Mourning becomes Elijah

Yesterday I particularly missed the late Andrew Breitbart, founder of Breitbart. Andrew doggedly pursued the story behind the allegations of Reps. Andre Carson, John Lewis, Emanuel Cleaver and James Clyburn that Tea Party protesters abused black congressmen with racial epithets while demonstrating against Obamacare on Capitol Hill on March 20, 2010. The story was reported as fact by news organizations including Fox News and McClatchy News, but Breitbart called baloney and exposed it as a concoction of the congressmen who peddled it.

One can say this with something approaching metaphysical certainty because of the utter lack of evidence supporting it under circumstances where there would have been such evidence had it happened as alleged. The key to the case was Breitbart’s offer of a $100,000 reward to anyone producing video of the epithets being shouted. There were no takers because it didn’t happen. One can reasonably conclude that the congressmen’s story was a fabrication intended to defame the Tea Party movement and distract attention from the resistance to Obamacare. Not a single video corroborated it although many videos were shot that day, and despite Breitbart’s offer of a $100,000 reward to anyone producing a video that corroborated it. No independent journalist or other eyewitness stepped forward to vouch for the congressmen’s story.

Yesterday Ranking Minority Member Elijah Cummings read a written statement at the opening of the House Oversight Committee hearing on the Department of Justice Inspector General report addressing the FBI’s Clinton email “investigation.” As he approached the conclusion of his prepared remarks, Cummings swung into the Trump administration for its enforcement of immigration law at our southern border. Despite the irrelevance of the subject to the hearing, it was nevertheless a revealing moment. As Cummings sought to work up his tears for the camera, he demonstrated the Democrats’ lack of seriousness about anything but their return to power in the next Congress.

Rep. Cummings: Keep shouting. Keep “crying.” Keep shouting while you “cry.” Mourning becomes Elijah.

Video via Tim Hains/RealClearPolitics (including a transcript).

Notice: All comments are subject to moderation. Our comments are intended to be a forum for civil discourse bearing on the subject under discussion. Commenters who stray beyond the bounds of civility or employ what we deem gratuitous vulgarity in a comment — including, but not limited to, “s***,” “f***,” “a*******,” or one of their many variants — will be banned without further notice in the sole discretion of the site moderator.

Responses