As we noted last month, Andrew Breitbart has been claiming that Reps. John Lewis, Andre Carson, and Emanuel Cleaver lied about hearing the ‘N’ word screamed at them by Tea Party protesters. This claim has been picked up by numerous wingnut bloggers, and I’ve received at least a dozen hate mails ranting about how I should “correct the record” and “retract the story” about this incident.

Breitbart’s “evidence” for accusing the three black congressmen of lying is a 48-second video he posted at his website, showing Lewis, Carson, and others leaving the Capitol while protesters booed. He says that since the audio track of this video didn’t capture any racial slurs, it’s evidence that the congressmen fabricated their story in order to accuse the tea partiers of racism.

This is a perfect example of a logical fallacy known as an “argument from ignorance,” taken to a wingnut extreme. It says that the lack of evidence (in this one video) that the ‘N’ word was shouted proves that the congressmen are lying.

Breitbart also makes the assumption that all three congressmen are in on a scheme to smear the tea partiers with a lie, which is another type of assumption altogether.

And now it turns out that the video posted by Breitbart was shot at least an hour after the ‘N’ word incidents occurred.

Breitbart posted two columns on his Web site saying the claims were fabricated. Both led with a 48-second YouTube video showing Lewis, Carson, other Congressional Black Caucus members and staffers leaving the Capitol. Some of the group were videotaping the booing crowd.

Breitbart asked why the epithet was not captured by the black lawmakers’ cameras, and why nobody reacted as if they had heard the slur. He also questioned whether the epithets could have been shouted by liberals planted in the crowd.

But the 48-second video was shot as the group was leaving the Capitol — at least one hour after Lewis, D-Ga., and Carson walked to the Capitol, which is when they said the slurs were used.

Questioned about using a video on his Web site from the wrong moment, Breitbart stood by his claim that the lawmakers were lying. “I’m not saying the video was conclusive proof,” he said.

(Hat tip: RWC.)

UPDATE at 4/13/10 12:06:18 pm:

Andrew tweets:

@lizardoid When did you become an agitprop goon? im asking for ANY EVIDENCE the event occurred. Not claiming that video is proof it didn’t.