Politics

Tenn. state rep forwards Obama assassination attempt theory to constituents

Gage Smith Contributor
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A Tennessee state representative helped create Internet pandemonium Tuesday when he forwarded an e-mail claiming the Obama administration was going to stage an assassination attempt in order to delay the 2012 presidential election, The Tennessean reports.

Kelly Keisling, a Republican state congressman from Byrdstown, Tenn., forwarded the e-mail to his constituents, even though it had never been confirmed to be true.

The e-mail stated that President Barack Obama and members of his administration were going to create a fake assassination attempt “that would be blamed on ‘white supremacists’ and subsequently used to enrage black and Hispanic communities driving them to rioting all across the nation,” according to theory, penned by right-wing blogger Joe Angione.

The rumor appears to have originated with the Canadian Free Press. Angione states in his blog post that Free Press reporter Doug Hagmann was in contact with an anonymous source from the Department of Homeland Security. Hagmann, he said, “wrote that his informant works in ‘the upper-echelon of DHS,”which he described as “effectively under the control of Barack Hussein Obama.”

One of the recipients of Keisling’s email passed it along to The Huffington Post, who then contacted Frankie Anderson, Keisling’s assistant.  The state congressman admitted to sending the email, and said in a statement that he should not have done so.

“Earlier this week, I forwarded an email from my legislative office that should not have been sent out. The message was inappropriate for distribution. I regret the error and pledge to be more cautious regarding the information distributed from my office in the future,” Keisling’s statement reads.

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Gage Smith