A news story that is gaining national attention reports that Jim Fouts, mayor of Warren, Michigan’s third-largest city, was nearly removed from Sunday’s Democratic debate in Flint because he was cheering gregariously for Bernie Sanders.

There’s one big problem with this story: It is told from the standpoint of Fouts, a politician with a huge ego who doesn’t handle criticism, or the truth, very well.

As reported by Buzzfeed, The Washington Times, The Daily Caller and The Hill, Fouts claimed on his Facebook page that he was targeted for removal from the event by Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz because she favors Hillary Clinton.

“The Democratic debate is totally controlled by Hillarys [sic] good friend DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz,” Fouts wrote. “No commentary is allowed by the audience. Particularly if you are cheering Bernie Sanders. Persons who do not adhere to Hillarys [sic] rules are threatened with expulsion.”

During the University of Michigan-Flint debate, Fouts was sitting behind Wasserman-Schultz and staffers for the DNC said the mayor was “being very disruptive,” according to BuzzFeed. While the debate featured raucous cheering and crowd reactions directed at both candidates, Fouts was reportedly talking loudly during the quieter moments when the candidates were responding to questions.

The mayor said he and his young assistant (and sometime girlfriend) Amanda Mika were pulled aside by security during a commercial break and were told that people had asked for him to be removed.

Fouts has a track record of twisting facts and engaging in flat-out denials – even of remarks he made on video or audio tape.

A couple of years ago, after Fouts tried to deny that he had said he wanted to brutally kill one of his political foes, he was skewered on Facebook by former Warren assistant city attorney Jeff Schroder, once a Fouts ally.

“I have remained silent for too long,” Schroder wrote. “The Warren mayor is a tyrant, a pathological liar, and a hypocrite. He’s spinning out of control and I am tired of being mentioned in his paranoid rants. Three years of working for him drove me right to the edge. This is worst kind of person you could ever elect to public office because personal vendettas control his agenda, and not the public good. There — now I feel better … Rest assured, all of his nutty accusations are fabricated horsesh– like everything else he says.”

Known for his outbursts, Fouts very well may have made a scene at the debate, which could have led to efforts by some to have him booted from the premises.

A retired government teacher, Fouts demonstrates his quirkiness in his choice of politicians, too. He claims that Democratic President Harry Truman is his hero. But in the 2008 presidential campaign he backed Republican John McCain. Now, he has apparently taken the illogical leap from McCain to Sanders.

The Vermont senator would be well-advised to stay as far away from Fouts as possible.