09 Apr 2010 Richard Trumka: How Convenient

Three weeks after the fact, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka suddenly announced he personally witnessed Tea Party activists call Rep. John Lewis (D-GA), a black Congressman, the “n-word” on Capitol Hill March 20.

Trumka never said a word about what he allegedly witnessed until Andrew Breitbart asked him in a public forum Q&A to help investigate union thugs who Breitbart saw attacking tea partiers in Searchlight, Nevada. Then, suddenly, Trumka claimed he personally heard Lewis get called the “n-word” and watched Congressmen (plural) get spat upon. And then Trumka changed the subject and called upon someone else.

Trumka’s allegation, while a convenient way for him to duck Breitbart’s question about investigating union violence, doesn’t have the ring of credibility. Why did he keep silent until now? Was he walking with Lewis that day? If not, was he standing among the thousands of Tea Party protesters (seems unlikely, though possible). And who are these up-to-now silent Congressmen Trumka saw get spat upon, now that even Rep. Emanuel “Say It Not Spray It” Cleaver has backed away from his allegation that a Tea Party protester intentionally spat on him? Why have these Members of Congress remained silent? How is it that the nationally-famous Trumka was in a position to witness both the slurs and multiple episodes of spitting, when no one other witness to either have come forward (despite Andrew Breitbart’s $100,000 reward)?

How convenient it is that Trumka made this allegation only when confronted by a question about yet another episode of union violence.

I strongly suspect the man’s lying.

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