young Carson that he offered him a spot at West Point. Carson wrote that he declined the offer to go to Yale instead since he wanted to be a doctor. However, he has used the supposed scholarship offer to bolster his standing among military hawks and vets.
Politico did some investigating and requested a response from Carson’s staff. While the book has been out for some time now, apparently nobody thought it was odd that Carson contended that he was offered a scholarship by a general to attend West Point. The reason this is a bullshit statement from the good doctor is the military academies don’t operate like that. It doesn’t cost anyone to attend, but each applicant to the academy system must undergo a rigorous vetting process, starting with the procurement of a nomination from their member of Congress. The process takes several months and roughly 10% of applicants make the final cut.
This is what Politico was told when they contacted the administration of West Point. The magazine also discovered that at no point did Carson actually go through the application process or receive an offer to attend. Due to that irrefutable evidence thrown smack dab in their faces, Carson’s camp had to come clean and admit that the candidate considered the most trustworthy by voters right now had made the whole fucking thing up. In typical spin doctor fashion, campaign manager Barry Bennett said that Carson had just misstated the facts of his meeting with General Westmoreland.
“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.”
This comes on the heels of other stories from Carson’s past, stories that were meant to form the basis of his super-inspirational bootstrap-pulling narrative, coming under intense scrutiny. CNN investigated Carson’s claims that he was a violent teenager who attempted to stab a friend and hit his mother with a hammer, among other things. The discussion of his intense anger as a young man was used to show how his belief in God swayed him to a better life. However, per CNN’s report, they could find no classmates of his at the time that could corroborate these tales.
The same thing occurred when Carson said that he was once held up at gunpoint at a Popeye’s some 30 years back in Baltimore. He made this claim in relation to remarks he made about mass shootings and how people need to learn how to react better when confronted by a shooter. Media investigations turned up nothing when it came to the story. There’s also the lie he tried to push during the most recent debate over his involvement with a supplement company. And let’s not get into all the weird shit Carson has said in recent weeks — or has been uncovered from previous speeches — on a number of subjects.
Remember, Republican voters, Carson and Donald Trump are the two top-polling candidates for the White House in your party. You built that!
