Seth Meyers weighs who is being sillier about Ben Carson's past: Carson or the media

Seth Meyers takes a closer look at Ben Carson&#039;s past

(Image credit: Late Night)

published 10 November 2015

"Some way, Ben Carson pulled off the impossible, and had the craziest weekend of any GOP candidate," Seth Meyers said on Monday's Late Night, "despite the fact that his closest competitor," Donald Trump, danced like Drake in a "Hotline Bling" parody. Dr. Carson, of course, spent the weekend criticizing the media for a series of articles questioning his claims to have turned down a full scholarship to West Point, been judged the "most honest" student in a Yale class, and tried to stab a kid and hit his mom with a hammer when he was young.

Carson's counterattack was that the liberal media (including, apparently, The Wall Street Journal) is holding him to a higher level of scrutiny than other presidential candidates, including President Obama in 2008. "I'm sorry, do you not remember the whole birth certificate thing?" Meyers said. "There's literally no way to question a person's background more than to say, 'Prove you are who you say you are.'" Given the GOP hatred for the liberal media, Meyers was amused that the other Republican candidates are taking the media's side against Carson. But Meyers himself didn't exactly stick up for the media.

"Look, be it hammers or stabbing, they're all fairly minor compared to comments Carson has made about actual policy," Meyers said. "Implying that gun control helped lead to the Holocaust and comparing ObamaCare to slavery are much worse than a few self-aggrandizing fibs, and those are the kinds of irresponsible statements we should be focusing on." Watch Late Night's closer look at Carson's inconsistencies below. Peter Weber

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.