Carson lied like hell when he said he was offered a “full scholarship”. He needs to explain why he thought it was necessary to embellish his record. Let me correct it.
“Ben Carson lies about being offered a West Point scholarship.â€
CARSON: But I did hear a lot of what you can’t do. Like when I joined the ROTC and I joined late so I wouldn’t have the full six semesters, I would only have five. And you know, I had a goal of achieving the office of city executive officer. Well no one had ever done that in that amount of time and everybody told me, you can’t do that. But long story short, it worked — I did it. I was offered a full scholarship to West Point, got to meet General Westmoreland, go to Congressional Medal of Honor dinners. But decided really my pathway would be medicine. [PBS, Charlie Rose, 10/9/15]
Ya, that’ll burnish the old resume. Say you were accepted to West Point and decline it.
Carson did get caught with his own words.
I wanted to also let people know that if someone says they were offered a “full scholarship†to a service academy (Army, Navy, Air-Force, Marines), they’re either lying or ignorant of the facts. In Carson’s case, there is no such thing as a “scholarship” to West Point. The government subsidizes every student - they’re effectively in the Army and their training and education are free.
No, he didn’t.