Top McCain adviser defends campaign
Posted: Friday, November 13, 2009 4:07 PM by Domenico Montanaro
Filed Under:
Norah O'Donnell, Sarah Palin
From MSNBC's Norah O'Donnell
Sen. John McCain's longtime friend and former chief of staff, Mark Salter, has just issued a statement about Palin's accusations.
Salter, who co-authored McCain's books, defends Nicolle Wallace's actions throughout the campaign. Palin suggests in the book that Wallace was a double-agent for Couric because Wallace had worked at CBS News prior to the campaign.
From Salter:
"After we had been criticized in the press for a lack of disciplined messaging earlier in the campaign when we provided frequent and unscheduled access to the candidate, we felt it necessary to adopt the same deliberativeness and discipline employed by our opponents and rely less on impromptu press conferences with our traveling press, and more on interviews arranged in advance so our candidates would have the same opportunity our opponents enjoyed to discuss and prepare for the interview.
"Approximately one week elapsed from Governor Palin's nomination to her first major press interview, the first in a series of major interviews Governor Palin did. Those interviews were discussed and agreed to by senior members of the campaign staff in consultation with the candidates. Nicolle Wallace, along with others, was tasked with helping the Governor prepare for some of her interviews. She did not decide which interview requests the candidates would accept. Nor was she tasked with securing the candidates' agreement. Those decisions were made by campaign management in consultation with the candidates. Campaign management and the candidates agreed to multi segment interviews so the Governor would maintain a presence in the media while she was in debate prep. And to the best of my knowledge, any interviews the Governor had with the individuals she referred to were approved and arranged by the campaign management with her agreement."
