Ben Carson Addresses Media ‘Lies’ At Fourth GOP Debate, Should Focus On Key Issues [Video]

Dr. Ben Carson faced a media storm last week and was accused of “lies” about his life story. He addressed the issue concisely at the fourth GOP presidential debate on Tuesday in Milwaukee. Chief opponent Donald Trump, who commented about inconsistencies in Carson’s back story throughout the previous week, didn’t refer to the incidents on Tuesday, nor did any of the other candidates.

There were no questions about whether Carson was admitted to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, and no references were made to Carson’s violent early teen years, which the media states cannot be corroborated. Nevertheless, 1988 and 1997 issues of Parade magazine confirm the statement Carson made about an attempted stabbing in an interview with his late mother.

Fox anchor and debate moderator Neil Cavuto summarized the negative headlines and asked Carson if the reported news damaged “trust.” The candidate’s response was swift, noted a U.S. News report.

Thanks for not asking me what I said in the 10th grade. I appreciate it.

Ben Carson added that he has no problem with being vetted but does have a problem with being lied on. However, he didn’t elaborate on the issues he believed were lies. Instead he steered the conversation to Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton’s much debated statements on the facts surrounding the attack on the U.S. embassy in Benghazi, Libya which left U.S. ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and four others dead.

When I look at somebody like Hillary Clinton, who sits there and tells her daughter and a government official that, ‘No, this was a terrorist attack,’ and then tells everybody else that it was a [triggered by] video, where I came from, they called that a lie.

Carson said Clinton is treated more favorably than him, and the media should treat everyone the same. He, like many other GOP candidates, believes there is a liberal bias in the media, which is supposed to report objectively. Every reporter and news anchor likely comes to work with a political and world view already intact, and 100 percent unbiased reporting is unlikely to occur. But it should be the ultimate goal, with the exception of opinion pieces.

Inquisitr reported on a Politico story that claimed the Republican presidential hopeful confessed that he lied about admittance to West Point. But later, Politico changed the headline to: “Exclusive: Carson claimed West Point ‘scholarship’ but never applied.” The retired neurosurgeon explained how as a high school student he interpreted a conversation with a renowned general on free tuition and opportunities for admittance as a bona fide offer.

At the debate, Carson, who has no political experience, appeared uncertain when asked about the 50 special ops forces that President Barack Obama sent to Syria, according to CNN.

Putting the special ops people in there is better than not having them there… they’re actually able to guide some of the other things that we’re doing there.

CNN also added that Carson and Trump both stated that wages were too high. Ben Carson added that “high wages” were partially to blame for high unemployment rates in the African-American community. In reference to the general population, he had more to add on wages.

People need to be educated on the minimum wage. Every time we raise the minimum wage, the number of jobless people increases.

PolitiFact analyzed the above quote based on data from 1978 forward, after each time the minimum wage was raised. The facts conclude that joblessness rose on seven occasions and fell on four occasions, which means Carson’s blanket statement on the correlation between unemployment and minimum wage raises isn’t completely factual. PolitiFact also fact checked statements other Republican candidates made at the debate, and the assertions ranged from “mostly false” to “half truth” to “false” to a blatant “pants on fire” (huge lie).

Ben Carson should clearly articulate his stance on U.S. intervention in Syria and foreign and domestic policies in general. The questions will only get tougher as the race continues.

[Image: Scott Olson/Getty]