UPDATE: The woman has confessed to making up the story: A Pittsburgh police commander says a volunteer for the McCain campaign who reported being robbed and attacked near a bank ATM in Bloomfield has confessed to making up the story. Police say charges will be filed. More details to follow.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/24/mccain-supporter-who-clai_n_137484.html
When one of the queens of the conservatives questions a story that would seem to support her candidate, saying it "smells weird," you know that means it's probably a hoax. And that's exactly what Michelle Malkin is saying about the story with Ashley Todd.
Malkin writes:
Throughout my career, I’ve covered dozens of fake hate crimes — campus hate crime hoaxes, Muslim hate crime hoaxes, fake noose hangings, etc., etc., etc. Most were perpetrated by liberals, but there have been some shameful ones on our side of the aisle as well.
I’ve reported on the great lengths that warped attention-seekers have gone to in perpetrating fake hate crimes, including beating themselves up, carving swastikas on their dorm room doors and walls, locking themselves in bathroom stalls, and burning down their own houses.
Which is why I’m not jumping up and down with outrage over Drudge-promoted story of a McCain volunteer claiming to have been attacked by a black man whom she accused of carving a “B” in her face after spotting her McCain bumper sticker.
She refused medical treatment after reporting the incident to police. Why on earth would she do that?
She and AP add some other information:
a) Police are going to administer a polygraph
b) There is conflicting evidence at the scene
c) Ashley Todd's Twitter feed appears odd for someone suffering such an event
d) Look how neat the "B" is on Ashley Todd's face. If someone were struggling, how could that be?
Comments from Malkin's own readers:
1)Notice how the “B” is backwards on the right cheek……if you were looking in a mirror and put it on your own face…it would appear backwards and would probably be on your own right cheek (due to most folks are right handed)……she put it on her own face but forgot it would show up backwards.
Except that her own statement said that "the assailant sat on her chest and pinned her hands down with his knees." Was he both dyslexic and neat, so as to get the upside-down "B" crafted so finely?
2) “I’m a cop - 8th year now - and this McCain supporter attack just didn’t pass the “smell test” as soon as I read about it.
Finally, it appears the ATM video shows this is a hoax as well. According to the Post Chronicle:
Officials have reportedly requested a polygraph test be performed because her "statements about the attack conflict with evidence from the Citizens Bank ATM where she claims the incident occurred."
Looking at this, and from the fact that she is a one of the "50 College Republican field representatives," it's obvious:
a) this is a complete hoax --- Ashley Todd may have been indeed robbed, but the "B" was put on herself with a mirror to take advantage of it
b) it's a desperation move by a McCain supporter.
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