While reading a recent transcript of press avails by NY20 Congressional candidates Scott Murphy and Jim Tedisco, I noticed an odd comment by Murphy. I didn’t pay much attention to it and let it slide until I saw that John McCormack had perked up his ears over the same thing.
MURPHY: So, one of the best moments of my life: I was going down to D.C. a week and a half ago. We were going down to raise some money. Only been twice, very quick, spending my time in the district, but we did go down. And the White House called the night before and said, “Why don’t you come over. We’d like to talk to you about the race.” It wasn’t President Obama, but I spent an hour and a half in the situation room talking to their political advisers about the race and how they could be involved and what was going on, how they could be helpful. And that was amazing. Here’s me, Scott Murphy in this room. Henry Kissinger’s in the room next door pontificating about the world. And I’m thinking, ‘Wow this is a new level of involvement.’
Was Murphy really in the Situation Room talking about his race? I happen to have the luxury of knowing one person who has actually been inside that room. For most folks, it used to take nearly an act of God to get in the door… code word clearance and all that. I wouldn’t expect them to let Gibbs in there. At the moment, Scott Murphy isn’t an elected anything. He’s a lobbyist for a venture capital firm who also happens to be a candidate for a House seat. (A race he’s currently losing, according to the last Sienna poll.)
Or was he perhaps in some other room and just thought he was in the Situation Room? Either way, it would be interesting to hear a follow-up on this one.