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White House Hopeful Carson Bristles Under Intense Scrutiny by Nobody: 12:17pm On Nov 07, 2015 |
Washington (AFP) - Ben Carson soared to the
top of the 2016 Republican presidential heap
with a compelling personal narrative, but
questions about his past and a disputed military
scholarship now threaten to disrupt his high-
flying campaign.
The retired doctor has riveted audiences for
months with vivid descriptions of how he lived
a violent adolescence -- including trying to kill a
classmate when he was 14 -- before
vanquishing his anger to become a world-
renowned neurosurgeon.
His political outsider candidacy has gained
momentum, and he finds himself tied for the
lead with billionaire Donald Trump in the
Republican nomination race, besting
establishment candidates like Jeb Bush.
But his campaign success has begun to draw
closer scrutiny from observers and US media
diving deeper into Carson's claims about his
volatile background growing up poor in Detroit.
The digging has found discrepancies,
inconsistencies and, in the latest revelations on
Friday, apparent falsifications.
Carson's campaign acknowledged that his
account of being offered a scholarship to the
prestigious US Military Academy at West Point
was wrong, Politico reported.
The candidate has made West Point an
inspirational part of his personal narrative,
writing about it in his autobiography, "Gifted
Hands."
In that account, he said that as a high school
senior who had turned his life around and was
rising in the Reserve Officer Training Corps
(ROTC) in Detroit, he got to meet famed Army
general William Westmoreland.
"I had dinner with him and the Congressional
Medal winners. Later I was offered a full
scholarship to West Point," Carson wrote in his
book.
But according to Politico, West Point said it had
no record of Carson applying or being offered
admission.
An education at the US Army's premier school
for prospective officers is free for all its
students, so there are no scholarships per se.
With the story snowballing, Carson went into
damage control mode.
"I don't remember all the specific details," he
told The New York Times.
"Because I had done so extraordinarily well you
know I was told that someone like me -– they
could get a scholarship to West Point. But I
made it clear I was going to pursue a career in
medicine," he said.
"It was, you know, an informal 'with a record
like yours we could easily get you a scholarship
to West Point.'"
During a press conference in Florida, a
sometimes agitated Carson said he does not
remember the names of the people who made
what he interpreted as an offer of a West Point
scholarship.
"It's almost 50 years ago. I bet you don't
remember the people you talked to 50 years
ago," Carson told reporters.
"There is a desperation on behalf of some to
try to find a way to tarnish me because they
have been looking through everything.
"It has to be a scandal or something. They are
getting desperate. Next week, it will be my
kindergarten teacher who said I peed in my
pants. It is ridiculous. It's okay because I totally
expect it," Carson added.
Carson had earlier spoken of West Point on
August 13. In response to a voter's question, he
posted on Facebook that he "was thrilled to get
an offer from West Point. But I knew medicine
is what I wanted to do."
Asked Friday by Fox News whether he should
have been more clear about West Point in his
book, Carson said: "I guess it could have been
more clarified. I told it as I understood it."
- 'Expect scrutiny' -
The soft-spoken, Yale-educated Carson has
spoken powerfully of his turbulent childhood,
his "pathological" temper and spiritual
redemption.
He has described trying to stab a classmate,
only to learn that the boy's belt buckle broke
the blade before it could enter his abdomen.
Carson has mentioned numerous other violent
episodes, including attempting to hit his
mother with a hammer, and punching a boy in
the head while holding a metal lock.
CNN reported that nine of Carson's friends,
classmates or neighbors told the network that
they had no memory of the kind of violence
described by the candidate.
Carson told CNN "I changed the names" of
several of the victims to respect their privacy.
But he insisted the incidents had in fact
occurred, and suggested US media were
concocting "a bunch of lies" about him.
"I think it's pathetic and basically what the
media does is they try to get you distracted
with all of this stuff so that you don't talk about
the things that are important," Carson said.
Presidential expert Peter Kastor, a professor at
Washington University in St. Louis, offered a
message for White House hopefuls: get used to
it.
"They should expect scrutiny," Kastor told AFP.
"Presidential candidates since John F Kennedy
have put their private lives on public display
for public purpose," and the media remains
duty-bound to investigate them, he said.
news.yahoo.com/carson-admits-tale-admission-west-point-not-true-183634107.html; |
Re: White House Hopeful Carson Bristles Under Intense Scrutiny by Nobody: 12:20pm On Nov 07, 2015 |
OLAADEGBU, NairaMinted, Missy89 |
(1) (Reply)
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