{"id":27163,"date":"2019-09-19T12:30:00","date_gmt":"2019-09-19T19:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.redmond-reporter.com\/opinion\/after-a-senators-claim-is-debunked-a-call-for-an-apology\/"},"modified":"2019-09-19T12:30:00","modified_gmt":"2019-09-19T19:30:00","slug":"after-a-senators-claim-is-debunked-a-call-for-an-apology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.redmond-reporter.com\/opinion\/after-a-senators-claim-is-debunked-a-call-for-an-apology\/","title":{"rendered":"After a senator’s claim is debunked, a call for an apology"},"content":{"rendered":"

OLYMPIA — Officially, Mona Das<\/a><\/a>misfired with the facts.<\/p>\n

But the first-term Democratic state senator isn’t apologizing for the whopper of a falsehood she launched publicly in June. She meant what she said. She just regrets the words she used to say it.<\/p>\n

What happened is she described to business leaders in her hometown of Kent how the true nature of her fellow Democrats emerged behind closed doors for caucus meetings. It was all captured on video.<\/a><\/p>\n

“That’s when my 28 colleagues got real. And that’s when I heard hate, misogyny and racism and sexism<\/a> from people you would not expect. That’s the type of light I want to shine,” she said.<\/p>\n

“I am going to say it again,” she continued. “The hate, sexism, racism and misogyny I experienced when that caucus room door closed would shock only the white folks in the room because the brown folks know it’s there.”<\/p>\n

Upon further review, none of what Das said was true.<\/p>\n

Human Resources Officer Tara Parker of the state Senate investigated, spoke with Das and a bunch of other senators, and found “no evidence” that anyone heard racist or sexist language expressed in the caucus room in the 2019 session.<\/p>\n

Das, in her interview with Parker, retracted the claim she made at the June 20 Chamber of Commerce event.<\/p>\n

“She regretted that the language she used conveyed something quite different from what she had in mind,” Parker wrote.<\/p>\n

When the senator spoke of “hearing misogyny and racism and sexism from people you would not expect,” Parker wrote that Das “was referring to ‘a few’ colleagues who were purportedly dismissive and disrespectful when members of color raised concerns that specific legislation could disproportionately impact communities of color. She declined to name the members she was referring to.”<\/p>\n