Jim Webb almost killed a man with his bare hands, according to former aide
Former Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.), who announced his long-shot campaign for president last week, prides himself on being a fighter — for the working class, for fallen soldiers on all sides, for America. But what voters may not know is that his penchant for pugilism extends to actual fights, the kind where people get beaten to a bloody pulp.
That's the accusation made by a former aide named Chase Untermeyer, who authored a little-known book about his time at the Pentagon called Inside Reagan's Navy. (Webb served as Reagan's secretary of the Navy.) Lloyd Grove of The Daily Beast unearthed this tidbit from the book:
In the book, Webb is portrayed as a humorless, self-serious striver who is so convinced of his epic role in American history that he views insults to himself as "treason."
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Webb's campaign reportedly did not respond to a request for comment.
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Ryu Spaeth is deputy editor at TheWeek.com. Follow him on Twitter.
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