Posted by Jessica Hughes on Friday, October 17, 2008 2:12:51 PM
On Wednesday, the 1st of October, I received a call on my cell while in the car with my husband. It was a woman who identified herself as calling from the Obama Campaign. The phone # she called from was 903-798-6020 which I later discovered lists as "Obama Volunteers of Texarkana" (Texas).
She did not give her name that I can recall but identified herself as calling on behalf of the campaign and questioned “Will you be supporting Senator Obama on November fourth?” I had just spent several hours in the Emergency Room with my son who had a mild concussion and the call was on my cell phone so I was doubly annoyed. I know for a fact that I have never given out my cell number to any organization that could remotely be construed as supporting Barack Obama’s campaign. As those who know me can testify I am quick with my words and I responded curtly:
"No, I don't support him, your guy is a socialist who voted four times in the State Senate to let little babies die in hospital closets; I think you should find something better to do with your time." I hung up. There was no argument or exchange of words. I simply stated my two biggest problems with the candidate this stranger was asking me to support and ended the call. Both my sons who are 6 and 9 and my husband heard the call.
We stopped soon after at a diner we frequent and I related the exchange to a few members of the staff including the owner’s son, who later told me that when he saw the story in the paper he recalled me as saying exactly what I stated above. In all honesty, I was proud that I had been able to give a quick and clear reason for not supporting her candidate. I half hoped it would give her pause and maybe she would think long enough to look into the economic policies and moral quandaries of Senator Obama. Often times we have a confrontation and think, “I wish I had said…” but in this case, I had said exactly what I wanted to and I recall the words quite clearly.
Thursday, October 2, I answered the front door to two suited individuals, a man and a woman. The woman flipped open a badge at about waist level. My husband later said he saw that it had the words “Secret Service” on it but I didn’t get a good look at it. They identified themselves verbally as being from the United States Secret Service. Immediately I thought of the call and was furious that apparently you are not allowed to call Obama a Socialist without the Secret Service coming to investigate. This was my thought pattern because in that instant it never occurred to me that someone may have lied about my statement. They confirmed that I had received a call from the Obama Campaign the previous day. I expected, frankly, to see them off my steps promptly as I had done nothing wrong. I was shocked when they asked me about the following comment, relayed by the Obama Volunteer of Texarkana who called me, unsolicited on my cell phone:
"I will never support Obama and he will wind up dead on a hospital floor."
My husband, who had come out the door with me sort of laughed, the whole thing being so unbelievable, and told them “No, she called him a socialist but she never said a word about him dying.” I gave them my actual quote and informed them that both my husband and my two sons had heard me take the call.
At this point I believe the female Secret Service Agent (later identified as D. Morris) began to overstep her bounds. She asked me in what I considered an accusing way, “Oh really? Well, why would she make that up? What would she have to gain?” As if it was so obvious that the caller was telling the truth and I ought to just admit it.
I replied that I supposed she wasn’t happy about my opinion of her candidate and the Agent said “That’s right, you were rude!” This is a ridiculous statement for a Law Enforcement Officer to make. The last time I checked being rude wasn’t a crime in America. Indeed, her phraseology suggests that she believed me in my statement of what I had said, and additional evidence to support this idea arose throughout the questioning.
I noticed that the female Agent was holding a file with my name outward and I commented on it, asking them if there was anything in my history to indicate I was some loon who would make a death threat.
They said no. At this point they are accusing me of a death threat in what could be at best described as a she-said/she-said situation. Indeed, I have on my side the presumption of innocence (or so I thought), two children, and my spouse, all of whom heard what I said. I expect them to leave. What more can they ask me than what I said? What my husband heard? I invited them to ask my kids what I said.
Instead, the male agent got out a pad and asked me what I thought of Obama, how I felt about him.
That was my limit. I told the Agent in no uncertain terms, “My thoughts are not pertinent to your investigation. This is America and the last time I checked I am allowed to think whatever I want without being questioned by the Secret Service.” I also stated that in fact, even if I had said what she claimed, that isn't a threat. She didn’t claim I said I would kill him. She claimed I said he would ‘wind up dead on a hospital floor.’ What kind of stilted, ridiculous threat is that? Some people have claimed that she perhaps misinterpreted what I said through a bad cell connection. Well I can state unequivocally that she did NOT repeat exactly what she heard since I never used the words ‘wind’, ‘up’, ‘dead’ or ‘floor’. At the very least she took a lousy connection and exaggerated and lied about what she did in fact hear.
The male agent attempted to disarm me so I would talk about my thoughts saying, “Hey, haven’t you ever been in a car accident? Didn’t the police officer ask you if you had been drinking or on your cell phone?” He wanted to compare those questions to his questioning my thoughts and feelings about a candidate. I replied, “Yes, he would, because those are questions pertinent to the event. He would not ask me what I think of red Chevies, or how I feel about speeding. He would ask me about facts, and I gave you the facts. I told you what was actually said; my husband told you what was actually said. That is pertinent. Not my thoughts.”
At this point, I started to think there must be a tape of the call that these agents simply had not bothered to listen to. In retrospect, it is unlikely since the Obama Campaign would have not made the call if they had proof of its illegitimacy. I now assume that if there was a tape it is long gone. In the moment however, I thought that of course the campaign must have at least claimed they had some evidence or else this interrogation would not be happening at all. I asked the agents, “Where is the tape of this call? Just listen to it and you’ll know I never said any such thing!” They told me that there is no tape. At this point the flimsy nature of the allegation which brought them to my home really started to sink in and I was completely outraged.
I said, "So on the word of a ticked off Obama supporter you are on my porch with no other evidence and you want to question me about my thoughts!?"
The female agent actually said “You have no evidence that the complainant is an Obama supporter.” This is insane. The woman called me from an Obama Volunteer center and this is not evidence that she is an Obama supporter, while the unsubstantiated word of a partisan is apparently enough evidence that I am a danger to Barack Obama to get me interrogated at my home in America.
The male agent tried to say they were trying to help me out and he alluded to the fact that they came to me first instead of asking all of my neighbors and family embarrassing questions. I take that as a not very veiled threat to humiliate me.
I told them to be my guest and talk to whomever they wanted but they weren’t going to investigate my thoughts on my porch.
I think it was at this point I went inside and got a notepad. As I said earlier, I had not actually seen their identification. I let that slide when I believed they were there about my actual statement, but now I felt the female agent was behaving very inappropriately and the man was making threats to humiliate me if I would not comply with answering questions about my thoughts. I came back out and said, “Okay, now I want to see your I.D. and I want your badge numbers or a card.” Both refused to show me their badges. The female agent rolled her eyes, shook her head and said, “You’re not going to get a card.” She laughed. The male Agent gave me a card and told me I could contact the Houston office with any questions.
I also said that I wanted to file a counter complaint against this person who had filed a false report, I have witnesses to what I actually said. This woman falsified a very serious charge against me but the Secret Service agents told me I can’t since I don’t know who the complainant is.
At this point I asked, “Don’t I have the right to face my accuser in America?” The male agent, I think trying to scare me said that we were not in a court of law and that’s a good thing. He asked me to agree with him saying, “Right?” I said no its not. I’ll go to court, I want to go to court. I have rights there. My accuser has to get up on a stand and take an oath before she lies about me, not just remain anonymous and send the thought police to my door.
The male agent was trying to be ‘good cop’ and said “Look, even my partner said on the way up here that this is a wasted trip.” He alluded again to the fact that they were well aware that I was no threat and this was a bogus complaint.
Finally they told me that the next time a volunteer calls I should say, “’Yeah Yeah I love him, count me in’, and hang up.” This way they don’t have to drive up from Houston again. I said, "Look, someone calls me unsolicited on my cell phone to ask me to support their candidate and I can't tell them why I don't?" I said I was sorry they made a wasted trip but if they had a problem with some made up lie they needed to go talk to her about it because it wasn't my fault they had to drive from Houston for nothing.
Later it occurred to me that if they had driven straight to me from Houston as they said, that means they never even spoke to this girl face to face. They had no idea whether she was a credible person, yet here they were, harassing me at my home.
The fact that the volunteer lied, the fact that the Secret Service came to my house to question me about my thoughts and feelings and threaten to embarrass me to my neighbors and go to court if I didn’t cooperate is not really the tragedy here. Because I don’t believe for one minute that girl on the phone has the pull to send the Secret Service to my home on her own. Someone higher in the ranks of a campaign working for a man who may be the next President of the United States of America felt comfortable bringing the force of the Federal Government to bear on a private citizen on nothing but the word of a partisan volunteer. The rude behavior of the female agent combined with their allusion to having known all along that this was a wasted trip leads me to two possibilities. Maybe she was an Obama supporter who knew I was innocent but didn’t like my views and welcomed the opportunity of an officially sanctioned harassment of me for them, or maybe they make many of these bogus trips and they’re sick of it. This whole episode has led me to question how many of the ‘death threats’ the Obama Campaign is publicizing are the sort of lies that this one was.
These things must be known. I want to file a counter complaint that false charges were made, that a false report was given to a peace officer. The Secret Service told me I cannot because they will protect the identity of the complainant. I have also heard from a friend that on the Federal level there is no charge to bring against this girl on my own behalf. Is this to say that anyone can sit around making up stories to the Secret Service to get the people they don’t like investigated and put on a watch list?
The reporter for the LDN said that when she called the head of the Texas Obama campaign, he had just replaced whoever was there last week when this happened. I don’t know if that has to do with this but I wouldn’t be surprised. Also, he told the reporter that the incident is still under investigation and he can’t comment which is disgusting. At this point, he ought to be saying, “I’m sorry, it was a misunderstanding”. The Secret Service is also still considering my case “Under Investigation.” What on earth is there to investigate?
I want this entire issue brought to court in order to expose it to the light of day. I want everyone: from the volunteer who took my call, the person who reported me, the agents themselves, everyone to have to account for the procedures followed. I want to know if they went by the book. Anywhere they did not, I want the violator to suffer repercussions for their fascist and un-American violation of my rights as a law-abiding citizen. If this is by the books, if this is how America runs today, then the book needs to be rewritten to comply with the Constitutionally guaranteed rights of the citizens of the United States of America.
Furthermore, if this campaign or any campaign wants to make unsolicited calls to citizens and reserve the right to bring government force to bear against those citizens as a result of their calls then they need to have a better documentation than some partisan campaign volunteer, they need to have a tape or a monitor on the other line, to ensure that these incidents to not occur.
