WSJ Questions Ben Carson's High School, College Anecdotes

Carson wrote in his book that he dined with General William Westmoreland on Memorial day in 1969, and that the general offered him a scholarship. That meeting, according to Carson's telling, was followed by a "full scholarship" to the military academy... Rather it seems that Carson embellished a truth - that he had strong reason to believe he could get in to West Point - to make it more impressive.

Carson's campaign subsequently blasted the story as an "outright lie", and Politico dialed back aspects of its report.

"He was introduced to folks from West Point by his ROTC supervisors", campaign manager Barry Bennett told POLITICO in an email. And Ben Carson has a very loyal base, and I think, with his base, he'll be able to spin this to them and say, look, they got it wrong; they even changed their story a little bit.

Trump told Tapper he asked to take out a couple of skits he considered too risqué but added that presidential candidates don't say no to "Saturday Night Live" or the CBS news show "60 Minutes".

But CNN wasn't able to find anyone from Carson's past to corroborate his stories of past violence, and most remembered him as the same soft-spoken person he is today.

On another topic, Carson has said the great pyramids of Egypt were built by the biblical figure Joseph to store grain, although the accepted science says that they were tombs for pharaohs.

He continued: "Politico, as you know, told a bold-faced lie".

Carson said on NBC that he thought he was being targeted "because I'm a threat, to the progressives, to the secular progressive movement in this country..."

CNN's story pointed out that none of the people interviewed challenged the veracity of his accounts, but said they were surprised at them and did not reflect the youth that they knew.

Questions about Carson's account of the West Point scholarship came to the fore last week after a report by political news website Politico on differing accounts of the scholarship.

West Point confirmed there was no record of Mr Carson applying for admission. She said that records of candidates who did not pursue an application "are only retained for three years". But I knew medicine is what I wanted to do. All he said is that he was offered a scholarship to go there.

"I was offered a full scholarship to West Point", Carson wrote in the 1996 book.

Another story, again coming from his memoir, centers on Carson's attempt to stab a classmate.

"My job is to call you out when you're unfair, and I'm going to continue to do that", he said.

The fact that Obama didn't magically appear, tackle Carson to the ground, and scream "the fuck did you just say!?" at him is kind of incredible.

Carson's life story is a big part of his appeal as a candidate.