Vice President's aide apologizes for holding Florida reporter in closet
* March 27th, 2011 7:29 pm PT
According to the UK Daily Mail, an aide to Vice President Joe Biden apologized to Orlando Sentinel reporter Scott Powers after Powers was confined in a closet during a fundraising event for Democrat Bill Nelson. Simon Neville writes:
As the unaware $500-a-head invitees dined on caprese crostini with oven-dried mozzarella and basil, rosemary flatbread with grapes honey and gorgonzola cheese, grilled chicken Caesar and garden vegetable wraps, last week, the veteran reporter was locked away.
Powers was stuffed in the closet for over an hour. When Biden and Nelson began speaking he was let out, but was reportedly dumped back in the closet for the rest of the event, according to the Drudge Report.
Blaming the incident on "an inexperienced staffer" Biden Spokeswoman Elizabeth Alexander said the decision to hold the reporter was a "mistake". The action may have also violated Florida state law, which defines kidnapping as "forcibly, secretly or by threat confining, abducting or imprisoning another person against her or his will and without lawful authority."
Alexander said that pool reporters are normally placed in hotel rooms when the Vice President speaks at private residences, and acknowledged the closet - chosen because of its proximity to the fundraiser - was an inappropriate place for Powers to be held, even though it had a table and chair where he could work.
According to Alexander, Powers accepted her "unequivocal apology" and said "the vice president's office has made sure it will never happen again."
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