Talk Radio News Service: News, Politics, Media

By Sofia Sanchez and Monique Cala University of New Mexico/Talk Radio News Service

House Republicans downplayed accusations Sunday that a conservative protester spat on Rep. Emmanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.) the previous day.

“The press has been [bugging] me for the last hour and a half wanting me to respond because allegedly one person spit on one person and one person said something inappropriate,” said King. “It’s offensive to me that the press would make a story about one person, and not a story about the 29,999 people that came here and love America.”

Protesters were also accused of leveling racist and homophobic slurs at lawmakers, allegations that Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) commented on.

“We don’t know if it is true or not true, but that's not who we are. That's not the kind of people we are,” said Bachmann. “What’s worse is, we are seeing our country stolen out from under us.”

Bachmann, along with representatives Louie Gohmert (R-TX) and Steve King (R-Iowa), raised the prospect that some of the protesters were “plants” put in the crowd to denigrate the movement.

The group of three told protesters that the Democrats did not have the votes to pass the legislation through and that the fight to “kill the bill” would continue.

Bachmann left protesters saying “We haven’t given up. we’re fighting, we’re doing everything we can...don’t give up cause we aren’t either.”