Clyburn: Racist Faxes, Image Of Noose Were Sent To Office (VIDEO)

House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.) received racist faxes Monday in the wake of Sunday's House vote approving health care reform legislation.

Clyburn, a veteran of the civil rights movement, told Keith Olbermann Monday that faxes sent to his office had racist images including a noose. "If you look at some of the faxes that I got today, racial slurs, nooses on gallows, and I'm telling you, some very vicious language. This stuff is not all that isolated. It's pretty widespread. I hope it's not too deep."

Olbermann read Clyburn a National Review reader's statement that racism is dead, and asked Clyburn if he could explain the logic behind it.

Clyburn: "Well, you know, I've always said that we are but the sum total of our experiences. And I think that if you have never experienced it, maybe you don't recognize it when it's there in front of you. But when you've been through this and you look into the eyes of people like we did on Saturday, you know that there's something very much alive in the hearts and minds of a lot of people in this country."

Olbermann apologized to Clyburn for the the protesters' actions.

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The racist faxes sent to Clyburn's office follow a string of offensive, threatening, and destructive incidents directed at Democratic supporters of health care reform legislation.

On Saturday, Tea Party protesters in a crowd backed by Republican lawmakers called Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) a "nigger" and at least one protester spat on Rep. Emaneuel Cleaver (D-MO). The slurs and spitting came as Lewis and Cleaver joined other Democratic lawmakers in marching to the House . Lewis and Cleaver are black. Protesters in the same crowd called Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) a "faggot." Frank is one of a few openly gay members of Congress.

An anti-reform protester called Rep. Ciro Rodriguez (D-Tex.) a "wetback" last week at a townhall meeting in his home district, according to a staffeer.

Police in Tuscon, Arizona are investigating vandalism at the office of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.). Early Monday morning, someone sent a message to Giffords and either kicked or shot out the glass door to her office.

Comments

[Kiabell04]

02:32 PM on 03/24/2010

It's really pathetic that these people have allowed the hatred for the color of the President to cloud their judgement. These 'protests' are nothing more than thinly veiled Klan rallies.

[Lemmy]

04:49 PM on 03/24/2010

Was there any evidence of such happenings? If so, would you take the actions of a few dopes and apply thier racism to an entire group? There are people like myself who disagree with Obama but are not racists.

[Slappy Tubbs]

11:25 AM on 03/24/2010

I consider myself liberal/progressive but i miss the days of the rational conservative. There's lots to be concerned about this administration and Congress but unfortunately the voices of opposition have denigrated themselves to the level of knuckle-dragging neanderthals. We need clear and intelligent voices to express different viewpoints, but instead all we get are fear oriented sound-bytes with absolutely nothing based on facts.
Come on Republicans! Get your act together. Stop pandering to racist astro-turf and start proposing legislation based on the side of logic or you will lose even more votes. If you are a tea bagger and you see racist comments on placards, tell them to put them down, that racism is not helping your cause and does not represent the spirit of what you and the larger cause wants to express. We need all of our collective ideas to get out of this mess, but the media will keep highlighting the fringe elements of the Right, bringing you further down the road of ineffectual if you don't stop this madness from the inside.
The Dems are winning because your side looks and acts ignorant to be frank. There is no Democrat takeover. They are in control because they are appealing to the broad span of voters, unlike Republicans, who seem more and more out of touch with what is happening in this country. Most true conservatives I know voted for Obama because Palin was so repulsive to them. There's a clue...

[1will]

06:39 AM on 03/24/2010

Oddly enough no one got any audio of a protester screaming the N word despite several Congressional Black Caucus members walking through the crowd with their cell phones held out.
What are the odds that this was made up?
Type "Congressional Black Caucus 3 20 2010" into YouTube's search engine to see the CBC marching through the crowd carrying recording devices. Somehow no one managed to get any audio though.
Interesting. The allegations alone are political gold. Imagine what an audio clip would be worth playing constantly on CNN and MSNBC for two weeks. I cannot imagine why we haven't heard the audio of the protester screaming the N word unless it was all invented.

[mlr710]

07:23 AM on 03/24/2010

Ya know...just because you have your cell phone out, it does not mean you have the camera/audio recording on......duh

[Salty 2]

07:50 AM on 03/24/2010

And anybody can make a claim. With hundreds recording this historical event nobody has come forward with actual evedence of the fact it happened. That doesn't mean it didn't.
Funny how people will say the terrorists at Gitmo are innocent till proven guilty, but "anti Obama " people are guilty without any evedence at all.

[1will]

08:46 AM on 03/24/2010

Good point. Everyone walks around holding their cell phones out in front of them like they're holding a cross in front of a vampire. That's entirely natural and we see it all of the time.
Watch the vids doofus.

[TaggartSteel]

10:29 AM on 03/24/2010

This was obviously staged. The Dems have been hiring plants at Tea Party rallies for months to act racist. A simple, proven tactic of the left. It is effective in getting the HP crowd to believe the Tea Party is racist, but it isn't working anywhere else.

[MoeB]

11:21 AM on 03/24/2010

So let me get this straight. You seem to think it's more plausible that the democrats organized "plants" (because, only DEMOCRATS do this, right?) at these rallies to "act racist", than it is that someone actually said this? In a nation of free-thinking, opinionated individuals? That's laughable.

Further, if democrats had "planted" someone to yell racial slurs at black Congressional members, don't you think they would've had the whereabouts to ENSURE that it was videotaped???

You really think that out of EVERY member of the tea party movement across the country that it's just impossible that ANY of them are racist? You know that much about the tea party folks that you can confidently say that NONE of them are racist?

[JohnBryansFontaine]

04:55 AM on 03/24/2010

An Absence of Class

By BOB HERBERT
Published: March 22, 2010

...For decades the G.O.P. has been the party of fear, ignorance and divisiveness. All you have to do is look around to see what it has done to the country. The greatest economic inequality since the Gilded Age was followed by a near-total collapse of the overall economy. As a country, we have a monumental mess on our hands and still the Republicans have nothing to offer in the way of a remedy except more tax cuts for the rich.

This is the party of trickle down and weapons of mass destruction, the party of birthers and death-panel lunatics. This is the party that genuflects at the altar of right-wing talk radio, with its insane, nauseating, nonstop commitment to hatred and bigotry.

Glenn Beck of Fox News has called President Obama a “racist” and asserted that he “has exposed himself as a guy, over and over and over again, who has a deep-seated hatred for white people or the white culture.”...

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/23/opinion/23herbert.html

[nippyfan]

03:38 AM on 03/24/2010

Ah yes, but racism no longer exists. We (black folks) just like pulling the "race card" all the time. How many times I have heard and read that. Meanwhile back at the ranch....

[Salty 2]

07:38 AM on 03/24/2010

There is as much racism on the black side as the white. All cultures at some point in their history were enslaved and persecuted. None more than the Jews. Every ethnic group to come to this country were discriminated against. They overcame. They didn't lay down and give up. They didn't use it as an excuse to fail. Bill Cosby said it well " failure comes from with-in a person, as does success" Pres Obama has shown dispite racism a black man (or woman) can rise to the top.
I'm not going to say racism does not exist because it does, on all sides, but it can be overcome.

[MoeB]

11:47 AM on 03/24/2010

I'm not sure the poster was implying that racism couldn't be overcome...obviously it can, or blacks would still be living under oppressive laws in this country.

But c'mon...do you really think that an Irish person, even during the times where they were discriminated against, would have traded being Irish to be black in this country? I doubt it...same with Italians...and Jewish people.

And pointing out the obvious, which is that racial discrimination still exists in this country is nowhere in the same league as "giving up".

And I'm not sure that there's as much racism with blacks as there is with whites...maybe bigotry...I'd certainly agree with that.

[jamaicalover]

12:35 PM on 03/24/2010

False.

Blacks are not in a position to as racist as whites.

[TaggartSteel]

10:31 AM on 03/24/2010

The victim mentality has been taught to you by the Democratic party. Try and see yourself as self determined and you will succeed like you will never imagine while under the Democratic Plantation.

[MoeB]

11:51 AM on 03/24/2010

LOL...nice. So when a black person points out that racism still exists in this country (and it DOES), it's the "victim mentality". I also find it hilarious that your post assumes that because the original poster stated that it does still exist that he/she needs to view him/herself as "self-determined" in order to "succeed". How do you know they haven't? Oh, I get it...unless they feel the same way as YOU do, they're just playing the victim...they aren't self-determined, and they clearly haven't succeeded, right?

[jamaicalover]

12:36 PM on 03/24/2010

Unless you've ever been called the "N" word and I have you have no clue what you are talking about.

The only party teaching victimhood is the Republican Party.

[str8fwd]

02:59 AM on 03/24/2010

Still a lot of ugliness in this country despite the overall progress. And by the way... has anyone noticed that when DEMOCRATS choose to respond to the legislative process, it includes both sexes and people that represent every demographic... but when REPUBLICANS chose to respond, it is ALWAYS white men amd many of them are over 50 and a good portion of those are over 60 and from the South?

That should tell you EVERYthing you need to know about which political party is better suited to represent THE PEOPLE in the most socially diverse nation on Earth.

[TaggartSteel]

10:32 AM on 03/24/2010

Their was bipartisanship with the HCR bill.

Both parties voted AGAINST it.

[str8fwd]

02:54 AM on 03/24/2010

Still a lot of ugliness in this country despite the overall progress. And by the way... has anyone noticed that when Democrats choose to respond to the legislative process, it includes BOTH sexes and people that represent every demographic...

But when Republicans chose to respond, it is ALWAYS white men amd many of them are over 50 and a good portion of those are over 60?

That should tell you EVERYthing you need to know about which party represents THE PEOPLE more than the other.

[emma richmond]

01:14 AM on 03/24/2010

Well Bill O'Reilly, just who in the he.., do you think you are? You people act like this is the 1960 you have to show me before you believe something, we guess he think he's talking to some dumbies, or some one ignorance, when he is really speaking of himself, We guess Bill want you to come on the show and spat on him so he will know what it feel like, or call him a name, to really feel the impact, or maybe Bill O'Reilly should give his address out so he would know what it's like to have a brick thrown his window, or maybe someone else should give his address out so it would be a suprise when a brick come throught his window, by God you will believe these people then. We Guess you didn't hear Jim Demint when he said the Health Care Bill will be President Obama Waterloo and Break him Everyone know this is what they did to Strong Black Men in the Slave days these are the Words they used, S.C. was one of the Slave States "Undoubtly Jim Demint and a few other have forgotten this is 2010, they are still living in the Pass, and today John Boehner talking point today we are going to take our country back.

[whyworry]

01:14 AM on 03/24/2010

This is my final comment on tonight and I've read some comments from a "vast" majority of clear headed thinking people out here-- and a few racist that are "attempting" to thwart the knowledge and own up to their deeds an attempts of practiced racism.

The President received assassination threats via tweeter today and the FBI is pursuing those threats. Republican Lawmakers and pundits that are in denial are actually playing a game of Russian roulette. There are a vast number of us in all nationalities that will not tolerate this behavior. Lawmakers can deny and encourage the demons to do their bidding; but they are only forcing themselves out of office for good.

Sadly…the provocation of the Republicans deeds are further exposing themselves to the citizens of this Nation as being exactly what many of us suspected them of being all along. They have no voices and no credibility-- they have no excuses; they only have themselves and the mask they’ve been wearing is finally off. They’ve destroyed our nation’s economy, allowed the “very” insurance companies that this Bill regulates to feed off of us like buzzards feed on a dead carcass; yet even now…they are seeking ways to destroy us. The more that they obstruct; the more momentum they lose and November 2010 will send them where they should be…home.

[LeoGirl55]

03:00 AM on 03/24/2010

While there are a couple of things I disagree w/Dems on, I will fight to the death before I see my country (yes, it's my country too!) revert back to racist thugs the Repubs have become. They are intent on destroying the nation under Obama "by any means necessary". They think we are all stupid like their fringe audience, who will believe anything when they are appeased through their code words/phrases -- e.g., "take back our country", "as our founders intended", "we are losing our liberties", "how I long for the days of Reagan", "capitalist free-markets", "close the borders", "this country was founded by God-fearing christians" (wonder how many have been to bible study lately?).

Truth be told, they are all running scared due to the latest statistics showing the "old white men" will become the racial minority in a few decades. I guess they want to take back the house and senate so they can reinstitute Reaganomics while they continue stockpiling and hording their 'gold" and catering to big corporations. If we allow this to happen again we will certainly end up in a depression; they will have all the gold so they will be okay. WE MUST UNITE - all who don't share their views - there is much work to do and so little time 'till Nov. 2010.

[whyworry]

12:14 PM on 03/24/2010

Exactly my point and I'm your first fan! Fanned!!

[Tony Owusu]

12:50 AM on 03/24/2010

I get a good laugh when someone says the teabaggers are upset at both parties. These people all vote Republican. Show me a bagger who will vote democrat. These protesters have real courage saying racial slurs to a bunch of old black men and women. Try that on us younger folk.

[Pansey]

01:25 AM on 03/24/2010

You're right Tony - let them try it in front of me and I'll deck them - and I'm a female, white, senior citizen!

[dagnew]

02:18 AM on 03/24/2010

Me too, Pansey. Being white seniors, we've lived through the civil unrest of the '60s, both the civil rights movement and the Viet Nam war. It was not fun. I simply don't have any use whatsoever for these knuckleheaded bigots, and I have even less use for the repug lawmakers and lawmaker wannabes who spew their own hate in hopes of garnering support and votes. Not a one of them has any concrete ideas to put forth, not one! The repug party has fizzled out. Good riddaence!

[Labsaregreat]

07:39 AM on 03/24/2010

I was a democrat all my life. But the power grab from D C is frightening

[MoeB]

11:52 AM on 03/24/2010

What power grab?

[Pansey]

07:22 PM on 03/24/2010

Don't be a sucker for the "be afraid....be very afraid" message the GOP/Teabaggers are spewing forth. I don't know how old you are - but let me tell you - EVERYTIME the Democrats take office, the GOP freaks out and starts screaming "the sky is falling" - their sole intent is to scare the bejebus out of everyone. Don't fall for it - you have a great President to be proud of - change takes time and we've got time to let this man lead us. I too am a lifelong Democrat, I believe in helping my fellow American, and yes.....I think it's my duty to PAY more taxes to take care of those fellow Americans.

[oberon123]

12:32 AM on 03/24/2010

Hey tea baggers. last time there was a fight between good and evil in this country, we burned Atlanta to the ground. Would you like to go double or nothing?

[urturn]

01:26 AM on 03/24/2010

Hey, hey. None of that "Yankee agression."

Just give me heads up.

[Pansey]

01:29 AM on 03/24/2010

LOL - oberon123, I'm a California transplant living in the South - believe me when I say, they're STILL pissed about losing that war! My "Obama" bumper sticker is the only one in a 90 mile radius (there's a few of us Democrats alive and well in the South).

[panamarine]

05:20 PM on 03/24/2010

Pansey: It must be difficult living a double life: Outdoors among your neighbors you have to talk the Rebulican and Tea Bagging talk, and behind closed doors you are free to throw a shoe at Glen Beck on his Fox show.... Or Be a Democrat in a "friendly" town. Or just don't talk politics. I feel your pain. LOL

[mi-de-lu]

12:31 AM on 03/24/2010

Why is it that there are only 132,638 fans of "TEA Party Patriots" and 180,281 fans of "Coffee Party Movement" on Facebook? There really are only a few of these nutters, but they are vocal and potentially violent.

[Sweetie4Obama]

12:14 AM on 03/24/2010

Well, according to Bill O'Reilly, unless these congressmen appear on his show to talk about what happened, there's no proof of any of these incidences. (shaking my head)

[Salty 2]

07:45 AM on 03/24/2010

Thats not even close to what he said. He said if anyone had tape of the comments he would air them.So far Nobody has shown any record of the statements. And there were plenty of people recording. Thats not to say it didn't happen, but with hundreds of people recording that historical moment you would think it would have been caught.

[soldiergirl]

11:37 PM on 03/23/2010

No one deserves the treatment that Sen Clyburn and the rest have received. The republicans shouldn't condone or encourage it, either. It says an awful lot about them, and what type of "leaders" they are.

[eternalscorpio1]

12:00 AM on 03/24/2010

they condone it and encourage it because the base of the republican party is motivated by the issue of race, if they told the racists to tone it down, they would be put in the crosshairs of limbaugh, palin and fox news........the unifying force that brings these people together is there paranoia and hatred of a black president.......

[oberon123]

12:36 AM on 03/24/2010

I dont think they condone it or encourage it. Michelle Bachmann and the witch from Wasilla don't represent the entire Republican party. The problem is they cannot control it anymore. The tea ba**ers are a cancer that is spreading rapidly through the body of the GOP. Unless sane Republicans start applying some quick chemo, the GOP is going the way of the Whigs.

[Clairyanne]

11:21 PM on 03/23/2010

How odd! The US Capitol police have denied arresting anyone for spitting on Congressman Clyburn. I guess that explains his decision not to press charges.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/politics/wire/sns-ap-us-health-care-overhaul-cleaver,0,6055929.story

[Clairyanne]

11:27 PM on 03/23/2010

Congressman Cleaver is the congressman this story refers to:
"(AP) A congressman who was spat on by a protestor on Capitol Hill says he is declining to press charges, but turns out the Capitol Police say they made no arrests."
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/politics/wire/sns-ap-us-health-care-overhaul-cleaver,0,6055929.story

[TchoupitoulasCanal]

11:30 PM on 03/23/2010

Seeing that he didn't spit on Congressman Clyburn (it was Emanuel Cleaver...which you would have known had you done even a minor bit of research), it shouldn't be odd that Clyburn wouldn't press charges.

How odd!! A right winger with 50% of the facts and 100% of the manufactured outrage.

[Clairyanne]

11:42 PM on 03/23/2010

I corrected that minor error. And I'm no right winger - just disgusted with all the ugly behavior. The last thing we need is lies to fan the flames.