Emanuel Cleaver had an interview on Tuesday with FOX 4 News, and not only is he doubling down on old lies, he's inventing some new ones too.
Fact Check: Cleaver said, "I haven't talked about this incident on TV or anywhere, and I've been approached to talk about it on every national TV show,"
The Truth: Emanuel Cleaver has discussed the issue with the press and has issued numerous statements to drive the story. As for his unwillingness to appear on national TV and correct the false reports his office has issued, no explanation was given.
On the same day as the invented spitting incident, Cleaver's office issued the following statement:
For many of the members of the CBC, like John Lewis and Emanuel Cleaver who worked in the civil rights movement, and for Mr. Frank who has struggled in the cause of equality, this is not the first time they have been spit on during turbulent times.
This afternoon, the Congressman was walking into the Capitol to vote, when one protester spat on him . . . After all the Members were safe, a full report was taken and the matter was handled by the US Capitol Police. The man who spat on the Congressman was arrested, but the Congressman has chosen not to press charges. He has left the matter with the Capitol Police.
Note that the statement makes several implications designed to lead the media to false conclusions: it suggests that the incident was both racially motivated (it wasn't) and that Cleaver's safety was put into jeopardy (it wasn't). Both of these insinuations are completely false, but Cleaver knew exactly what he was doing when he made them.
The only thing he didn't know is that the video of the event would be released. Which leads us to his next scurrilous claim.
Fact Check: Emanuel Cleaver told Fox 4 that "I didn't even plan to have [the incident] known by anybody." He also blames the tapes: "if the spitting incident hadn't been caught on tape, no one would have ever known because he wouldn't have made it an issue."
The Truth: The tapes were only released days after Cleaver released his misleading statements to the media, which was uncritically repeated hundreds of times before the videos were put online to set the record straight.
On the issue of timing, Cleaver's statement was made the same day of the incident, and was clearly designed to generate slanted coverage of the incident. The full video was released days later, after factual inaccuracies in his account were already being challenged.
Cleaver was driving the story from the very beginning, not the tapes. The only reason the tapes took it to a new level was because they showed that Cleaver's earlier statements were false. But even before then, his story didn't add up, and had gone through several revisions to accommodate corrections made by the Capitol Police.
Fact Check: Emanuel Cleaver said: "All I'm saying is we all have to diffuse it, and I think it is not in my best interest or in the best interest of this nation to stoke it," said Rep. Cleaver. "I've avoided doing and I will continue to do it."
The Truth: Cleaver intentionally released false statements to mislead the media into believing that a racial incident had occurred. He lied about the spitting, and he lied about hearing a "chorus" of racial slurs.
The guys just another GRIFTER, trying hard to live upto the high standards of Al Sharpton.
Posted by: Boatswain Mate | March 31, 2010 at 12:58 PM