Questions about Ben Carson's biography may imperil 2016 campaign

Kathleen Gray | Detroit Free Press

Increased scrutiny into Ben Carson’s personal history and the candidate's responses are creating questions about how long Carson will be able to stay in the race.

“Unless he is some kind of political ju-jitsu master, I really do think that this is the end for him,” said Katie Packer, a Washington political consultant who served as deputy campaign manager for 2012 presidential candidate Mitt Romney.

Two published accounts this week have called into question Carson’s portrayal of his early years as a pathologically angry youth prone to violence against his friends.

A CNN story included interviews with people they identified as Carson’s childhood friends in Detroit who had no recollections of the violent encounters Carson describes in his book Gifted Hands. In an interview with CNN, Carson called their story “a bunch of lies” and “pathetic.” He declined to reveal the identity of the victims of his youthful violence, saying they preferred to remain anonymous.

“If you choose not to believe it, if it doesn’t fit the narrative that you want, that’s fine. Let’s let the American people decide,” Carson told CNN. “Unless I have specific permission to use their names, it’s inappropriate for me to do so.”

A story by Politico Friday revealed that claims by Carson that he had been accepted to West Point and was offered a full scholarship were inaccurate. The story has been repeated by Carson in his books and in appearances over the years. The campaign acknowledged Friday that while Carson was a member of ROTC as a high school student in Detroit, he never applied for admission to West Point.

The ROTC position "allowed me the chance to meet four-star general William Westmoreland, who had commanded all American forces in Vietnam before being promoted to Army Chief of Staff at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C.,” Carson wrote in his 2015 book You Have a Brain, for example. “I also represented the Junior ROTC at a dinner for Congressional Medal of Honor winners, marched at the front of Detroit’s Memorial Day parade as head of an ROTC contingent, and was offered a full scholarship to West Point.”

In an interview with The New York Times Friday, Carson said: “I don’t remember all the specific details. Because I had done so extraordinarily well you know I was told that someone like me — they could get a scholarship to West Point. But I made it clear I was going to pursue a career in medicine.”

“To have written this in a book and it’s such a major discrepancy. I don’t think you can call it a gaffe,” said Chris Arterton, a professor of political management at George Washington University. “This is quite different than a slip of a tongue or something said in the heat of the moment. This is much more deliberate and therefore, much more worrisome.”

Carson needs to own up to the contradictions, Arterton said, and the sooner the better, even before the GOP’s next debate on Tuesday in Milwaukee, Wis. If he doesn’t, he risks his recent status as a front-runner in the race for the GOP nomination, where he’s been neck-and-neck with New York businessman Donald Trump.

“A large amount of his support comes from the evangelical community, which has a long tradition of begging for forgiveness,” he said. “I don’t think this will drive him from the race, but it may drop him back to just his base of evangelical support and away from mainstream moderate Republicans.”

Packer said the media and Carson’s opposition in both the Republican and Democratic parties can smell the blood in the water and the West Point story probably won’t be the last misstep Carson will face.

“I think people can forgive a mistake, but at some point it becomes to be a pattern and it’s hard to lie about West Point. People know that being offered a position at West Point is a big honor and is something hard to come by. It’s pretty hard to misremember that,” she said. “The whole thing about Carson is that he’s supposedly a truth teller. It’s too central to his story. If you’re lying about West Point, I have a feeling there is a lot more out there.”