Update: At 11:37am on Thursday, the Washington Post updated their story about Phillips to acknowledge that Phillips “misrepresented his military history.” An editorial note at the bottom of the new article says that the article was “updated with a new headline and additional reporting Jan. 24 after a Facebook video emerged showing Phillips calling himself a “Vietnam vet.”
Nathan Phillips, the man at the center of the confrontation on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, apparently isn’t the man the media is portraying him to be.
During the March for Life last week, a viral video of Phillips interacting with the Covington Catholic High School boys emerged, which sparked a media firestorm, pointing fingers at the boys for reportedly taunting Phillips while he demonstrated. However, when other videos of the incident emerged, the narrative changed entirely — and the teens at the center of the controversy were vindicated.
You can read more about the background of the incident here.
So … surprise?
On Wednesday night, syndicated columnist Phil Kerpen — who is president of nonprofit organization American Commitment — unearthed a Facebook live session featuring Phillips discussing his time during the Vietnam War.
Kerpen shared the video with a snippet of Phillips’ session, in which Phillips said, “I’m a Vietnam vet and I served in the Marine Corps, 72 to 76. I got discharged May 5, 1976. I got honorable discharge, and one of the boxes in there it shows that it was peacetime, or what my box says is that I was in theater. I don’t talk much about my Vietnam times.”
More Phillips:
“I got a relation. A sister, or a niece, she gave me that Vietnam colors flag. You know the yellow, red, black one with some tobacco on there. She wanted me to carry it around because you know her dad, a Vietnam vet too like that.” pic.twitter.com/aZGuVAiHwx— Phil Kerpen (@kerpen) January 24, 2019
Kerpen noted that Phillips also shared photos with a “Vietnam War Veteran” medallion, as well as a certificate of a “Warriors Medal of Honor” from the “Native American Nations of the United States of America.”
From his Facebook page. pic.twitter.com/AGbSiRZ5cm
— Phil Kerpen (@kerpen) January 24, 2019
However, the Washington Post reported Wednesday that there is “no evidence [Phillips] ever claimed to have served in Vietnam.” The article by Dan Lamothe is titled, “A group representing Nathan Phillips wrongly said he served in Vietnam. Then came the accusations.”
The article has yet to be updated at the time of this writing, though Lamothe himself acknowledged the above video on Twitter.
He captioned the video, “This video shows Nathan Phillips making statements that simply are not true.”
Via TheBlaze
