act check: Democratic group makes multiple false claims in its dramatic allegations about Lauren Boebert's past
By
Daniel Dale, CNN
Updated 5:00 AM ET, Sat June 25, 2022
Washington (CNN)A Democratic super PAC has made multiple false claims about Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert while pushing unproven allegations that the right-wing Colorado congresswoman has had abortions and formerly worked as an escort, all of which Boebert vehemently denies.
American Muckrakers PAC co-founder David Wheeler acknowledged to CNN that the super PAC had been "sloppy" and had published "inaccuracies" on its anti-Boebert website, though he said it remains confident in the "main points of the story." His comments came after CNN reporting found that the super PAC had made at least five false statements about Boebert, along with a series of uncorroborated assertions that Boebert says are false and that CNN could neither immediately confirm nor immediately debunk.
In emails this week and in a Thursday interview, Wheeler conceded that the super PAC was wrong when it insisted a photo of another woman posing on a bed is a photo of Boebert, was wrong when it claimed Boebert initially failed to disclose a campaign contribution from Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, was wrong to suggest Cruz had made big contributions to Boebert's campaign immediately after she started running in her first primary, was wrong about the date of a Boebert vehicle accident, and was wrong when it published a claim that Boebert had an abortion "in the fall of 2004" -- at most six months before she gave birth to a son in March 2005.
Wheeler, a former North Carolina state Senate candidate, said in the interview that the super PAC realizes "we need to be better" in vetting details prior to publishing them, since some sources may have "foggy" memories, and that it would be willing to apologize to Boebert for the "inaccuracies" it has published to date. He said, though, that the super PAC stands by "the major thrust of the information" that went viral on Twitter last week.
The "major thrust" Wheeler defended includes the super PAC's allegation that Boebert had met escort clients through her profile on a "sugar daddy" website -- though the site told CNN it has no record of Boebert ever using it. Wheeler also defended the allegation that the anti-abortion congresswoman has had two abortions. The super PAC cited a list of three anonymous "Jane Doe" sources, whose names it has not published, as the basis for these claims.
Boebert spokesman Ben Stout told CNN that Boebert has never had a profile on a "sugar daddy" website, never been an escort, never had an abortion, and that other claims from the super PAC are also false. Boebert, who is running in a Republican primary that ends on Tuesday, has called the allegations "completely baseless and disgusting," the Washington Examiner
reported last week.
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https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/25/poli...oebert-escort-abortion-sugar-daddy/index.html