As the saying goes, a broken clock is right twice a day. On Tuesday, the clock was The Washington Post and chief fact-checker Glenn Kessler giving Texas Democratic senatorial candidate Beto O’Rouke four Pinocchios for falsely claiming he did not flee the scene of his drunk driving crash in 1998.
Speaking Tuesday on C-SPAN, Kessler observed that, since the O’Rourke campaign never responded to Kessler’s requests for comment, it showed “they know they are in trouble.”
First, here’s what O’Rourke stated Friday night during his debate with Republican incumbent, Senator Ted Cruz: “I did not try to leave the scene of the accident, though driving drunk, which I did, is a terrible mistake for which there is no excuse or justification or defense, and I will not try to provide one.”
As for the facts Kessler laid out, police reports concerning the September 27, 1998 incident showed that O’Rourke told the responding officer “in a slurred speech that he had caused an accident” but “was unable to be understood due to slurred speech” and a glossy-eyed look while reeking of alcohol with blood alcohol content levels of 0.136 and 0.134.
Here’s more from Kessler’s fact-check (click “expand” to read more):
The incident was observed by a witness. He told Carrera that O’Rourke, driving a Volvo, passed him at high speed through a 70 mph zone and then lost control and “struck a truck traveling the same direction.” O’Rourke’s car then crossed the large grassy center median and came to a stop. (This video depicts Interstate 10 near the location of the crash.)
“The defendant/driver then attempted to leave the scene,” Carrera reported. “The reporter then turned on his overhead lights to warn oncoming traffic and try to get the defendant to stop.”
Similar information appears in another document, the incident and crime report: “The driver attempted to leave the accident but was stopped by the reporter.”
There are some inconsistencies in the police records — O’Rourke’s Volvo is described as both black and green, and he’s traveling either west or east — but the witness to the crash is twice described as saying O’Rourke tried to leave the scene of the crash. The witness is not identified. We could not locate Carrera for further comment.
Kessler rendered his four Pinocchios by suggesting that while O’Rourke may genuinely believe that “he did not try to leave,” that doesn’t carry the same weight when one adds in “his blood alcohol content at the time of the crash” and “the police reports written just hours after the crash.”
Kessler added that the Democrat “could have dodged the question during the debate or he could have said his memory of the night is not clear,” but he chose to dispute reports and received The Post’s fact-checker’s second highest rating for a falsehood.
O’Rourke came up on C-SPAN when Kessler rebuffed the notion that he focuses on destroying the President. Kessler asserted that “I'm going to go with the police reports” versus someone’s recollection decades later.
Host John McArdle asked if he gave O’Rourke and his team a chance to respond and Kessler replied:
Yes and, you know, usually, we get a response. In this case, I repeatedly contacted his campaign, both by text message and e-mail. Never received any response. Usually, when we don't get a response from a candidate or campaign, it means they know that they are in trouble.
To see the relevant transcript from C-SPAN’s Washington Journal on September 25, click “expand.”
C-SPAN’s Washington Journal
September 25, 2018
9:16 a.m. EasternGLENN KESSLER: We — I assure you, there — there are lots of Democratic politicians — excuse me — lots of Democratic politicians who have not been happy with the coverage they received in The Washington Post. In fact, I gave four Pinocchio's today to Beto O’Rouke, who’s a candidate in Texas Senate.
JOHN MCARDLE: For what?
KESSLER: He was in a debate with Senator Cruz over the weekend and there is a — a drunk driving conviction that he was involved in about, almost exactly 20 years ago, and recently, the police reports can out and they showed that he tried to leave the scene accident. So, he was asked about that in the debate and he flatly said I did not try to leave the accident. Now, you have his memory 20 years later, or you have police reports that document, in two different places, a witness saying that O’Rourke did try to leave the scene of the accident and the witness had to prevent him from leaving the scene of the accident. So, you know, you weigh those two things and I'm going to go with the police reports.
MCARDLE: When you do that, do you give Beto O’Rouke’s office a chance to respond saying here’s the police report that I'm looking at, why is that different?
KESSLER: Yes and, you know, usually, we get a response. In this case, I repeatedly contacted his campaign, both by text message and e-mail. Never received any response. Usually, when we don't get a response from a candidate or campaign, it means they know that they are in trouble.
