Ben Carson Admits He Was Never Accepted to West Point
A report on Friday
said Ben Carson has acknowledged never having applied to the prestigious
military academy at West Point, raising questions about his repeated
assertions that he had turned down a scholarship to attend.
According to the report, in Politico,
West Point had no record that Mr. Carson, who has been leading in some
national polls in the race for the Republican presidential nomination,
had applied to the academy. When Politico approached Mr. Carson’s
campaign with the information, his campaign manager, Barry Bennett, in a
statement, explained Mr. Carson had considered an offer to receive help
with an appointment to the academy, but he did not ever apply.
In repeated references to West Point over the years, Mr. Carson has strongly implied that he had a standing offer to attend.
In his statement, Mr. Bennett said, “Dr. Carson was the top R.O.T.C. student in the City of Detroit.”
Referring to Gen.
William C. Westmoreland, the Army chief of staff at the time, Mr.
Bennett added: “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 R.O.T.C. city executive officer.”
“He was introduced to
folks from West Point by his R.O.T.C. supervisors,” Mr. Bennett said.
“They told him they could help him get an appointment based on his
grades and performance in R.O.T.C. He considered it but in the end did
not seek admission.”
Mr. Carson recounted
the episode of being offered a scholarship at various points in telling
his triumphant personal story. (Technically, West Point does not offer
scholarships; it is free to attend.)
In his recent book, “You Have a Brain,”
Mr. Carson described how he decided which college to attend: “I still
had the scholarship offer from West Point as a result of my R.O.T.C.
achievements.”
More recently, in a Facebook post in August
responding to a question, he addressed a question about whether he was
offered a slot at West Point, writing that he was “thrilled to get an
offer from West Point.”
“But I knew medicine
is what I wanted to do. So I applied to only one school. (it was all the
money I had). I applied to Yale and thank God they accepted me. I often
wonder what might have happened had they said no.”
The revelation came just a couple of days after a CNN report
questioned the accuracy of Mr. Carson’s accounts of violent episodes in
his youth, which are central to his often-told story of personal
redemption through faith and hard work, one that has made him a favorite
of evangelical Christian voters. On Friday, shortly before the Politico
report was published, Mr. Carson attacked that report as a “bunch of lies.”
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