Oliver was catapulted to national prominence, albeit briefly, as the friend who stepped forward to support George Zimmerman. Oliver has since stepped down as Zimmerman’s media adviser.
Oliver, 53, first said he reached out to Zimmerman’s attorney, Craig Sonner, after he was unable to reach Zimmerman, whom Oliver works with at a Florida mortgage security firm.
Oliver said he wanted to know if it was OK to “speak on George’s behalf,” and he wanted to reassure himself that he would be doing the right thing if he did so.
And he said he wanted to quell the notion that Zimmerman’s killing of Trayvon Martin, 17, was a “racial incident.”
Oliver intimated that he has been a friend of Zimmerman’s since the 28-year-old began dating his now-wife, whose mother is friends with Oliver’s wife. In his initial television appearances, including on MSNBC, he was introduced as a friend, not a media adviser, though Oliver insists he made his role clear from the start. In an appearance on MSNBC’s “The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell,” Oliver admitted that he and Zimmerman were co-workers. O’Donnell, with New York Times columnist Charles Blow and Washington Post columnist Jonathan Capehart strongly questioned how well he actually knew Zimmerman personally.
After fumbling through some of these intense interviews, Oliver’s and Zimmerman’s teams probably decided it was best that he stay clear of the cameras. –terry shropshire
