“History Needs to Know This Happened” GOP Politician Ben Barnes recently revealed about the 1980 election.
The New York Times revealed a devasting piece of information about the Reagan campaign that would be considered treasonous.
Ben Barnes was an aide to former Governor of Texas John B. Connelly who ran for the Republican nomination that year only to lose to then former Governor Ronald Reagan. But Connelly wanted to be part of Reagan’s team and the only way for that to happen was to guarantee that incumbent President Carter would lose. If he could find a way to make Carter lose, he would be able to secure a position he wanted in the Reagan cabinet.
During the summer of 1980 Barnes traveled with Connelly on a trip to six middle eastern countries: Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Syria. He relayed a very specific message through them to Iranian leader Ayatollah Khomeini: Hold the Iranian hostages through the 1980 election, and we’ll cut you a better deal. Reagan’s campaign director William Casey was in contact with Connelly asking him whether “they [the Iranians] were going to hold onto the hostages” until after the election. And they did until nine minutes after Ronald Reagan was sworn in as the 40th President.
What did Iran gain in exchange for releasing the hostages?
Weapons.
And lots of them.
And that deal as it later turned out was called the Iran-Contra Scandal that began as early as 1981. The Reagan administration secretly sold weapons to the Iranian government and the profits from them were given directly to the guerilla movement in Nicaragua called the Contra’s to fight the left-wing Sandinistas. And this scandal would haunt not just the Gipper but his successor George H.W. Bush during his run for re-election in 1992.
The Reagan campaign sabotaged an incumbent President trying desperately to bring home 79 American hostages in exchange for political favors. The sounds an awful lot like committing treason, doesn’t it?
Although Jimmy Carter was not a perfect president, he did practice what he preached and worked until the last few minutes in the oval office to have those hostages released. Post-presidency he worked for habitat for humanity and established the Carter Center to advance human rights and provide treatment for those with malaria. With Jimmy Carter’s recent passing this sabotage by the Reagan campaign should not be overlooked when it came to the 79 hostages being delayed.
