tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/10/mccain_aide_gave_reporters_inc.php
Greg Sargent - October 24, 2008, 5:12PM John McCain's Pennsylvania communications director told reporters in the state an incendiary version of the hoax story about the attack on a McCain volunteer well before the facts of the case were known or established -- and even told reporters outright that the "B" carved into the victim's cheek stood for "Barack," according to multiple sources familiar with the discussions. John Verrilli, the news director for KDKA in Pittsburgh, told TPM Election Central that McCain's Pennsylvania campaign communications director gave one of his reporters a detailed version of the attack that included a claim that the alleged attacker said, "You're with the McCain campaign? Verrilli also told TPM that the McCain spokesperson had claimed that the "B" stood for Barack. According to Verrilli, the spokesperson also told KDKA that Sarah Palin had called the victim of the alleged attack, who has since admitted the story was a hoax. The KDKA reporter had called McCain's campaign office for details after seeing the story -- sans details -- teased on Drudge. The McCain spokesperson's claims -- which came in the midst of extraordinary and heated conversations late yesterday between the McCain campaign, local TV stations, and the Obama camp, as the early version of the story rocketed around the political world -- is significant because it reveals a McCain official pushing a version of the story that was far more explosive than the available or confirmed facts permitted at the time. The claims to KDKA from the McCain campaign were included in an early story that ran late yesterday on KDKA's Web site. The paragraphs containing these assertions were quickly removed from the story after the Obama campaign privately complained that KDKA was letting the McCain campaign spin a racially-charged version of the story before the facts had been established, according to two sources familiar with the discussions.
A source familiar with what happened yesterday confirmed that the unnamed spokesperson was communications director Peter Feldman. Feldman was also quoted yesterday making virtually identical assertions on the Web site of another local TV station, WPXI.
said today risked blowing up into a "national incident" and has local police preparing to file charges against the hoaxster. There's no evidence that anyone from McCain national headquarters put out a version of events like this. After the story appeared on KDKA's site and this and other pieces in the local press started flying around the political world, an Obama spokesperson in the state angrily insisted to KDKA that it was irresponsible for the station to air the McCain spokesperson's incendiary version of events before the facts were fully known, according to two sources familiar with the discussions. After that, KDKA went back to McCain's Pennsylvania spokesperson, Feldman, and asked if he stood by the story as he'd earlier told it, but he started backing off the story, a source familiar with the talks says. Feldman couldn't immediately be reached, and a McCain HQ spokesperson declined to comment.
When Matthews called him on it, he added that Obama is articulate and a good debater. As we speak, I'm sure there people cutting a video that will soon hit YouTube.
user-pic It's kind of hard to take Republicans seriously at this point. You might think, wouldn't you, that after the Biden "He's articulate and clean" gaffe, that politicians might be, I dunno, a little more reserved when tossing out comments about Obama.
user-pic Having lived in San Diego for 15-odd years, I can assure anyone & everyone that Duncan Hunter is a slimebag scumbot. The last three years I was there I was driving past his office off Fletcher Parkway every morning on my way to work and I never missed a chance to give him a one-fingered salute.
When Matthews called him on it, he added that Obama is articulate and a good debater. As we speak, I'm sure there people cutting a video that will soon hit YouTube.
user-pic This woman appears the Tawana Brawley of the McKKAIN followers. Tawana Brawley allegdly faked her own kidnapping and rape several years ago in upstate NY. I'm not saying that Tawana Brawley faked anything bu this woman, a McKKKain supporter apparently did fake this to get independent voters to see Obama supporters as hateful and violent. This has only made McKKKain supporters look bizarre and deceptive.
Look, I know how phenomenally lame playing the race card can be - and I don't mean to play it now. But when I heard him say that"he has good teeth", I immediately envisioned slaves being inspected like cattle while on the auction block.
org poster: You are not saying Tawana Brawley faked her abduction? Everyone in New York has known for about 20 years that she made the whole thing up and Sharpton, Maddox hyped it for their own gain and then were in too deep to admit their mistake and apologize so they just ran with it (ruining some careers and lives in the process but of course that didn't matter). Don't bring it up if you don't know what you're talking about or be honest if you do. Brawley, Maddox, Sharpton didn't even have the mental illness excuse. They just outright lied for years (and have yet to make amends). I am no republican but this woman appears to have some problems. If McCain's camp tried to exploit the story without checking it, it is another indictment of their campaign. But don't stretch the story to compare it to a much more malicious act.
user-pic CT Voter, I think when Kaneblues says "he's got good teeth", he or she means Obama BITES BACK. He doesn't lie down and take McCain kicking him in the kidneys.
user-pic I've got to say (resisting the urge to get all conspiratorial) there's an obvious explanation here. By all accounts, Todd went to her friends' apartment and relayed the bogus story, and they encouraged her to go to the police. They believed it was true, and they were all McCain/College Republican workers. Presumably, they recounted her story to higher-ups in the campaign, who then blabbed it to the media.
Feldman should have kept quiet about it until knowing more. A lapse that reflects a willingness to believe an ugly story involving a large black mean with a knife. On the other hand, the McCain campaign hasn't been exactly reasonable of late.
Imagine if there was some crisis, and instead of waiting to see what actually had occurred, they simply had a knee jerk reaction. Just another example of reckless and erratic behavior by these hapless clowns.
I think the fact that he started telling reporters this story before finding out the facts suggests that he really believed that this woman was attacked by a big black guy who carved "B for Barack" into her cheek. Feldman was predisposed to believe an incendiary story that played on some really ugly racial stereotypes. Shorter: he was a shit to begin with, even if he had a bad couple of weeks. Just the kind of communicationgs director McCain can be proud of.
user-pic Seems to me this "all too rapid response" likely relates to all the concern that they were whipping up their supporters into a frenzy at rallies and that someone could get hurt. Or seize on it as a "proof" that Obama supporters are rabid maniacs, full of aggression. More than anything, Obama supporters have been peaceful and working hard to get the word out. And now they've only blackened their own eyes and made themselves look like fools and clowns in a circus!
user-pic Speaking of which, how did she get the black eye? If she used makeup, she was smart enough to blacken the opposite eye above the nose but not smart enough to make the B face the right way?
user-pic The wanted to do a remake of "Birth of A Nation" and see if it could win an Oscar in 2009. Don't forget, College Republicans are the origins of Karl Rove, Gunner Nordquist, Jack Abramoff and Lee Atwater (rip) and a cast of thousands.
user-pic Let's face it - if the the roles were reversed and it was the Obama campaign communications director of any state pushing the story everyone would be talking about it being another Tawana Brawley hoax.
i doubt it, i would hope that Schmitt was a bit smarter then ...
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