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Title: Clinton campaign, director: Clip of adviser slurring Hoosiers was doctored
Source:
Raw Story
URL Source: http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Infor ... dmouthed_Hoosiers_in_0502.html
Published: May 2, 2008
Author: Ron Brynaert
Post Date: 2008-05-02 21:48:17 by robin
Keywords: None
Views: 102
Comments: 3
A former Clinton official, who is reportedly an informal adviser to Senator Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign, is being accused of badmouthing Hoosiers in a 1993 documentary, and a clip is being circulated at YouTube and liberal blogs by Senator Barack Obama supporters just days before the Indiana Democratic primary. "With the Indiana and North Carolina primaries less than 96 hours away, making its way around the pro-Obama blogosphere is a clip in this video of former prominent Clinton administration official Mickey Kantor calling Indianans an expletive," MSNBC's Domenico Montanaro observed. MSNBC adds, "Kantor is a supporter of Hillary Clinton's, listed on the Clinton campaign Web site as one of several former Clinton administration officials backing her candidacy. He is also reported to be an informal adviser to her 2008 campaign." ABC's Jake Tapper also reported on the fifteen year old clip. "Bill Clinton's Trade Representative, a supporter of Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-NY, and an informal adviser to her campaign -- once had some not-so-nice things to say about the Hoosiers his chosen candidate is working so hard to pursue," Tapper writes. "As seen in The War Room, watching election returns come in, Kantor said in hushed tones to James Carville, 'Look at Indiana, wait, wait – look at Indiana. 42-40. It doesn’t matter if we win. Those people are [shit]. Excuse me,'" Tapper adds. A Washington Post article from January referred to Kantor as "Bill Clinton's 1992 campaign chairman and an adviser to Hillary Clinton," and in February Kantor, who is also a partner for Mayer Brown, an international law firm, defended Senator Clinton's history on NAFTA to Huffington Post's Sam Stein. A second video on YouTube includes subtitles for a subsequent whispered comment by Kantor, however it's not completely clear what he says, and ABC and MSNBC didn't even mention the alleged second slur. The second video also doesn't include another barely audible whispered comment by Kantor between the two lines. Obama supporters at Daily Kos and Democratic Underground believe that the documentary also shows Kantor whispering, "How would you like to be a worthless white nigger?" By noon on Friday, the second YouTube clip had received 2662 recommendations by users at the social networking website Digg. On the other side of the blogosphere, Matt Drudge linked to the edited clip with the following headline in bright red letters: "YOUTUBE FLASHBACK SHOCK: Clinton Advisor: Indianans 'Shit', 'Worthless White N**gers'..." In an interview with Huffington Post's Sam Stein, Kantor slammed interpretations of the out-of-context clip and angrily denounced the YouTube transcription of his whispered comment. "I've never used that word in my entire life, ever, under any circumstance, ever," Kantor told The Huffington Post about his alleged use of 'niggers.' "I have listened to [the video] and so have you. You can't tell what it is I'm saying in that second sentence, you can't decipher that." Stein appears to back Kantor up, noting that the "sound suggests, if anything, that instead of saying 'How would you like to be a worthless white n**r?' Kantor says, 'How would you like to be in the White House right now?'" Kantor said that he "was talking about the polling and not the people" anyway, and that the edited video "is frankly libelous." Stein adds, "Kantor said he was in the process of contacting 'the best' libel lawyers to approach YouTube.com about the process of removing the video from its site. He suggested that The Huffington Post, too, should not print even his defense, as it would be an advancement of a non-story." When contacted by RAW STORY, the Clinton campaign complained that the second clip was "doctored." "He does not say that. He does not say that," renowned director D.A. Pennebaker told Politico's Ben Smith about the clip taken from his 1993 documentary. "He said the initial expletive referred to the anticipated reaction in the Bush White House to the fact that Ross Perot's polling numbers were holding strong," Smith writes. Pennebaker told Smith, "What he says is he’s surprised Perot’s numbers are holding. He says they must be shi**ing in the White House." Smith writes that Pennebaker called the alleged second slur "entirely fabricated, with new audio dubbed onto the original movie," but observes that "it's possible that the subtitles are incorrect, but that the audio hasn't been deliberately altered." Clip from WAR ROOM (comment is approximately 4:45 in): Edited clip from WAR ROOM:
(Update at bottom: Kantor angrily denies 'second slur', director says clip was doctored)
Kantor angrily denies 'second slur'
Clinton camp, director: Tape doctored
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#1. To: nolu_chan, aristeides, IndieTX (#0)
Update from earlier thread today
“President Bush has talked about our staying in Iraq for 50 years,” “Maybe a hundred ... ... that’d be fine with me,” McCain responds The contested n-word comment is too indistinct to ascertain. However, in the first statement, Kantor is clearly heard to say of the good folks of Indiana, "Those people are shit." It's a good thing he didn't call them bitter.
lol So you disagree that it was doctored? Or you just think it was bad w/o being doctored?
"To destroy a people you must first sever their roots." - Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Hillary: "I want the Iranians to know that if I'm the president, we will attack Iran in the next 10 years, during which they might foolishly consider launching an attack on Israel, we would be able to totally obliterate them."
#2. To: robin (#1)
Update from earlier thread today
#3. To: nolu_chan (#2)
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