December 10, 2019
Michigan

State rep. candidate clarifies ‘doctored’ video comments

Gary Glenn, Sarah Schulz at odds over video legitimacy | Mitchell Kukulka | Midland Daily News | December 10, 2019 | www.ourmidland.com

In a letter to the editor published in the Dec. 2 edition of the Midland Daily News, a Democratic candidate for Michigan state representative described a video that had recently circulated, depicting her speaking at an event earlier this year, as “doctored” – a claim she now seeks to clarify.

Sarah Schulz, who is challenging incumbent Rep. Annette Glenn, R-Midland, as representative of the 98th state house district in the 2020 election, accused the incumbent’s husband, former 98th district Rep. Gary Glenn, R-Williams Township, of circulating a doctored video of her speaking about wind energy at a meeting of the Women of Michigan Action Network in May.

“The video that was shared with me was doctored, which isn’t surprising given the long recorded history of the Glenns using unsavory campaign tactics,” Schulz said. “It was a clear attempt to manipulate certain key individuals and stoke fear and fire over the wind energy issue.”

In addition to writing a letter in response, Glenn posted the “full” 100-minute Midland Community Television recording of the town hall to his Facebook page on Thursday, which does not show any obvious signs of video tampering. In his response, Glenn drew attention to “disparaging” comments Schulz made during the meeting in regard to rural residents who oppose the construction of wind turbines near their homes.

In the video, Schulz is depicted referring to residents of Beaver Township “echoing (and) regurgitating the fear-mongering” of anti-wind advocates during a 2018 township meeting on proposed wind turbines.

“(Schulz’s) characterization of the video is irrelevant when you have the full video documenting the accuracy of her understandably embarrassing and revealing comments,” Glenn said. “The story is not her diversionary, obviously defensive, and false characterization of the video of her comments, but the much larger issue of how she talks about voters when she thinks only her fellow liberals are listening.”

Schulz said the video that she saw, which she claims had been shown to her by several people within the community, was one that was “clearly doctored or altered” in a way that took what she said in the two-hour long meeting and spliced it to be about 20 seconds.

“I saw it on a couple of occasions from individuals, and then heard about it on numerous other occasions from others who either called me or stopped me at events to let me know they had seen the video,” Schulz said.

Schulz said those who showed the video to her did so on their mobile devices after receiving it through email or Facebook Messenger, and she had never received a copy of the video.