The Kantor Indiana story is starting to hit the mainstream, and Kantor has responded to Huffpo.
His response/defense:
A former aide to President Bill Clinton, and current informal adviser to Sen. Hillary Clinton, expressed outrage and shock on Friday after a videotape from 1992 surfaced apparently showing him describing Indianans as "white n---rs."
Mickey Kantor, who served as campaign chairman during Clinton's 1992 run for the White House and says he has offered help and advice to Sen. Clinton, insisted that the tape was a fraud and that he was exploring legal steps against the individual who posted it online.
"I've never used that word in my entire life, ever, under any circumstance, ever," an angry Kantor told The Huffington Post, citing his and his parent's work fighting for civil rights. "I have listened to [the video] and so have you. You can't tell what it is I'm saying in that second sentence, you can't decipher that."
His defense seems to be three-fold: One, I've never used that word; Two, you can't tell what I am saying; Three, if that word is there, it was somehow edited. But read the rest of the story and see for yourself. Interesting that he didn't address the petty name-calling (these people are shit}, as opposed to the racist name-calling (white n-word).
Update: Here is the original video clip (statements at issue about 4:45 in.)
Update 2: So we've got conflicting accounts on whether the more incendiary of the statements was doctored. The director of the War Room says the [n-word] is doctored, and gives the reason for the "shit" comment.
"He does not say that [n-word]. He does not say that," said Pennebaker, after viewing the clip.
He said the initial expletive [shit] referred to the anticipated reaction in the Bush White House to the fact that Ross Perot's polling numbers were holding strong.
"What he says is he’s surprised Perot’s numbers are holding," said Pennebaker in a brief phone interview. "He says they must be shi**ing in the White House."
Now, take a look at the explanation Kantor gave for the "shit" expletive.
"Indiana was not even on our radar screen," he said, "And I was talking about the polling and not the people... If you look at The War Room, this is not the way Carville or George interpreted my statement. This is frankly libelous."
Those two statements don't seem to match up.
Update 3: Fast and furious, Ben Smith at politico has updated his piece, saying he spoke to the editor of the YouTube video. NO ALTERATION, according to the editor.
UPDATE: I spoke to the editor of the video who said that he enhanced, but didn't alter, the audio in the second portion of the video.
Update 4: The first clip is "no longer available."
Update 5 (probably last): It looks like most of the major outlets are walking back on this story. I'm not going to delete, but it is best to move on from this. There are too many questions about the context of the statements here given the incendiary nature of the claims. Unless there is something more substantial that is added to this story, I don't intend to add anything else.