Bush said he believed Lochte might have lied about “some details” but that it was a misunderstanding, which caused Roker to about lose his mind.
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Lochte made worldwide headlines last Sunday when he told Brazilian police that he, along with teammates Gunnar Bentz, Jack Conger, and James Feigen, had been robbed by men posing as law enforcement officers. This group has become the center of a massive controversy, with Brazilian authorities questioning several of them about the legitimacy of their claims and then also some video footage showing up suggesting that they trashed part of a gas station after being apparently intoxicated. They did say security guards working at the Shell gas station that they alleged Lochte vandalized had shown a badge and acknowledged that a gun was drawn. “I over-exaggerated that story”, Lochte said in a clip that aired Saturday on NBC Nightly News. “There has already been too much said and too many valuable resources dedicated to what happened last weekend, so I hope we spend our time celebrating the great stories and performances of these Games and look ahead to celebrating future successes”.
Now that his dramatic story of an armed robber in Rio putting a cocked handgun to his forehead has been proven false, Ryan Lochte has taken responsibility for his “immature behaviour”.
The unusual public relations strategy makes sense because Lochte has a lot of explaining to do in both Brazil and the United States.
“There was a gun pointed in our direction”.
In the interview that aired Saturday night, Lauer pointed to those two interviews and how Lochte had not told “the whole truth”.
Lochte had originally reported that he and his teammates were robbed in an incident that sparked headlines worldwide.
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However, a surveillance video contradicted Lochte’s initial claims. Later Wednesday, Bentz and Conger were pulled off a flight out of Rio. Rio’s Civil Police said Thursday, “There was no robbery”. While Lochte returned to the USA before a Brazilian judge ordered his passport seized, Feigen was forced to pay the equivalent of $10,800 to a Brazilian charity before he could leave the Olympic city on Friday. “I wanted to be there”.
