Ben Johnson File Photo
Linda McMahon’s not ducking the press. She (or one of her handlers) said so Tuesday. In a written press release.
The Republican U.S. Senate candidate issued a release blasting as “preposterous” a report in the Valley Independent Sentinel detailing ways her stage-managed campaign has been avoiding chances for reporters to ask direct questions.
The report, published last Friday, covered a visit McMahon made last week to the Seymour Republican Town Committee.
As with all McMahon’s public events, the campaign sent no advance word of the visit to the press, despite requests to do so.
And when a reporter started asking questions of McMahon after the event, a handler intervened, saying McMahon had to talk to other people at the gathering. A question from the reporter about winning over independent voters was answered through a prepared statement, which arrived after the event in an e‑mail from her campaign.
A spokesman contacted the reporter the next day, explaining that McMahon’s appearance was not a “press event.”
For months, the McMahon campaign has issued press releases and Youtube videos of McMahon’s appearances after they occur, without notifying the press in advance. She hasn’t held press conferences or made herself available to be questioned on breaking news, relying instead on releases. For three months her campaign has turned down repeated requests for interviews or advance word of public events.
When approached at a public event in November by a reporter from the New Haven Independent, sister news site of the Valley Independent Sentinel, McMahon began answering a question, about terrorism trials. She didn’t have an answer. Then a staffer shut down that exchange, too. Later, her staff repeatedly asked the Independent to remove the story from the site, claiming her verbatim quote was inaccurate.
That’s a stark contrast to the approach of all of McMahon’s Republican and Democratic opponents — Rob Simmons, Dick Blumenthal, Merrick Alpert, Peter Schiff. Click here, here, here, here, here, here, and here for examples. When questioned at public events or contacted for comment on breaking stories, all have made themselves available and answered questions from reporters without staffers shutting them off. None has required questions to be submitted by email.
McMahon, a World Wrestling executive believed to be prepared to spend tens of millions of dollars on her campaign, is making her first run for office.
Her campaign issued a blistering response Tuesday to the ducking-the-press charge.
“Valley Independent Sentinel Report Involved in Head-On Collision with Reality, the Facts,” the release’s headline read.
“The Valley Independent Sentinel’s claim is demonstrably false, contradicted by scores of interviews Linda has given, including more than a dozen hour-long interviews with reporters and editorial boards nationally and in Connecticut,” the release stated, listing selected interviews her campaign has arranged.