No, Kathy Barnette Did Not Support Black Lives Matter Riots or Demonize Police

AP Photo/Matt Rourke

Stories like this further demonstrate that it is not only the left who lies to you. Supporters of Dr. Mehmet Oz, a Republican running for Senate in Pennsylvania, are spreading blatant lies about Kathy Barnette, who is also seeking the GOP nomination. Barnette has soared in popularity over the past few weeks and is now neck-and-neck with Dr. Oz. She gained even more notoriety after savaging him during a debate. This development apparently has some on the right concerned that Oz might not get the nod from GOP voters.

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Conservative podcaster Greg Kelly posted a deceptively edited portion of a video Barnette streamed on Facebook back in May 2020 amid the controversy over the murder of George Floyd. The excerpt was meant to make it appear as if Barnette supported the riots that occurred after footage of Floyd’s encounter with police went viral. It seems also intended to paint a picture of a high-profile black woman demonizing law enforcement. He wrote:

KATHY BARNETTE is NOT ready.  Here she is saying how GREAT Black Live Matter Summer was. And how she feels COPS just want to SHOOT AND KILL black people.  Kathy needs to do more THINKING and less Speaking.  TOTALLY SILLY AND UNINFORMED !

In the video, Barnette can be seen saying:

“In broad daylight. It’s just absolutely reprehensible. And in that moment, I felt an entire nation come to the aid of what so many of us in the black community feel happens often enough. Some of us feel as though on every street corner there’s a police officer – they’re ready and waiting to shoot a black man.”

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There is something missing from this video. The person who edited the video did not want you to see the remark she made right after these comments.

Here is the full quote about George Floyd in context:

“What happened to George Floyd. My heart goes out to his family. I cannot imagine. In fact, I couldn’t fully listen to the entire video that went viral that I’m sure so many of you watched. It’s sad. It’s sickening to see the indifference, deliberate indifference that was displayed there on that particular day. And in broad daylight. It’s just absolutely reprehensible.

And in that moment, I felt an entire nation come to the aid of what so many of us in the black community feel happens often enough. Some of us feel as though on every street corner there’s a police officer. They’re ready and waiting to shoot a black man. I do not believe that that is the case. And we’ll talk about that.”

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See the last line?

Barnette very clearly says she does not believe that police officers are waiting on street corners to murder black men. Funny how that part was left out, isn’t it?

But we’ve seen this before, haven’t we? Remember CNN’s “Fine People” hoax in which they attempted to make it seem as if former President Donald Trump called Nazis “fine people?” In the clip, they edited out the part when Trump says “I’m not talking about the white supremacists and neo-Nazis – they should be condemned totally.”

It’s the exact same trick. The difference is that it’s being done by a conservative who is trying to ensure that Dr. Oz, who is Kelly’s preferred candidate, gets the nomination.

But Kelly isn’t the only high-profile Oz supporter spreading deceptive narratives about Barnette. Former Acting Director of the United States National Intelligence Ric Grenell also got in on the act. On Wednesday, he quote tweeted a post from Barnette in which she used the hashtags #BLM #DefundThePolice.

However, it didn’t take long to see why Grenell’s tweet was deceptive. Deb Heine, a reporter for American Greatness, replied:

If you watch the video Richard, you’ll want to delete this.  She was using popular hashtags to draw attention to a FB video in which she talks about how “Law and Order is falling to the mob.”

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So, Grenell tried to use a video in which Barnette condemned Black Lives Matter to try smearing her as a BLM supporter because of the hashtags she used.

Anyone with a modicum of social media literacy knows that people will use particular hashtags to get their tweets in front of others looking at the same hashtag. It’s a way of getting one’s message in front of the people they most want to read it. I’ve used those particular hashtags myself – and no sane person would believe I support Black Lives Matter or defunding the police.

The Liberty Daily’s JD Rucker also reported on another deceptive tweet in which Grenell posed a “heavily-edited video” to smear Barnette as a social justice warrior type. “This time, it takes her out of context multiple times to make it seem in very short clips that she’s a BLM racist. It’s quite sloppy; there’s a part where she says ‘systemic racism’ and then the video skips to ‘specifically amongst police officers’” he wrote.

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This is an all-out smear campaign against Barnette using the same tactics for which we often criticize people like Vox’s Aaron Rupar, who is known for posting deceptively-edited videos designed to make conservatives look bad. It is one thing to use some of the left’s tactics against them; it is quite another to use them against other Republicans.

If folks like Kelly and Grenell believe Barnette to be a flawed candidate, they should make their case using authentic evidence. Instead, they have chosen to lie to the conservative movement in a cynical attempt to push their preferred candidate. Hopefully, this does not become a trend on the right.

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