Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson has been embroiled in defending the several stories he has told about his life up through his university attendance. The most recent subject to have burst into public controversy is his claim that he was "offered" a full scholarship to West Point.
1. The Full West Point Scholarship
Ben Carson has claimed that he was offered a full scholarship to attend West Point. He has told more than one story of who the scholarship offer came from. One version is that the offer came during a meeting with General Westmoreland. Another version is that the offer came at an affair attended by a number of retired and active duty high-ranking military officers. When contacted by the media, West Point sources said there is no record of West Point offering Carson a scholarship; these sources described getting admitted to West Point is a "long, arduous" process.
It is possible that Carson was told by someone in a .position of authority that he should apply to West Point, maybe even by the commander in Carson's ROTC service in high school, but such encouragement or advice would not constitute an "offer."
2. Carson's Violent Early Teen Years
Ben Carson has emphasized how violent he was in his early teen years, using knives, a hammer and even a baseball bat to strike or threaten others. He has described directing a knife toward the stomach of someone, only to have the knife break when it hit a large belt buckle. He has described tying to drive a hammer into his mother's head but being stopped before he could complete the act. At one point Carson described the person he tried to knife as a relative and at another point he said it was a non-relative.
CNN has interviewed at least nine people who were close to Carson, going all the way back to elementary school. None of hem have been able to describe a single violent act or even fit of anger on the part of Ben Carson. Carson argued at a recent press conference that how could anyone expect that any of his youthful acquaintances could accurately remember something that happened some fifty years ago.
3. The Incident at Popeyes
At a press conference following the mass shooting at a community college in Oregon, Carson said that had he been in the proximity of the shooter, he would not have just stood there; instead, he would have told those around him: "Come on, guys, let's charge him; he can't shoot and kill all of us.!" Carson, however, has told a story of being in a Popeyes, and having someone jam a gun into his ribs. Carson said he told the gunman: "You don't went me; you want the guy behind the counter." Popeyes, nor anyone else, has been able to confirm the incident. If the incident did happen, Carson didn't display the heroism he now has said he would display. Instead, he encouraged the gunman to put someone else under the gun.
4. "The Most Honest Person"
Ben Carson has claimed that in a psychology class at Yale University, the students there declared him to be "the most honest person." -- either in the class or of anyone they knew at Yale. Carson added that his picture appeared on the front page of the student newspaper. No such issue of the newspaper has been located and no one has come forth to confirm Carson's story. Apparently, this was a made-up story put in a joke or satire paper by acquaintances of Carson.
5. The Media Closely Scrutinized Him But Gave Barack Obama a Pass
Although Ben Carson's claim that the media gave Obama a pass but is intent on savaging him, would not directly qualify as a lie but it is a gross mischaracterization. Carson ignores the long-running media focus on Obama's relationship with his church pastor, Jeremiah Wright, and portions of Wright's most fiery sermons were played over-and-over. The prevailing question was: Why would Obama remain in a church for twenty years, with a pastor who interlaced anti-American themes into his sermons? There were frequent media stories about Obama's relationship with the former Weatherman radical Bill Ayres. Obama held a campaign fundraiser in Ayres' home and served on a board focused on educational reform with Ayres. Then of course, there was the birther story, whereby Obama was alleged to have been born in Kenya and thereby not eligible to be president of the United States. Obama is the only candidate for U.S. president who has had to produce a birth certificate. There were many negative stories about Obama's father and even claims that Obama was secretly helping a "radical" Kenyan campaign for Kenya's political leadership. The above is just a sampling of the often negative media coverage of Obama's run for the presidency..
Ben Carson's claim that the Egyptian pyramids were designed to be storehouses for grain is not a lie but testifies to Carson's profound ignorance. Archaeologists have extensively examined the pyramids and have not found any vestiges of grain in them. The conclusive scientific finding is that the pyramids are elaborate tombs for Egypt's pharaohs. The pyramids were built of huge stones ragged for many miles by enslaved workers. If the Egyptians felt they needed grain storage facilities they would have built barn-like structures.
Ben Carson's source for his pyramid claim may have been a passage in Genesis that refers to making preparations for an upcoming drought.
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