Did Ben Carson admit to 'fabrication'?

UPDATE: Politico has modified the headline on its story to remove any references to “fabrication.” The original read, “Ben Carson admits fabricating West Point scholarship.” The new version simply says, “Exclusive: Carson claimed West Point 'scholarship' but never applied.” The revised story doesn't claim Carson made anything up but hints his claims of getting a scholarship offer are overblown, since West Point has no record of it. After Politico posted its story, Carson told The New York Times the scholarship offer was informal, which would explain why it was not recorded.

OUR EARLIER REPORT (3:30 p.m.): The Washington, D.C.–based news outlet Politico reported today that GOP front-runner Ben Carson admitted fabricating key pieces of information in his best-selling autobiography Gifted Hands.

But a closer look at the Carson campaign’s response to Politico raises questions about whether he actually conceded to fabricating details about his rise from inner-city Detroit to famed neurosurgeon.

The Politico report says a Carson spokesman “admitted … that a central point in his inspirational personal story was fabricated: his application and acceptance into the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.”

The story notes Carson wrote he was offered “a full scholarship” to West Point after meeting Gen. William Westmoreland in 1969. But West Point officials told Politico they have no record of Carson applying to the school.

Carson campaign manager Barry Bennett responded to Politico’s inquiry by saying Carson’s ROTC supervisors had introduced the teenage cadet to “folks from West Point. … 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.”

In a Facebook post in August, Carson wrote he was “thrilled to get an offer from West Point,” but that he applied to only one school—Yale. At two separate campaign events in South Carolina this summer, I heard Carson tell crowds the same thing: He only applied to Yale.

So it seems Carson didn’t say he applied to West Point, contrary to Politico’s claims of fabrication.

But what about Carson’s claim in several places that he was offered “a full scholarship” to West Point?

This is where the story gets more difficult to pin down, but there’s at least one possibility: If “folks from West Point” told Carson they could help him get an appointment to the school, as his campaign manager said, such an appointment would have come with an automatic full ride: West Point cadets don’t pay tuition.

That means Carson may have been referring to the offer of help to get an appointment as an offer of a full scholarship, since no cadets pay for their education.

Still, that language could seem confusing or imprecise to outsiders unfamiliar with how the West Point system works, particularly since the academy doesn’t characterize its financial arrangements as full scholarships, and since Carson has used the phrase in more than one book.

WORLD has reached out to the Carson campaign for comment, and we’ll provide an update as we learn more information. We’ve also reached out to Zondervan, the publisher of Gifted Hands, for any comment on how it might respond to the Politico report.

Politico’s story came one day after CNN raised questions about Carson’s claims he had violent outbursts as a child. The network interviewed nine people who grew up with Carson who said they didn’t remember him having a temper or lashing out at others.

Carson said the outbursts he described in his book happened in private settings, and he declined to publicly identify the people involved. He said his anger subsided after he turned to God in his teens.