The American Olympian whom federal authorities arrested for alleged vandalism of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool has blasted the Trump administration while talking about his experience over the incident.
David Hearn told the Daily Mail in a phone call that the accusations levied against him regarding destruction of the Reflecting Pool are “completely unfounded.”
Hearn, 67, is a three-time Olympian slalom canoeist who competed in the 1992, 1996, and 2000 Summer Olympics.
Hearn’s arrest on Friday was captured on video by conservative journalist Emily Miller, who alleged that the cyclist had “grabbed the hose that female National Park Service workers were using to clear the algae.”
Hearn, who told The Washington Post in a Saturday interview that he was in the middle of a 52-mile bike ride before he decided to check out the renovated Reflecting Pool, denied the accusation that he had grabbed the hose, though he acknowledged that his bike tire may have touched it.
“It’s a lie,” he told the Mail. “I didn’t rip, tear, destruct, destroy, or harm in any way, any part of the reflecting pool.”
Hearn added that he did touch a “loose flap of coating” from the Reflecting Pool, but only because he was “curious as a concerned citizen.”
“They clearly wanted a news story that they could promote that was centered around vandals damaging the reflecting pool,” the Olympian added. “Officers were ready to arrest me and other people they found who they could have some contrived basis of charges on to accuse them of vandalism.”
‘We’ve already heard many lies from this administration,’ Hearn said. ‘That’s just another lie.’
Hearn had previously decried the allegations to The Washington Post, saying that he “didn’t destroy or break or peel anything.”
The athlete also told ABC News senior White House correspondent Selina Wang that he was held in detention for five hours before he was released and charged with destroying federal property.
The Olympian said he was placed in “very tight handcuffs,” according to the Daily Mail.
He described the experience as “scary,” adding that “with the government that we’re under and right now, there have been many unlawful detentions.”
Reached for comment, White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers told the Daily Beast in a statement: “It is despicable that after attempting to vandalize a national monument, this deranged individual suffering from a severe case of Trump Derangement Syndrome would disparage the brave men and women who put their lives on the line to protect the public and our nation’s capital.”
President Donald Trump’s efforts to revitalize the Washington, D.C. landmark have resulted in yet another humiliation for the octogenarian.
The president’s $14 million pet project to repaint the basin of the Reflecting Pool “American Flag Blue” has led to one of the pool’s worst algae blooms in years, with workers’ efforts to mitigate the algal growth with hydrogen peroxide have caused further problems.
Witnesses have reported that blue paint flakes have risen to the surface of the Reflecting Pool, and a dead duckling was spotted in the slimy Reflecting Pool on Sunday. However, the cause of the duckling’s death is unclear.
Trump himself called attention to the sorry state of his botched renovation in a Truth Social post on Sunday, though he continued to pin the blame on alleged “leftist” vandals who want to make him look bad.
“Work will begin immediately on fixing the seriously vandalized Reflecting Pool. I just inspected it, and could only say to myself, and those gathered around me, WOW, who would do such a thing?” the president wrote about his pet project, which had initially been estimated to cost only $1.8 million. “SICK, DERANGED PEOPLE! We will fix it?”
Hearn is scheduled to appear in court on July 9, according to the Mail.
