Haley Spokesman Calls Text Messages Figment of Folks' Imagination
Posted:
05/26/10
The latest South Carolina political sex scandal has taken a new turn, with a spokesman for Republican gubernatorial candidate Nikki Haley calling a series of text messages posted on the website of FITSNews founder and blogger Will Folks the product of an "overactive imagination" that "has gone into overdrive."
"South Carolina politics is full of rumors and innuendo, and of course our campaign did everything in our power to prevent false rumors about Nikki from airing out in the media as they now have," the spokesman, Tom Pearson, wrote in an e-mail to CNN.
On Monday, Folks said he had had "a prior physical relationship" with Haley before he was married. In response, Haley, a South Carolina state representative and one for four contenders for her party's gubernatorial nod, released a statement denying the accusation and saying, "I have been 100 percent faithful to my husband throughout our 13 years of marriage."
The series of text messages published today are allegedly between Folks, Pearson, GOP consultant Wes Donehue, and Associated Press reporter Jim Davenport.
A message said to be from Folks to Pearson says, "I am getting a lot of buzz about the me/nikki rumor today. Word is donehue is behind it."
Another message, reportedly from Donehue to Folks, says "Your [sic] the one who screwed her." But an explicit mention of an affair is absent from the messages.
Pearson confirmed to CNN that the texts themselves were authentic, but that they referred to untrue allegations that he was trying to work with Folks to keep from coming out.
"South Carolina politics is full of rumors and innuendo, and of course our campaign did everything in our power to prevent false rumors about Nikki from airing out in the media as they now have," the spokesman, Tom Pearson, wrote in an e-mail to CNN.
On Monday, Folks said he had had "a prior physical relationship" with Haley before he was married. In response, Haley, a South Carolina state representative and one for four contenders for her party's gubernatorial nod, released a statement denying the accusation and saying, "I have been 100 percent faithful to my husband throughout our 13 years of marriage."
The series of text messages published today are allegedly between Folks, Pearson, GOP consultant Wes Donehue, and Associated Press reporter Jim Davenport.
A message said to be from Folks to Pearson says, "I am getting a lot of buzz about the me/nikki rumor today. Word is donehue is behind it."
Another message, reportedly from Donehue to Folks, says "Your [sic] the one who screwed her." But an explicit mention of an affair is absent from the messages.
Pearson confirmed to CNN that the texts themselves were authentic, but that they referred to untrue allegations that he was trying to work with Folks to keep from coming out.