Todd Palin fires back at the author of a new book about his wife Sarah Palin, saying the book is full of lies. INSIDE EDITION has the latest.
There's major fallout over the new Sarah Palin book. Her husband Todd says the book is "full of disgusting lies, innuendo, and smears."
But author Joe McGinniss is standing by his work in an appearance on the Today show.
The book, The Rogue: Searching for the Real Sarah Palin, claims Palin had a one-night stand with former Miami Heat basketball star Glen Rice when she was a sports reporter in Alaska in 1987. At the time, he was playing for the University of Michigan.
In the book, Rice is quoted as saying of Palin: "I remember it as if it was yesterday. She was a sweetheart. She was a gorgeous woman. Super nice. I think the utmost of her and I felt that way from the start."
In a review in Thursday's New York Times the book is called "dated", "petty," and filled with "caustic, unsubstantiated gossip."
McGinniss famously moved next door to the Palins when he was researching the book.
Today, Todd released this blistering statement: "I found this guy 18 feet away on the deck of the rental property next door to us staring like a creep at my wife while she mowed the lawn in her shorts."
McGinniss reiterated his book's bombshell allegation that the Palins snorted cocaine before she became governor.
The Today show's Savannah Guthrie asked, "How do you substantiate that?"
"Well, you talk to someone who snorted it with her. And you talk to many of Todd's friends who describe him as having been on the end of a straw frequently in his youth. I am not saying that Todd and Sarah Palin today abuse cocaine or even use it," said McGinniss.
McGinniss also recalled the brief face-to-face confrontation he had with Todd.
"When he came tromping across my lawn to confront me about living next door he said, 'Why are you writing about her anyway?' and I said, 'Well Todd, I've been writing about politics since 1968. Your wife is a phenomenon,' " explained McGinniss.
But it's clear how McGinniss feels about his subject.
"At best she is a hypocrite. At worst, she is a vindictive hypocrite," said McGinniss.
