For more than a month, in the aftermath of the Orlando massacre, Republicans have used some rather indistinct sound they captured at a meeting of Hall County Democrats to attack Jim Barksdale, the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate, for being soft on terrorism.
Republicans provided the audio link, but this is how they quoted Barksdale in a transcript (emphasis ours):
"Somebody has got to be strong enough and say 'I'm not going to enter that circle of violence.' It's up to us, the strongest country in the world, that is going to have to start. We are the ones that are in the wrong. We need to step back from the violence."
Except that’s not what Barksdale said. We’ve got the video proof:
Here’s what he really said (again, emphasis ours):
"Somebody's got to be strong enough to say, 'I'm not going to enter that circle of violence.' It's up to us – the strongest country in the world is the one that has to start it. We're the ones that have to show that we're the strong ones, and step back from the violence."
Somebody owes somebody an apology here.
About the Author
