In a video shot heard around the world, Al Roker was not trying to hear any defense of Ryan Lochte, the Olympic swimmer who apparently made up a fantastical story of being robbed at gunpoint in Brazil, starting a series of events now dubbed #Lochtegate.
Roker, who was sitting on a beach in Ipanema covering the Olympics for NBC, got into a lukewarm argument with Billy Bush, a TV and radio personality who hosts Access Hollywood. He is also the nephew of former President George H.W. Bush.
The clip starts with Roker saying, “He lied.” Several times. “He lied to you, he lied to Matt Lauer, he lied his mom, he left his teammates hanging,” Roker begins.
And then he really went in when Bush tried to defend Lochte by saying, “OK, he lied about some details.”
Roker: “No, no, no. Not about some details … there was no gun, there was no pullover, no one cocked a gun to his head … he lied.”
Bush again tries to defend the indefensible, because white privilege, saying, “Well, if a security guard was standing in front of you speaking Portuguese—”
Roker: “He had a translator.”
Mic drop.
Watch below:
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