John Kerry’s Harry Reid Moment?

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Two days ago Secretary of State John Kerry reportedly fell off his bicycle while taking a break from negotiations with the Iranian foreign minister in Geneva. Until the racy photo of Caitlyn Jenner appeared on the cover of Vanity Fair yesterday and became the biggest news story of the century, John Kerry’s woes were the top headline on most news outlets. The reports were all more or less the same — this BBC article is representative.

As soon as I heard about what happened, I immediately thought of Sen. Harry Reid’s “accident” on New Year’s Day, when he supposedly fell off his exercise machine. It eventually became clear that nothing of the sort had happened — it was obviously a bogus story. Depending on whose account you believe, he either got messed up by the mob, or was set upon by his alcoholic brother.

I’m a paranoid kind of guy, so I wondered if something similar might have happened to John “Swift Boat” Kerry. I thought, OK, his accident was probably exactly what it seemed to be, but what the heck — I did a little digging anyway. And what I discovered was the “curious incident of the dog in the night-time” — that is, there were no photos or videos of the accident scene. Or, if there were, they were very well-hidden.

A summary of the background on Mr. Kerry’s mission to Geneva: He was negotiating with the Iranian foreign minister. Early in the morning he took a bike ride from his hotel, which he likes to do. He was traveling with a motorcade. He pedaled across the border into France, and was 25 miles from his hotel when the accident happened. At some point his wheel hit a curb, and he fell off and fractured his femur. No other vehicles were involved. There were doctors and/or nurses in the motorcade, and he received immediate medical help.

That’s the story. But as far as I can tell, there is no video footage of the accident or its immediate aftermath. All the clips seem to be B-roll footage of him riding around in his dorky helmet. No photos of people standing around him where he’s lying on the pavement, or of his gurney being loaded into the ambulance. Just file photos of him on a bike.

The video in The Daily Mail may be footage of his cycling at around that time, but it doesn’t show the accident itself. There’s no way to tell for certain if that’s a shot of Mr. Kerry riding his bike on that particular morning. The subsequent clip may show an emergency vehicle from after the incident, but what’s happening isn’t completely clear.

There are no eyewitness accounts that I can find. Just stories drawn from State Dept press releases and spokesmen’s statements. I searched a little in French (I’m not very good at that), and didn’t see a notice from the French government, or the mayor, or the prefect of police.

So why is there nothing else? Why no cell phone footage or stills of the accident scene? Why no quotes from passersby or nearby motorists?

Look at all those people around him in the file footage of his bike ride. If that really was his entourage when the accident happened, surely one of them — or one of the bystanders — would have pulled out a phone and grabbed some footage of the big story about an American secretary of state on the ground getting emergency treatment, and then peddled it to the Mirror or its French equivalent.

The whole business made my spider sense tingle. But then, as I said before, I’m the paranoid type.

Does anyone have any further information on what happened? I’d be perfectly content to learn that the whole thing was exactly what it was purported to be.

18 thoughts on “John Kerry’s Harry Reid Moment?”

  1. Off topic, I know, but we now have photos of Obama and Kerry riding their bikes with the aforementioned dorky helmets. Vladimir Putin, by way of contrast, and our mortal enemy in case you haven’t heard, is shown dispatching judo opponents with one hand.

    I don’t know about you but all this makes me shake my head at the wonder of it. Can you see Ike biking away? With special gloves? I see big bucks in my future as an image consultant.

    On topic, sometimes the absence of a story IS the story. As with the pics, as you surmise. Similarly, the normal result of a fall from a bike is usually a skinned knee or elbow, a sprained wrist, or an abrasion on the hand. But no report of that, right?

    Nor does one’s face usually get scratched, I’m thinking. And if it does, would the abrasion be close to the socket if one were wearing a helmet? That helmet sticks out a ways.

    A high-speed crash might be more likely to reduce effective reaction time and make any torque or impact on the leg more damaging. If so, would his face escape injury and sustain only a minor scrape at that speed? The minor facial scrape suggests slow speed and time to react with low forces involved. Ergo, how come such a serious injury from a low-speed, one-bike accident?

    Maybe his security detail knocked him down forcefully to escape injury from . . . ?

    • He is over 70 yrs. Therefore an osteoporotic (e.g. intertrochanteric or subtrochanteric) femur fracture after a fall with his bike is very likely.

      • He doesn’t just ride the bike – he races, as pictures have shown. Maybe there are no pictures this time bec. he did something stupid and paid the price and it shows.

        I do wonder why no one who was with him, either in that “motorcade” or other bikers have had nothing to say about this event.

        I’m looking forward to the first pictures when he emerges again. Will he be wearing Hillary glasses? A leg is traction?

        For sure he’ll be his usual cheerful self. Maybe get together with Harry and lift a few.

    • Many bikers, myself included, use gloves and helmets whilst biking.
      What makes a helmet dorky?
      When I see non helmeted bikers, I’ve been know to suggest to them
      that their brains, apparently, are not worth protecting…..

      • It looks dorky to me. It’s a subjective impression. I’m probably bigoted!

    • OTOH, I have had to lay my bicycle down at approx. 28 mph turning left at a downhill-oriented intersection to avoid being hit by a car jumping the light and coming directly into my left-turn lane. Serious road rash on left leg and arm, head intact due to helmet.

      Another crash w/the bicycle: in San Francisco as a spectator for what was then called the Coors Race, a car maneuvered me such that, in order to avoid being side-swiped by the car, my front tire lined up precisely with a streetcar track. The track was the exact depth of the rims and width of the tire, and down I went. More road rash.

      My face wasn’t affected either time, but I wasn’t near a sidewalk curb, either. I can easily envision a scene where a bicyclist loses control and lands with his upper leg against the sharp top of the curb and his upper body, having “bent” the leg the wrong way, hits the pavement/grass/whatever a couple of feet in from the curb (“kerb” for UK and other readers).

    • Based on what I’ve read of bicycle accident statistics, you can actually die from a bicycle accident even with no other vehicles involved, and the chances are higher than you think. Bicycles are more deadly than people realize they are.

  5. Hmmm.

    Hillary Rodham.
    Harry Reid.
    John Kerry.

    What is it about high-ranking Democrats that makes them so accident prone when away from the cameras?

    The latest batch of high-ranking Republicans, by contrast, may cry in public, but seem healthier overall. Is that because they are quicker to sell out their principles and constituents when confronted by external inducements?

    Otoh, writing on behalf of patriotic Americans might be a profession in which it would seem wise to make sure your life insurance policies are paid up.

    Antony Sutton.
    Andrew Breitbart.
    Tom Clancy.

    I used to worry about countries with opaque political systems, like China and Russia, and how the actual decisions are made there regarding who will be the next to rise to a position of real power.

    Now I worry more about who makes those decisions, and how, in places like the United States and the countries of the European Union.

    • More than likely he’s simply wearing a pro cycling team’s “colors” which would include their sponsor logos. Cycling fans can purchase jersey replicas just like other sports fans, such as football, baseball, hockey, etc.

  7. I hate to be supportive of ol Kerry, but lots of people have all kinds of special interests.
    I myself tend to like………….

  8. XXXXX DRUDGE REPORT XXXXX FRI MARCH 19, 2004 16:02:35 ET XXXXX

    KERRY CALLED SECRET SERVICE AGENT ‘SON OF A B*TCH’ AFTER SLOPE SPILL

    Dem presidential candidate John Kerry called his secret service agent a “son of a bitch” after the agent inadvertently moved into his path during a ski mishap in Idaho, sending Kerry falling into the snow. When asked a moment later about the incident by a reporter on the ski run, Kerry said sharply, “I don’t fall down,” the “son of a b*itch knocked me over.” The Secret Service agent in question has complained about Kerry’s treatment, top sources tell the DRUDGE REPORT. Last month, Kerry began receiving Secret Service protection.

    “Obviously, the complications and burden of being monitored 24-hours a day is not just an a simple inconvenience,” a government source explained Friday. “But Senator Kerry should understand agents are working for his safety and well-being.”

    On Friday, Kerry, his snowboard strapped to his back, hiked past 9,000 feet on Durrance Peak, then snowboarded down the mountain, taking repeated tumbles. Reporters counted six falls, although Kerry was out of sight for part of the descent.

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