Caught
Bill Richardson, one-time Clinton administration official, current governor of New Mexico and future former presidential candidate, has been caught out telling a whopper. He has been telling a story that is not true, according to the person he claims to have spoken to. She is very angry about it.
WASHINGTON (AP) – Presidential hopeful Bill Richardson said Sunday he will stop using the name of Marine from New Mexico who was killed in Iraq and whose story the Democratic governor has recounted while campaigning.
Richardson has told how he attended a memorial service three years ago for Lance Cpl. Aaron Austin, 21, who was killed in April 2004. The governor said Austin's mother, De'on Miller of Lovington, N.M., thanked him for the federal death benefits she had received.
Miller says the conversation about money never took place.
Miller, in fact, said a great deal more than that:
“Three years ago, Richardson attended a memorial service for Lance Corporal Aaron Austin, 21, who died in April” of “2004. As he campaigns for the Democratic nomination, the New Mexico governor often recounts an emotional conversation with Austin’s mother, saying she thanked him for the federal death benefits she had received and even showed him the government check.
“In speeches in New Hampshire, Richardson has gotten Austin’s name wrong at least once,” “age wrong at least twice. He also has called Austin the first New Mexico soldier killed in Iraq—instead of the third.
“But that’s not what bothers the Marine’s mother, De’on Miller, of Lovington, New Mexico, who says the conversation about money never took place. ‘I don’t know a person rich or poor that would be told that” her “only living child has been killed, and you’re going to strike up a money conversation? Bill Richardson needs to stop pushing this lie. Aaron’s name had better not be used again in any way. Not mine either. A full written apology is due me for this.’” Will you apologize to her? (Emphasis added)
If you read the transcript, Richardson doesn't apologize – instead he dances all around the issue but says he'll stop using Austin's name.
By biggelsworth, May 28, 2007 @ 3:34 pm
Wasn’t Richardson caught telling a ridiculous lie years ago about how he was a professional baseball player when he was younger? There’s something seriously wrong with that guy.
By biggelsworth, May 28, 2007 @ 3:48 pm
I googled up an article about Richardson’s weird lie re pro baseball. He claimed for years that he’d been drafted by the (then) Kansas City A’s:
http://www.abqjournal.com/news/special/410505sports11-24-05.htm
‘…Paul Reichler, now a Washington, D.C., attorney, in the 1960s was sports editor for the Tufts Weekly, the student newspaper. Reichler remains a Richardson friend.
“It wouldn’t surprise me that Bill remembers being drafted,” said Reichler, “because there was so much interest in him. But maybe his desire to be drafted was so strong that he convinced himself that it actually happened.“‘
Great, that’s really the kind of mind we need as president.
By Gaius, May 28, 2007 @ 3:58 pm
That’s precisely why he is a future former candidate. Probably in the very near future.