A few days ago, Phil Hare’s office released a statement, explicitly stating that at the now-famous meeting in Quincy (“I’m not worried about the Constitution” and all that), Hare “was handed a piece of paper that said ‘The White House is No Longer White.’”
I questioned whether this was true at the time, stating:
And where’s the piece of paper? Why didn’t he hold it up on the video (WGEM was there), and call out the racist who handed it to him? (Let’s see, if it took him a whole day to read those seven words, I wonder how long it took him to read the 2,700 page Health care Bill three times…?)
Illinois for Growth has now conclusively shown that the piece of paper did NOT say “The White House is No Longer White.” It was a lie. The Congressional Representative for the 17th Congressional District in Illinois lied. And not a simple misstatement, either – this was a deliberate and premeditated falsehood, and smear. Phil Hare wanted people to believe that the people at the meeting — his constituents! — were racists. The press release issued by his office explicitly stated, and placed in quotation marks the supposed quote from the paper that “The White House is No Longer White.”
But the actual document never said that. More importantly, it never implied anything remotely racist. Instead, it used some admittedly over-the-top imagery of historical political figures and stated “America’s White House? Not Anymore!” This is a far cry from what Phil Hare said was on the document, and is not racist is any way, shape or form.
Hare’s sliming of his own constituent as racist is reprehensible, but certainly not beneath the Democrats in Congress.
Hare has already silently backtracked, though. If you click on the link for his prior press release, it has been silently changed, and now the quote reads:
“Yesterday, Congressman Hare held what was supposed to be a meeting with seniors in Quincy to discuss important provisions in the health care bill. But Bobby Schilling, Congressman Hare’s opponent in the fall, politicized the event by sending his supporters to disrupt it. Congressman Hare was called a Nazi. He was called a liar. He was handed a piece of paper that said “America’s White House? Not Anymore!.” So much for a civil debate.
Notice how the updated release now shows the actual quote, confirming that Illinois for Growth’s document is correct? So, in sum, Representative Phil Hare called one of his constituents falsely, a racist, and has now confirmed the fact by changing his press release, without informing the public, or apologizing. This was no innocent mistake, it was a smear, through and through.
Confirmation that Hare changed the press release to remove the defamatory remark is found in this article from the Quad Cities Online, which quotes the slanderous statement from Hare’s (prior) press release:
But Rep. Hare’s office alleges that Bobby Schilling–the congressman’s Republican opponent–sent his supporters to derail the event.
“(Rep. Hare) said several times during the meeting yesterday that he supports the Constitution, but that conveniently didn’t make the tape,” the release from the congressman’s office states.
In the statement, the congressman’s office also contends there were other things not shown on the tape.
“Congressman Hare was called a Nazi,” the release states. “He was called a liar. He was handed a piece of paper that said ‘The White House is No Longer White.’ So much for a civil debate.”
WGEM also confirms the smear here; The Quincy Herald-Whig here.
Hare thinks he can silently back out of this, but I beg to differ. This is news, folks. Mr. Hare has been caught in a white lie. And it ain’t pretty. As Mr. Hare said, “so much for a civil debate.” This guy is a disgrace.
ps- anyone know how to get a “screen grab” or a cached view of the prior statement?
