Former Tennessee Congressman Zach Wamp said Time Magazine mischaracterized him and his role with a coalition of well-known political figures and what they did in the months leading up to the November 2020 presidential election.
The Time article seemed to brag that various groups collaborated “behind the scenes” to defeat former U.S. President Donald Trump. The article has attracted nationwide attention.
Author Molly Ball describes “a well-funded cabal of powerful people” who worked to “influence perceptions, change rules and laws, steer media coverage and control the flow of information.”
Time quoted Wamp, a Republican, more than once.
The magazine said that Wamp and a bipartisan coalition of well-known political figures belonged to this cabal. Ball, in her piece, said Wamp and other officials actively worked against Trump’s best interests. As The Tennessee Star reported Monday, Wamp and other officials identify this coalition as the National Council on Election Integrity.
According to the National Council on Election Integrity’s website, former Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam, former U.S. Sen. Bill Frist, Donna Brazile, and Madeline Albright are among four of the council’s many members.
But Wamp said members of the National Council on Election Integrity did not belong to this cabal, as Time put it.
“I have no idea who these other groups [referred to] are. I have no idea who these other people are who are quoted in this article. They editorialize in this supposed journalistic piece by using words like ‘conspiracy’ and ‘cabal.’ They use those two words because they are the ones that put all of these groups together — not us. I don’t know who those people are. That is really unfortunate that that is how they do media now. They create the appearance of a conspiracy as if these groups all work together,” Wamp told The Star Monday.
“Now, we did get involved before the election with things like Pennsylvania where the Republican legislature was asked ‘Will you clarify by statute that you can’t count absentee ballots after the election day?’ Because if you don’t do it and they refuse to do it the Supreme Court will tell the courts when you can do it. And, as you know, they gave them three days, which was part of the real problem of the election having integrity. What we were doing was trying to make sure the states had the resources they needed to carry out an election in a pandemic. Also, if they had absentee voting we wanted to make sure it was done in a transparent way where the absentee ballots would be counted before the election day.”
Wamp said members of the National Council on Election Integrity had a phone conference Monday morning to discuss how Time characterized them.
“We are trying to get to the bottom of it,” Wamp said.
Members of Time’s media relations staff did not return The Star’s request for comment. Haslam and Frist also did not return requests for comment before Monday’s stated deadline.
Time described Wamp as someone who supported Trump.
As reported, Wamp has sharply criticized Trump in the past, including on Twitter, but he said Monday that he often stands up for the former president.
“I have defended Trump on issue after issue after issue on radio shows and in the newspaper, but I won’t defend him on the election outcome,” Wamp said.
“I defended him for four years on major issues, publicly.”
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Chris Butler is an investigative journalist at The Tennessee Star. Follow Chris on Facebook. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Zach Wamp” by Issue One Action.
Wamp and Billy Haslam are both RINOS! They both run for elected office as a conservative and then vote to raise taxes and further their personal agenda ahead of Tennesseans! Billy Haslam raised taxes and was anti 2nd amendment governor! I think Tennesseans have had enough of this type of elected officials in Tennessee! Haslam’s buddy Bill Hagerty is the newest RINO from Tennessee!! Hagerty will be a one term senator after using Trump to get elected and immediately joined Mitt Romney coalition with Haslam!