Don Lemon Interviews Alvin Greene: "One Of The Most Bizarre Interviews I've Ever Conducted"

[Turborama]

Run time: 06:02 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDb7l0AAvUY   Posted on YouTube: June 13, 2010 By YouTube Member: USFGirlVids Views on YouTube: 433   Posted on DU: June 13, 2010 By DU Member: Turborama Views on DU: 4334

 
Lemon asks him towards the end if he's on something, it sure sounds like it.

TRENDING: Clyburn: 'Elephant dung' all over S.C. Dem primaries
Posted: June 13th, 2010 01:00 PM ET

From CNN Associate Producer Martina Stewart

A leading South Carolina Democrat charged Sunday that his state’s recent Democratic primaries had been tainted. And House Majority Whip James Clyburn used some very colorful language to do so.

In addition to the fact that Alvin Greene, an unemployed veteran with no apparent campaign apparatus, won Tuesday’s race for the South Carolina’s Democratic Senate nomination, Clyburn also told CNN of a suspicious element in his own primary race - a consultant with Republican ties worked for Clyburn’s unsuccessful challenger.

Watch: http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/politics/2010/06/13/sotu.clyburn.elephant.dung.cnn">Clyburn speaks out on recent S.C. Dem primaries

“I saw the patterns in this,” Clyburn said on CNN’s State of the Union. “I know a Democratic pattern. I know a Republican pattern and I saw in the Democratic primary elephant dung all over the place. And so I knew something was wrong in that primary. And this result tells us that.”

Clyburn also told CNN Chief Political Correspondent Candy Crowley that he did not see himself supporting Greene in his effort to unseat popular conservative lawmaker Sen. Jim DeMint, R-South Carolina. And Clyburn reiterated his theory that Greene’s candidacy was orchestrated to disrupt the electoral process in South Carolina. “Of course, Candy, I never said was a Republican plant,” explained Clyburn. “I said he was someone’s plant.”

Related: http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2010/06/09/facing-charges-democrat-refuses-to-leave-s-c-senate-race/">Clyburn calls for an investigation into Greene's bid

From: http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/?fbid=20B3tj_HKTr

[sasquuatch55]

1. Done right out of the gate!

nt

[Hyper_Eye]

2. This is so painful.

This is guy is such a gigantic joke... or nightmare. Take your pick.

[Dennis Donovan]

3. I watched it yesterday. Bizarre isn't the word!

My guess is that he's mentally ill or developmentally challenged. Sad that he's being used by someone in this nefarious exercise...

[SkyDaddy7]

4. self delete

[Turborama]

5. My theory is that this was a vote machine tampering dry run for 2012

carried out by the Republicans.

It could also be their way of implanting into the minds of the less intellectually curious, "If you guys can vote this character in, you shouldn't be surprised that the witch from Wassila got so many votes".

[notesdev]

7. What's the payoff?

This is one of the safest seats in the country... what's there to gain by rigging the Dem primary?

[Turborama]

8. As I said, it could have been a dry run

To expand on what I mean by 2012, I'm referring to the Presidential election.

It is just a theory but they couldn't have done it with one of their own candidates somewhere else because it would have been too obvious. This way it's less conspicuous and they (potentially) keep their hands clean.

[notesdev]

9. But this is South Carolina

why would they need to tamper with the votes at all? This is the most solid Republican state in the union or close to it. If Jesus Christ ran as a Democrat there he would lose. And if one is testing a tampering system, surely a less high-profile race than a Senate seat is a better test subject.

The simpler explanation is that Greene did actually win legitimately, as no one who really wanted to hold office rather than just run a pro forma campaign was interested in the nomination.

[Turborama]

11. Machine rigging on a large scale needs testing out?

Before they take it national?

Again, it's just a theory. I'm a very cynical person when it comes to conspiracy theories but after what happened in 2004 I wouldn't put anything past them.

[notesdev]

13. I'm cynical too

but listening to this guy, this is just way too stupid to not have been an accident. No one would have planned having a guy like this win, if you were rigging things you'd get a guy who was on your side in there and one who would do a reasonably convincing job of it.

The problem with calling this conspiracy is that you have to make it way way too complicated to have it make any sense as a real course of action, when simpler and better approaches are available to those so minded.

He'll probably do about as well as any other Democrat would in that race, so IMO this is not worth getting paranoid over. It's just too silly for anyone to have actually planned it.

[spooky3]

18. Watergate burglary

Similar arguments were made then--eg, Nixon will win, why would he stoop to something so weird and unnecessary?

[keepCAblue]

38. How do you think George W Bush got "elected"? Daddy Bush pre-tested in Philippines...

While Poppy Bush was VP with Reagan, he and his CIA engineered fraudulent elections in several third world countries -- Philippines, Nicaragua, El Salvador. These fraudulent elections not only shifted power to CIA-backed, right-wing candidates but also served as testing grounds for the electronic vote rigging in the U.S. during the 2000, 2004 elections.

"In the not-so-distant past, other elections were engineered by George H.W. Bush, head
of the Central Intelligence Agency and father of the current White House resident. During
the Reagan-Bush presidencies, in the Philippines, Nicaragua, El Salvador and other key
third world nations, expected leftist triumphs somehow morphed into rightist coups. "CIA
destabilizations are nothing new," said former CIA station chief and Medal of Merit
winner John Stockwell in 1987. "Guatemala in 1954, Brazil, Ghana, Chile, the Congo,
Iran, Panama, Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Uruguay---the CIA organized the overthrow of
constitutional democracy."

http://www.nogw.com/download/_07_global_election_fraud.pdf

[ooglymoogly]

15. Not absolutely safe....putting an unacceptable plant in the dem side

makes a laughing stock of the dems and insures a pug landslide. This guy is the image of blacks the pugs in the south have, an image they want to promote while Don Lemon clearly demonstrates the opposite. Dumb folks can be found in large numbers in all races. These caveheads are still dreaming of bringing back slavery.

[notesdev]

16. It was ensured anyway

one of the safest seats in the nation, with an extremely popular incumbent. If he loses without some major live-boy-or-dead-girl scandal with video evidence coming out it would be historically unique.

[ooglymoogly]

17. sorry, I was editing my post as you posted.

It was not saying what I meant very clearly.

[CJCRANE]

42. That's the best place to do a test, surely?

i.e. do it in a primary that doesn't matter much...but use it as a precedent the next time.

[heliarc]

33. It's not really a question of the payoff at this point...

Tell me why the votes cast doesn't match the tally and it seems like there were 2 other Dems in South Carolina who ran with very odd fundraising schemes...

http://www.fivethirtyeight.com

[Uncle Joe]

46. Perhaps they viewed the dynamic changing there by November

as the Gulf Oil Gusher makes it's rounds on the coastal conveyor belt?

[SoCalNative]

10. 2012?

Likely a dry run for the upcoming November 2010 elections.

[SkyDaddy7]

34. Do you know if...

Republicans can cross over and vote in a Democratic Primary in SC? If so, I think this is another one of those "operation chaos" stunts like Limbaugh tried to pull back in 2008. Except this time it worked!

[EC]

37. yes they can

do not declare party when they vote...that's why he had so many votes in red territories...

[Mojorabbit]

12. I saw this last night

and I felt sorry for the guy. He is in some big trouble and is so out of his depth. Whoever used him like this should do major time. My husband said he probably would not be any worse at the job as some of them though.

[Ian David]

6. He's no crazier or dumber than Sarah Palin. Except she can speak. n/t

[JDPriestly]

27. Sarah Palin is like a parrot.

Greene is as smart as Sarah but not quite such a parrot.

It would seem to me that, by this time, some schoolfriend, some family member, someone would come forward and vouch for him or say something about him. It is really strange. He repeats his "platform" like a mantra. But, yes, he is at least as smart as Sarah Palin.

[Rhiannon12866]

14. K&R. Thanks for posting this... I caught the end of this and was confused...

But, apparently, not so confused as Alvin Greene... :silly:

[demwing]

19. There is something more to this than a GOP plot to win the seat

The seat was a lock anyway.

The clue comes at about 5:15 into the segment, where the reporter asks Greene if ha is OK, impaired, etc. and Greens says "I'm fine, just..." and then refuses to finish the thought.

I honestly don't think the man is fine, but neither do I think him "impaired" in the traditional sense. He doesn't sound incoherent, just frightened. As if he were repeating a message he had been told to memorize.

Being "impaired" can mean many things. I don't think Greene is in control of his circumstances, and that has got to be one definition of "impairment."

[Gin]

20. at least hes not a birther.......this is sad

[JDPriestly]

29. You are probably right. He did not sound like he was under the

influence of alcohol, but could there be something else?

He may just be frightened of the whole media circus around him. Why would a person facing criminal charges spend his money filing to run for senator in his state.

[CLANG]

30. He sure seems dumb as a sack of rocks

He can barely talk because I think he has trouble thinking coherently.

[FarLeftFist]

21. Are you impaired by anything right now?

You mean besides seeing my friends get their limbs blown off?

[Karenina]

22. Interesting take.

[PSzymeczek]

23. He was stationed in Korea,

not the Mideast. No bullets or IEDs in Seoul these days.

[awoke_in_2003]

25. Or nervous as shit...

being on TV

[Jefferson23]

24. Alvin Greene, The Anti-Richard Blumenthal And Mark Kirk

Interesting:


Say what you will about Alvin Greene, the mercurial, bizarre, out-of-nowhere Democratic Senate candidate in South Carolina whose election seems possibly fraudulent and whose chances against GOP Sen. Jim DeMint are basically non-existent.

He has not, like other Senate candidates running this year, suffered from a propensity to exaggerate when it comes to discussing his military record. If anything, he's downplayed his achievements. From Friday's Washington Post profile of Greene comes this nugget:

The University of South Carolina confirms that Greene graduated in 2000 with a degree in political science. The Pentagon confirms that he served in the Army, and in the Army and Air Force national guards. Although Greene has not boasted of winning awards, the Pentagon says he was granted the Air Force Good Conduct Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal and Korean Defense Service Medal.

This puts Greene in a class of humbleness all by himself. Whereas, Connecticut Democratic Senate candidate Richard Blumenthal admitted and apologized for misleading about his service in Vietnam and Illinois Senate candidate Mark Kirk copped to misrepresenting the awards he earned and the theaters in which he served, Greene hasn't made any mention of his legitimately-earned prizes.

This may be because Greene hasn't done any campaigning at all -- which has made his primary win on Tuesday utterly peculiar and spurred calls (from Rep. James Clyburn among others, for an investigation into its circumstances). And so, it stands to reason that military service will play absolutely no role in his near-impossible campaign against DeMint.

The same is not true in the Connecticut and Illinois elections where Blumenthal seems to have survived his gaffes while the jury is still out as to what damage has been done to Kirk. Asked by the Huffington Post on Thursday whether the issue of exaggerations and fabrications were off the table because members of both parties had been caught, Democratic Senate Campaign Committee Chairman Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) insisted that Kirk had committed the bigger crime.

remainder in full:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/06/11/alvin-greene-the-anti-ric_n_609109.html

[earcandle]

26. Greene is definitely scripted. As if he won't get his2M if he says anything else but the script.

His reaction to his own repression escapes him, but not us. 
He wants to respond but its winner lose all if he does.

We'll get nothing out of him.  So... on to paper trails. 
Where are they?  Can we verify his votes?

I say ask all who voted for him to step out into the streets
and dial into a code and the satellites will pick up the
numbers
responding and find their GPS, and they can be represented as
lights on a spectrum. See if it comes close or anyone is
paying attention.  

What could you do with that data? .... 

[Berry Cool]

28. If the University of South Carolina gave this guy a degree, it should be sued for malpractice.

He sounds like he dropped out of tenth grade every time he speaks. The only guys who are usually able to emerge from a university sounding this uneducated are its star athletes.

[scentopine]

31. Jesus - hasn't anyone listened to that dickhead Lieberman talk?

Its the centrists and moderates who are the real threat.

Greene is harmless.

The DLC? Now there is a major fuck up. We should be as pissed and outraged.

[jonthebru]

32. Something is up

And we may never know the whole story. I have heard and seen several interaction by the press with Mr. Greene. He would like to speak but always stops right when he begins to get to the meat of the matter.

Maybe it has to do with his alleged crime or maybe something else.
It is actually unworthy of national attention unless vote tampering is found out. On a state level it must be investigated because there are probably false pretenses involved in the financing and implementation of this guys candidacy.

[spicegal]

35. Wow, that was incredibly weird. How did that guy get on the ballot?

There's something very fishy going on.

[Boudica the Lyoness]

39. Anybody can run for office in the US

As long as they are a US citizen and pay the filing fee. Hundreds of people like him run for some kind of office every election. Most of the people lose big time but every now and again a nut case like Green or Bush win.

[florida08]

36. this is such a farce

and I agree with Clyburn. Obama lost South Carolina for pete sake. Are you telling me this man legitimately won 60% of the vote that Obama didn't and over Vic Rawl? Look at the facts. Rawl won 84% of the absentee ballots. Greene is an accused felon and that is supposed to encourage voters?


In Spartanburg County, Ludwig said there are 25 precincts in which Greene received more votes than were actually cast and 50 other precincts where votes appeared to be missing from the final count.


“In only two of 88 precincts, do the number of votes Greene got plus the number we got equal the total cast,” Ludwig said.


Greene also racked up a 75 percent or greater margin in one-seventh of all precincts statewide, a mark that Ludwig notes is even difficult for an incumbent to reach.



Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0610/38433.html#ixzz0qpUbNSP9

[BrklynLiberal]

40. Both times I have heard him speak, it sounded like he was being fed his words by someone else..

Made me think of the SNL skit where Raygun is doing a press conference, and has a feed in his ear...and loses reception..and gets interference from other broadcasts...

http://snltranscripts.jt.org/86/86ereagan.phtml

[no limit]

41. I'm actually starting to feel sorry for the guy

[Quantess]

43. Whoa, something is definitely wrong with this picture.

[Politicalboi]

44. So Mr. Greene thinks since he's a

Democrat all his life, he's not a plant???? Does he know what kind of "plant" we are talking about? I know his last name is Greene, but come on. And how did he get a public defender for his up and coming trial? If he thinks he may be in trouble now, he could be in more trouble for lying about his financial status if he did.

[Poll_Blind]

45. I'll be damned if I can figure out what's going on after watching this and one other interview...

...with him.

Seriously. No damned idea.

It is interesting how hard the interviewers are on him. They'd never be that brutally honest and probing with a real politician, all of whom they fear. Nice to see how journalistic journalists can be when there's nothing to lose.

He doesn't seem to be psychologically-impaired, though I thought that might be the case when I first started watching.

I don't think I could guess in a million years, at this point, what the reality of the situation is most-likely to be.

:rofl:

PB