On Sunday morning’s Meet the Press, Donald Trump seized on Ben Carson’s recent troubles to cast doubt on his opponent’s honesty. “I feel badly for Ben. I’ve gotten to like Ben,” said Trump. But he quickly rattled off the list of “scandals” that have embroiled Carson over the past week — questions over his story of an attempted stabbing, his West Point “scholarship,” his thoughts about the Egyptian pyramids, etc. — and added that in one of Carson’s books the neurosurgeon writes that he as a “pathological disease” (Trump did not elaborate).
Carson addressed the claims in an evening interview with a NBC reporter, saying that he was prepared to be “vetted,” but that the press’s attention to him has been unprecedented:
Says Carson, the media has realized he’s a “threat” to the “secular progressive movement.”
At National Review on Friday, our Jim Geraghty and David French tore apart Politico’s “bombshell” story about Carson’s West Point “scholarship.” And in his latest homepage piece, David agrees that there is more to the media’s Carson-obsession than mere vetting:
Let’s begin with two propositions: There is a difference between an admirable man and a perfect man, and there is a difference between “vetting” and viciousness. The collective goal of the liberal media is now clear — to take one of America’s most admired and brilliant men and somehow transform him into a dishonest, stupid extremist. The vetting of Ben Carson has become vicious, and to what end? An admirable man has been exposed as imperfect. . . .
At the end of the day, what are we left with? An admirable though imperfect man who rose from abject poverty to the pinnacle of one of the most challenging professions in the nation — all while never forgetting his roots, maintaining grace and humility even as he earned riches and honors. In fact, his life story — and his character — would make him one of the most inspiring Americans ever to occupy the Oval Office. But he’s a direct threat not just to leftist narratives regarding race and class but also to the leftist stranglehold on the black vote. And for that reason alone he must be destroyed.