thedailywhat:

Follow Up of the Day: In her first sit-down interview, Hillary Adams, the daughter of accused child abuser Judge William Adams, tells the Today Show’s Matt Lauer why she decided to release the video of her beating 7 years later, and talks about the firestorm sparked by its posting.

“I think (my father) has been punished enough just by seeing this go public like this,” she says, “and I think he just really needs help and rehabilitation.”

Hillary’s mother Hallie, who also spoke with Today, blames her participation in the beating on her now-ex-husband.

“I lived in an environment of dysfunction, and it steadily got worse,” Hallie told Lauer. “I was completely brainwashed and controlled. I did every single thing that he did. When I leave the room, he’s telling me what to say, what to do.”

In an earlier interview with KZTV outside his home in Rockport, Texas, Judge Adams acknowledged beating his daughter, but says he did nothing wrong “other than discipline my child when she was caught stealing.”

“I did lose my temper,” he continued, “I’ve apologized. It looks worse than it is.”

[msnbc / kztv.]

At 7:12, this woman gives a Master Class in How to Throw Someone Under a Bus (Non-Literally Section), with a side lecture in Self Preservation.