(AP)
“She writes that she sat down with Katie Couric in part because she felt sorry for her, after Nicolle Wallace, a McCain aide, said Ms. Couric suffered from low self-esteem.” A McCain advisor calls this “ridiculous!”
A McCain adviser I just spoke to adamantly denied the claim, and provided a counter story: Palin was repeatedly urged by McCain aides to prepare for the interview, but refused.
Palin claims in her new book that she agreed to sit down with Couric partly because she felt sorry for her, after senior McCain adviser Nicolle Wallace told her that Couric suffered from self-esteem problems. It’s understandable that Palin would try to deflect blame for the interview: It was a disaster that hastened her unmasking as unqualified for the presidency.
“It’s not true,” the McCain adviser I just reached said, laughing heartily at the claim. “It’s ridiculous.”
McCain Adviser Denies Palin’s Claim She Granted Couric Interview Because She Pitied Couric’s Low Self Esteem | The Plum Line
The Plum LineGreg Sargent's blog
One of the whackiest claims Sarah Palin makes in her new book is that she agreed to her disastrous interview with Katie Couric — a central event during Campaign 2008 — because a top McCain aide told her Couric had low self esteem, leading Palin to take pity on the CBS anchor.
A McCain adviser I just spoke to adamantly denied the claim, and provided a counter story: Palin was repeatedly urged by McCain aides to prepare for the interview, but refused.
Palin claims in her new book that she agreed to sit down with Couric partly because she felt sorry for her, after senior McCain adviser Nicolle Wallace told her that Couric suffered from self-esteem problems. It’s understandable that Palin would try to deflect blame for the interview: It was a disaster that hastened her unmasking as unqualified for the presidency.
“It’s not true,” the McCain adviser I just reached said, laughing heartily at the claim. “It’s ridiculous.”
The adviser also provided more details on the strategy the campaign adopted with Palin and the press, saying they feared making her available to groups of reporters because of her incompetence.
“She lacked the knowledge base to stand in front of the press corps that was traveling with her and answer questions,” the adviser said delicately. “Because of the success of the convention speech, the feeling was that she should be exposed to as many people as possible directly, not through a media filter. The way to do that was to do interviews with the anchors.”
“The truth is, she refused to prepare for the Katie Couric interview,” the adviser continued. “She refused to engage in any preparation. And it was a disaster.”
The adviser also mocked a contradiction at the core of Palin’s claims: She’s simultaneously saying she was muzzled and kept from the press, even as she’s claiming she only did the Couric interview at the urging of McCain aides.
“You were prevented from talking to all these reporters, and you’re mad about that,” the adviser said, chortling incredulously. “But you’re also mad about the interviews you did. It’s so full of contradictions that you don’t know where to begin.”