Tucker Carlson Claims 2 Prostitutes Claim A US Senator Paid Them For Sex

Tucker Carlson, co-founder and editor-in-chief of The Daily Caller today published an article titled, “Women: Sen. Bob Menendez paid us for sex in the Dominican Republic.” Senator Robert Menendez is the junior U.S. Senator from New Jersey, a Democrat, and served as the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Chairman from 2009-2011. The Daily Caller is a radical right wing Internet broadsheet and has provided no actual proof, just accusations.

If Senator Menendez did hire prostitutes, and it was illegal to do so, we should now about it. But until there are actual facts, this is not journalism, it’s a partisan hack attack. (And I seem to remember one Senator David Vitter of Louisiana still has his job.)

“Two women from the Dominican Republic told The Daily Caller that Democratic New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez paid them for sex earlier this year,” “Investigative Reporter” Matthew Boyle writes today:

In interviews, the two women said they met Menendez around Easter at Casa de Campo, an expensive 7,000 acre resort in the Dominican Republic. They claimed Menendez agreed to pay them $500 for sex acts, but in the end they each received only $100.

The women spoke through a translator in the company of their attorney, Melanio Figueroa. Both asked that their identities remain obscured for fear of reprisals in the Dominican Republic.

When shown a photograph of Sen. Menendez, the women said they recognized him as the man with whom they’d had sexual relations at Casa de Campo this spring. Both said they were brought to the resort with the understanding they would be paid for sex.

Neither knew the identity of the man at the time. Both claimed to recognize him later as Sen. Menendez.

“He called him[self] ‘Bob,’” said one.

One woman said Menendez wooed her with compliments like “beautiful” before they slept together. The other woman recounted, with apparent bitterness, receiving from an intermediary only $100 of the $500 she had been promised.

“He lies,” she said of Menendez. “He says one thing and does another.”

The Daily Caller adds but a one sentence paragraph as “balance.”

Asked about the allegations, Menendez spokeswoman Tricia Enright refused to answer any questions on the subject. “We’re not going to respond to a completely false accusation,” she wrote by email.

Aside from the accusations by the two female prostitutes, Tucker Carlson and his Daily Caller team have not presented a shred of proof, and decided to run this article five days before New Jersey residents decide Senator Menendez’s re-election.

That’s the same New Jersey that is traumatized and was destroyed by Hurricane Sandy just days ago.

Carlson, the conservative pundit-turned-blogmaster, Fox News Commentator, Cato Institute senior fellow, and former-bowtie-wearing half of the former “Crossfire” (think “Hardball” hosted by asshats) talk show team that CNN canceled after one interview with The Daily Show’s Jon Stewart — who eviscerated Carlson — in an iconic interview that catapulted Stewart’s show and credibility and literally was the very end of Carlson’s. (Video below.)

Speaking personally, Carlson’s own credibility and sense of journalistic integrity has always been questionable to me.

In 2010, Carlson on Fox & Friends  mocked the pending repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, and mocked its implications on national security (repeal benefits security) calling it “totally a sideshow issue” and a “stupid issue.”

In 2011, Carlson hosted a cocktail-party-slash-book-tour-kickoff in his home for convicted felon Jack Abramoff, possibly the most corrupt lobbyist ever. Carlson said, on camera, Jack Abramoff has a “decency” “I’m willing to vouch for.”

Wht kind of journalism does Carlson promote?

Well, aside from today’s “news” story about Senator Menendez, earlier this year, after the ugliness of the National Review’s ultimate release of racist John Derbyshire, a writer for The Daily Caller lamented that his bike was stolen, and — although he had absolutely no proof whatsoever — the thief must have been a black person.

And in a dangerous and stupid publicity stunt, Carlson, to get more readers, announced The Daily Caller was giving away one gun every week until election day.

In June, Daily Caller “reporter” Neil Munro heckled President Obama during his announcement of his new DREAM immigration policy.

While the President was speaking, Munro shouted out, ”Why’d you favor foreigners over Americans?,” to which president Obama replied, “Excuse me, sir, but it’s not time for questions.”

“Are you going to take questions?,” Munro continued. “Not while I’m speaking,” the President, somewhat angrily, replied.

Carlson announced he was “very proud” of his “reporter.”

And last month Carlson was at the center of the Drudge-Carlson-Hannity stunt that was laughed at by most of America, the 2007 video of President Obama speaking to a Black college audience, that everyone saw in 2007.

So, did Senator Menendez pay prostitutes for sex?

I don’t know. Neither do you. And neither does Tucker Carlson.