Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Carson Likely Fabricated N-Word Claim


U.S. Rep. Andre Carson and several other African-American congressmen leveled a charge that tea party protesters outside the U.S. Capitol building yelled "Nigger" at them as they walked through the crowd. The American Thinker's Jack Cashill takes a closer look at the Capitol Steps Conspiracy and concludes the claims of Carson and others were simply made up. Cashill reviewed audio and video clips from at least four sources, interviewed several eyewitnesses and analyzed media reports from the scene. The video above confirms his conclusion. The original report by African-American reporter William Douglas made the first claim of racial slurs being uttered. Cashill concluded: "Bottom line: the Douglas story would seem to meet the standards for libel. It is provably false, preposterously reckless, quite possibly malicious, and has caused real damage to publicly identified Tea Party leaders."

As Cashill reports, several members of the Black Caucus made a deliberate decision to use the Capitol steps to enter the building rather than the tunnel from their office building. This included Georgia's Rep. John Lewis, Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, who claimed he was spat on by one of the protesters, Rep. James Clyburn and Carson. The only audible words that can be heard from the protesters is "kill the bill" referring to the health insurance reform bill. One of the protesters was shouting so loudly that vocal spray emanated from his mouth. Cleaver immediately confronted the man. Cleaver later put out a press statement falsely claiming that the man had been arrested by Capitol Hill police. Cleaver returned with a police officer in tow to the scene but was unable to identify the man so no arrest was made. Lewis and Clyburn never made no claims of the N-word being uttered. Only Cleaver and Carson made the allegation. Here's Cashill's take on Carson's claim:

Nor is there any reason to believe Congressional Black Caucus member Andre Carson (D-IN), one of only two Muslims in Congress and a member of the progressive caucus. If Cleaver actually thought that he heard the slur in question, and he may have, then Carson told a story too outsized to be anything but willful propaganda.

According to Brian Beutler in the Talking Points Memo posted at 5:41 PM on that Saturday, March 20, Carson had "a particularly jarring encounter with a large crowd of protesters screaming 'kill the bill' ... and punctuating their chants with the word 'nigger.'"

Although Carson claims to have been standing next to Lewis, Lewis again provides no confirmation. He is quoted only as saying, "People have been just downright mean." Regardless, it is Lewis who is the subject of Beutler's headline, "Tea Partiers Call Lewis ‘N****r.'" (For the record, Beutler, a recent Berkeley grad, has written for the American Prospect, The Nation, Mother Jones, and The Guardian.)

Carson claims that the incident occurred when the group was walking from the Capitol. The Cleaver incident allegedly occurred while the group was walking to the Capitol. The lack of any audio or video evidence of at least two incidents of a "large crowd" of protesters shouting racial slurs should have killed this story before it left the gate. Even without the contrary video evidence, Carson's charge is so at odds with the reality of America circa 2010 that it undermines the credibility of any media person who reported it with a straight face.

One of my correspondents, who was on the Capitol steps when the caucus members entered and exited, makes a sage observation: "And if what these congressmen said was true, wouldn't it be logical to think that there would have been many more Capitol Police officers escorting these gentlemen back into the Cannon building when they returned?" Videos show that there were only two police officers, and they were walking behind the congressmen when they left the Capitol.

18 comments:

M Theory said...

I don't recall that Carson said a thing to defend this young man who was called "nigger", beaten up (on video), and sent to the hospital. The incident took place outside a Healthcare Reform Town Hall last year near St Louis.

Where was Andre Carson's outrage for this black man called nigger, beaten, and sent to the hospital for both his race and his healthcare views?

SEE THE STORY AND THE VIDEO OF the DOCUMENTED RACIALLY MOTIVATED CRIME:
http://www.infowars.com/union-thugs-beat-patriot-at-obamacare-town-hall-in-st-louis/

I confronted Wilson on this matter on Abdul's blog the other day. Wilson had no words of compassion for this man or outrage over what was done to him.

M Theory said...

Carson also echoed the fabrication that 11,000 jobs will be created by stimulus money used to finish 4.5 miles of the Cultural Trail.

The truth? Well that means nothing to Congressman Carson.

Gary R. Welsh said...

Andre was raised to hate white peope (he admits being a member of a group as a teen-ager that promoted racial division) so the fact that he would falsely accuse patriotic Americans of being racists comes as no surprise to me. His cousin has been imprisoned for committing one of the worst hate crimes in Indiana history against two Hispanic males.

M Theory said...

Gary, I do believe Andre Carson is as racist as they come. I don't think my opinion or wishes matter to him because I'm not black.

I don't like it that he doesn't stand up for blacks and their views who are conservative.

Howwever, I'm not going to judge him based on what his cousin does.

Voiceofthepeople said...

As a Black Republican, I feel a need to comment on this post. We can not truly know if this incident occurred but we must be sensitive to any claim of racial discrimination and down-right hate. Sometimes folks within my own party seem to forget how much this word has been a cancer within America. Just because a Bi-racial President has been elected does not mean that racism has been eradicated, in fact I feel race has become even more of an issue because some feel that Blacks should "just get over" generations of injustice now that we have a so-called Black President. Even if this did not occur, here is my advice to my fellow conservatives; learn to leave that which you do not understand alone. Until you've actually be called a nigger (which I have, on several occassions) you can not begin to understand what that does to a person.

Gary R. Welsh said...

What Carson said in an interview with Ruth Holladay:

Carson, 33, said today in a phone chat that he was influenced, as a teen-ager, by the biography of Malcom X, and by NOI members and an offshoot group, the Five Percent Nation or the Five Percenters. Both the NOI and the Five Percenters were active in Indy, trying to clean up its mean streets during the 1980s and 1990s.

The Nation of Islam and the Five Percenters were feared by the drug dealers in his neighborhood, said Carson. The fact that those groups took a stand against drugs and the dealers earned respect among "the elders," including Carson's grandmother. "They were cleaning up the neighborhoods," and that was an appealing idea.


Carson said his grandmother came into contact with NOI members as well during her years at the Center Township Trustee's Office; that's where she first got connected with Minister Farrakhan, he guesses. "Some employees there (trustee's office) were affiliated with the nation. Others were orthodox Muslim. Others were Christian."

M Theory said...

If Carson were really enlightened, he would be all for the repeal of drug laws. That's how we end the violence which is associated with underground black market trade and not the drug itself.

You don't have people killing each other iin the black market over coffee, cigarettes, or a glass of wine.

THAT is how to clean up our streets. RE-LEGALIZATION!

Downtown Indy said...

By the way, they usually make their way to the Capitol via underground tunnels. Yet that day they decided to parade through the streets.

I suspect the whole thing was planned and executed as just another attempt to denigrate the TEA Party followers. They are a threat to the Democrats. Can't silence them, so try to paint them with a broad brush of racism.

Just another form of bigorty.

Gary R. Welsh said...

The Left has been doing everything it can to marginalize tea party protesters. It's been one smear after another. Carson knew he could claim he was called a nigger and he would be believed because that's what the Left wanted to hear. That's how they perceive these people.

Downtown Indy said...

And the accused can't even counter-claim they did not make the statements they are accused of because of yet another baseless assertion - that they just wouldn't openly admit they are racists.

This is eerily similar to 15th century witchhunts.

"She's a witch!"

"No I'm not!"

"Don't believe her, she's a witch and she's just trying to trick us!"

How much longer before they get around to burning 'racists' at the stake?

Indy4U2C said...

Corruption is as Corruption does..

--The Democrat Machine



-Wilson46201, Propaganda Minister

Marycatherine Barton said...

It is hard to know the truth about reported accusations of name-calling, when political tricksters are involved.

indyernie said...

Andre has a history of creating controversial incidents. When this was first reported I doubted its validity.

american patriot said...

I bet I hear the word nigger 2 or 3 times a week from some guy driving a $500 car with a $5,000 sound system, and the majority of the drivers are black.

Gary R. Welsh said...

As Chris Rock has explained, only a black can call another black "nigger."

patriot paul said...

"Tea Party groups are offering a $15,000 reward to anyone who can prove Cleaver was intentionally saliva sprayed during part of the Congressional Black Caucus' dramatic entrance to the Capitol last Saturday as he claims he was."
http://illinoisreview.typepad.com/illinoisreview/2010/03/tea-party-groups-offer-15k-reward-for-spitting-incident-proof.html

Clear-eyed said...

Spare me. I have no doubt the word "nigger" was spewed at the congressmen. Some of the "tea party" protesters are whack jobs, just like some of any protest group (right or left). The fact that the congressmen decided to take a walk in public to show how out of control the opponents are is simply good use of publicity. If you recall your history, it is the crazy reaction to civil rights walks that turned the mainstream for the Civil Rights bill of 1968. The fact that Congressman Lewis would use the same technique to make people look bad is no surprise.

Comments about 500$ cars with 5000$ stereos really just make you look worse.
Repeated denials and accusations of LIAR!, RACIST! don't help, and actually make people believe it even more. The fact that extreme behaviour by protestors has happened in the past, and that these Tea Party folks have shown up on nation media fully armed, merely ensures that cameras will be handy to film some kind of violent episode.

Frankly, blaming the congressmen for walking in public is a bit like blaming dog bite victims for provoking a dog by being there. If your protester can't "say it not spray it", don't you think he might look a bit on the crazy side?

Downtown Indy said...

I wonder why 'itgesq' has 'no doubt.' Have we also struck down the presumption of innocence? Just another of those pesky Constitutional rights, eh?

A good observation was made today - if the 'n' word was hurled, wouldn't at LEAST one person have turned and looked in the direction they thought it came from? Wouldn't someone have stopped, or at least altered their gait upon such a vile assault? Yet none did - they marched right through, unflinchingly, looking straight ahead except for one guy who got into some sort of shouting match for a moment. And that one can be pretty clearly heard to NOT be an 'n' word incident.

And then we have the IBEW egg-throwers along the route to Searchlight, NV. A guy caught redhanded on tape actually holding an egg, but calling out a TEA Party supporter as the thrower, as if that makes ANY sense at all.

Sorry folks, the Dems are playing their smear and discrediting campaign and it's all being recorded and shown for what it really is.