Just got an email from a reader who says he has a third instance, on tape, of Trent Lott remarking that Strom Thurmond should have been President in 1948:
The occasion is the signing of the Spence / Warner Defense Spending Bill in October of 2000, and the remark — which is made by Lott to a woman standing behind Senator Thurmond, who is himself in the process of signing the bill — is NOT directed
to the senator himself, but is offered as an aside (furthermore, this event was in no way intended as a tribute to Thurmond, as the birthday celebration was, and thus seems not to have been inspired directly by any attempt to please Mr. Thurmond w/o any actual endorsement of Thurmond’s Dixiecrat platform, as Lott has claimed the birthday tribute was). The remark is exactly as follows, and though spoken off-camera, is quite audible:
“Yes…he should have been elected in 1947…or 1948, it was”.)
If you’re a journalist and you want to talk to this guy or get a copy of his tape, send me an email and I’ll put you in touch.