During the debate Obama mentioned to John McCain “some of the rallies that your running mate was holding, in which all the Republican reports indicated were shouting, when my name came up, things like ‘terrorist’ and ‘kill him,’ and that your running mate didn’t mention, didn’t stop, didn’t say, ‘Hold on a second, that’s kind of out of line.'”
Despite the huge media hubub that it’s caused, the U.S. Secret Service is formally denying an allegation from a Pennsylvania newspaper that an attendee at a Republican rally shouted out “kill him” in reference to Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.
“We have yet to find someone to back up the story,” agent Bill Slavoski told the Wilkes-Barre Times Leader. “We had people all over and we have yet to find anyone who said they heard it.”
The alleged remark was first reported by David Singleton, a writer for the Scranton Times-Tribune newspaper. Singleton remains the sole person claiming he heard the offensive words:
Remember, it would be a point of honor for the Secret Service to identify ANY threat to the candidate.
Maybe David Singleton was auditioning for a job with the Obama campaign, er, I mean the New York Times.
UPDATE: A reader emails, “And since the ravening crowd wasn’t calling for Obama’s death after all, can we please leave Barabbas in prison?”
