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- Mayor Wharton responds to Herenton's Memphis Flyer comments
- Wharton still considers meeting between two secret
- Wharton not responding to rumors Herenton will stay
"You've got to keep your sense of calm and if you start jumping everything you hear a rumor, you won't have time to stay...to focus on what you're trying to do," said AC Wharton, Shelby Co. Mayor.
Wharton says he's aware Herenton told Memphis Flyer reporter Jackson Baker about their so called quote "cleansing" conversation during a 2007 meeting at a Midtown restaurant. At the time, Herenton says he told Wharton considering a run against him was absurd and Wharton told Herenton he didn't like his style.
Wharton joked he didn't know what I was talking about when I asked for his take on the conversation but later said considers it a private meeting between men.
"As an attorney when you talk with me, unless you tell me explicitly it's okay to talk I'll take it to my grave. That's why I kept those secrets inviolate and would have kept them that way but he's free to describe things as he wishes," said Wharton.
Herenton also told the Memphis Flyer a race against Wharton could have gotten messy.The conversation went like this.
Baker: What would have happed if he had run.? Herenton: "It would have been real ugly, yeah because I would have described him. Baker: How? Herenton: I'm not going to tell you. I don't have to describe him. It didn't happen."
Wharton would have no comment about the newspaper interview.
Wharton said, "He has his way of describing things and I have mine. That falls in the same vain of not responding to rumors."
