No spit, sherlock.
I watched several times. I really didnt see it.
I will say I don’t think Cleaver made up the charge. He sincerely believed he was spat upon. I think he is wrong and agree with those who think his closeness allowed him to be sprayed with some saliva.
I must’ve watched the video about 10 times, very closely, and I agree with your assessment.
As far as I can see, I think Mr. Light-Hat-Dark-Shirt was the only person who was both close enough and facing in the right direction to have landed anything on Rep. Cleaver.
And I think he was definitely close enough. He was also yelling quite enthusiastically, which of course is his right in a free country at a public protest such as this one.
Although I can’t hear him specifically, I assume he was yelling “Kill the Bill!” with the crowd. I saw no motion on his part whatsoever (or on anybody else’s part, and I watched this a bunch of times) that looked like he was preparing to deliberately spit. When someone is getting ready to deliberately spit, you can generally tell it. Or you can actually see the spitting motion when they do it. Not so here.
After you get hit with a bit of saliva (unless it’s a great big huge whopping hunk of spit launched forcefully), it’s likely to take a moment for the person who gets hit to react. I note that just before Congressman Cleaver’s reaction the crowd had chanted “Kill the Bill!”
When you’re chanting and yelling enthusiastically over and over again (and trying your best to make your voice heard by a Congress that seems almost entirely deaf to the wishes of the people), there’s not necessarily a lot of difference between a “B” and a “P.” (If you don’t believe me, stand outside and try it for a while.)
I also along with you don’t tend to think Cleaver made up the charge. But I agree with you that he was simply walking too close in the “say it, don’t spray it” zone.
It’s very interesting though that when he returns, he seems to act as if he doesn’t see or recognize Mr. Light-Hat-Dark-Shirt, or as if he thinks the offending party was someone else. Maybe he was too upset to know who to look for, or maybe his conversation with Mr Light-Hat-Dark-Shirt after the incident convinced him that it must’ve been someone else.
Bottom line: I could see no evidence of anyone deliberately spitting on the Congressman. What I saw was a Congressman who simply and unfortunately happened to pass too close in front of an enthusiastically-chanting protestor.