A Democratic congressman contradicted both Brian Stelter and The Washington Post’s Bob Woodward, flatly stating that Woodward misreported an incident involving the congressman in his controversial new book, “Peril.”
The revelation came after Stelter invited Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA) to share a story found in the book on Sunday’s episode of “Reliable Sources.” In “Peril,” Woodward relates that Congressman Smith found himself on a plane ride with several people who had attended the “Stop the Steal” rally on January 6.
“I’m imagining you slinking down in your seat just hoping that none of these rioters recognize you,” Stelter enthused, seeming to revel in the imagined danger. “Is that what happened?”
“Well, no,” Congressman Smith replied. “I did not fear them in any way.”
Seemingly taken aback, Stelter read the relevant passage out of the book: “Ugly talk about conspiracies to steal the election filled the plane. So did chatter about QAnon,” and “Several passengers also mentioned 6MWE,” a reference to Holocaust victims.
After reading the passage word-for-word, Stelter asked, “Is that accurate?”
“No. And that’s one of the unfortunate aspects of this,” Rep. Smith answered. “The people on the plane didn’t say anything racist or anti-Semitic. … I did not hear anything from the people on the plane about racism or anti-Semitism.”
“Oh,” Stelter said several times, his body shrugging.
Rep. Smith said the xenophobic language came from things he “saw and heard on January 6th at the Capitol and in the couple of days leading up to it.” But “when I spoke to Mr. Woodward, we spoke about what I heard on the plane” and what happened at the Capitol.
“I think Mr. Woodward conflated the two,” Rep. Smith said.
Stelter said the congressman’s version of events seemed “curious,” as he pulled out a physical copy of Woodward’s book and began to read aloud. “I just pulled it back up in the book, page 261,” he said. “‘I just had the most unbelievable, unsettling experience,’ Smith said in a phone call on January 8th to Chairman Milley,” Stelter read verbatim.
He seemed crestfallen that the events did not occur as he imagined, based on Woodward’s alleged misreporting. “As the reader, you’re thinking, wow, you know, you’re in on this phone call,” Stelter said. He verified with Smith that “you told Woodward about your phone call and you’re saying a little bit of it was conflated.”
“Yeah,” Smith said.
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This is an excerpt from The Daily Wire.
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