CNN: Whitehouse’s Beach Club Is ‘Very Evasive’ and Hung Up on Us – His Office Can’t Provide Proof That There Are Non-White Members

On Tuesday’s broadcast of CNN’s “The Lead,” CNN National Correspondent Sunlen Serfaty reported that Bailey’s Beach Club, the club that Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) has received criticism for being a member of has evaded questions on the racial makeup of the club’s membership and that while Whitehouse’s office has claimed the club has non-white members, they haven’t actually shown any evidence of that.

Serfaty said, “They are being very evasive here. I’ve had multiple short conversations with them over the last two days, and they, point-blank, have not cleared up the reporting that is out there about their club. And they’ve even hung up on me multiple times. This is the total extent of what they have told me, ‘We are a private club so I am not allowed to give out names of members or people associated with our club…I have no comment at this time, we have no comment at this time.’ And that is when they would typically hang up on me.”

She continued, “Now, Sen. Whitehouse responded yesterday to CNN when asked about the reports of his family’s continued membership to this club, and he says, ‘The club informs me that it does in fact have diversity in membership.’ But when he was asked if he personally was aware of any diverse members of the club, the senator said, ‘I believe that there were, I don’t spend a lot of time there so I couldn’t tell you who the members are.’ Now, Whitehouse’s office tells me that the club has no restrictive all-white policy and says that the club has had and has members of color. But, importantly, they did not show us any evidence, Jake, that there are actually members of color who are members at this club.”

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