Mike Leach addresses tweeting fake Obama speech video
Mike Leach made himself look bad earlier this week by tweeting a video featuring an unfairly edited portion of a Barack Obama speech, but the Washington State coach sees no reason to apologize.
It all started Sunday night when Leach shared a 19-second video that appeared to show Obama telling a crowd “ordinary men and women are too small-minded to govern their own affairs, but order and progress can only come when individuals surrender their rights to an all-powerful sovereign.” While Obama did say those words, the context was removed from the video. If you read the transcript of the full speech, you’ll see the former president was arguing against the ideas he stated above, which he referred to as the “alternative vision” from his own.
Plenty of Twitter users informed Leach that the video he tweeted was doctored, but that didn’t stop him from getting into incoherent debates with many of them. In an interview with Matt Calkins of the Seattle Times this week, Leach expressed no regret.
“Well, for one, I’m not particularly sorry,” Leach said. “I thought (the video selection) was poor from the standpoint that … and anytime you quote a guy it’s difficult because there’s always a broader context to any conversation. I didn’t think the context to that was as precise as I wanted it to be, so from that standpoint I thought it was sloppy.
“I’m not particularly sorry about it, because it was in his speech and he did say it. I just think it was plugged together in a bad way by whoever made the video.
“You get passed things all the time. It’s not like I researched or looked it up. I just listened to what was sent and was like, ‘Oh yeah, this might work.’ But that doesn’t change the fact that people should be able express their thoughts.
“I just don’t understand all this name-calling. I never took a position on any of it. You look at anyone of them, I didn’t take a position at any point.”
Leach shared a lot more of his political thoughts in the interview, and most of them will probably make your head spin. He was also asked why he went after USA Today columnist Dan Wolken in a pair of tweets he still has not deleted.
So a guy, who no one knows, Wolken, has an ax to grind. I’m not sure who he is, but at the risk at building his career, I am willing to debate him, anywhere and anytime. He is pathetically biased, but I think that the message of free thought needs to get out
— Mike Leach (@Coach_Leach) June 20, 2018
Wolken is clearly a brilliant man, because he can write an article, without any sources, only his brilliance. Amazing. In any case , I can’t wait for him to show me the light. He will set me straight and I can move forward.
— Mike Leach (@Coach_Leach) June 20, 2018
Leach was even more critical of Wolken in his interview with the Seattle Times. His issue seems to be with the media sharing biased opinions, and he thinks Wolken is as guilty of that as anyone.
“Yeah, they expect less bias because I think he’s 100 percent biased,” Leach said. “Anyway, I think he does a horrible job and doesn’t know what he’s talking about. It doesn’t matter what anybody says, he’s just gonna distort the thing. He’ll probably be selling Big Gulps here in a couple years. I don’t know. As I think about it, I ought to let all that take its course.”
You can dive futher into the Leach stuff if you want, but most people will chalk it up to a notoriously controversial coach simply doing what he does best.