McKinney Insults Communication Director Then Threatens Reporter

Cynthia "fists of fury" McKinney is in trouble again:

Move over Britney Spears, Cynthia McKinney's — oops! — done it again.

The flap-plagued congresswoman, who has been in the media spotlight since she scuffled with a Capitol Hill police officer last month, was caught bad-mouthing a senior staffer Saturday.

Unfortunately for McKinney, a DeKalb County Democrat who is running for re-election in the 4th Congressional District, a TV microphone she was wearing picked up her indelicate grumbling.

"Crap!" an irritated McKinney is heard saying after ending an interview with CBS 46 in which reporter Renee Starzyk repeatedly asked about the fallout from the police dust-up. "You know what? They lied to Coz and Coz is a fool."

McKinney, apparently realizing her blunder, then returned to face the camera and tell the reporter that comments about her communications director, Coz Carson, were off the record.

Here's the transcript of the incident:

QUESTION: Has anyone asked you about your confrontation with the Capitol police officer?

MCKINNEY: Actually you, media, are the only ones who are asking about that.

QUESTION: I'm sure you thought about this — potentially someone might ask you about this, outside of the media, about the confrontation — what would your response be, how do you explain it to the people of DeKalb County?

MCKINNEY: Well, actually no one has asked me other than you and so... I talk to my constituents about the things that are on their minds...

QUESTION: Do you think the incident will affect your chances for re-election?

MCKINNEY: You're talking about the incident I'm talking about issues.

QUESTION: You want to talk about issues, has the confrontation made it harder for you to focus on the issues? Has it been a distraction?

MCKINNEY: You're a distraction because that seems to be all you want to talk about — but people here understand that my representation is much larger than any discreet incident

(Off camera, with mike still on)

MCKINNEY: This is crap — they lied to Coz and Coz is a fool for believin' 'em. [Referring to aide Coz Carson]. Anything that is captured by your audio while I'm not seated in this chair is off the record and is not permissible to use — is that understood?

Was that a threat? You can watch the video here (scroll down to "video headlines" of the left side) and judge for yourself but it certainly seemed like McKinney was trying to intimidate the reporter. But hey, at least McKinney didn't throw a couple punches at her, right?

Cross-posted at The Political Pit Bull