WaPo Humiliated After Apparent Hatchet Job on Hispanic GOP Rep Exposed for World to See
The Washington Post is being accused of racism by a Hispanic lawmaker from Florida.
Republican Rep. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida said its recent profile on her was riddled with errors, according to Fox News.
“It’s awful how [The Washington Post] treat[s] minorities. And the fact is, is that their undertone of their article was incredibly racist. They tried to undercut my Hispanic heritage. They even spoke to my mother and did report a lot of what she was posting. So, The Washington Post is compost, and they should do better,” she said during a Friday appearance on the Fox News show “Jesse Watters Primetime.”
“My story is something that they didn’t want to believe is true. Again, I grew up within the welfare system. I went to over six high schools. My parents were never married. And I also think one of the craziest claims that they’re trying to say is that I wasn’t raised as a messianic Jew,” Luna said.
Luna said the errors were part of the Post’s intention to attack her.
“As I’ve said before, and as The Washington Post has clearly showcased, anyone who is a conservative minority is a threat to Leftist control,” Luna said, according to Fox News. “They can try to discredit me, but unfortunately for them the facts completely blow their story out of the water.”
The Post story said in part, “Luna’s sharp turn to the right, her account of an isolated and impoverished childhood, and her embrace of her Hispanic heritage have come as a surprise to some friends and family who knew her before her ascent to the U.S. House this year.”
The Post claimed Luna “registered to vote as a Democrat in Washington state” in 2017. It later corrected that claim and stood by the piece as a whole.
“We have corrected one piece of factual information that was based on a database error. This deeply reported story about Rep. Luna’s biography includes ample perspectives from people who have known her throughout her life,” The Washington Post’s vice president of communications Shani George said, according to Fox.
Although the Post said it could find no evidence Luna’s father, George Mayerhofer, was ever in jail, Fox News said it was able to verify Luna’s depiction of her father as in and out of jail.
Edie Heipel, Luna’s communications director, said the story was designed to hurt Luna.
“Absolutely no conservative outlet would stand a chance if they dared say someone wasn’t ‘Hispanic enough,’ yet this is the main narrative WAPO is trying to spin,” Heipel said.
“Because Anna is a conservative, somehow WAPO believes that the fact both sides of her family descend from Mexican immigrants isn’t valid. This article has very racist undertones and the Washington Post knowingly left out facts from multiple sources that refuted their lie and narrative,” Heipel said.
The Post account included sources to say Luna was liberal and a supporter of former President Barack Obama while she served at Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri.
However, Lamar Carson, who worked with Luna at Whiteman for two years and spoke to the Post — but was not quoted in the report — saw things differently.
“The way she was back then is the same way she is now,” he said.
“We never got in a lot of political conversations. As I told The Washington Post, we support and defend the Constitution of the United States, that’s our job back then and even now. It wasn’t something we got into,” Carson said.
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