Lauer confronted Lochte about giving false accounts of what happened both in an earlier conversation with Lauer and in a televised interview with Billy Bush that led to the story snowballing into what it became. “I left details out and I overexaggerated parts of the story,” Lochte admitted.
When asked why he told Bush that someone held a gun to his head, Lochte said, “I don’t know why … It was hours after the incident. I was still intoxicated.” Lochte admitted that a gun was drawn, but not placed at his forehead, but pointed in his general direction.
The details still seem to be hazy for Lochte, a week after the incident. “It’s how you want to make it look like. Whether you call it robbery, whether you want to call it extortion, or just us paying for the damages, we don’t know.
“If I were to ask you the same question again right now and say, ‘Were you robbed on Sunday morning in Rio?’ how would you answer it?” Lauer asked.
“I can’t answer that, because … I was intoxicated,” Lochte responded. “All I know is there was a gun pointed at us and we were demanded to give money, whether it was to pay for damages of the poster, whether it was extortion, or whether it was a robbery.” Lochte admitted that the demand for money was to cut a deal for damage to the gas station, but said, “There was a gun pointed in our direction. We were all frightened.”
Lochte apologized, admitting that if it wasn’t for “my immature behavior,” none of this would have happened. He said that his teammates were not responsible for the damage at the gas station, yet they were the ones stuck in Brazil while he left early to return home to the U.S.
“I let my team down.”