Posted 2:54 PM by Scoobie Davis

Attention Mainstream Media: Trent Lott Dissembles Big-Time in Interview
In today's interview on Sean Hannity's radio program:

HANNITY: I want you to address this one issue that is being brought up by your critics. You had this controversy some years ago. You spoke to a group called the Concerned Citizens Council [Hannity obviously meant the Council of Conservative Citizens, a white supremacist group]. You want to explain that? What if any relationship do you or did you have with that organization which has been accused of having racist points of view?

LOTT: Well, the event they are talking about, I presume was an open forum for candidates running for public office and the public was invited and the media was invited. This was not a closed thing. There were Democrats and Republicans there and African-Americans there; and it was one of those events that you have almost every two years when you have important elections in a small community. You have them all over the state. You don’t usually ask who is sponsoring this thing. In this case, I knew some of the people that were involved but I also knew that a lot of political candidates were going there and I said things that we support in terms of opportunity for our people there that I would say anyplace else. But the main thing was that it was an open forum.

REALITY: When Lott was questioned about his ties to the CCC in 1998, he gave a similar bullshit explanation:

Here is what Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting has on Lott and his involvement with the CCC:

1997: Lott holds a private meeting with the CCC in his DC office
1997: Lott endorsement of the CCC is circulated in the group's literature
1995: Lott addresses the Mississippi chapter of the CCC
1992: Lott praises the group as keynote speaker at the CCC's national convention
1991: Lott addresses the Mississippi chapter of the CCC
1989: Lott appears in CCC publication Citizens Informer with his uncle, a CCC executive, and cousin, a member
1990-1998: The Citizens Informer publishes Senator Lott's column

Lott got a free pass from the alleged liberal media once with this lie. Will the media let him get away with it again?

12/12 UPDATE: Joshua Micah Marshall makes a similar argument today in his blog--but you read about it here first.