Girls star Allison Williams has come to the defense of her disgraced father, suspended NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams, insisting: “I know you can trust him.”
The actress spoke publicly about her dad for the first time in a Q&A at the 92nd Street Y in New York with late night host Seth Meyers and called him “an honest man, a truthful man.”
Asked how her beleaguered family was faring, Allison admitted: “This has been a really hard time. Obviously [it’s] toughest on my dad who is sort of bearing the full burden of the responsibility for it, but my mom has been so strong and my brother has been amazing.
“My dad has always been there for us a 100-percent of the time… so to be here for him is the least we can do,” she continued, according to the New York Post.
The newscaster’s confession that he lied about being involved in a helicopter firefight while covering the Iraq War in 2003 led to his six month suspension from the anchor chair and since the scandal, NBC’s flagship news program has lost 700,000 viewers.
But Allison said: “One thing this experience has not done is shake my trust and belief in him as a man. He’s a really good man, an honest man, a truthful man — he has so much integrity and so much respect for journalism. And yes he’s a really good dad. I know you can trust him because, as any good daughter does, I’ve tested him on that.”
In 2003, when Williams was in Iraq, Allison – who starred in Peter Pan Live last year on NBC – recalled that she was in 9th grade and there was a father-daughter dance he promised he would attend.
“As the day was coming, it didn’t seem like he was going to make it as he had promised,” she explained. “I was so upset and I got a surprise call from my dad from Iraq, and he was asking if I had a date to the dance. So that’s the kind of man he is. I can’t wait until he’s back on TV and I know many of you guys feel that way. Thank you for all your support.”