Ben Carson Admits That His Autobiography Isn't '100% Accurate,' But It's Close Enough

It’s been a bad month for Ben Carson, and the month is only a few days old. First there were reports that a stabbing incident the candidate recalled in his autobiography, Gifted Hands, might be fabricated. Then there was Politico’s report that Carson lied about being offered a scholarship to West Point. And finally a Wall Street Journal report indicating that Carson was never been named “the most honest student” while an undergraduate at Yale.

In short, Carson—whose campaign is built almost entirely on his character—has been caught in a handful of lies.

But Carson insists that they weren’t lies after all. In a Sunday morning interview with ABC’s The Week, Carson called the questions “irrelevant,” adding that none of the Democratic hopefuls had received such scrutiny.

In an exchange over the Wall Street Journal report, Carson insisted that while his autobiography wasn’t “100% accurate,” that it was an honest mistake:

The Week: Dr. Carson, explain that, because “The Wall Street Journal” did say that there was a class where you were named the most honest student, but they couldn’t find the name of the class or at — any record of it at Yale.

What exactly have you found?

Carson: We found the article from the “Yale Daily News” about the whole scam, so — it wasn’t a scam, it was a parody. And — but we found it. And the course, I guess, was called Psychology 1-0.

You know, when you write a book with a co-writer and you say that there was a class, a lot of times they’ll put a number or something on it just to give it more meat. You know, obviously, decades later, I’m not going to remember the course number.

Carson also continued to defend his claims that he was accepted to West Point and offered a full scholarship. “Well, it’s been proven that it wasn’t a lie. And none of the things are lies,” Carson said.

The Week host, George Stephanopoulos pressed a bit asking Carson: “Do you believe that you — you will have to get a little more precise in your documenting of your past?” Carson responded:

“Well, show me somebody, even from your business, the media, who is 100 percent accurate in everything that they say that happened 40 or 50 years ago. Please show me that person, because I will sit at their knee and I will learn from them.”

Despite the questions over Carson’s campaign-ready autobiography, none of the reports seems to have hurt the Republican front-runner. On Saturday, Carson announced that the “biased media” had helped him raise $3.5 million in the last week.

Huffington Post notes that the $3.5 million is more than some of his Republican rivals have raised in the last three months.