Woman Backtracks on Assault Claim After O’Keefe Video

A woman who accused a Donald Trump supporter of punching her outside a Trump rally in North Carolina is backtracking after James O’Keefe and Project Veritas released video showing Democrat operatives claiming she was a trained activist.

69-year-old Shirley Teter of Asheville now says it is possible that 73-year-old Richard L. Campbell merely touched her accidentally, as his attorney had claimed all along.

Originally, Harris told local ABC News affiliate WLOS, “He stopped in his tracks, and he turned around and just cold-cocked me.” She also added a pointed, rhetorical question — namely, whether “people find a Trump supporter punching her in the face deplorable.”

Now, however, Teter is changing her story rather dramatically. She told WLOS on Wednesday that “it’s possible that he could have struck her with his backhand.”

O’Keefe’s undercover video showed Democracy Partners consultant Scott Foval — who has since been fired — claiming that Teeter was a “trained” political activist.

WLOS reports that Teter “vehemently denied being involved in any way with any person, group, or organization, political or otherwise.” She did admit having volunteered on Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign.

As a result of Teter’s initial accusation, police in Asheville issued a warrant for Campbell’s arrest, and his name was dragged through the mud nationwide — for the simple act of attending a political rally.

Facebook video of the altercation shows Campbell — who suffers poor vision as a result of cataracts — being led through a gauntlet of anti-Trump protesters by his wife.

In the video, Teter then follows Campbell and appears to reach for his shoulder. His attorney told Breitbart News that he turned around after being touched, and Teeter then fell down.

She showed no visible sign of injury to her face in photographs and interviews that followed the incident.

Democracy Partners co-founder Robert Creamer has resigned from his work with the Hillary Clinton campaign as a result of O’Keefe’s exposé.

The spelling of Shirley Teter’s name has been corrected.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. His new book, See No Evil: 19 Hard Truths the Left Can’t Handle, is available from Regnery through Amazon. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.