Did Elizabeth Warren exaggerate her "Me Too" story?
Boston Globe: "tone of her telling … appears to be inconsistent" with prior "lighthearted manner in which she described the same incident"
Posted by William A. Jacobson Tuesday, October 24, 2017 at 10:00am 33 Comments
On Meet the Press last Sunday, Elizabeth Warren recounted an incident from her early professor days about a senior professor who allegedly sexually harassed her by lunging after her and chasing her around the desk in his office.
The NY Daily News reported on Warren's story:
Warren recalled a former colleague early in her career asking her into his office and making a move for her. She remembered him "chasing me around the desk, trying to get his hands on me." Despite her pleas, he kept coming for her, so she made a quick escape for the door.
"I went back to my office and I just sat and shook," Warren said, "And thought, 'What had I done to bring this on?'"
Warren didn't tell anyone about it except her best friend and that "for a long time, I wore a lot of brown."
Here's the transcript from the Meet the Press website:
SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN:
Yes, I have a "me, too" story too. I was a baby law professor and so excited to have my first real teaching job. And there was this senior faculty member who, you know, would tell dirty jokes and make comments about my appearance.
And one day he asked me if I would stop by his office, which I didn't think much about. And I did. And he slammed the door and lunged for me. It was like a bad cartoon. He's chasing me around the desk, trying to get his hands on me.
And I kept saying, "You don't want to do this. You don't want to do this. I have little children at home. Please don't do this." And trying to talk calmly. And at the same time, what was flickering through my brain is, "If he gets hold of me, I'm going to punch him right in the face."
After several rounds, I jumped for the door and got out. And I went back to my office and I just sat and shook. And thought, "What had I done to bring this on?" And I told my best friend about it. Never said a word to anyone else. But for a long time, I wore a lot of brown.
What it means now that so many people have spoken out, is it's a way to say, "We're here for each other." And it's also a way to say, "No. It's not about what you did. He's the one who stepped out of line. And this is on him."
Because of my extensive dealings reporting on Warren's false claim to be Native American and misleading statements regarding her law practice representing major corporations, I viewed Warren's statement with caution. She is the master of taking a kernel of truth (such as that there was some family talk of Native American heritage) and spinning it into a larger life narrative (that she was Native American).
But I have to say, even as a Warren-skeptic, I'm surprised at how quickly Warren's Me Too story has been cast into doubt.
Jules Crittendon at The Boston Herald, which broke the story in late April 2012 of Warren's claim to be Native American at Harvard, reports, Liz Warren's 'MeToo' flip-flopped old tale:
U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren reportedly switched up her account of sexual harassment that she relayed this weekend in a televised #MeToo testimonial from an earlier "light-hearted" version….
But the Boston Globe reported last night that Warren recounted the same incident in a "more light-hearted manner" at a memorial service after the professor's death in 1997 — an account the Globe noted was "inconsistent" with her story on Sunday.
"During the service after his death in 1997, Warren spoke fondly of law professor Eugene Smith and told the gathered mourners she was laughing as Smith chased her around his desk, according to a colleague's memoir," the Globe reported.
The author of the memoir, John Mixon, told the paper, "I may have been wrong saying she was laughing," adding that he was writing about the service 15 years after the fact.
The paper also noted that Warren failed to mention on "Meet The Press" that Smith had polio.
The Globe said Warren told the broadsheet yesterday she shared the story at the memorial service as a statement about Smith's authority.
"It was 20 years later, and he didn't have power over me any more," Warren told the newspaper, which noted she was by then a Harvard law professor.
Here's more detail on how the Globe reported it, This isn't the first time Warren spoke about that office incident:
When Senator Elizabeth Warren on Sunday told a national television audience a personal story of sexual harassment from her days as a young law professor, she described a harrowing incident that left her shaken. She said that she wondered if she'd done something to deserve it and that she told no one but a close friend.
But the tone of her telling, recounted on NBC'S "Meet the Press,'' appears to be inconsistent with the reportedly more lighthearted manner in which she described the same incident two decades after it occurred, during the memorial service for the senior University of Houston faculty member she accused of pursuing her around his office….
She did not directly answer when asked if she spoke fondly of Smith at his memorial or if she told mourners she was laughing as Smith tried to grab her in his office.
"I made it clear that I was just fine," was all she said.
The contrasting accounts would appear to highlight the evolution of Warren's approach to dealing with the episode. That evolution took
place amid changing attitudes about harassment and increasing empowerment of women to speak up….
Warren told "Meet the Press'' that the incident left her shaking and shocked and that she told only her best friend what had happened. "Never said a word to anyone else," she said.
She did not mention that Smith had suffered from polio, which affected his mobility, nor did she mention she spoke at his service.
Warren told the Globe Monday she was conflicted about speaking at Smith's service. He had asked her to do so while he was dying, she said.
At the service, Warren "described Gene's chasing her around the desk in uncontrolled lust while she laughed, equally uncontrolled, as she avoided his crab-like grasp," John Mixon, a former colleague of Warren's at the University of Houston Law Center, wrote in a 577-page book, called "Autobiography of a Law School," a memoir that chronicles the law school's history.
Warren told the Globe she made the trip to the memorial service "because I was fine, and I didn't want anyone to think I wasn't," she said.
She added that she hadn't seen Mixon's description of her relationship with Smith before the Globe inquired about it, but she pointed to a phrase — "she would have none of it" — that Mixon used to describe her attitude toward Smith's advances.
It must have been hard for the Globe to call attention to this change in the story. The Globe was extremely favorable to Warren during the 2012 Senate campaign running cover on the Native American scandal, and has helped build up Warren's current narrative of religious devotion.
This is classic Warren. There appears to be a kernel of truth – something happened with the old polio-stricken professor, but what Warren once viewed in a light-hearted almost-laughable manner now becomes a major part of her life and political narrative, because it's politically opportune to portray it that way now.
(h/t commenter Massinsanity)
33	33 Comments Elizabeth Warren
EBL | October 24, 2017 at 10:05 am
Let me guess, they were playing Cowboys and Indians?
dmacleo | October 24, 2017 at 10:10 am
it was those high cheekbones. they just did it for me…..
btw….pretty hard for a polio victim to chase a squaw around a teepee…I mean desk.
MarkSmith | October 24, 2017 at 10:20 am
It was tough, but she had to dodge tomahawks and bullets.
phdwyphe | October 24, 2017 at 10:33 am
She is the professor who cried "wolf." Stop lying, Elizabeth, and maybe people will believe you. Otherwise, fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.
AmandaFitz in reply to phdwyphe. | October 24, 2017 at 6:38 pm
What a fraud this woman is!
chessy in reply to phdwyphe. | October 27, 2017 at 4:24 am
Big Chief Lieawatha
DanJ1 | October 24, 2017 at 10:33 am
Changing the tone of the story to meet a particular need is nothing new for these Leftists. I remember Me-chelle Obama telling a funny story on Letterman about going to Target incognito to rub elbows with the little people when a short woman asked her if she could help her get something from the top shelf. Scroll forward and when she needed to connect with blacks the story turned into a racist white woman assuming that this black woman would serve her.
guyjones in reply to DanJ1. | October 24, 2017 at 3:25 pm
I remember when this story came out. It's when I realized that Michelle Obama is a complete narcissistic sociopath who is transparently desperate to claim alleged "victim of racism" status despite her undeniably privileged, dilettante life. Because, only a total sociopath would unabashedly recycle a narrative that had been previously related with heartwarming undertones on the Tonight Show (i.e., the woman who obviously didn't recognize her, asking for help in getting an item off the shelf), and, then, one year later, proffer the same tale, only this time, as alleged evidence of the woman's racist behavior. The hapless woman went public with her protestations of innocence and her bewilderment that Michelle Obama would characterize her innocuous and innocent behavior as racist, but, her narrative received little attention.
To falsely accuse someone of racism is contemptible, especially, when the accuser is a woman wielding extraordinary power and (undeserved) moral clout.
Oprah did the same thing to a poor clerk in a luxury handbag store in Europe.
amatuerwrangler | October 24, 2017 at 10:38 am
Paleface squaw speak with forked-tongue, Kemosabe.
fscarn | October 24, 2017 at 10:43 am
Really, chasing Liz Warren out of a desperation?
Too bad law professor Eugene Smith has passed on. He'd be so impressed with all the improvements to sex dolls.
Rick the Curmudgeon in reply to fscarn. | October 24, 2017 at 8:52 pm
Please Lord. I don't want to ever be that desperate.
CZ75Compact in reply to fscarn. | October 26, 2017 at 4:33 am
Lizzie's story didn't sound credible, probably because I've never had a sexual thought about her, so I looked for a picture from her youth:
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/04/27/article-2136228-12CD5CCE000005DC-402_468x582.jpg
She may have been worth a spin around a desk back in the day — if she kept her mouth shut.
Why would she think a professional colleague who asked her to speak at his memorial service would want her to relay a story about him hitting on her and her rejecting him? And, what professional would ask a woman he had sexually abused to speak at his memorial service?
I'm virtually certain this is opportunistic victim playing.
Redneck Law | October 24, 2017 at 11:05 am
I've been informed that Professor Smith's nick name was "T-Bone."
Dagwood | October 24, 2017 at 11:09 am
So she says she began wearing a lot of brown? Suppose she means buckskin?
GeorgeCrosley | October 24, 2017 at 11:45 am
Warren is fake from top to bottom, and Harvard should be embarrassed at its role in enabling her fraudulent tales.
Old Patzer in reply to GeorgeCrosley. | October 24, 2017 at 12:42 pm
She's a true harridan though.
tom_swift | October 24, 2017 at 12:00 pm
Probably something which "family lore" says actually happened to her grandmother … you know, the one who wasn't an Indian, either … and Warren later found it "useful".
4th armored div | October 24, 2017 at 12:04 pm
i read the Boston article –
the description of the prof was a 'good ol boy' who drank and smoked in his office and most of his colleges refused to come to his memorial service.
the description of warren that i surmised was of someone who who would do ANYTHING to get ahead.
a perfect politician in the mold of Hillary –
that she lies as a matter of fact is not a problem if it were for the benefit of our country – but it is not.
Obama and company sold our birthright for a 'mess of pottage'
what else are these globalists, including the bush fanily capable of ?
Ragspierre in reply to 4th armored div. | October 24, 2017 at 12:15 pm
Everybody smoked in Harris County courtrooms in the day, and it was common to have a snort or two during the day.
There's a story of one famous old war-horse trial attorney who used to stick a straightened paperclip in his cigar prior to the presentation by his opponent. The idea being that the jury would be so transfixed by the question of when the ash would fall off that they'd be distracted from all else.
4th armored div in reply to Ragspierre. | October 24, 2017 at 12:23 pm
my comment about the polio stricken prof who could EASILY been outrun. it was about warren who was probably a tease to see if she could get better grades or better evaluation.
that she took advantage of whoever she was around is a given.
what in her entire life has she done for anyone else without expecting a quid pro quo ?
POS is as POS does.
AmandaFitz in reply to Ragspierre. | October 24, 2017 at 6:46 pm
That was Percy Foreman- he was quite a character and usually won his cases. Once, the husband in a highly charged divorce case had a car accident and a man died and he begged his wife to release Foreman to represent him in the upcoming trial (Foreman was representing the wife in the divorce). The wife did exactly that, telling her friends that she was THE ONLY ONE WHO WAS GOING TO GET HER HUSBAND'S MONEY, so of course, she was going to let Foreman represent her estranged husband in the car accident case. He won for the husband, and the wife got EXACTLY the settlement she wanted. And Percy got even wealthier than he had been.
cathymv | October 24, 2017 at 12:08 pm
Liars gonna lie!!
Morning Sunshine | October 24, 2017 at 12:36 pm
my "metoo" story would not be allowed to be shared in liberal circles – it was a woman who harassed me and made me feel yick. But that just makes me homophobic. /sarcasm
When men tried, I was flattered, and told them to knock it off. If he didn't, well, I almost got fired for punching him. Until the boss found out WHY the guy got punched. Boss didn't want me to besmirch the company with sexual harassment charges.
Old0311 | October 24, 2017 at 12:58 pm
Texas Across the River…….
Dean Martin to Joey Bishop….Why weren't you a Comanche, Kronk?
Joey Bishop's reply….Mother run too fast.
TheFineReport.com | October 24, 2017 at 1:28 pm
Warren is just as smelly as hillary clinton. The only difference between them is Warren didn't marry well, so she had to make it on her own (a lying manipulator and shameless scammer, but self-made nonetheless; hey, Tom Styer is self-made: but look at the deluded nut he is.)
Tom Styer probably believes the unicorn nonsense he preaches. Hillary Clinton believes in nothing but stealing. Warren is more like 'clinton.'
jmt9455 | October 24, 2017 at 3:03 pm
"kernel of truth"… Something about Hiawatha that is 'corn-ey'.
guyjones | October 24, 2017 at 3:18 pm
Nothing would surprise me at this point with respect to the naked venality and mendacity of this vile, self-serving harridan. That she would defame a deceased colleague (whose funeral she had attended, no less) in order to grandstand on the issue of sexual harassment and present herself as a "victim" is nauseating and contemptible.
OleDirtyBarrister | October 24, 2017 at 3:29 pm
I find it hard to believe that a female Democrat politician with nicknames like "Liewatha" and "Fauxcahantas" would exaggerate or outright lie.
I am shocked I tell you!
3525Tex | October 24, 2017 at 5:11 pm
She is full of sheeit, so Brown works quite well with her.
kenoshamarge | October 25, 2017 at 12:01 pm
This woman has a reputation for being a liar. Therefore I find it hard to take anything she says seriously. That she was chased around a desk by a man with polio and then later spoke at his funeral and referred to the desk chase humorously seems to fit right in with her previous mendacity.
It's not just the lies and hypocrisy of politicians that is so insulting to the public, it's the utter contempt for people that vote for them. Contempt well earned when voters return such scum to office again and again.
cep32101 | October 26, 2017 at 11:30 pm
This woman has got to be embarrassing for the left. Everything that comes out of her mouth is dubious at best and pure crap at worst. She's desperately trying to relate to someone, anyone. As long as she's a woman and a leftist, she's got a shot at the nomination.
Unknown3rdParty | October 29, 2017 at 7:35 am
Fauxcahontas exaggerates, period.