AFL-CIO Chief to Breitbart: I Witnessed Racism at Tea Party Rally
by PubliusLast night Andrew Breitbart had a confrontation with AFL-CIO Chief on the Harvard University Campus about Tea Party racism. Byron York wrote up the exchange at the Washington Examiner:
There was a confrontation last night at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government between AFL-CIO chief Richard Trumka and web entrepreneur Andrew Breitbart. Trumka was giving a speech entitled “Why Working People are Angry — and Why Politicians Should Listen” in which he made a number of by-now familiar Democratic criticisms of the Tea Party movement and of opponents of Obamacare. Trumka discussed allegations that protesters spat on Rep. Emanuel Cleaver and hurled racial epithets at Rep. John Lewis as they and other lawmakers walked across Capitol Hill shortly before passage of the Democratic health care bill.
In the question-and-answer session, Breitbart said there is no video or audio evidence of either event happening. Breitbart has, in fact, offered a $100,000 award to anyone who produces evidence that the racial insult actually occurred, and so far he has had no takers.
Until now. As Breitbart spoke, Trumka said he himself had seen the events in question. “I watched them spit at people, I watched them call John Lewis the n-word,” Trumka said. “I witnessed it, I witnessed it. I saw it in person. That’s real evidence.” Here is the exchange between the two men, from the Kennedy School video of the event. (The exchange begins with Breitbart’s question at 38:33.
Read the rest of the article here.
As Ben Smith points out in Politico, a focal point of Trumka’s speech was the increasingly popular liberal talking point that the right’s anger with the ever-expanding role of government has turned into dangerous hate… in the “hate crimes” sense of the word.
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531 Comments
Hmmmmmmmmm I never saw the PIG TRUMKA's face there. Was he in a costume?
What are they going to do? Silence us?!!
Sounds typical union thuggery to me plus the fact that their is the possibility of plants trying to bring the t party movement down.
The Conservative Edge
He was there? Where? Someone find him in the video. Frankly, he's big union. He lies for a living…
Bull! There is NO racism at Tea Party events. I have proof, I have videos.
We object to policies and ideologies in a peaceful manner. Beware next week of infiltrators. Armed with cameras, we will win.
I did see the spitting video. The congressman had to wipe the spit off of his face after one of the teabaggers was yelling and spitting at him.
"I witnessed it." "That's real evidence."
Ohhh. You "say" it happened, so it happened? With no corroborating evidence, that's at best, hearsay. And most likely a bald faced lie.
Ewwww… bet Breitbart is looking at the videos today, to see if this tool was even there…
Hey, will someone PLEASE clean the dog sh*t up off the rug?!?!?!?
The growing disdain for government is what is really troubling in all this. Not sure why anyone is surprised that a group of white people hell bent on keeping those further down the economic ladder from making gains would use racial epithets. No surprise there.
We are rapidly approaching the day that the government will have to deploy some sort of means to ensure the safety of those of us who are not part of the tea bagging mob. Clearly, this group believes in using intimidation and mob tactics to push an agenda on our freely elected Government.
Not sure how long the rest of us can idly stand by and be bullied. We need protection.
oink oink
Amazing how big the lies get to cover up the other lies. I'm sure he was standing right there, but forgot his camera…
How do you know a union rep is lying?
Um, so does that make Trumka a tea partier? Or a member of the Congressional Black Caucus?
*** We are rapidly approaching the day that the government will have to deploy some sort of means to ensure the safety of those of us who are not part of the tea bagging mob. ***
What an apt name you have. Spoken like a true Stalinist.
But the blatant voter intimidation by the New Black Panther party last election, which was not prosecuted by the Obama administration, is I'm sure, OK with you.
Question, out of the hundreds of thousands of protestors at Tea Party events, has there been any violence EXCEPT by those AGAINST the tea party folks? Becasue I sure have not seen any press reports about any.
So oHugo jr is trotting out the chief of the AFL-CIO, to take on the TEA Mvt, while he is out of the country,
no less. Polygraphs for all, I say. Isn't that a face only a mother could love? Time to dig out the dirt on
this illustrious feller.
This post suggests a new tactic for dealing with Pelosi, Reid, Obama, Cleaver, Trumka, et al:
Persona non grata: What if we had literally turned our backs to the statists? http://jeffersonsrebels.blogspot.com/2010/04/pers...
wow- we witness a tubby with a really bad mustache…
Tough times for the communist movement, one suspects. This turd should get as little TV exposure as possible.
He could singlehandedly derail their movement. Never see the Rathke boys on the tube, do you? They KNOW
how ugly they are.
This man needs a mirror. Unbreakable one, too…
The Congressman has since said that he never claimed to have been hit with spit. In the same video you saw, did you notice the female officer within arms reach of the Congressman? If someone DID spit on him, or use the N-word, don't you think she'd have reacted? Maybe reach for a radio, maybe call for backup, maybe hustle them outta there before the crowd went wild? The fact is the Black Caucus chose to walk through the crowd to get a reaction. And they didn't. And they were really disappointed………
The lips move.
i) A couple of guys dressed as if they are in a 70's blacksploitation movie should require federal prosecution? Frankly, if if you are so racist that you won't vote at a polling station that has black folks present; you don't deserve to vote.
ii) I never said there had been any reports of violence, yet. But when these angry mobs turn to rampaging in the streets (as they eventually will), you will certainly get your precious press reports of violence! Sometimes an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
Show his picture lots with his wage & BENEFITS on screen.
lol? More satire please! That was amusing!
Projection much! Typical liberal hysterics, keep it up America the leftist moonbats are howling. LOL!
UNC…YOU LIE!
Friend, if you are going to 'quote' me, do so correctly.
I called them a tea bagging mob. I NEVER used the term 'tea baggers'. That term is unsightly.
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!
Be afraid. Be very afraid. The Tea Party is coming to get you. LOL
Maybe a change of name? How about "Joseph of Squeal?"
Give him a lie detector test……… with a non-union tester. Would love to see that on Maury Povich.
where's the video, spitwad?
liberal = liar…. like water = wet.
Oh, you know, with all that spit flying everywhere he didn't want to get the camera wet.
We'll just have to take his good word for it. LOL
Trumka lies.
LOL Give it up loser. Nobody is buying your bullshit AND your laughingly silly assertion that you are made of steel. Move along weakling parasite. If your were made of "steel" you wouldn't be begging for "protection" like frightened child.
Kenny Gladney disagrees with you Trumke!
We have video of this outstanding black Tea Partier being beaten down by SEIU. You have no moral authority to influence our government. You are the victimizers. We are the victims.
.
Erica,
What a novel idea! On April 15th, Teaparty folks should in unison turn there backs on any outsiders trying to make waves, but don't forget your cameras and videos. This is gonna be fun!
yeah if you say so fat boy, i always take Liberals on their word
That is no different than racism.
That makes you irrelevant.
Spittal from yelling and spitting are different. Consider this:
If you deliberately spit at someone, would that cohesive loogie maintain a narrow trajectory? Yes.
Would spittal from yelling fly in a wide trajectory? Yes.
The video shows, based on the Congressman's wiping actions, that the spittal hit all over – indicating a non-cohesive spittal consistent with yelling.
If a police officer was within 3 feet of the action, wouldn't that sworn officer have reacted to a deliberate spitting incident? She didn't.
BREAKING NEWS:
Trumka discussed allegations that protesters spat on Rep. Emanuel Cleaver and hurled racial epithets at Rep. John Lewis as they and other lawmakers walked across Capitol Hill shortly before passage of the Democratic health care bill.
AND….
Charles Prince and Robert Rubin, who led Citigroup in the run-up to the 2008 banking crisis, voiced regrets on Thursday but accepted no responsibility for mega-bank's massive losses.
Former CEO Prince came to the defence of Rubin saying as an advisor he was not responsible for Citi's massive losses. Prince offered up multiple apologies for his own ignorance.
"I can only say that I am deeply sorry that our management — starting with me — was not more prescient and that we did not foresee what lay before us," Prince said.
WELL THERE YA HAVE IT. Union "Leadership" is looking (to further destroy) out for Middle America while their Co-conspirators who got rich destroying Middle America are "sorry" about it. So let's keep distracting the sheeple shall we with N-word and spit references. OKAY?
One condition of the AFL-CIO merger of 1955 was that outright Communists be purged from CIO unions. The AFL-CIO in 1957 instituted a rule that required any union official invoking his Fifth Amendment right (to avoid incriminating himself before a congressional committee) to be removed from his position. But when Richard Trumka twice invoked his Fifth Amendment right in a case involving a corruption and money-laundering scandal during the late 1990s, the response by AFL-CIO President John Sweeney was to purge the rule instead of the rule-breaker Trumka.
This case involved the Teamsters Union, whose President Ron Carey faced likely defeat in his 1996 run for re-election. According to congressional testimony, Carey agreed to raise $1 million for the Democratic National Committee if $100,000 could be provided to him immediately to finance his re-election campaign. In this shell game, as witnesses explained it, the Teamsters Union paid $150,000 to the AFL-CIO, the same amount which its Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka immediately thereafter gave from AFL-CIO accounts to the leftwing political group Citizen Action, which within days provided $100,000 to the Carey campaign.
Among those named by witnesses and investigators as involved in this scheme to illegally fund and influence a union election were Richard Trumka, Ron Carey, Andrew Stern, AFSCME President Gerald McEntee, Bill Clinton’s Deputy Chief of Staff Harold Ickes, and Clinton-Gore fundraiser Terry McAuliffe. Unions abuse their power and make extreme demands on the companys who provide the jobs. Unions are the number one reason many companies have moved their manufacturing operations out of the USA.
Tea partiers = Pale Stale Males.
And if it had happened, if it had been a true spit attack, why would that one idiot's actions be cannonized as representative of the 30,000 others there who clearly and unequivocally did not spit?
I won't play your game.
I won't accept a belittling of my anger at these attacks on liberty based on the alleged actions of someone else.
Don't worry, I hear msnbc is on the case. (Although I'm not sure they really get what "Tea Party" really means…)
exactly! There are a number of ways they could have gotten to the capitol building! They chose to walk through the crowd. It was a set-up that just didn't work.
You = racist douchebag.
I don't even know what to say to that.
I don't think you are capable of being educated, so I will move away slowly.
I witnessed greed and stupidity at a union meeting!
I think, back in the 30's, Hitler told the Jews not to worry, too.
how is "tea bagging mob" different than calling them teabaggers? Since you are convinced that tea party will eventually resort to violence we should have preemptive arrests? Why are you so afraid of people that are standing up for the constittion. And remember we do have the right of assembly. That right does not belong exclusively to the left.
I love how this moron says he saw it, so it must be true. I guess that means we all need to believe in Bigfoot, UFO's, Alien Abduction, and the Loch Ness Monster now, as well.
Sorry I can't respond. I cannot type "I am laughing at you" in big enough letters.
Not all of the teabaggers could get close up and personal with the congress members like the spitter did. If I were to unintentionally spit in someone's face because I was yelling, I would at least have the decency to apologize and not continue to yell like a mad lunatic!
[...] Visit link: AFL-CIO Chief to Breitbart: I Witnessed Racism at Tea Party Rally [...]
Umm, no, he didn't.
Moron.
You too? I thought it was just mine!
Wow, thank you for the enlightened comment that you decided to bring to this debate! How long did it take you to come up with that "clever" reply? Did you ever see the Seinfeld episode where George was so proud of his "jerk store" retort that he drove many miles just to deliver it to the guy that had made fun of him? I could imagine you doing something similar.
It's ok to use IDIOT and Trumka in the same sentence!
When he is awake
You're nothing to us, but a useless, pedantic, elitist asswipe.
Your condescending attitude is one of the main reasons we exist today; we're done with your insults and dirty Alinsky tactics.
And every time a chump slob like Trumka lies and misguided ObamaBots like you post here, we only grow stronger in our resolve and larger in numbers.
The struggle for you moonbats now is to use your tired, sunlight-faded Alinsky "rules" in a desperate attempt to destroy the Tea Party Movement and other empowered constitutionalists before November. But the horses have left the gate, pal. Your goose is cooked and your Socialist Party is toast.
Oh, and go eff yourself, you smug POS.
that alex caras look alike couldnt even get a date with bigfoot, mongo wanna be
You wrong on mutiple threads. That quite a feat UNC. Come on be honest, who's paying $7.00 an hour and a six pack, HuffPo? KosKidz? The DNC?
Pound thosae "talking points and lies", keep telling that LIE until it sticks.
So, what was he wiping off of his face? Was it pixie dust?
i) the terms are completely different. I can't remediate it any further for you.
ii) Preemptive arrests?! Who said anything about preemptive arrests? My gosh! Leave it to a conservative to make that leap. You took my belief that the government should provide some security all the way to preemptively arresting people???? Where is YOUR mind at?
iii) Yes you do have the right to assembly. No one said tea'ers couldn't or shouldn't assemble. I would just feel safer if the National Guard or some police force was there in case you decide the time is right for violence. I mean, I've seen pictures of civil rights demonstrations and leftist protests, and there are always men in uniform there to hose them down or shoot tear gas at them.
I just want to make sure the tea'ers are wet and crying when they get overly rambunctious.
Trumka does not lead SEIU, he leads AFL-CIO. Get a clue!
Find out where he lives and hold a TEA Party there so he won't have to walk too far. This in fact is the tactics they have used themselves: Find it Personalize it.
BTW: I would bet that he has a much nicer house than those he purports to represent, makes alot more too.
Hey Stalin. The left is getting it's own treatment trown back at it's face.
How many people were MURDERED by STALIN? You use that as a nome de plume?
You are a messeed up criminal.
No, actually it gets funnier. Nothing better than seeing nonproductive people that apparantly don't have jobs whining and crying about taxes that have NOT been raised. The misspelled signs are awesome and indicative of the education levels represented by the teabaggers. Also, the old people screaming about keeping the government out of their Medicare is priceless! LOL!!!
No you would not. You don't have the balls to get that close…
STFU
This ought to be easy to prove. We need Andrew to shine the light on the data and hopefully Trumka can have his crow and eat it tool
Mmmm. Inner city "urban" blacks and VIOLENCE. Nope no history or linkage there.
Move along, REICH, I mean right Holder?
has this d-bag been spotted in any of the footage?
Seen one, you seen them all.
When asked what the union wants, their answer is simply 'MORE"
Get a clue,,,unions have negotiated their rank and file out of the market,,,,they are the reason jobs go overseas.
UNC
drool!
UNC
The elite do not deign to walk among us.
You win………I have never seen one person assemble so many cliches in such a meaningless post.
Well done.
Thats what the survey says. Look it up on google "Who are the Tea partiers".
Dont fight facts.
I already know, just wish all dues paying captives knew as well. If they all understood how badly they are being abused there would be a big bunch of decertification prodedures.
How do you justify the immoral and unconstitutional acts of government officials?
How do they clearly use intimidation ? through their peaceful gatherings? I think you need to give up the act, please give it up.
Right on Zombee, good to see the researchable detail you provide. Let in the light of truth and these scum will wither and die.
I think the union leader retirement plan should be the same as the one Hoffa got.
UNC
You don't have the decency to support the country of your birth….or do you?
You = Uptight White Trotskyite.
Liar. Does anybody know where we can get a list of business and products that are union related so we can boycott?
You can tell that this lying prique spends every night drooling over prime rib, lamb chops and 3 lb. Maine lobster smothered in butter (paid in full by kickbacks) while he concocts new lies in order to dupe his minions into forking-over more of their hard-earned cash, while Barry protects his union's massive legacy retirement and health care gravy train.
Are you cross with me UNC? I don’t know if I can continue? I was responding to your teabagger comment. Actually I got it from James Hudnall over at BH seems the perfect retort, one nasty pejorative deserves another.
How do you know when a politician is lying? …. His/her lips are moving. Classic joke.
Put up the video or shut up, Mob union thug.
Your dog don't hunt.
Joseph_of_Steel
Your poor mama!
and you won't see this on the lame stream fringe media….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbqeHEOunzE
But only because redundancy is allowed…
Years ago, my dad was apart of management during a union strike at his company. After weeks of the union employees standing on picket lines not being paid, the union negotiators agreed to send their members back to work making less per hour with less benefits than was offered before the strike. The union agreed to end the strike because the contract contained a clause that called for mandatory union membership for all non management employees. Unions don't look out for the workers; unions look out for the unions.
he was sprayin what he was sayin he never spit on anyone! Even though he deserves to be spit on the way he spit on our constitution! You like the sheep that follow what your told too. Do some research educate yourself then you may have a clue. Till then I would stay out of any debates because your makin horse's a– out yourself
Yes, protection is much better found in a concealed and loaded firearm. It'll keep your hands free for your misspelled signs preaching murder of elected officials.
Armageddon, the apocalypse and the anti-christ have nothing to do with politics aside from being used to rile up people upset with the country's real problems and get them to agree with *any* alternative. Spitting, bigotry, rock-throwing and phone threats are only escalating signs of the dangers of blind rage rhetoric. Your Fox News messiahs aren't preaching answers, they're building rage for ratings.
"i) A couple of guys dressed as if they are in a 70's blacksploitation movie should require federal prosecution? Frankly, if if you are so racist that you won't vote at a polling station that has black folks present; you don't deserve to vote. "
http://hotair.com/archives/2008/11/04/fox-black-p...
what a tangled web we weave, when at first we attempt to decieve………Thank you William Shakespear. A hood is a hood, a union hood is a different animal. They will lie to your face, then swear you did't hear what hey said. We have witnessed the exchanges during the parade of race-baiters marching through the TEA party rally. Has anyone asked those bastions of honesty how many times in the past ten years they have not used the tunnel provided the Congress to get to the House? I can gauran-damn-teeya you will find you could count the time on one hand with fingers left over.
And WHO would we become "violent" against, 'tard?
Ourselves?
It's obvious you've never attended or even watched video of a tea party event.
Unlike your Democ…I mean, Socialist Party, who smash windows, flip police cars and set fires to effigies and American flags, we gather – with proper permits – in public areas and hold rallies.
But due to the fact that you're a typical lying POS moonbat, you think we will eventually act like you and your fellow idiots.
Again, who would be at a tea party event that could serve as the recipient of our "violence"?
So, which asylum were you released from?
Your an idiot! You want to see mob action check out the left wing radicals your repeating after. your like the pot callin the kettle black. And no the is not a racial comment moron
Left_Hip
Make sure to hold your mama's hand while crossing streets, it is a dangerous world out there.
Sure you did. But the dozens of cameras missed it.
So, you know, we don't believe you.
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