If it's the biggest lie ever, why won't Ryan Walters tell us what the lie is?
What’s the lie, Ryan?
Tell us what the lie is.
Do you know what the lie is?
Please tell us the lie.
Or is this your foolproof strategy put together by your genius crew?
Don’t say what the lie is and you’ll never have to be specific defending yourself from it, because specificity’s really hard when it’s really you who’s doing all the lying.
Am I right?
Tuesday, the man who remains our state superintendent, Ryan Walters, took two tries at clearing his name after at least two department of education members on Thursday saw naked women on a television screen in his office during executive session, causing a commotion that included Walters himself, a commotion two other board members have backed up.
First Walters sat down with Fox 25’s Wendy Suares. Second he commandeered a press conference in which he filibustered long and answered questions short.
At the presser, he began with this”
“What we’ve seen transpire over the last five days is the nastiest, biggest lie ever lodged on an official in Oklahoma. I cannot begin to describe the disgusting nature of the lies leveled against me by board members, by the media and by the teachers. This has been a coordinated attack to crucify my character and to try to stop the will of Oklahomans and their vision for education in the state of Oklahoma.”
Biggest lie ever?
Wowsers.
If only Walters had been given the opportunity to explain what it is.
Oh, wait, he was interviewed on Tuesday and Suares asked this question.
“I would love to hear what went down,” she said. “Walk us through what happened during that executive session.”
There it is.
All teed up.
Tell us the lie.
Tell us what happened.
“Sure, I mean, what we’ve seen here is the grossest lies and political attack the state’s ever seen. We have a cable TV box back there, and we have a gross accusation that’s already been proven by OMES and the [Oklahoma County] sheriff’s office to be impossible to have happened.
“There’s no devices connected to that cable TV. It’s a cable TV set. We’ve got board members that are lying and crucifying my character to stop the work we’re doing here for Oklahoma and I will not tolerate these lies, the character assassination.”
Nor, it appears, will Walters tell us what the lie or lies are, or even what the gross accusation he’s accusing his so-called accusers of leveling.
Not to relive it, but sure why not, board member Becky Carson told The Oklahoman this:
“I was like, ‘Those are naked women.’ And then I was like, ‘No, wait a minute. Those aren’t naked, surely those aren’t naked [women], something is playing a trick on my eye. Maybe they just have on tan body suits. … This is just really bizarre.’
“I saw them just walking across the screen, and I’m like, ‘No.’ I’m sorry I even have to use this language, but I’m like, ‘Those are her nipples.’ And then I’m like, ‘That’s pubic hair.’ What in the world am I watching?”
And board member Ryan Deatherage told The Oklahoman this:
“Quite frankly, I didn’t know how to handle it. I was just in shock. I was being human and I didn’t know what to think. … I kept thinking that it was just going to go away and so I quit watching it.”
Also, board member Michael Tinney said Walters “was obviously a little flustered or embarrassed” and board member Chris Van Denhende said, “I can confirm Walters was shook up.”
Those are observations, not accusations.
Carson did say everybody “should be held to the same standard” and Deatherage did say “Walters should be held accountable just like any other school teacher,” but those are not lies, nor accusations, either.
At no point did they claim Walters to be responsible.
About OMES and the Oklahoma County Sheriff’s Office exonerating him?
It hasn’t happened.
The Oklahoman’s Murray Evans, who has has all the scoops, showed up Tuesday evening with a story detailing a memo OMES distributed to state legislators, recounting a visit the agency made, along with the Oklahoma County Sheriff’s Office, to the education department’s offices earlier in the day.
Evans began that story like this:
In a memo to Oklahoma legislators, the state Office of Management and Enterprise Services says it “cannot determine definitively whether or not an incident took place” involving images of naked women being shown on a television set in state school Superintendent Ryan Walters’ office during a state Board of Education meeting.
Not a guilty verdict.
Nor an exoneration.
Other details of Evans’ story were informative.
Though Walters told Suares again and again it was just “cable TV,” according to the memo, “The television had cable access, streaming services, was connected to an empty DVD player and was equipped with a dipole antenna.”
I wonder if the DVD player was empty on Thursday or what streaming service or app might have been engaged.
Also this:
A one-time passcode was required to access screen casting to the television, limiting the number of people with casting ability to the device.
Also this:
Walters told them that on board meeting days, many staff members, board members and the public could access his office.
Who knows if that’s true or not, yet speaking to Suares, trying to have his cake and eat it, too, Walters did not even go there.
By only calling what appeared on the screen “cable TV,” he’s choosing not to entertain sabotage as a cause (at least for now), and by refusing to do that he gets to live in a world where a bunch of board members saw what they saw and saw how he reacted, while he’s still allowed to act like he saw nothing.
The scaffolding of insanity.
But is that the lie?
Did Carson and Deatherage see nothing and did Tinney and Van Denhende make up Walters’ reaction?
Of course they didn’t, but Walters is trying to intimate they did without ever saying they did, because if he said they did, everybody else in the room might stand up and say he’s lying.
It’s the strangest thing.
He’s certain people are lying about him, yet he won’t tell us what the lies are. He’s certain people are lying about him, yet he won’t even deny what they’ve said.
Maybe when you’ve got nothing, you’ve got nothing to lose. Might as well shoot the moon.
“We’ve checked all the devices,” Walters told Suares. “They have run through everything that they need to, to determine that that TV has never been connected to these devices.”
But Walters did not say he handed over his own devices — cell phones, laptops, a desktop, tablets — which he’s bound not to do without a warrant and there’s no reporting there’s been one, not to mention he’s had plenty of time to wipe or lose those devices presuming there’s something on them to hide.
The world, however, is out to get him.
The governor, the board members, the media.
“We will continue to ensure that these board members are held accountable,” Walters said. “They should resign in disgrace for the lies that they’ve told and we should get back to work for the people of Oklahoma.”
But what’s the lie, Ryan?
Tell us what the lie is.
Do you know what the lie is?
Please tell us the lie.
The lies are all on him. I don’t know if he’s said anything true since he was elected and started his Jesus in the schools campaign.
We shouldn't hold our breaths waiting him to explain the lies...until Matt L tells him what to say.