Republican presidential hopeful Ben Carson is pushing back against an explosive media report suggesting he lied about being accepted into the U.S. Military Academy at West Point out of high school, according to a report from Politico.
The story, published by Politico on Friday, now carries a new headline and lengthy editor's note indicating that, subsequent to publication, Carson's campaign has disputed that its remarks to Politico amount to an admission he lied.
The controversy erupted Friday afternoon and has brought glaring new scrutiny to Carson who, despite having never held public office is leading the Republican primary field in many national polls. In a statement to Politico, campaign officials acknowledged that Carson was never offered a scholarship to the military academy despite numerous past claims in autobiographies and personal remarks.
Army officials also said there is no record of Carson applying or being accepted to the institution.
Confronted with that fact, campaign officials told Politico that during an event in 1969 with military officers, West Point officials told Carson 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."
In a follow-on interview Friday with Fox News' Bill O'Reilly, Carson said "I guess it could have been more clarified."
Campaign officials told Politico that Carson was a top ROTC student in Detroit as a high-schooler, and that experience did help shape his future success. He went on to graduate from Yale University and the University of Michigan’s medical school, and become a renown neurosurgeon.
