COLUMBIA, S.C. – South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford was in Argentina during a dayslong unexplained absence, not hiking the Appalachian Trail as his staff told the public when state leaders raised questions about his whereabouts, the governor told a newspaper.
The State reported that Sanford arrived Wednesday morning at Atlanta's international airport on a flight from Buenos Aires.
...
"Lies. Lies. Lies. That's all we get from his staff. That's all we get from his people. That's all we get from him," said state Sen. Jake Knotts, R-West Columbia. "Why all the big cover-up?"
The Republican governor told the South Carolina newspaper he decided at the last minute to go to the South American country. The governor says he had considered hiking on the Appalachian Trail but wanted to do something "exotic."
Sanford was last seen at work Thursday. On Monday, a state legislator raised questions about where he was after hearing reports from security officials that the governor could not be contacted and his whereabouts were unknown. The governor's wife, Jenny Sanford, told The Associated Press she had not seen him since Thursday but was not concerned because he'd told her he wanted to get away and do some writing.
Late Monday, Sanford's staff said he was hiking the Appalachian Trail. They said Tuesday that he had called in and planned to cut his trip short and return to work Wednesday because of all the attention his absence was getting.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_sc_governor_where"Curiouser and curiouser", Alice might say.
"WTF is going on??" I might say.
First, he's working on a book. Then, he's hiking (although the two activities are not necessarily mutually exclusive, they are difficult to combine). Now he's in Argentina. He could still have been working on a book, but you can't hike the Appalaichin in Argentina.
Second, he says he "planned to cut his trip short and return to work Wednesday because of all the attention his absence was getting". Weren't we just told that he was surprised to hear about all the commotion about his absence? I know if I disappeared for five days, particularly over father's day, and no one knew my whereabouts, a fair amount of people would be concerned, and I'd expect a commotion when I returned, and no one outside of my family knows who *I* am. It's not like I'm governor or something.
There was one activation of his phone identified (by cell towers) in Atlanta, and that told his staff ("where he was") (based on an earlier report). It's clear now that it must have been at the Atlanta airport.
This story is going to have legs for a while. It's one thing to say you went hiking on the trail if you did, but if you were really in Argentina, and "it's okay to be there" then shouldn't you just say you were in Argentina?
What next? Are we going to hear about his secret wife and second family in Argentina?
This is just getting weirder. It is sort of entertaining, though. :popcorn:
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