Secret Service Steps In …

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From the Tampa Tribune

The U.S. Secret Service is looking into reports that a crowd member yelled,”Kill him!” while Gov. Sarah Palin was talking about Sen. Barack Obama during her Clearwater rally Monday.

The incident reportedly occurred after Palin questioned Obama’s patriotism because of his acquaintance with William Ayers, a Chicago university professor who was an anti-Vietnam War radical in the 1970s.

Apparently the only public evidence of the “kill him” shout is a Washington Post news story Tuesday by reporter Dana Milbank, who covered the rally.

Milbank later was quoted in an interview with the Politico Web site as saying he thought the shout may have been a reference to Ayers, not Obama.

A few points are worth noting here. Milbank appears to be the only direct source for this. We’ve had numerous angry audience members, cries of ‘terrorist’ and ‘treason’ and so forth. But this was definitely one of the most inflammatory. Perhaps Milbank misheard. Let’s hope so. Regardless, it makes sense to look into it and find out just what happened.

(ed.note: Thanks to TPM Reader MH for the tip.)

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