A McCain campaign volunteer made up a story of being robbed, pinned to the ground and having the letter "B" scratched on her face in a politically inspired attack, police said Friday.Ashley Todd, 20-year-old college student from College Station, Texas, admitted Friday that the story was false and was being charged with making a false report to police, said Maurita Bryant, the assistant chief of the police department's investigations division. Police doubted her story from the start, Bryant said.
Todd, who is white, told police she was attacked by a 6-foot-4 black man Wednesday night.
She now can't explain why she invented the story, Bryant said. Todd also told police she believes she cut the backward "B" onto her own cheek, but did not provide an explanation of how or why, Bryant said.
Todd initially told investigators she was attempting to use a bank branch ATM when the man approached her from behind, put a knife with a 4- to 5-inch blade to her throat and demanded money. She told police she handed the assailant $60 and walked away.
Todd told investigators that she suspected the man then noticed a John McCain sticker on her car, became angry and punched her in the back of the head, knocking her to the ground and telling her "you are going to be a Barack supporter," police said.
I refused to post anything about this story originally because, while I suspected it to be false I did not want to attack this woman without proof or give credence to a story that seemed a little fishy.
My only reason to spend any time on this at all is to make the point that this HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH JOHN MCCAIN.
In no way should he, or his campaign, be blamed for the actions of this disturbed young woman.
If it had been true that an African American criminal had hurt her in the name of Barack Obama, that would have sad NOTHING about Obama, and now that we know the truth it says NOTHING about John McCain.
I feel very badly for this young lady and hope that she gets some counseling. Now let us move on to more important matters.
I'm afraid I have to disagree with you about the McCain;s Campaigns involvement in this.
ReplyDeleteThey hyped the story adding tremendous racial overtones before they had bothered to fact check. Both Republican candidates called this pathetic woman. They lent the event gravitas, more gravitas than they have personally been able to muster.
And it was the McCain campaign that railed about the horrible racial overtones of the attack. At no time did the candidates or their spokesmen claim it was an alleged attack. They embroidered the tale to make it even more lewd and racist.
They do need to answer for that and be held accountable for trying to profit from this woman's mental disturbance.
In fact their only comment after the truth came out was to suddenly claim this woman was a mere fringe player and barely part of the campaign at all.
I can only find one person connected to the McCain campaign, who "pushed" this story and I provided that link in the body of the story.
ReplyDeleteI still don't think that this is a valid representation of the McCain campaign. And trust me I have many issues with the campaign. They have used the terrorist card, the Muslim card, and yes, the Race card.
But this time I think the media went crazy with the story but that both campaigns, with one exception, stayed out of it.
Hey Gryphen,
ReplyDeleteApparently Ashley Todd is a paid field rep for the College Republicans. She was terminated as a result of this hoax. This just seems to be a pattern among Republicans to throw mud and spread smears, including out and out lies, in an effort to bring down their opponents. They do this in the hopes that some of it will stick.
When it backfires, or they are called out on it they back down. But really, why do they do this in the first place?
Anyway, visit this link for the College Republicans to find out about field rep Ashley Todd's termination.
http://crnation.com/2008/10/24/attack-on-crnc-field-rep-real-or-hoax/
Elle in MI
Thanks for the link Elle.
ReplyDeleteThis story really bothers me on a lot of different levels.
The resurrection of the "black man attacks white woman" hoax, the fact that anybody tried to tie this Barack Obama, and the fact that this poor woman must have felt so desperate at McCain's slipping poll numbers that she was willing to injure herself and lie to save her candidate.
She definitely needs therapy, and possibly some racial sensitivity classes.
TPM Central does indeed say that the Campaign Pushed, Humped HOW the story was to be portrayed to the media- feeding them the Language etc...( Huffpost has more on this also)....I thought it was odd that her Campaign Office in PA did not issue a Statement- but then to find out that it was pushing the story and Dictating HOW it was to be told and spun ( good propaganda..) that does reflect on McCain..and smearing here in the rust belt and Heartland- with the Dark TV ads and wretched ROBO calls...this fit right into their THEME here...
ReplyDeleteAlso MCCain and Palin called her RIGHT Away....that is uncool...they did NO checking..
( btw it was peddled to the PA media that she was attacked BY AN OBAMA Supporter...)
And he has not issued any statement or apologies for the racial slurring and smearing that it perpetuated...( but that would go against the ads here...)
A TRUE Leader takes responsibility for their own mess....or mooseshit on the Trail...no matter how far it is from their shoes...
( BTW there is THREE hours missing from her Twitter schedule that night- the story was concocted...and contrived and there was much time to CREATE it....Someone DID the "B"- with great intent- although it looks like a mere skin abrasion....like a Press on Nail would make...B stands for Bogus...And then to learn she added sexual implications later....you are right she needs a boatload of therapy...)
ReplyDeleteThe MSM was quick to hump this story..meanwhile our Secretary of State gets death threats daily due to the Voting problems...and NO reports..and ACORN offices are getting broken into and threats- again NO coverage..
MSM needs to start being responsible in their reporting....after 8 years of shotty journalism..you would think that Something would be learned by now....
sigh...
If this story connects directly to John McCain then stick a fork in his wrinkled ass because he is OVERDONE!
ReplyDeleteDamn and here I am trying to be reasonable. There is simply NO reasoning with these people.
Gman.....
ReplyDeletewell...thanks for THAT visual image...you owe me TUMS for a week...