Karl Rove knows a thing or two about the ugly, reputation smearing rumors that have come to be known as “Whisper Campaigns.”
In 2000, one such campaign was started, allegedly by Rove, that claimed John McCain fathered a black “love child.”
But the tactic goes back to the start of U.S. politics with John Adams accusing Thomas Jefferson of carrying on an affair with his slave . . . a story that remains in play today.
Today, social conservatives who support Texas Senator Ted Cruz are spreading false rumors about frontrunner Donald Trump.
Here are just a few:
Donald Trump owns a “strip club”: The rumor has been gaining momentum, and was recently emailed to a million Catholic voters.
But it’s completely false.
In Trump’s Taj Mahal, a tenant runs and owns the gentleman’s club, Scores. While there are scantily-clad women for sure, zoning laws prevent a “strip club” in a hotel. So the women employed at that particular Scores franchise have to cover up their naughty bits.
Donald Trump does not own Scores. He does take their money as a tenant, just as the government of Atlantic City takes the taxes from the booze and cover charges of the establishment.
Donald Trump has been married THREE times: And that is correct and known, but social conservatives have been laying out this trump card and making comparisons to Lincoln and Reagan as the standard-bearers of American morality.
The comparison is laughable. Reagan was married twice and his daughter Patti was conceived out of wedlock. As for Lincoln, the man was the victim of his own whisper campaign as when Mrs. Lincoln was away, he shared his bed with his bodyguard. The moral of this whisper is this: whether Lincoln, Reagan or Trump, humans are imperfect.
Trump is not alone in being the target of underhanded campaign. Jeb Bush allies, threatened by up-and-comer Marco Rubio, created a rumor about the young candidate’s “zipper problem.”
The rumors, that have zero evidence to back them up, say that Rubio has a secret family and took a few trips with a female operative from Tallahassee.
The campaign didn’t stick, as it was a far stretch of the imagination without proof.
As for Trump, a few plays on the facts will lead a voter to believe that Trump actually owns a strip club and other rumors have circulated that the billionaire is working on a third divorce.
The social conservatives backing Cruz are shameless in spreading the rumors . . . with many more expected to crop us as Trump gains even more momentum.
