McKinney's Political Past

Continuing on with our coverage of the Green Party, as they just nominated Cynthia McKinney to be their presidential nominee,  we're going to take a look at her political career. She is a passionate activist who has gone through some controversy.

McKinney comes from a political family. Her father, Anthony McKinney, was an outspoken member of the Atlanta Police Department later elected the first black Georgia State Representative.

She was first elected to Congress in 1992 representing parts of Atlanta.

For ten years, she was an outspoken member on issues of class and racial disparity and government secrecy.

Six months after September 11th, appearing on Pacifica station KPFA in Berkley, McKinney implied that the Bush Administration knew the attacks were going to happen.

She became a hero among the 9-11 Truth movement, which believes in US government involvement in a government cover up.

Here she is questioning then Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld at a Congressional hearing in 2002.

"The question was we had four war games going on on Sept 11. Did the war games going on on Sept 11th impair our ability to respond to the Sept 11th attacks."

Although McKinney's supporters admired and applauded her vocal prowess, not everyone did. 

CNN'S CROSSFIRE with TUCKER CARLSON.

Conservatives, and many in the media, especially her how town paper the Atlanta Journal Constitution, harshly criticized McKinney. Many Democrats distanced themselves from her.

Just months later, McKinney lost her Congressional.

Two years later, in 2004, she won it back.

She continued to ask hard questions and demand answers.  She opened an investigation into race and class after Hurricane Katrina.  She was the first member of Congress to introduce articles of impeachment of the President for the war in Iraq. 

More than a year into her term McKinney got into a scuffle with a Capitol police officer. The news  made negative headlines through out the country.   

Shortly after, she lost her election.

Some blame electronic voting machines. Accounts say some machines would only allow a vote for her opponent.

Matthew Cardinali, News Editor of Atlanta Progressive News. 

"Cynthia McKinney had the courage to do that and unfortunately we weren't in a political climate that supported it."

As Presidential candidate, McKinney defends her record.

"Often times I've been ahead of the curve. We can  not entrust those who created this problem in our country to get us out of it."

PART 2

Cynthia McKinney chose Rosa Clemente as her running mate. Of African and Puerto Rican descent, they are the first all woman of color ticket.  Clemente is a hip hop grassroots organizer and journalist. She joins us on the telephone to talk about the McKinney/Clemente ticket.