In much the same way that a First Lady encountering real sniper fire in Bosnia would not have gone unnoticed, similarly, Mickey Kantor, a Clinton campaign adviser, using a racial slur in the documentary, “The War Room” would have caused an uproar when it was released back in 1993. It is not as if this clip that was floating around on YouTube today came from a time capsule; it was taken from the documentary, “The War Room”.

Here is the clip that sparked the controversy.

Here is the entire scene in the documentary “The War Room” from which this clip was derived and doctored.

Jake Tapper discusses the unfolding events.

Ben Smith of Politico today talked to D.A. Pennebaker, director of “The War Room,” agreed that the racial slur was not Kantor’s, that someone had doctored the video in that other clip.

As for the “Those people are s—” line, Pennebaker told Smith that Kantor had said, “he says they must be s—ing in the White House.”

It’s all a mess, though I must say when “The War Room” came out other folks interpreted Kantor to be impugning Indiana residents.

In The Washington Post’s review of the film in 1993, critic Desson Howe referred to “a Mickey Kantor comment about the people of Indiana (when it looks as though Clinton’s ahead in Dan Quayle’s state).”

And a 1995 story in the Sydney Morning Herald said that “As for the good folk of Indiana, they are still recovering from the 1993 documentary War Room, which revealed the grim truth behind the Clinton election campaign. It showed Mr Kantor bursting in on election night to tell other campaign staffers that incredibly, Mr Clinton was doing well even in Republican Indiana. ‘And those people are s—!’ he declared breathlessly.”

Source: The Mystery of “The War Room” Clip

Follow the debunking trail:

• Questions about a YouTube clip
• Clinton Adviser Claims Indiana Slur Video Is Conspiracy
• Pennebaker: Clip Doctored
• Ben Smith, Politico: More on that video