Ben Carson claimed this week that he was once held at gunpoint at a Popeye’s chicken restaurant in Baltimore, and that he survived by telling the gunman to go focus on the cashier instead of himself. If that story isn’t disturbing enough on its face, the idea that he acted so selfishly and is now bragging about it, Carson may have another problem: the Baltimore Police Department says it can find no record of the supposed incident.
While numerous Americans have been robbed at gunpoint at some point in their lives, Ben Carson has had a difficult time getting mainstream Americans to believe his story. The primary reason: he’s made so many absurd statements about everything from slavery to the Holocaust to magic cancer cures to his disbelief in gravity, that many are unsure whether anything he says can be taken at face value. That prompted the media to try to confirm his story.
In response to numerous questions from the media the Boston Police tweeted this:
Based on the information that #BenCarson mentioned, there was not enough info to identify a police report in reference to the incident.
— Baltimore Police (@BaltimorePolice) October 8, 2015
Of course that is not enough to call the man a liar, however take a look at what the Daily Beast uncovered: When The Daily Beast reached out to Carson’s “business manager” and central advisor, Armstrong Williams, he said that Carson had personally told him the story, and that it also appeared in Carson’s 2006 book, Take the Risk.
There is no story about a stickup at Popeyes in Take the Risk.
Gregg Lewis, a co-author of Take the Risk, told The Daily Beast that he and Carson never discussed the incident during his work on three autobiographies with the neurosurgeon.
Three autobiographies and NO mention of having a gun stuck in his ribs?
You know I have had some fairly interesting events happen in my life (I am not sure three autobiographies worth however.), and I am pretty sure that being involved in a stickup would probably rate inclusion in a conversation about the highs and lows.
Now of course none of this matters as Republican voters have demonstrated time and time again that they place little value on the truth. However for the rest of us, this is yet another example of the type of deeply flawed candidate that seems to impress the average conservative.
(Snopes has even more for those who are still on the fence.)