Senate

Dem senator: Ryan Lochte should apologize

by Jordain Carney - 08/18/16 5:09 PM ET

Sen. Dianne Feinstein on Ryan Lochte controversy: “Continuing this doesn’t make any sense” https://t.co/6OZtrfIwim https://t.co/YtZ5g6bBhY

— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) August 18, 2016

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) on Thursday said Olympic swimmer Ryan Lochte should apologize after Brazilian police said Lochte and three other U.S. swimmers lied about being robbed in Rio de Janeiro during the Olympics.

“Whatever happened, and there are different stories, continuing this doesn’t make any sense,” Feinstein, the ranking member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, told CNN.

{mosads}”Apologize, make your amends, and put it aside and hopefully that will be the case. Because this is an incident that’s going to escalate.”

Feinstein added that it was “common sense” that the four swimmers “shouldn’t be out on the streets at 4 a.m. drinking and carousing.”

“I think it’s up for those of us that are in the public eye, that represent our government, our people, our constitution, and, most importantly, our flag, do so with the highest respect for the country they’re in,” she said.

Police said during a press conference Thursday that Lochte and fellow swimmers Jack Conger, Gunnar Bentz and Jimmy Feigen stopped at a gas station in a suburb of Rio and broke the door to an outside bathroom, mirrors inside the bathroom and other equipment.

Lochte initially told NBC that a man pointed a gun to his forehead when the four swimmers were in a taxi that was pulled over by men with badges. He then changed some of the details, including that a gun was pointed in his direction, but pushed back against questions of whether he had fabricated the story.

“We wouldn’t make this story up,” Lochte told NBC’s Matt Lauer.

Tags Dianne Feinstein