Former GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain said Tuesday that the media is attacking Ben Carson because he is a black conservative.
“Ben Carson is not only a conservative, he is a conservative who happens to be black,” he said of the Republican White House hopeful, according to The Daily Beast.
{mosads}“There is only one group of people liberals hate worse than conservatives, and that’s conservatives who happen to be black,” Cain said.
“The reason for that is real simple,” added Cain, who led the GOP primary in the last cycle for a brief period of time. “They resent conservatives who happen to be black for leaving the Democratic plantation. And you can quote me on that.”
Carson is weathering intense media scrutiny about the stories he has told about his life, including violent episodes in his youth and his decision to not accept a full scholarship to West Point.
Cain offered specific criticism of a Politico story that said Carson’s campaign admitted he fabricated a story about his acceptance to West Point.
Carson never applied to the school but had been told by officials from West Point that they would get him into the academy. He has repeatedly told the tale of how he decided instead to pursue a medical career.
The Politico story was later changed to show that Carson did not admit to fabricating a story about his background, but the news organization said it stood by its reporting on the embellishments in Carson’s story.
“Clearly Ben Carson did not lie,” Cain said of Politico’s story. “Politico lied because they said he fabricated a story, when, in fact, they fabricated a headline.
“Too many people believe they are a credible news source when they are not,” Cain added. “As a friend of mine told me, ‘If Politico says that your mother loves you, duck, because she might be shooting at you instead.’
“At this point I think that Ben is winning this round,” the former Godfather’s Pizza CEO added.
Carson has strongly denied reports by Politico and other news outlets on his past while also accusing them of media bias.
Cain has his own history with Politico, which in 2011 publshed a scoop about female employees of the National Restaurant Association complaining about his inappropriate behavior as head of the organization.
“I still get pissed off about this stuff and I’ll tell you why,” he said. “Politico ran over 700 re-runs and recycled stories about accusations against me, 700, and there wasn’t any new news. They didn’t try to dig and get the facts.”