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Ben Carson PA

This White House hopeful has admitted fabricating a story about his past

Republican frontrunner Ben Carson had made his scholarship to West Point a compelling part of his personal narrative.

US PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE Ben Carson’s campaign has acknowledged that the Republican frontrunner’s account of applying and being admitted to the prestigious US Military Academy at West Point is not true, Politico is reporting.

Carson, a retired neurosurgeon, has made West Point a compelling part of his personal narrative, writing about it in his autobiography, ‘Gifted Hands’.

In that account, he said he was “offered a full scholarship” to the academy, the US Army’s premier school for prospective officers.

But West Point told Politico it had no record of Carson applying or being offered admission. A West Point education is free for all its students, so there are no scholarships per se.

“In 1969, those who would have completed the entire process would have received their acceptance letters from the Army Adjutant General,” Theresa Brinkerhoff, an academy spokeswoman, told Politico, adding that West Point had no record of Carson even beginning the application process.

If he chose to pursue (the application process) then we would have records indicating such.

Politico said that when Carson’s campaign was presented with the evidence, it conceded the story was false.

“Dr. Carson was the top ROTC (Reserve Officers Training Corps) student in the city of Detroit,” campaign manager Barry Bennett told Politico in an email.

“He was introduced to folks from West Point by his ROTC Supervisors,” Bennett added.

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.

The acknowledgement came as Carson, who is running neck and neck with Donald Trump in Republican primary polling, has faced questions about his past, including his own descriptions of his violent adolescence in Detroit.

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    Mute DeeM
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    Sep 3rd 2020, 7:57 AM

    How on earth can a student who is appealing a grade sit a leaving cert exam in November? They haven’t been in school since March. They may or may not have had online teaching support in subsequent months and they will have missed their opportunity to go to college because the results are being given too close to the CAO offers, the appeals date and the start of the college year. A deliberate ploy on the part of the Department of Education to try to discourage students from appealing. The whole thing is an absolute shambles!! Good luck to the leaving cert students of 2020..I hope every single one of them that wants to go to college, gets a place in the course of their choice.

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    Mute Bikes rule the world
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    Sep 3rd 2020, 12:51 PM

    @DeeM: they could self study, their education didn’t stop just because of the pandemic

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    Mute Daff. Myers
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    Sep 3rd 2020, 9:47 PM

    @Bikes rule the world: no, it did. It stopped. That’s actually exactly what happened.

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    Sep 5th 2020, 12:50 AM

    @Bikes rule the world:
    self study yes. but we had to return our books back in may. so we don’t even have those as resources + no teacher contact.

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    Mute Alan Wilson
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    Sep 3rd 2020, 9:03 AM

    I think the reason they moved the result date was that there was no time before the start of Uni to question the results

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    Mute Molly1952
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    Sep 3rd 2020, 9:23 AM

    @Alan Wilson: If you question your results and are awarded a higher grade you will get the place you are entitled to in college, as far as I know. I just don’t know what the perfect solution to this year’s LC would have been. All the partners in education were involved in the decision to do it this way and still people are up in arms. What would the hurlers on the ditch have done better, I wonder? There was no manual for handling something as unprecedented as this pandemic.

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    Mute Canyon
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    Sep 3rd 2020, 9:10 AM

    Here’s how it will work…..anyone who doesn’t get their No 1 choice will moan about the unfairness of it all. Simples.

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    Mute sean o'dhubhghaill
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    Sep 3rd 2020, 1:03 PM

    @Canyon: That’s not the a problem with the LC, that’s a problem with the CAO.

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    Mute Conall
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    Sep 3rd 2020, 1:51 PM

    Barristers and solicitors are already clearing their calendars for late September and early October. I expect there are going to be an enormous number of cases. Previously results were based on single exams that everyone sat – the human element for grading was to a large extent objective. Now it’s to a large extent subjective.

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