This is starting to get interesting. The issue at hand is whether John McCain had the opportunity to learn about the questions asked at Rick Warren’s Saddlebrook forum before he took his turn. After a coin flip, Barack Obama went first, and then McCain was interviewed in the second hour. He was supposed to be in a “Cone of Silence” so that he would not have the advantage of hearing the questions ahead of time.
When Andrea Mitchell of NBC first reported that McCain was not in this protected cone of slince for the entire hour before he went onstage, the McCain campaign responded with very strong attacks on Mitchell and NBC News. Perhaps she hit a nerve? Other reporters are now hot on the story, and it’s clear that the McCain campaign has not issued a flat denial that he didn’t get information about the questions through other means like texting or cell phones. Perhaps they will clear that up.
However, most telling is the fact that the McCain campaign issued this statement:
Nicolle Wallace, a spokeswoman for Mr. McCain, said on Sunday night that Mr. McCain had not heard the broadcast of the event while in his motorcade and heard none of the questions.
“The insinuation from the Obama campaign that John McCain, a former prisoner of war, cheated is outrageous,” Ms. Wallace said.
As John Aravosis points out, the fact that McCain was a POW does not make him a saint. He is not beyond cheating, and given his past personal history it’s bizarre that the campaign would go down this road. McCain needs to make clear exactly what happened. Otherwise this story could blow up in his face.
