Columbus Dispatch: Mandel's account of confrontation differs from evidence (VIDEO)

[highplainsdem]

http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2012/10/02/mandel-account-of-confrontation-differs-from-evidence.html

Republican U.S. Senate candidate Josh Mandel said a political video tracker “made the initial physical contact with me” in an incident that occurred Friday in a public elevator, offering an explanation that is not supported by eyewitness accounts nor the video of the incident and is a twist from the original statement put out by the Mandel campaign.

On Saturday, The Dispatch reported that Mandel approached and ultimately grabbed a monopod attached to a camera held by a tracker from the American Bridge 21st Century political-action committee, who had been following Mandel for several minutes and ultimately boarded the same Rhodes Tower elevator. Mandel, the state’s treasurer, was on his way to an Ohio Board of Deposit meeting in his Rhodes Tower office.

The entire episode was witnessed by a Dispatch reporter who was interviewing and accompanying Mandel over a period of a few hours Friday.

-snip-

The video of the incident shows, as The Dispatch previously reported, the tracker following Mandel into the elevator. But it also shows Mandel approach the tracker, say his name loudly, step to the side of him, and then the camera shakes. The tracker, whose name is Tyler Hansen, said "please don’t,” and Mandel relented, asking the tracker “how you been” and quipping “good to see you.” He also asked the tracker if he knew the Dispatch reporter who was in the elevator.

-snip-

The article goes on to say that the first response from the Mandel campaign, last Friday, was his spokeswoman saying that Mandel "was friendly with" the tracker and "asked him how he’s been, and introduced him to the reporter on the elevator."

And the lying from the Mandel campaign continued yesterday, after Mandel's own statements:

Asked if Mandel misspoke at today’s press conference, and if not, for a further account of the contact, Mandel campaign spokesman Travis Considine said: “The video shows our opponents’ tracker chasing Treasurer Mandel down the hall before jumping into the elevator with him, at which time the treasurer greeted him and introduced him to the reporter.”

Both the incident and Mandel's lies about it should help Sherrod Brown.

[madaboutharry]

1. Another republican twit.

[highplainsdem]

2. Yes. And he's a bully as well as a liar.