In portions of a full interview with NBC’s Matt Lauer Saturday night, USA swimmer Ryan Lochte attempted to clarify his role in the early morning episode at a Rio de Janeiro gas station last weekend.
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“We were all frightened, and we wanted to get out of there as quick as possible”, Lochte stated, defending himself.
NBC has been promoting an exclusive interview with Lochte that will be broadcast on Saturday night. Nightly News will also be airing a preview of the interview after Channel 3 Eyewitness News at 6. “We are victims, and happy that we’re safe.’ In the police press conference, they said ‘Not victims, they’re vandals.’ How do you feel about that?”
“I left details out”. “He lied to you, he lied to Matt Lauer, he lied to his mom, he left his teammates hanging while he skedaddled”. By Wednesday, though, his story had changed, and a judge ordered his passport seized-only to find out Lochte had already returned to the States.
The rapid-fire developments early Friday came hours after police announced that Lochte and three of his teammates had not been held at gunpoint after a night of partying, as Lochte claimed.
“I wasn’t lying to a certain extent, I over-exaggerated what was happening to me”, he said.
“I just wanted to make sure that they were at home safe before I came out and talked”, he added.
On Thursday, police released closed-circuit TV footage and other evidence about the events at the gas station.
In the statement, Bentz paints Lochte as the one who escalated the tension at the gas station.
In the interview, however, Lochte still maintains that employees at the gas station demanded money at gunpoint.
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Bush, who was the first to get Lochte’s robbery story on camera, still tried to cover for the swimmer, continuing to say the 32-year-old didn’t outright lie but rather “embellished” his story. In perhaps an ominous precursor to the trouble he now faces in Rio, one of Lochte’s phrases on the show references his regular swimming ritual: “I always pee in the pool … doesn’t everyone?”
