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GA-04: Past McKinney Statements Suggest Libel Charge May Be Thin

This morning we’ve been bringing you details on embattled Georgia Rep. Cynthia McKinney’s attempts to force the Atlanta Journal Constitution to retract a weekend opinion column blasting McKinney.

In the column, AJC's Cynthia Tucker wrote: "[McKinney] suggested that President Bush had known in advance about the Sept. 11 attacks but did nothing to stop them so his friends could profit from the ensuing war." McKinney claims this and other assertions in the column are false. But Election Central has unearthed several past McKinney statements which suggest that this assertion by Tucker may be, well, not so false after all, though Tucker could have included qualifiers.

In the column, Tucker repeated the tale of McKinney's brawl with a Capitol Hill cop, and wrote:

[McKinney] suggested that President Bush had known in advance about the Sept. 11 attacks but did nothing to stop them so his friends could profit from the ensuing war.
This is one key assertion in the column which McKinney is claiming is false. But on March 25, 2002, McKinney appeared on the KPFA radio station in Berkeley, CA, and here's part of what she said, according to a column by the Nation’s David Corn in May 2002:

What did this administration know and when did it know it, about the events of September. 11. Who else knew, and why did they not warn the innocent people of New York who were needlessly murdered? What do they have to hide?

If Corn has this quote accurate, this appears to show that McKinney at least suggested -- though she didn't assert -- that Bush may have known about Sept. 11. Tucker did use the word "suggested." McKinney's lawyer claims in a letter to the AJC that a documentary called “American Blackout” has exposed as false the assertion that she said this, but doesn't say how. Election Central hasn't seen the documentary.

Meanwhile, according to an AP article from April 2002, in the radio interview McKinney also suggested that the attack benefited defense contractors, especially the Carlyle Group, which has ties to the Bush family. After a national uproar over these suggestions, McKinney issued a two page statement. The statement said in part:

I am not aware of any evidence showing that President Bush or members of his administration have personally profited from the attacks of 9-11. A complete investigation might reveal that to be the case. For example, it is known that President Bush's father, through the Carlyle Group had -- at the time of the attacks -- joint business interests with the bin Laden construction company and many defense industry holdings, the stocks of which, have soared since September 11.

On the other hand, what is undeniable is that corporations close to the Administration, have directly benefited from the increased defense spending arising from the aftermath of September 11. The Carlyle Group, DynCorp, and Halliburton certainly stand out as companies close to this Administration. Secretary Rumsfeld maintained in a hearing before Congress that we can afford the new spending, even though the request for more defense spending is the highest increase in twenty years and the Pentagon has lost $2.3 trillion.

While Tucker may have been right to say that McKinney "suggested" previous knowledge, Tucker didn't include the fact that McKinney subsequently claimed that she was "not aware of any evidence" that Bush's friends had profited from the war.

As for Tucker’s claim that McKinney was accused of striking a Capitol Hill police officer with her cell phone, that news has been widely reported, as well, most recently in a Hill story today. McKinney says that the claim is false, and indeed, a Grand Jury did decline to indict her for it. Tucker didn't mention this fact.


139 Comments

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Whether the AJC could have been more nuanced in its commentary on Mckinney is beside the point. McKinney's impulsiveness and lack of political sophistication are reasons enough for Georgia voters to replace her as their representative.

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I am in the minority (so to speak) in the world outside her Congressional district, but I'd like to take this opportunity to make a left-handed pitch to keep Cynthia McKinney in Congress for the rest of her life.

I have attempted to watch C-Span in the past and have been bored to tears, mainly because you know what's about to be said and by whom. Congress is as predictable as the change of seasons.

The only people who make Congress interesting are the cranks and the nutjobs that have passed through their hallowed halls, both past and present. These are the people whose behavior and commentary are so bizarre and so ill-informed as to raise political discourse to the level of comedic art.

In the past, that included Jim Traficant of Ohio (pre-prison) with his shouts of "Beam me up!" and countless references to his father the trucker.

In the present day, it includes Ted Stevens on the Senate side, and Cynthia McKinney for the House.

Every distinguished house needs a Court Jester. McKinney, with her crazy orange clothes, her deer-on-meth-in-headlights eyes and hair straight out of the Medusa design school, fits that bill to perfection.

With McKinney on the Hill, Washington becomes funny to those of us who think that Mark Russell and the Capitol Steps are about as collectively funny as a knock knock joke.

Georgia is the Land of the Laughed At. I plead to those in the land of onetime comedian Zell Miller to PLEASE, send McKinney back to Congress. Keep government funny for the rest of us.

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I would think it would be a far more interesting thing to explore what the Bush administration actually knew before 9/11, and whether such knowledge could constitute actual or negligent consent. Certainly, in my view, the conduct of the Bush administration leading up to 9/11 seems entirely negligent.

And meanwhile, there does seem to be a continuing financial relationship between Dick Cheney and Halliburton, and signs of interference by the Vice-President on behalf of Halliburton. And of course, its well known that Halliburton got all those juicy no-bid contracts... and has been roundly criticized for poor performance and poor accounting which may well verge on corruption.

It might be very interesting to look at the affairs of the Carlyle group, and of key Bush contributors, in terms of profits and business relating to 9/11 and Iraq.

But no... Let's all burn Cynthia McKinney at the stake. After all, she's black and she's got funny hair.

Ahhh, America.

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McKinney was courted by greens and socialist organizations and it went to her head. Maxine Waters ought to learn a lesson from this.. greens and socialists will exploit and attempt to manipulate by encouraging the sort of behaviors McKinney has exhibited since '00.

BTW, to whomever it was that was commenting that her competition was running against McKinney because she was black, should visit the campaign site for her competition, Hank Johnson, who is also African American.. http://www.hankforcongress.com/

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So the problem with McKinney is not that she's 'black', but that she's 'uppity black'?

Gotcha.

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Who's making fun of her because she's black? The last time I checked, being batshit insane is an equal opportunity disorder. Just watch Rumsfeld at a press conference and you'll see what I mean.

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Sorry, you can't evade the subject with that weak attempt at distorting what I stated. The poster I responded to had attempted to write off McKinney's is having to face opposition is due to racism.

which was laughable, and an example of how some of you here are too willing to toss out slanders and lies without even researching the facts. I posted a link to the site of her opposition, a democrat who happens to be black as well.

McKinney's constituency, which in large part is minority and poor haven't been especially happy with her performance in office of late. She spends more time serving the agenda of the greens and socialists who have been aggressively courting her since 2000, then representing her constuency.

She couldn't even be bothered to attend the house of representatives to vote on the Voting Rights Act extension.. she managed to get there after it was over.. she'd been in New York meeting and greeting with the leftist extremists who are virtually the only ones donating to her campaign.. who can blame her constituents for being upset, she clearly believes it's more important to serve the interests of her affluent extremist lobbyists than serving the people back home who elected her. I guess we're not supposed to speak about that though..

Of course, leftist extremists around the country screamed when Denise Majette defeated McKinney some years back when her constituents had gotten fed up with her, Majette is black as well, McKinney only won her seat again because Majette opted to run for a senate seat during the next election. What is it about representative democracy that you don't understand, or is it that you don't believe that citizens have the right to choose for themselves who they want to represent them? I guess Jim Crow sounds mighty attractive to you..

What I view as racist is a bunch of affluent extremists who think they are entitled to rob the rights of poor and minority voters by dismissing their legitimate concerns, by impuning the credibility of the candidate they are supporting to replace McKinney.

But again, I don't believe you're so much interested in helping the poor and minorities.. if you were you wouldn't be advocating for the things you do. Candidates like McKinney, and Lamont for that matter don't achieve anything other than more polarization.

Representative John Lewis (who is a supporter of Joe Lieberman) has the authority to get things done. He too, is a vocal critic of the invasion of Iraq. He too, has frequently disagreed with the policies of President Bush. He too, is a Democrat, a member of the minority party (and a member of the Congressional Black Caucus). But when Lewis threw his determined efforts behind extension of the Voting Rights Act, it passed.

It's the difference between incompetency and time wasting and influence and hard work on the issues. In case you haven't figured it out already, McKinney wastes her constituents time, and is so besotted with the pipe dreams she's allowed herself to buy into, courtesy of her radical friends, that he has ignored and betrayed the voters of her district.. the people who are supposed to be able to count on her.

I realize that the truth and the issues aren't important to you.. but that doesn't mean that the truth and the issues aren't important to the rest of us across the country, and what's more, there are more of us than there are of you. :)

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