If it turns out that the campaign of Chris McDaniel was involved in the taping of Thad Cochran’s wife in a nursing home, then it really doesn’t matter who knew what when. The damage would be, and should be, a game changer.
As of this writing, though, the proof either is not there or has not been made public. At most there is a cloud of suspicion because the alleged perpetrators were supporters and/or volunteers and/or prior acquaintances of McDaniel or the campaign.
But if it turns out either that we don’t get the answer until after the June 3 primary, or that the McDaniel campaign was not involved, then the fact that the story broke so close to the election is important.
We know one of the reasons the story broke so late — the Cochran campaign has admitted waiting at least two weeks to inform authorities. We don’t know exactly how many weeks beyond two weeks.
That pushed the story closer to the election which means we may not know the answer by June 3, which makes the seeming presumption of guilt based on the unknown potentially decisive.
Erick Erickson suggested early on that there might have been collusion between the Cochran campaign and the National Republican Senatorial Committee. I don’t if that’s true or not.
One way to find out would be to find out when the NRSC, its staffers and strategists, found out about the taping.
If there was collusion to delay the story until closer to the election, we should know that. If there was no collusion to delay the story, should know that too. And we should know it prior to the election.
But as of this writing, I have not been able to get an answer to that question.
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