Late-night host Stephen Colbert appears to have baselessly accused Michigan Republican gubernatorial nominee Tudor Dixon of making up a person in a story she told.
Last Wednesday night, he featured a clip from an Oct. 25 gubernatorial debate where Dixon said, “What I’ve heard from parents across the state is inappropriate content in school libraries.”
“If you have material in your school that is something that you can’t read to a child at a bus stop because you would be arrested because it is pornographic, then it should not be in our classrooms,” she continued.
Colbert quipped, “Dixon’s not the only one worried about this issue. So is this guy she totally made up.”
He then played another clip where the Republican said, “I had a gentleman come up to me just a few nights ago, and he said, ‘I found content in my school library describing how to have sex to my son.’”
“Okay, fine, ‘that happened,’” Colbert joked with air quotes.
Watch the video below:
However, there appears to be a problem with his joke.
The Detroit Free Press published a story on Wednesday titled, “Stephen Colbert doubted existence of man Tudor Dixon cited in debate — but he’s real.”
“The man, Khalil Othman, told the Free Press he is an actual person and did attend the Dixon campaign rally she referred to,” the article states.
Khalil Othman, a former Democratic candidate for city council, told the paper, “To claim that I’m not here, I don’t exist, I’m not human, that’s absolute ignorance.”
“If this person did his due diligence and start researching or has his team do a little bit of research of who’s this person who attended Dixon’s rally, they will be able to find my name right away easy on social media. Just Google it,” he added.
The Free Press also highlighted a video posted on Facebook of Othman attending a Dixon rally on Oct. 21.
“My name is Khalil Othman. I came all the way from Dearborn, Michigan,” he said in the video, adding, “I’m here along with two parents, concerned parents … against these sexually explicit books.”
Othman also posted a picture of him with Dixon.
On Sunday, Dixon blasted Colbert as she said, “I told his story and Stephen Colbert picks it up…And they make this whole skit about how this has never happened.”
“That’s what he said, this story never happened. That’s where the Democrats are right now. You don’t exist, your stories are not important,” she added.
