FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 8, 2014
CNN Puts the "Hard" Back in Harding:Presidential Thinktank Demands Apology Over Sex ScandalWashington, DC - In response to CNN's report that President Warren G. Harding had a torrid love affair with a German spy, a representative of the Harding Institute for Freedom and Democracy, responded today, "On behalf of the Harding Institute, I take considerable umbrage at CNN and Jake Tapert for besmirching the good name of Warren G. Harding, and I demand an apology," said Daniel Sadler, Sr. Associate Fellow for Public Affairs. "America would be better off if CNN put its considerable journalistic resources towards investigating the mysterious cause of Harding's death, rather than dredging up old rumors about his life." America's 29th President, Harding died in office, ostensibly from a bad reaction to eating shellfish, though rumors have persisted since his death that his wife Florence or others may have been involved.
CNN reported Monday on newly released "love" letters between Harding and his neighbor, Carrie Phillips, whom Tapert refers to as "a German spy". "Despite Tapert's admission that 'their public display goes against every written desire of the President' and 'defies a court order,' CNN quotes freely and selectively from those very letters," said Sadler.
"It seems the bulk of the CNN story was designed as a puff piece to promote a spurious new book called 'The Harding Affair' by James D. Robenalt," added Sadler. "It's a clear conflict of interest."
"The one silver lining in this ongoing story is that at least people are talking about Warren G. Harding. And the only thing worse than journalists saying something negative about a former president is saying nothing at all," said Sadler. To that end, the Harding Institute has a sale on all mugs, t-shirts, and even undergarments, available at
http://www.cafepress.com/HardingInstitute.
"To quote from Harding's own inaugural address: 'America's present need is not heroics but healing; not nostrums but normalcy; not revolution but restoration.' And so it is now the time to restore the image of one of America's great presidents," added Sadler.
For more information on The Harding Institute for Freedom and Democracy, or to set up an interview with Mr. Sadler, please go to http://www.HardingInstitute.org or contact Harding Institute Director of Media Affairs, James Havermayer at James.Havermeyer@HardingInstitute.org.
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