Team Carson: ‘Politico [West Point] Story Is An Outright Lie’

Daily Caller ^ | 11/06/2015 | RACHEL STOLTZFOOS

[xzins]

“The campaign never ‘admitted to anything,'” a spokesman for Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson told The Daily Caller News Foundation in response to a hit by Politico claiming his campaign admitted to “fabricating” a key point about his West Point story.

“The Politico story is an outright Lie,” Doug Watts told TheDCNF.

Politico published a piece Friday claiming Carson’s campaign “admits fabricating” the fact that he applied and was admitted to West Point.

“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,” Kyle Cheney writes in the lede.

The Carson campaign disputes Politico’s unsubstantiated claim he ever claimed to have applied to West Point or been admitted: “He never said he was admitted or even applied.”

“This is what we have come to expect from Politico.”

Here is the full statement Watts provided to TheDCNF:

“Dr Carson was the top ROTC student in the City of Detroit. 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. 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. There are “Service Connected” nominations for stellar High School ROTC appointments. Again he was the top ROTC student in Detroit. I would argue strongly that an Appointment is indeed an amazing full scholarship. Having ran several Congressional Offices I am very familiar with the Nomination process.

Again though his Senior Commander was in touch with West Point and told Dr. Carson he could get in, Dr Carson did not seek admission.

The Politico story is an outright Lie. Dr. Carson as the leading ROTC student in Detroit was told by his Commanders that he could get an Appointment to the Academy. He never said he was admitted or even applied.

The campaign never “admitted to anything”

This is what we have come to expect from Politico.”

Politico reporter Kyle Cheney, who has the byline on the Carson story, did not immediately respond to multiple requests for comment.

[Drawsing]

Yes, I’ll admit I swallowed it. I guess my excuse is that I thought they had him on video actually admitting the story was a fabrication. I usually have better discernment on these things...but .... mea culpa.

[Windflier]

Rush is picking this apart right now. After close examination, it’s pretty clear that Politico attempted to damage Ben Carson with a highly stretched version of the facts.

Unfortunately, Trump spoke too soon about it. He was bamboozled along with millions of Americans. Hopefully, he’ll make note of how the MSM tricked us all, and not be so quick to take their reports at face value in the future.

[Rock N Jones]

Democrats don’t lie, only politically correct fabrications.

[Rock N Jones]

Democrats don’t lie, only politically correct fabrications.

[unixfox]

Why is Politico still a recognized news outlet?

The only "news" they want you to believe is everything is good for Hillary and everything is bad for all other candidates.

And that's all you need to know.

[UCANSEE2]

It's a great brainwashing process which goes very slow and is divided into four basic stages. The first one being "demoralization". It takes from 15 to 20 years to demoralize a nation. Why that many years? Because this is the minimum number of years required to educate one generation of students in the country of your enemy exposed to the ideology of [their] enemy. In other words, Marxism-Leninism ideology is being pumped into the soft heads of at least three generation of American students without being challenged or counterbalanced by the basic values of Americanism; American patriotism....

The result? The result you can see ... the people who graduated in the 60's, dropouts or half-baked intellectuals, are now occupying the positions of power in the government, civil service, business, mass media, and educational systems. You are stuck with them. You can't get through to them. They are contaminated. They are programmed to think and react to certain stimuli in a certain pattern [alluding to Pavlov]. You cannot change their mind even if you expose them to authentic information. Even if you prove that white is white and black is black, you still can not change the basic perception and the logic of behavior.

The demoralization process in the United States is basically completed already for the last 25 years. Actually, it's over fulfilled because demoralization now reaches such areas where not even Comrade Andropov and all his experts would even dream of such tremendous success. Most of it is done by Americans to Americans thanks to lack of moral standards. As I mentioned before, exposure to true information does not matter anymore. A person who was demoralized is unable to assess true information. The facts tell nothing to him, even if I shower him with information, with authentic proof, with documents and pictures. ...he will refuse to believe it.... That's the tragedy of the situation of demoralization.

--Yuri Bezmenov

[Hot Tabasco]

You’re citing “MediaMatters” as a reliable source? Sheesh, you’ve got to be kidding.........

[Windflier]

Carson apparently wrote in his book that he was accepted to West Point. That is BS.

Yeah, it's bs, but the truth is, Carson never said it.

In his book, he merely claims that he was "offered" a full scholarship to West Point. From what I gather, the offer was verbally tendered, and that Carson never followed up on it by making a formal application.

[Hot Tabasco]

Other ways include:

There are a number of slots dedicated to active military personnel also. Of course you have to receive the recommendation of your commanding officer.......

A friend of mine's son entered WP after serving a year.........

[FourPeas]

Accurately describes the world in which we live. The long game is effective for those willing to play it.

[wagglebee]

In the late 1960s, early 1970s Harvard and Yale was almost exclusively for children of alumni and the very wealthy.

They came under pressure to admit SOME minority students, but they got to choose from the absolute best. That's what passed for affirmative action back then. They probably had thousands of black applicants and admitted a handful.

[wagglebee]

Pacifists don’t sign up to shoot people.

Does the name Alvin York ring any bells?

[xzins]

Absolutely. Alvin York was a pacifist.

[Windflier]

Is there anyone here who doubts that West Point admissions officers would not hesitate to accept a brilliant black cadet from Detroit?

It was 1969. The establishment (political and otherwise) wasn't exactly jumping through hoops to offer gifted young blacks any sort of rung up. This was before affirmative action took hold across the land.

[driftdiver]

You could read the politico story and the content did not fit the headline.

I have no trust in politico to start with.

Cruz 2016

[Baladas]

let me see - do I believe the “Carson camp” or do I believe a bunch of leftist media hacks? Tough one NOT!!!

[pfony1]

“...HIS dumbass campaign...”?
“...HIS...”?

I would have thought that FReeper criticism would be directed at the lying liars at “Politico” — not at “Politico’s” target-du-jour.

[TTFlyer]

The Democrat Party has been lynching Blacks since its inception. Nothing new here.

[pfony1]

Excellent point!

The Dems are aggressively trolling, so our moderators need to charge up their “teslas”...

[xzins]

I was in the Army then, and yes, the Army was already doing so. It would have been absolutely natural for Westmoreland to offer a great opportunity to Carson.