Sunday on NBC’s “Meet The Press,” MSNBC host Rachel Maddow and conservative talk show host Hugh Hewitt battled over the honestly of Republican presidential candidate Dr. Ben Carson’s autobiography.
Hewitt said, “To quote Dr. Kissinger, it has the additional benefit of being true. His objection to this week is there were four scandal but only two were reported. Marco Rubio does not have a scandal, Hillary had her non-disclosure agreement revealed at the Washington Free Becon and Reuters obtained a letter from the Teneo group refusing to answer questions about Hillary Clinton. So there were four scandals, two real involving Hillary Clinton, one about Ben Carson, West Point, not a scandal, heavily media and the one about Marco Rubio is all puff.”
Maddow said, “Why is it not important?”
Hewitt said, “I have no doubt someone at the ROTC said to Ben Carson ‘we’ll get you in’ because it was common in the ’70s and the ’80s.”
Maddow said, “But he’s sort of a — obviously he’s a very distinguished retired surgeon. Since retiring he’s basically a professional autobiography and that’s what he does, he sells and sells and sells and sells his autobiography. There are a lot of things, the most dramatic things in his autobiography, all of which are favorable to him and helped sell himself as this amazing person who should be president cannot be corroborated including the factual statement that you cannot get a full scholarship. It doesn’t even work that way.”
Hewitt said, “Direct admissions are full scholarships.”
Maddow said, “No one pays. it’s not like he got offered a full scholarship to West Point and had to pay when other people would have to. That’s the impression he gave.”
Hewitt said, “Here’s my question. If you get into Yale and you are an ROTC student, do you doubt someone came to him and said ‘you need to go to West Point we will get you in by direct admissions.’ Do you really doubt that happen?”
Maddow said, “What I doubt is a person ought to be president on the basis of their autobiography when they sell that to the country as ‘I was offered a full scholarship to West Point and I turned it down.’ You weren’t offered a full scholarship to West Point, You didn’t apply to West Point. Nobody gets a full scholarship to West Point and if you’re selling yourself, you’re not telling it truthfully.”
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN
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