VETERAN People’s National Party (PNP) politician Colin Campbell is downplaying a report in the media which has left onlookers describing PNP presidential aspirant Lisa Hanna as “opportunistic”, and is insisting that quotes attributed to her were taken out of context.

In a near three-minute video circulating on social media yesterday, Hanna, who recently declared her candidacy for the November 7 internal poll to replace party President Dr Peter Phillips, is heard telling supporters that had she known she would have been seeking the top job within the party, she would have tempered some of her interactions with members over the years.

“I’ve learned a lot in the PNP. I came in… I’m a warrior. I’m a fighter. So, if somebody step to me, mi a go step to them same way, right? That is who I am. I’m a black belt karate instructor, so is so me stay.

“But I’ve listened, and the things that I did in my early 30s I don’t do in my mid-40s. And, perhaps, if I knew I would get to this moment in my life of running for PNP president, then maybe I would have lived my political life differently. Mi wouldn’t step to certain people certain way, ’cause mi would know seh maybe at this time I would need them,” Hanna, the Member of Parliament for St Ann South Eastern, said.

She then added that the difference between a man and a woman in the political circle is that a man is seen as a “good politician” when he wins a contest, but a woman is seen as “divisive and not a team player” if she achieves the same level of success.

“It happens in society as well. But that doesn’t mean we must be any less strident and less strong because the women are the nurturers. We’re the compassionate persons who understand and feel people’s pains, and we’re the organisers in the movement,” she said.

Hanna is going up against St Andrew Southern Member of Parliament Mark Golding for the post of PNP leader, and, up to a few weeks ago, was leading him in at least two polls conducted.

Yesterday, Campbell, who ran against Golding to replace Dr Omar Davies as the PNP’s standard-bearer in the St Andrew Southern constituency but lost, not only declared his support for Hanna, but sought to clarify the content of the video.

“He took out something and spin it,” Campbell told the Jamaica Observer, without stating to whom he was referring.

“That’s not what she said. She was saying, as a politician, she doesn’t back down from things. The example she gave was that during the last election campaign she was walking somewhere and MP [name omitted] blocked the area, and everybody said mek them turn back. She said, ‘No, we’re not turning back’. Then they all went on foot and go down.

“So all she was saying is that in her political career, sometimes she used to carry the fight [but] maybe if she knew she would be running for president she would have done it in a different [way]. It had nothing to do with treating any type of way. They are giving the impression as if to say she treated people badly and now she’s saying, ‘Boy, if mi did know mi woulda treat people good,’ and it’s wrong. It’s not that way,” he added.

He said that the audio and the video are “quite clear”, but what is being reported by one media house gives a different impression.

Campbell, who recently recovered from a brief illness, is expected to begin shoring up support for Hanna, who in 2016 sought one of four vice-president posts in the party but lost.