| Tom Kean Jr. continues to make headlines for all the wrong reasons.
On Friday, a New York Times reporter had the cops called on them when they tried to cover an event with Kean Jr. and Speaker Mike Johnson.
They report that “a reporter for The New York Times was blocked at the door by Mr. Kean’s spokesman” before someone inside then called the police on the journalist.
The Times notes that this behavior is sadly par for the course for Kean Jr., as he “has held no in-person town hall events during his two terms” and his team “has declined The Times’s many requests for an interview.”
DCCC Spokesperson Eli Cousin:
“After more than 25 years in elected office, career politician Tom Kean Jr. looks down on his constituents and the press with disdain. He thinks he is entitled to his seat which is why he went nearly four months without telling his constituents where he was while still cashing his taxpayer-funded salary, continues to play the stock market in Washington while his constituents pay more for gas and groceries, and refuses to hold in person town halls. He won’t be able to dodge accountability at the ballot box in November.”
Read key segments from The New York Times reporting:
The New York Times: We Tried to Cover a Tom Kean Campaign Event. Someone Called the Police.
- […] A reporter for The New York Times was blocked at the door by Mr. Kean’s spokesman, Harrison Neely, who said that the event was private and indicated that members of the media were not welcome. Hours later, however, he acknowledged that at least one reporter, Liz Elkind of Fox News, had been invited in. A Pennsylvania-based TV reporter was also there.
- Still hoping to talk to Mr. Johnson — or perhaps even Mr. Kean — on the way out, the Times reporter waited in a car in the parking lot.
- That’s when things got weird.
- A sergeant from the local police department in Washington Township appeared on the scene. Someone apparently had called the police from inside the club to report that there was a trespasser — this reporter — on the premises. (This despite the fact that New Jersey State Police troopers were stationed outside the country club, as was Mr. Johnson’s security detail.)
- The officer, Sgt. Dallas Overko, amiably assessed the situation. He seemed somewhat confounded by the call.
- “I didn’t know it was just a nice little reporter waiting for an interview,” Sergeant Overko said.
- He headed inside to figure out what was going on and then returned a few minutes later to say that it was OK to remain in the parking lot.
- “I guess there were some things lost in communication,” Sergeant Overko said.
- Mr. Kean, the son of a former New Jersey governor, has held no in-person town hall events during his two terms in New Jersey’s Seventh District. In Washington, he has been known to forgo the normal practice of answering reporters’ questions when walking around the Capitol — even when it gets awkward.
- In the weeks since [his return], he has not publicly answered questions about his treatment. Politico reportedly got him on the phone earlier this month and asked about how he had signed off on personal stock transactions during his absence, eliciting some rare quotes from the congressman. (Mr. Kean said that he had no involvement in stock transactions made by his financial advisers.) Mr. Neely, his spokesman, has declined The Times’s many requests for an interview.
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