On the day before the health care nationalization vote, there was a big Tea Party demonstration against the bill. The usual people said that the demonstration was racist. (Because, like, we’d be totally okay with health care nationalization if a white president had proposed it. Er, other than Clinton.) As evidence, they gave us unsubstantiated claims that racial epithets were shouted at black legislators, and one black Congressman, Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO), was spit on.
There’s no way to refute the claims of epithets; given all the people there, they could even be true. But it turns out there is good video of the supposed spitting incident. The video shows clearly what really happened. In elementary school we would have said “say it, don’t spray it”. It’s annoying, but these things can happen when you walk through a crowd of screaming protesters. As for the allegation that someone deliberately spat on him, it’s a lie.
UPDATE: Cleaver admits that the whole problem was the guy didn’t apologize for his loose spittle. (Via Instapundit.)
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