It had drawn wide local and national -- even political attention, with the McCain and Obama campaigns weighing in -- but now the Ashley Todd story has fallen apart. Police in Pittsburgh have now declared the tale a hoax and the woman, who has confessed, now faces charges for her deed.
Earlier today, John Moody, executive vice president at Fox News, commented on his blog there that "this incident could become a watershed event in the 11 days before the election. If Ms. Todd's allegations are proven accurate, some voters may revisit their support for Senator Obama, not because they are racists (with due respect to Rep. John Murtha), but because they suddenly feel they do not know enough about the Democratic nominee.
"If the incident turns out to be a hoax, Senator McCain's quest for the presidency is over, forever linked to race-baiting."
He titled his posting: "Moment of Truth." Indeed.
It started yesterday afternoon with Matt Drudge screaming at the top of his site this afternoon in red type -- but no siren -- that a Pittsburgh campaign worker for McCain, age 20, had been viciously attacked and the letter "B" carved into her face, presumably by a Barack Obama fan. Her name, it soon emerged, was Ashley Todd and she had come to Pittsburgh from College Station, Texas, to help out.
It started to appear overblown (Drudge downgraded it to smaller, black type) as the police noted that it seemed to be a robbery ($60) and she did not seek medical attention. But later press reports said she would visit a hospital, Sarah Palin and maybe John McCain had reportedly called her and Obama has condemned the alleged assault, although McCain/Obama angle to story not yet confirmed.
Still later, conservative columnist Michelle Malkin, and some others, grew skeptical. For one thing, the "B" was carved a little too lightly and perfectly -- and backward, as if done using a mirror. Smoking Gun probed a too-pat "Twitter" angle and Gawker and Wonkette looked at her MySpace page.
Now police say that evidence from the ATM that she reportedly visited did not match her account. And it turns out she changed her story, admitting that her assailant did not see a McCain bumper sticker and adding to her account a sexual assault and losing consciousness. Liberal bloggers poked all sorts of holes in the story, including the fact that the attack allegedly took place in a very public place. Drudge added a link titled "B...or B.S."?
Finally, early this afternoon, came word that she had made it all up. Here is full update.
Pitsburghlive.com writes:
Todd, who is white, told Detectives J.R. Smith and Scott Evans varying stories about how she ended up with black eyes and a backward letter "B" etched onto her right cheek late Wednesday. Her initial tales involved a black, knife-wielding man robbing her at a Bloomfield ATM before beating, fondling and cutting her because he was enraged by her McCain bumper sticker, police said.
"All of our radars went off from the beginning," Bryant said. "We had some serious cases going on elsewhere, and this has wasted so much time, so much time. This could have blown up into an international incident, and there were racial implications."
During interviews yesterday, Todd told detectives she remembers being in her car, driving around the city and seeing the letter on her cheek when she looked into the rearview mirror. She said she immediately thought of Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama when she saw the "B," Bryant said.
"She said she doesn't remember doing it but knows it must have been her who did it," Bryant said.
Todd drove to the Bloomfield home of her friend, Dan Garcia, and told him the attack story. Garcia said he called 911.
"I believed she was telling the truth," said Garcia, 32, a first-year University of Pittsburgh law student. "This seemed like the real deal."
Bryant said the eye injuries are real but police don't know how Todd got them because she won't tell investigators.
The Hoax:
the Truth:
and the Aftermath:
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