South Carolina blogger and political consultant Will Folks is feeling embattled one day after going public with the claim of an “inappropriate physical relationship” with gubernatorial hopeful Nikki Haley — to the point where he is now consulting a lawyer for advice on how to “take some steps to protect the credibility of my website and my reputation,” he told TPMmuckraker in a phone interview.
“I anticipated a denial from her, but I never anticipated a full fledged character assassination,” said Folks.
Folks told TPMmuckraker that he has been in contact with the Haley campaign for the last two weeks to tell them what he was hearing about rival political operatives planning to leak word of the purported relationship to the press. “When it reached the point that in the best interest of my family I had to move forward with something, I got attacked,” he said.
(There’s more on this in a new post post on his site, FITSNews.)
He also pointed the finger at the mainstream media for questioning his claims, which he maintains “one day” will be substantiated when more facts come out.
“You’ve got all these mainstream outlets that are running with this thing above the fold, at this point based on the word of someone whose reputation they are impugning,” Folks said. “I think that’s ironic.”
Folks also flatly rejected the suggestion, hinted at by Haley Monday, that a rival campaign — specifically the camp of Rep. Gresham Barrett (R-SC) — was paying him to sabotage Haley’s bid.
“I get called an asshole every day. I take on the very people they’re accusing me of selling out to,” he said, adding of Barrett: “This is a guy I’ve callled out relentlessly for two years since his bailout vote.”
“Sarah Palin calls me a liberal rag — c’mon, we’re the most conservative website in the state, maybe in the entire Southeast.”