I due candidati repubblicani che dovrebbero sconfiggere Donald Trump sono invischiati in precedenti poco raccomandabili. Ben Carson, che ha avuto una giovinezza all’insegna della violenza (risanato dalla fede), ha dichiarato il falso su una sua borsa di studio. Marco Rubio ha usato la carta di credito del partito per spese personali. Per fortuna la stampa fa il suo mestiere di cane da guardia.

Ben Carson reportedly lied about West Point scholarship

Caitlin Dickson

Breaking News Reporter

November 6, 2015

Politico reported Friday that Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson did not — as he has claimed repeatedly — receive a full scholarship to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. 

In fact, Carson’s campaign admitted that the former neurosurgeon not only fabricated the story of his acceptance into the prestigious military academy, but he never actually applied. This concession came after Politico obtained evidence from a West Point spokesperson that the academy has no record of Carson’s application or his admission — calling into question a key piece of the presidential hopeful’s personal history.

“Dr. Carson was the top ROTC student in the city of Detroit,” Barry Bennett, Carson’s campaign manager, told 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.”

In his book, “Gifted Hands,” Carson describes a 1969 meeting with Gen. William Westmoreland — fresh off four years of directing the U.S. military strategy in Vietnam — that Carson said resulted in being offered a “full scholarship” to West Point.

“He was introduced to folks from West Point by his ROTC supervisors,” Bennett continued in his email to Politico. “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.”

It has also been noted by Politico and others that there is technically no such thing as a “full scholarship” to West Point, as the military covers the costs of all who are admitted to the elite academy.

The West Point spokesperson told Politico it’s entirely possible that Westmoreland spoke to the 17-year-old Carson and perhaps encouraged the young ROTC student to consider applying to the academy. However, Politico questions whether that fabled encounter with the famous general even took place.

According to “Gifted Hands,” Carson met Westmoreland in Detroit following the city’s Memorial Day parade, in which he’d been chosen to march. But Politico notes that U.S. Army records of Westmoreland’s schedule suggest that the general was in Washington on Memorial Day 1969 and did not make any trips to Detroit around that time.

Carson has hardly shied away from discussing his supposed West Point scholarship offer on the campaign trail. He defended the claim as recently as August 13 in a Facebook post in which he answered questions from supporters. In response to a question from someone named Bill who “wanted to know if it was true that I was offered a slot at West Point after high school,” Carson wrote, “Bill, that is true.”

“I was the highest student ROTC member in Detroit and was thrilled to get an offer from West Point,” he continued. “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.” 

Carson himself has not yet responded to the damning Politico report, but Republican rival Donald Trump wasted no time before expressing his excitement, tweeting Friday, “WOW, one of many lies by Ben Carson! Big story.”

But by Friday afternoon, the Politico report had become the subject of dispute.

Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly tweeted Friday afternoon that Carson’s campaign manager told her show “The Kelly File” that “the Politico story is an outright lie” and that “the campaign never admitted to anything.” The Daily Caller also published a story attributing those same quotes to Carson communications director Doug Watts.

“[Carson] never said he was admitted or even applied,” Watts reportedly told the Daily Caller. “This is what we’ve come to expect from Politico.”

Yet ABC political director Rick Klein tweeted that “Ben Carson’s campaign confirms to ABC News that he was never admitted, nor did he apply, to West Point.”

The Carson campaign has not yet responded to a request for comment from Yahoo Politics.