Yesterday, as noted here, The Daily Caller attacked The Washington Post and stood by their Menendez/prostitution story. But, not altogether consistent with that, they also said they’d spend yesterday verifying their story. So we’re keeping our collective ears to the ground today waiting to hear how that verification went.
It is worth noting that in the Caller’s pushback they did identify at least some inconsistencies in the Post’s original reporting and some significant changes the Post made to their initial story. But what stood out to me was that the Caller folks didn’t seem to have a totally clear grasp of just who they’d talked to at the outset. To that end, if you were defending your reporting in that context, you’d want to be certain whether the woman in the Post’s story was the one you talked to or not. But they didn’t seem totally sure. I think because they weren’t entirely clear on who she was.
Along those lines, I was curious to see this from ABCNews. They also interviewed the women but passed on the story.
Their interactions with Menendez supposedly took place at the famed Dominican resort Casa de Campo and at the home there of one of the Senator’s campaign donors, where the GOP operatives claimed in reports that surveillance teams learned of raucous pool parties where “everyone [was] naked, of course.”
But during the ABC News interviews, none of the women could produce identity cards with their names, and they all provided the same story almost word for word, as if they had been coached.
In other words, they seemed too coached, just as the woman who’s now come forward claims. And ABC couldn’t find out the women’s actual identities.
I’m looking forward to hearing the update today from the Caller.
