A leading Michigan newspaper has taken aim at late-night host Stephen Colbert after he attacked the Republican gubernatorial candidate, Tudor Dixon, during a recent monologue.
Colbert ripped Dixon after she expressed concerns during her Oct. 25 debate with Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer regarding “pornographic” material found in school libraries throughout Michigan.
“Dixon’s not the only one worried about this issue. So is this guy she totally made up,” Colbert told his viewers.
He then played a clip of Tudor stating: “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 remarked, using air quotes.
But in fact, it did happen, the Detroit Free Press pointed out.
“A Dearborn resident whose existence was doubted by comedian Stephen Colbert during a monologue last week has a message for the CBS late night host: I am real and so is my switch to the Republican Party,” Free Press reporter Niraj Warikoo noted to begin his report Wednesday.
Khalil Othman came forward as the man mentioned by Dixon during a campaign event.
“To claim that I’m not here, I don’t exist, I’m not human, that’s absolute ignorance,” Othman told the outlet. “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.”
Fox News noted further:
Othman, a father of five and a former Democratic candidate for state representative who migrated from Yemen nearly 20 years ago, had shared a video on Facebook of the comments he made at the Dixon event speaking out against sexually-explicit content found in school libraries.
“I am a proud Muslim American who expresses my values and concerns all the time,” Othman said. “Dearborn has been voting Democrat blue for the last decade or two decades. But not anymore. On behalf of myself and my family, I guarantee you for sure that my family and my friends will vote for Republicans.”
At a rally earlier in the week, Dixon told her supporters regarding the incident with Colbert: “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.”
The race in Michigan has tightened in recent weeks, with Whitmer now holding a narrow lead over Dixon of around 3.4 percent, according to the RealClearPolitics average of polling.
