Former neurosurgeon and current Republican presidential hopeful Ben Carson is in some hot water after some of his claims about his life were fact checked. Over the course of the campaign and in his new book Carson has made wild claims ranging from the time he almost stabbed a person, to the full ride to West Point Military Academy that he turned down.
When Carson was on Meet The Press he was asked about Donald Trump’s recent attack that he was low energy. Carson replied:
“You know I am soft spoken, I do have a tendency to be relaxed. I wasn’t always like that, there was a time when I was very volatile but I changed… As a teenager I would go up to people with rocks and bricks and baseball bats and hammers and of course many people know the story when I was 14 and I tried to stab someone.”
When CNN tracked down some of Carson’s old classmates, neighbors, and friends, they expressed disbelief. Former classmate Gerald Ware said:
“I don’t know nothing about that, it would have been all over the whole school.”
Ben Carson’s claim that he was offered a full ride to West Point also came under scrutiny.
When Politico asked West Point’s administration about these claim, spokeswoman for the academy Theresa Brinkerhoff said:
“In 1969, those who would have completed the entire process would have received their acceptance letters from the Army Adjutant General, if he chose to pursue (the application process), then we would have records indicating such,” she said.
Carson and his campaign have backpedaled a small amount on his claims. When asked about never having applied to West Point, Carson says:
“It didn’t go to that extent because they were very impressed with what I had done (in ROTC). I had become the City Executive Officer in less time than anybody else had ever done that and they were saying you would be a tremendous addition to the military and we could get you into West Point with a full scholarship.”
West Point does not give out scholarships, just as it didn’t when Ben Carson claimed he was being asked to attend. The renowned military academy is free.
Carson’s also made questionable claims involving a robbery he witnessed at a Baltimore Popeye’s restaurant. He said on Sirius XM Radio:
“Guy comes in, put the gun in my ribs, and I just said, ‘I believe that you want the guy behind the counter.’ I redirected him. … The resolution was, (the gunman) said, ‘Oh, sorry,’ and then he went to the appropriate person behind the register who gave him the money, and he left the store running before the police got there.”
After a search of four databases the Baltimore police department said they were unable to find any record of this event happening.
This story flies against Carson’s claims about what he would do in a mass shooting. He said in the wake of the Umpqua shooting:
“Not only would I probably not cooperate with him, I would not just stand there and let him shoot me. I would say, ‘Hey guys, everybody attack him. He may shoot me, but he can’t get us all.'”
Ben Carson gets very defensive when these questions about his past are asked. He, like almost all the Republican contenders, condemns the mainstream media’s perceived liberal bias.
Getting past the fact that the so called liberal bias really isn’t affecting anything, Carson isn’t being misrepresented or libeled. He is having the things he does say fact checked. The fact that that bothers him so much is a red flag.
