The Professional Victim

A woman who questioned the president at his Fort Myers rally the other day got a lot of attention after she told the rookie president her sob story. It turns out that she might not have been giving the whole truth:

SOUTHWEST FLORIDA - A woman making national headlines after a tearful moment with President Obama has a new home.

Thursday morning, Chene Thompson handed Henrietta Hughes the keys to her home in Hendry County. Thompson is the wife of State Representative Nick Thompson. Hughes and her son will live at the home rent free.

However, a local organization is coming forward saying Hughes isn't being honest about how much help she's had in the past.

The director of We Care Outreach Ministry, Tanya Johnson, says just last month she offered Henrietta Hughes permanent housing and a place to stay free for three months, but Hughes refused.

"We would have allowed her to stay for the first 90 days, no income. You know free," said Tanya Johnson.

We Care Outreach Ministry is a faith based organization in Fort Myers.

Johnson says she also gave Henrietta and her son Corey, money, food and offered Corey job training courses, but it was refused.

"We have extended a lot of her services to her," Johnson said.

But Henrietta Hughes says these services weren't free and the apartment in East Fort Myers came with a price tag.

Hughes says Tanya Johnson wanted $400 a month immediately.

The disability check Hughes gets is a little more than $800 a month.

Hughes owes money on a loan, has her car insurance payment, a monthly storage bill and says she couldn't afford the rent.

"Where was I going to get $400 a month to give her if I got these expenses," Hughes told WINK News.

WINK News Reporter Nick Spinetto went back to talk to Tanya Johnson and she stands by her story.

Henrietta Hughes says she's never taken advantage of the system and doesn't choose to be homeless. Like other programs she's tried to get help from,she says We Care couldn't meet her needs.

If she turned down free housing, she chose to be homeless. But it gets better. Michelle Malkin did a little digging and found that Ms. Hughes used to live in New York where she was featured in an article about the homeless up there. That story can be found here.

I can't help but think that this woman and her son are gaming the system, and there's no question that she was specifically chosen to ask a question at that rally because she would appear to be a sympathetic victim of a system gone terribly wrong.

Something's terribly wrong, all right, but it's not the system.