Perot Again Denies Frequently Investigating His Opponents

Likely independent presidential candidate Ross Perot said Monday night that he considers individual privacy and the Constitution to be sacred and that he does not “run around with a Sherlock Holmes hat and a magnifying glass.”

“The facts are I do not investigate people’s private lives,” Perot declared in response to a questioner during an ABC-TV network “National Town Meeting.”

In recent weeks, Perot has come under increasing criticism, especially from Republican surrogates of President Bush, that he has a penchant for investigating people he perceives to be enemies.

Perot again called those characterizations “dirty tricks” on the part of the GOP. “I’ve used investigators three or four times--all when it involved people accused of theft,” Perot said.

“Personal lives of people are their own business.”

Later in the show, a member of the audience in ABC’s studio in New York, where the show was being broadcast live, angrily accused Perot of being “a pint-sized bully” for having said earlier this month that he would exclude gays and lesbians from certain top government positions.

“You’re a bigot!” the man shouted.

Perot denied the man’s accusations, saying: “I have a great love and concern for people.”

Perot was less forthcoming when a woman from Boston asked Perot what specific steps he would take as President to protect women’s right to abortion. Earlier in the day, the Supreme Court in a 5-4 ruling upheld the right of states to impose some restrictions on abortions but reaffirmed the basic tenets articulated in Roe vs. Wade, holding that states may not impose an “undue burden” on women.

Perot reiterated his belief in a woman’s right to choose but begged off on specifics, saying he had been “in the air all day.”

He said he would have to study the court’s opinion. “I’ll have to carefully step across that minefield . . . . That minefield got more complicated today, right?”

Perot also was asked about his opposition to the Persian Gulf War and what he would do if a dictator such as Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein were to invade Saudi Arabia.

Perot criticized the Bush Administration for having supported Baghdad throughout its eight-year war against Iran and virtually right up to Iraq’s August, 1990, invasion of Kuwait.

A number of the questioners seemed undaunted by the undeclared presidential candidate, with some candidly telling him when they thought he had dodged a question.

When one viewer asked him why he thinks that he is qualified to run for President when he has never run for public office, Perot responded: “I don’t claim that I am,” and said the momentum for his candidacy is “coming from the American people.”

Perot’s live appearance on the ABC program was aired at 8:30 p.m. PDT, half an hour after the network broadcast an hourlong documentary on Perot. At the outset of the show, Perot jauntily rebutted a number of charges made during the earlier show, which featured his role in the building of the Alliance airport in Ft. Worth, from which he and his family have benefited greatly, his near obsession with the POW/MIA issue, his fight with General Motors Corp. and his role in reforming the public education system in Texas.

During the 90-minute meeting, moderated by ABC anchorman Peter Jennings, Perot fielded questions from people in the network’s New York studio and in nine other cities, including Los Angeles.

Perot is scheduled to appear at a Thursday afternoon rally in Olympia, Wash., where his supporters are expected to file signature petitions to qualify the Texas billionaire for the November ballot in that state.