CNN ANCHOR GRILLS BLACK CAUCUS CHAIR ON ‘CHAINS’ REMARK: DON‘T TELL ME THAT IF IT WERE ROMNEY ’PEOPLE WOULD NOT BE GOING CRAZY’

CNN anchor Soledad O’Brien has had her share of on-air run-ins with conservatives, but it was a Democrat, not a Republican, in the hot seat on Thursday — the chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, no less.

O’Brien grilled Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.) on Vice President Joe Biden’s “chains” remark, asking him as one of the top black congressmen what he made of it. Cleaver’s answer? “Absolutely nothing.”

 “I would never have even paid attention to it but for the fact that campaigns nowadays are waiting for any kind of little nugget to create an atmosphere of more and more discord,” Cleaver said. “It makes absolutely no sense that some kind of a little throwaway line is now being used to make Vice President Biden appear to have been throwing out these words in order to somehow attract dumb African Americans who if they hear the words chains are going to automatically vote for him and President Obama.”

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