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Trump says anyone would collude, but in the 2000 election, I called the FBI
In September of 2000, when Al Gore and George W. Bush were tied in the polls in their race for the White House, I was preparing to play Bush as Gore’s debate prep sparring partner. What happened next ended my role in that campaign, but serves as a contrasting precursor to events in a presidential campaign 16 years later.
The day before our first practice, I received a package of materials from an anonymous source that contained several VHS tapes and “debate materials” and a letter indicating that more documents where on the way. Naturally, I popped in one of the VHS tapes.
The minute I saw George Bush dressed in shorts practicing for a Tim Russert style interview, I knew my role in the Gore campaign was over. The hundreds of hours of preparation studying public tapes of Bush, reading volumes of briefing books, practicing speech patterns and phraseology even at the dinner table, much to the chagrin of my family, was utterly wasted. I stopped the tape after about 15 seconds, picked up the phone and notified the Federal Bureau of Investigation and immediately recused myself from the campaign.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 19 2017, @08:10PM (1 child)
You seem to have assumed (known?) that the tapes were illegally acquired. That needn't be the case with all information sources.
(Score: 2) by Sulla on Friday August 25 2017, @06:20PM
I'm going to go out on a limb and say we are talking about two different scenarios. Had it been the Trump campaign getting secret footage of Hillary practicing for debates (foil of situation here) I believe that the same thing should have been done with contacting the FBI. If the Russian dirt was these something that Hill had been doing that was legal, you tell the FBI, if the Russians give you information on stuff she was doing that was illegal, you use it to your advantage.
I think the meeting was absolutely stupid, but in a situation where Trump and his gang seem to personally feel that the gov't is covering up what Hill may have been doing wrong why would they contact the FBI about it. I think finding dirt on the illegal activities someone is doing is fair game, using spies to find out that your opponent is doing something perfectly legal that people won't like is not fair game, using spies to get debate prep into is definitely not fair game.
In conclusion, good on this guy. Closest I have gotten is reporting a team I was on to the department chair because one member copied answers out of the answer guide, another one recognized these answers and told me, and I downloaded said guide to confirm.
Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam