Peppered recently with allegations of racism, Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer complained – at times tearfully – at the false picture that his election opponent was painting. This Editorial Board agreed that those allegations lacked context and nuance. We defended Spitzer.
Yet Spitzer’s campaign is attacking his opponent with a similar innuendo-filled smear campaign. In one recent tweet, Spitzer wrote that, “Gascón clone Pete Hardin caught red-handed lying about his sexual misconduct at the OCDA’s office.”
Hardin’s policies differ from those of Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón, but we’ll leave that policy disagreement for another editorial. Mainly, Spitzer is portraying Hardin as a sexual harasser based on a memo looking at whether Hardin “was developing a reputation for being a womanizer.”
The Spitzer campaign has touted its most accusatory aspects, but failed to note that the very memo being touted cleared Hardin. “No further investigation is warranted,” per the memo. It expressed concerns, but found no evidence of inappropriate conduct. “(T)here have been no complaints made from any parties” regarding allegedly inappropriate comments, the memo added.
The Spitzer campaign also accuses Hardin of leaving the Marines because of sexual misconduct – but it doesn’t add the crucial part that Hardin had merely been dating someone outside the military a year and a half after he was separated from his wife. Meh.
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Let’s look at parallels. A video shows Spitzer using the n-word three times, along with other slurs. And during a meeting considering whether to seek the death penalty against a Black man accused of murder, Spitzer asked whether the defendant dated white women to improve his social status.
That looks terrible in a campaign hit mailer, but a deeper dive of the first example shows Spitzer was quoting the words of white supremacists to explain why he was tough on hate crimes. Details of the death-penalty incident remain troubling, and the incident will be reviewed by a judge, but we find no evidence of racism after poring over the timeline and listening to his explanation.
Nuance and context matter regarding all allegations, but apparently Spitzer only believes those things matter when it comes to allegations against him.