NY Times: A Clandestine Trip and a Four-Decade Secret: An Untold Story Behind Jimmy Carter's Defeat
From the New York Times
WASHINGTON It has been more than four decades, but Ben Barnes said he remembers it vividly. His longtime political mentor invited him on a mission to the Middle East. What Mr. Barnes said he did not realize until later was the real purpose of the mission: to sabotage the re-election campaign of the president of the United States.
It was 1980 and Jimmy Carter was in the White House, bedeviled by a hostage crisis in Iran that had paralyzed his presidency and hampered his effort to win a second term. Mr. Carters best chance for victory was to free the 52 Americans held captive before Election Day. That was something that Mr. Barnes said his mentor was determined to prevent.
His mentor was John B. Connally Jr., a titan of American politics and former Texas governor who had served three presidents and just lost his own bid for the White House. A former Democrat, Mr. Connally had sought the Republican nomination in 1980 only to be swamped by former Gov. Ronald Reagan of California. Now Mr. Connally resolved to help Mr. Reagan beat Mr. Carter and in the process, Mr. Barnes said, make his own case for becoming secretary of state or defense in a new administration.
What happened next Mr. Barnes has largely kept secret for nearly 43 years. Mr. Connally, he said, took him to one Middle Eastern capital after another that summer, meeting with a host of regional leaders to deliver a blunt message to be passed to Iran: Dont release the hostages before the election. Mr. Reagan will win and give you a better deal.
Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/18/us/politics/jimmy-carter-october-surprise-iran-hostages.html
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Doc Sportello
(7,487 posts)jayschool2013
(2,311 posts)It's their MO.
TheRealNorth
(9,470 posts)To interfere with elections.
snot
(10,502 posts)treason.
czarjak
(11,253 posts)OhNo-Really
(3,985 posts)Roy Cohn helped Rupert Murdochs goal to purchase The New York Post which helped create the Trump myth.
Follow the breadcrumbs and threads of characters who worked for decades and continue to work really hard to divide this country.
After Murdochs arrival from Australia in 1976, Cohn offered entree into the world of Americas powered elite.
Murdoch came in from the outside, said Blumenthal. Cohn was his Virgil who guided him through the netherworlds of New York influence, he added, which led to Trump, among others, who was not much of a power broker at the time.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jun/16/donald-trump-rupert-murdoch-friendship-fox-news
Roy Cohn was one of the largest gatherer of big donor donations for Reagan. Cohn earned access!
Roy Cohn introduced now-president Ronald Reagan to Rupert Murdoch when he was only a governor, and Cohn offered him something he couldnt refuse: a pro-Reagan media apparatus. Today, Cohn thinks Reagan needs a reminder.
https://trumpfile.org/roy-cohn-to-reagan-dont-forget-your-deal-with-rupert-murdoch/ Sources within document.
Hard to believe that the son of a New York Supreme Court Justice became the loathed Roy Cohn
Like Rudy, Roy Cohn was a Manhattan Federal Prosecutor
In 1948, with daddys help, he became a federal prosecutor in Manhattan. He played a small role in the 1949 prosecution of Communist Party leaders for advocating the overthrow of the government. Two years later, his skillful courtroom interrogations helped convict Julius and Ethel Rosenberg of espionage.
https://www.encyclopedia.com/law/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/cohn-roy-marcus
Cohn worked for two years in the U.S. district attorney's office before moving to Washington, D.C., in 1950, to join the justice department as an assistant U.S. attorney.
https://www.encyclopedia.com/law/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/cohn-roy-marcus
FYI ☺️