Mayor says he was "armed" with wrong information.
Governor Tate Reeves zinged Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba at a press conference today for the Mayor's statement that the state does not pay Jackson for its water. The Governor graciously gave the Mayor an escape route from the corner but took strong exception to what the Mayor told the New York Times recently. The Mayor owned up to his mistake today and said he was given bad information.
Mayor Lumumba told the New York Times the state does not pay for its water in an article published on March 12:
Its troubles also mirror those of another capital city, Washington, D.C., where large numbers of government properties pay no property tax. Mr. Lumumba said the city “provides water for the state of Mississippi, but we don’t get paid for the water we provide to them. If we simply charged the state like any other customer, we’d be in a lot better position.” Article.
Unfortunately for the Mayor, none of the statement was true. JJ reported Friday that state agencies do indeed pay for Jackson water. This website obtained through public records requests payment records that show the Capitol Complex, Department of Agriculture & Commerce, PERS, and the Health Department have paid several hundred thousand dollars in water bills in just this fiscal year alone. JJ has submitted public records requests for water payments at other state agencies as well. Earlier post.
Governor Reeves chuckled as Y'all Politics reporter Sarah Ulmer asked him about Mayor Lumumba's claim the state did not pay Jackson for water. The Governor said "Either that was a complete lie or he was informed wrong about what the state pays." The state pays its water bills "when the billing actually works," said Governor Reeves. The Governor closed his comments by stating he was sure the Mayor did not lie but was misinformed.
Mayor Lumumba addressed his New York Times comments at a press conference at Livingston Park today. He did not wait for a reporter to ask him about the article but instead brought the subject up himself.
The Jackson Mayor said "I want to correct myself on a matter. I was armed with the incorrect information." Mayor Lumumba admitted the state did pay a water bill. However, he said Jackson does not receive any payments in lieu of property taxes for all of the state property in the city to "accommodate for the lost revenue."
No reporters asked him any questions about the statements.
Kingfish note: Uh-huh. The Mayor meant what he said and he said what he meant and he meant it one thousand percent. He created a neat little narrative for friendly media outlets, who lapped it up as the lapdogs they are. The Mayor probably did not lie but instead just spouted his narrative off of the top of his head without bothering to check it out first. He practiced some damage control today but it was good damage control. A certain red-headed press secretary up north could take some lessons from this video.
44 comments:
Nice to see a politician willing to admit a mistake. Pretty rare these days.
Sorry, Mayor. You'll have to come up with fresh reason why the state owes Jackson a water system bailout.
Jackson Free Press repeated the lie today. I emailed the writer about it and the writer refuses to respond.
This is getting old. I was not born disliking people who vote for the current democratic leaders. The Democratic Ideals are extremely harmful for the future of our democracy. The constituents are blinded by the lies. This idea of simply telling a lie for the media to gulp on it and then the victim of the lie has to prove it was a lie. But, the damage is already done because the vulnerable were setup and blinded and the victim hood simply grows and they refuse to hear the truth. The sad part is that the liar doesn’t have a conscience (an ability to decipher right and wrong)
Our great grandparents would turn in their grave at what the Democratic Party has become.
Mayor Talk-a-Lot not only lied to the New York Times, but he told the same lie to local reporters at a press conference on March 8th. Many local reporters (print and television) were on hand and heard the statement, but nobody questioned it. Press conference was on WLBT's website with the 'false facts' stuck right in the middle of it.
Wonder if any of our local media will report the 'mistake'? Know the NYT will not, because they don't care.
Oh - never mind - if I use that reasoning for the NYT, guess I should use it for our local stations and so-called newspapers here as well.
And by the way, 8>55 the "politician" only admitted to making a mistake after the truth was reported by the Governor today. I'm sure the Mayor read, or at least heard about the facts from JJ's reporting last week. Didn't see that "politician" stepping up and admitting his "mistake" then. So - he's not a rare bird, he's just one that got shot in the wing and couldn't fly high anymore.
I'm shocked that none of the media asked Lumumba about his lie!
Tongue planted through my cheek and out the house.
That child Mayor is "in" WAY over his head.
But not to worry ... I'm sure his constituency will vote to keep him in office for another term.
8:55 is impressed when someone lies and is confronted with the evidence.
"Well yes, your honor. That video does show me robbing the bank. Gee willikers, I'm sorry."
Judge Green: "Prepare to get a blessing."
9:16 JFP reporter is pimping for a job with CNN. The JFP reporter meets the CNN level of "integrity."
I agree with 8:55. The Mayor misspoke and corrected his mistake once he found out the truth of the matter. What a refreshing thing.
Former President Trump would have doubled down and made the same statement again, even when he knew it was false. That is a lie.
Well damn I didn't know Jackson "provided fire & police protection to the State."
I thought each city or county provided their own.
Typical Lumumba to deflect the blame to another unknown person by claiming he was armed with bad data.
Did the New York Times do any fact checking? NO! That pussy news rag spits out lies every day. 9:16 PM I'm going to send the NYT kingfish blog & I wait to see if I get a response.
Mayor said a few things he needs to clarify, again (mess up /fess up):
1. "there have been inconsistent bill payments by the state"
should read,
'the state pays promptly when we send a bill, we as a bold new city are not consistent in billing the state. We sometimes forget (4 years in some instances), but hey, they should commiserate, compensate and not obfuscate based on our illiterate billing, can I get an Amen!
2. 'Jackson is the largest contributor to the state"
I have no idea, hep a brother out, how do cities contribute to the states budget? Income tax? Sales tax?
Will someone please "arm" this idiot with the facts next time?
" armed with bad data."
That's one of the goofiest statements he's babbled ... right ?
But I have no doubt lil' Choke-Way is in the process of reviewing all avenues ... to ensure that going forward
... will reflect a comprehensive evaluation that will be undertaken to obtain the best possible reimagined
scenario . . . right ?
So what PANACEA will solve the next crisis?
I just noticed how close together his eyes are.....So mayor, the city of jax is dff than any other city not getting payments for taxes on buildings the states own.....DUE...that would be like taxing yourself....plus if the state doesnt own the buildings WHERE will all those STATE workers who just do nothing all day, work?
If Lumumba was truly owning up to his "mistake," he would have contacted the NYT reporters directly and made a correction to them. Had he actually done that, I'm sure he would have told us all about it, so I'm inclined to believe that did not happen.
9:24, You do realize your insightful comment applies at least as well to the current GOP, don't you?
When you're the person in charge of a municipality, and you're "given bad information," it's a reflection of your administration.
Or, in other words, "I fricked up. I'm an idiot. None of us in this administration know what the hell is going on. We're all idiots, but we're elected idiots. Now send us some of that stimulus money so we can spend it on a bunch of big-city lawyers who don't know nothing about anything, noway, nowhere."
He wasn’t armed with bad information, he’s fueled by bad intentions.
I would imagine that the State of Mississippi is Jackson’s largest water/sewer customer. How does the mayor not know who is the largest consumer of the city’s only for sale product?
I wish someone would check the mayor’s and councilmen’s bills to verify their payments.
You are armed with bitchassness. You never apologize for that Jamie.
Once a lie is told or printed in the media, a retraction is meaningless. And an apology is worthless.
Him owning up to the misinformation, unprompted, is helpful for me. Agreed with one of the earliest comments--very rare for a politician these days.
I can respect an attempt at integrity even though we have a difference of vision and opinion. Need more of this from all sides.
The only reason Lying Lumumba is backpedaling now is that he was exposed by this blog. Take your victory lap, KF, because you earned it.
Lying is wrong, no matter who does it. Lying with intent to promote a desired narrative has become standard practice. It is not a practice exclusive to Mayor Lumumba and Democrats. Four years of Donald Trump proves it. However, we tend to excuse, minimize and even deny the behavior when done by someone we support. Let's have equal opportunity outrage when our leaders (regardless of political persuasion) lie. They should all be held accountable.
8:10: Why thank you, Myron, I mean, Melvin.
He didn't know. He didn't know. But he's allowed to fill in the blanks of facts he does not know with erroneous statements which fit his mantra of victimization. That's how it works. Make assumptions which fit your narrative and when nobody challenges your assumed facts, they become fact. It's really a cheap political trick. His dad was a radical idealist. He's become just a cheap politician.
This dude is all about looking good in his tailored-cut jackets. He doesn't care about anything else other than pushing victim narratives, race-baiting, and looking FLY. No substance...all talk. At least he's articulate right.
He's become just a cheap politician.
Become? Was from the outset. Rank amateur, greenhorn.
1:29....When you're the person in charge of a municipality, and you're "given bad information," it's a reflection of your administration.
You're spot on. Jackson city government is incompetent at every level.
8:25....Him owning up to the misinformation, unprompted, is helpful for me. Agreed with one of the earliest comments--very rare for a politician these days.
He's sorry he was caught in a lie and called out on it and he had no recourse but to retract his statement with his "bad information statement" (or incompetency of his paid chair fillers). He owned up to nothing.
The dumbest of the dumb. Has ask the State to bail him out yet he throws rocks at them.
Mayor Gumflap and his troupe of SJW minstrels tried to Bamboozle the nation but it has backfired and exposed them instead.
He probably was given bad information. But what he really should take from this is that everyone underneath him allowed such a glaring mistake to be a talking point. That should tell him all he needs to know about the competency of the people he is surrounded by. How can they not even know who their biggest customer is? If you think that Jackson is subsidizing the rest of the state, then you are too dumb to working in any other sector but Jackson’s municipal government.
Does anyone actually think that many NYT readers give a shit about who pays or does not pay for water in Jackson-fucking-Mississippi? Tater and Lambada just want to get their faces in front of national news, and outlets with agendas, be it NYT or Fox, will happily oblige to pander to their bases. You've got a lily-white MSGOP governor and a "progressive"/"radical" black mayor both trying to "get their name out there." It makes moderately interesting theater while it lasts but I suspect it will end for both in a Mitch Landrieu-esque flameout when they piss in the wrong punchbowl(ala Landrieu).
If the mayor of Jackson and the governor of MS were of the same race, no national outlets would care about the stupid shit either of them said unless they were both white and it could somehow be spun into racism or COVID-related screw-ups. Hell, they could be blowing (or killing) each other on the lawn of the Capital and they wouldn't pay to send a stringer.
8:59 & 9:49... I’ll give you an interrogation tip a psychologist gave me 30 years ago. Any time a person gives a statement of apology which includes “but”, they aren’t really apologizing. Instead, they are justifying what they did or said.
1:19 - maybe so about the NYT not giving a shit, but the lying Mayor told the same lie to what we have substituting for the media here in Jackson. And they reported it. Also, Ms Donna Ladd not only repeated the lie, but exaulted it for him.
So, even if the NYT readers don't give a shit (and by the way, I am a NYT reader, and when I read this story I instantly recognized it as a bullshit lie. AND I DO GIVE A SHIT, living in Jackson and paying my water/sewer bills regularly), local readers of local media ought to know about the crap Antwar is spreading.
And the idea of Lumumba being a "progressive" is about as ridiculous as saying Trump was a "conservative". Both are narcacissit egotists. Your description of him as a radical is correct - you just should have added the term 'racists' to go along with it.
Clarion-Ledger: [Mayor Gumflapper] backtracks on accusation amid water crisis that state buildings in Jackson don't pay for water
The correction comes after reports surfaced that showed state-owned properties were indeed paying their water bills and have been for years.
Jackson Jambalaya first broke the news and revealed through public record requests that several properties — including the Capitol Complex, Department of Agriculture & Commerce, PERS, and the Health Department — have paid several hundred thousand dollars in water bills in just this fiscal year alone.
https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/2021/03/23/jackson-mayor-walks-back-water-bill-claims-gov-reeves-responds/6963535002/
Kingfish, you da man! Antar says he has told the NY Times he misspoke himself in claiming state agencies don't pay a wTer bill
I'm going out on a limb and calling him a liar. Don't you know that being the Chief Administrative Official over departments, including the water department that's been beset with multiple problems for years...any manager would absolutely know for sure whether the state was getting free water in its many facilities?
Does anybody buy his comments that he didn't know or that he was given bad information? He knew it was a lie when he told it. He either thought he would not be called to task or he didn't give a (sewer) rat's ass - more than likely, the latter.
Why was he at the Zoo fire station in the first place ?
Were we about to get an update on how many poor zoo animals died during the ice storm along with the almost two month span of the poor beasts going without water?
link to JFP story?
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