COLORADO SPRINGS – A viral video from over the weekend continues to fire up both sides of the political aisle.
Some say the video shows white high school students wearing “Make America Great Again” hats mocking a Native American elder while he was drumming.
That initial video released only shows a small part of what happened that day. A new video reveals a more complete story from the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C.
We want to give you a 360 degree view of what happened on Saturday.
The new video reveals another group, who identify themselves as Black Hebrew Israelites, was also there taunting the Catholic students from Kentucky by shouting at them.
“That’s make America great again. A bunch of child molesting f******,” one person is heard yelling. “A bunch of incest babies, a bunch of babies made out of incest,” was also yelled at the kids.
Nick Sandmann, the teen in the so-called confrontation with Native American tribe elder Nathan Phillips, said the teens were shouting school spirit chants to drown out the inflammatory comments by the Black Hebrew Israelites.
Sandmann said Phillips locked eyes with him and came up to him, and he stood there and smiled to try and defuse the situation. Meantime, Phillips also said he was trying to defuse the situation when Sandmann intimidated him and blocked his way out.
Here’s the facts on what we know about this confusion:
- The students were in Washington for a March for Life rally. The Lincoln Memorial was their meeting point after sightseeing.
- Men in the video call the kids “crackers”, “incest children”, and used gay slurs.
- Some students walked away, others started chanting.
That’s when the Native Americans started chanting and drumming, creating the confrontation that’s now gone viral.
The video does continue after that moment. “This is a bunch of future school shooters,” one man said. Another agreed, “That’s right.” Eventually it appears the students get a signal to leave and go to their buses. The video continues for another 20 minutes.
Here’s what is not confirmed:
- The person who shot the viral video and elder Phillips said the teens were chanting “Build the Wall” and “Trump 2020.” No media outlets have confirmed that information after watching the video countless times.
- It’s also unclear who instigated this conflict from the start.
- It’s also unclear who came in to diffuse it. Sandmann and Phillips both say they were trying to deescalate the situation, but neither back away.
- Some believe the students were “Liberal Plants” to make Republicans look bad. That is also unconfirmed.
News5 takes a 360° look at this situation so you can know the facts, the spin and make your own decision on what happened.
