The Life and Death of My Ron Paul Interview

An IST exclusive!

Several months ago, I contacted the Paul campaign about doing a short telephone interview with the good Doctor. I wrote about it on The Political Machine, but then the interview never happened. I've been promising to tell the story for months, and now I shall.

First, a little bit of background. I have developed a certain amount of cachet with the Ron Paul Revolution, starting with my first ever article about Dr. Paul. It was a thorough and fair analysis of his platform, with which I had significant disagreement. His supporters were overwhelmingly grateful just to have their candidate dealt with fairly and seriously, something which rarely happened with Ron.

Despite my political differences, I felt that Ron Paul deserved a fair hearing with the public, and so I made every effort to highlight instances where the MSM unfairly ignored or marginalized him or his followers. I'm even cited as a source on Ron's Wikipedia entry.

So, just before Super Tuesday, I contacted the Paul campaign about doing a short interview with him, to give him a chance to meet millions of AOL subscribers. I spoke with Jesse Benton's assistant repeatedly, over the course of several days, trying to set up a phone interview.

They agreed to at least answer my questions via email, but I really wanted that back-and-forth. As much as I wanted to help right a wrong against him, I'm no shill.
Before I continue, here are the questions I wanted to ask him:

Your candidacy first entered the spotlight with your position against the Iraq war, particularly in an exchange with Rudy Giuliani at an early debate. How do you feel now that he has dropped out and you are still going strong?

Another hallmark of your campaign is the enormous amount of money you've raised. Why do you think that has not translated into victories in the primaries and caucuses?

Do you see yourself as having any strong geographic support, and where is it?

Do you feel as though your candidacy has been ignored by the mainstream media, and if so, why do you think that is?

There's a video on youtube of Fox News completely ignoring your 2nd place finish in Nevada, and they excluded you from their debate. Do you think their support for Giuliani played into that?

Your position on choice is one that I respect from a personal standpoint. Having said that, how do you reconcile that with the apparent contradiction to your other libertarian views?

As a followup, you are a doctor, don't you think that sort of decision should be between a patient and her doctor?
What is your position on gay marriage?

I have heard your explanation of the contents of your old newsletters, and I wanted to touch on that. What level of responsibility do you take for that?

I studied your platform in some detail, and I found that many of your rationales work perfectly in the abstract, but they assume a level playing field, which we do not have. For example, Affirmative Action. If companies act against their best interests and market forces due to the bigotry of its employees, what corrective is there in Ron Paul's America?

Finally, I'd like to ask you to describe your reaction to John McCain's answer to your question at the CNN debate. Your question stumped me, too, but I'm not running for President.

In closing, many of my readers are fervent Ron Paul supporters and would love to know if you would consider a third party run for president, or if you would ever run at the bottom of a Democratic ticket?

If the Republicans run a pro-war candidate, which all but you are, will you endorse him?

There are some tough questions there, which I had no doubt he could handle, but a unilateral email lends itself too much to incomplete or self-serving answers, without follow-up.

As the weeked approached, Friday became Saturday, became Sunday, and they were still hemming and hawing about the interview. I thought they might be leery of me because of the way he'd been covered by others. I wanted them to know that I would be fair, and I thought some input from a few of his fans would help convince them of that, so I wrote this on The Political Machine:

Call to Action: As many of you know, although I am not a Ron Paul supporter, I do think that he has been treated unfairly by the press, a situation that I have tried, in my own small way, to remedy. At the end of this article, I will post links to some of my other Ron Paul articles. First, though, I want to let you know that I am trying to set up an interview with Dr. Paul this weekend. Right now, his campaign would like to answer my questions via email, but I've asked for a phone interview instead, for a number of reasons, primarily because it will get much more exposure that way.

If you want Ron Paul to speak with me, send his campaign an email, (use this contact form) let them know that I will treat him fairly. I have already sent him my questions via email, so there won't be any surprises. I may not agree with Ron Paul, but he deserves to be heard. If you'd like to suggest interview questions, post them in comments or email me at TommyChristopher@comcast.net

Now, I fully expected them to get enough emails to be noticeable, that was the point. Still, the story I wrote that in got 40 comments. I had no reason to expect that the volume of email to the Paul campaign would even approach that low number. In any case, I wasn't trying to pressure them, but rather to reassure.

So, this is what I got from Jesse Benton, Ron's press secretary:

Mr. Christopher,

The Ron Paul campaign recieves hundreds of interview requests every day. Despite our extremely full docket, we had intended to answer your questions. However, due to you extremely unprofessional behavior, we are now declining. This decision is final. Please refrain from spamming our email box or I will have to encourage our suporters to send you messages and calls backing up my request.

Best,
Jesse Benton

More on that in a minute. Here's my response:

Mr. Benton,

I'm very sorry to hear that, but I'm not spamming your email box. I let my readers, many of whom are ardent Ron Paul supporters, know that I was trying to secure an interview. I hoped that some of them would let the campaign know that I would give Mr. Paul a fair shake, as I have done in the past. I apologize if the volume was more than it should have been, that was not my intention, but those are from real voters, not me.

I've gotten 4 emails from Ron Paul supporters letting me know they had emailed you, and several of them suggested questions for Dr. Paul. I hope you will reconsider. My readers will be very disappointed, as will I. It was only my hope that a few supporters would reassure you that I was not going to do a hit job or try to marginalize Dr. Paul, a concern I anticipated because I know some of my questions are tough, but not designed out of any agenda.

In any case, please accept my profound apologies for any inconvenience this caused you. Believe it or not, I was really trying to help. I don't personally agree with Dr. Paul on many key issues, but I believe strongly that he deserves to be heard, and that an unfair and concerted effort has been made to ignore and marginalize someone who obviously speaks for many Americans.

I assure you, I never anticipated a deluge of emails. The story that contained the information about the interview request has only gotten 29 comments. In fairness to me, and your supporters, who all only want to help Dr. Paul be heard, I urge you to reconsider. In any case, please reply one last time yea or nay, so that I can complete my story. I published my questions in another article, so my readers will want an explanation. Thank you again.

Sincerely,
Tommy Christopher

Back to that asshole's response to me. Who the fuck is Jesse Benton to call me unpro-fucking-fessional? You know what's unprofessional? Not returning a journalist's call for days, especially one on a deadline. I know Dr Paul is busy, so maybe he could hire some people whose only job is to talk to reporters...Oh, wait...

But the surreal part was this reject-from-Morris-Day-and-the-Time-sounding motherfucker accusing me of spamming the Ron Paul campaign! Are you shitting me?


Then, the shitheel turns around and threatens to spam me! What the fuck?

Now, I realize that asking Paul's supporters to email the campaign was perhaps ill-advised, but obviously not intended to do any harm. This was an official from a US Congressman's campaign leveling a threat against a reporter. I can't see there ever being a justification for that.

I didn't write about it then because my editors thought it was not worth the trouble, and I wasn't gonna do it without them 100% behind me. Besides, I really didn't feel like writing something that could unfairly damage Dr. Paul. It's not his fault his press guy is a douche.

The other irony here is that a candidate who was never given a fair shake, in turn, didn't give me one either.

I was reminded of the whole ugly episode the other day, when the lady from Axe emailed me this article from the Wall Street Journal.

Jesse Benton, 30, had a serious girlfriend in Washington when he signed up to be communications director for Texas Rep. Ron Paul. That quickly ended when she complained about his being on the road so much, he says.

Several months later Mr. Benton was spotted kissing Mr. Paul's granddaughter and fellow campaign staffer, Valori Pyeatt, 22, in a hallway of the Des Moines Marriott. "It's uncentering to have no real routine, but it's also liberating. It lets your passions out," says Mr. Benton, who is now engaged to Ms. Pyeatt. The two plan to marry in Texas in August.

Congratulations, asshole.