Perot Campaign Claims Bush Camp Is Distorting Swindle’s Comments

The Ross Perot campaign on Monday accused President Bush’s campaign of “distorting remarks” made by Perot’s national volunteer coordinator, Orson Swindle, and having taken the Perot aide’s statements “out of context.”

Upon arrival for the presidential debate here Monday, President Bush said: “We agree, as Ross Perot’s national coordinator Orson Swindle said this weekend, that a vote for Bill Clinton is a vote for disaster. Bill Clinton will not be able to control this spendthrift Congress.” The Bush campaign also put out a press release quoting Swindle’s appearance on CNN’s “Newsmaker Sunday.”

During that show, Swindle, a Republican who campaigned for Ronald Reagan and held two jobs in the Reagan-Bush Administration, said: “Bill Clinton will last only four years, if he gets elected, and it will be the most disastrous four years this country has ever seen.”

Swindle argued that if voters listen closely to Clinton, “he is still talking basic Democrat tax-and-spend liberal concepts of government.”

During a weekend speech to the Vermont convention of United We Stand, America, the Perot volunteer organization, Swindle also said: “If you vote for Bill Clinton, things are going to go right down the drain.”

Some two hours before the debate started Monday, Perot press secretary Sharon Holman circulated through the press filing center to distribute a press release charging that “the Bush campaign is continuing to show their desperation by deliberately distorting Orson Swindle’s comments.”

“After weeks of failing to see progress in opinion polls as a result of their negative campaign against Bill Clinton, the Bush campaign today set their sights on discrediting the Perot campaign in hopes of getting enough votes to make their loss look respectable.”