Poll:
Did the GQ article change your opinion of Rand Paul?
Both the author of a GQ Magazine article about Republian U.S. Senate candidate Rand Paul and a woman interviewed by him in the article say a story she told him is being blown out of proportion by other media. While Paul is blasting media coverage that described the incident as a "kidnapping," he has yet to address the main elements of the woman's story.
In the GQ article, the woman says she knew both Paul and another Baylor University student when they came to her door and blindfolded her. After she refused to smoke marijuana, she says they made her bow to worship "Aqua Buddha."
On Fox News on Tuesday, Paul denied the most exagerrated versions of the GQ story as they have been amplified by other media.
In an interview with WHAS11 News, author Jason Zengerle said he is surprised by how the facts in his story have mutated in other media.
"I am slightly frustrated with it to be honest," Zengerle said, "I think the stuff that Paul is denouncing is not what was in my story. He's denouncing and denying the coverage of the story."
The unnamed woman first interviewed by Zengerle told the Washington Post that the 30 year old incident is being "blown out of proportion."
"I went along because they were my friends. There was an implicit degree of cooperation in the whole thing. I felt like I was being hazed," the Post quotes the woman.
Why the intense interest in Paul? Why talk to college classmates and purported fellow members of a secret society that pulled pranks at Baylor University?
The GQ author says it speaks to Paul as an atypical politician and how he will function if elected to the U.S. Senate
"Most of these guys who get elected are team players. They respect the institution," Zengerle said, "They respect authority. I think that is not Rand Paul necessarily. He likes to tweak the nose of authority."
Zengerle scoffs at the Paul campaign's suggestion that he has a leftist agenda.
And while Paul has threatened a libel lawsuit against Zengerle and GQ, Zengerle says the Paul campaign is being libelous when it claims he looked their trash to investigate Paul.
Paul campaign manager Jesse Benton tells WHAS11 that a campaign intern witnessed Zengerle in the dumpster.
"I don't even know where their dumpster is," Zengerle laughed, "I stepped foot in his office once and I was with someone at all times, I think. I definitely never looked through a dumpster."
