Misadventures in DC – Russian Interference in Senator McCains Presidential Campaign

In 2008, I served on Senator John McCain’s presidential-campaign vetting team. Senator McCain instructed us to vet the people around him and the people who might serve with him. That instruction was not unusual. What became unusual was what happened when I took it seriously.

In July 2007, the McCain campaign had already suffered a major structural collapse caused by fundraising problems and internal division. Terry Nelson and John Weaver resigned.

Rick Davis (Paul Manafort’s business partner) then emerged as the dominant campaign figure. TIME later described Cindy McCain as having played a “hard-knuckled tactical role” in that shake-up, reporting that, in large part at her instigation, John Weaver was fired and Rick Davis was brought back from internal exile to take over.

The Washington Post also reported that Davis had complained to Cindy McCain that the campaign was not effectively managing its budget – a rather humorous complaint, given public reports he had hired his own lobbying firm (that he and Paul Manafort ran, in part with millions of illicit Russian dollars to support anti-democratic forces in Ukraine. In addition, Davis also gave a company he was part owner in 3eDC, over a million dollars for “online advertising.” Neither the media in DC, nor us in the campaign ever found any ads generated by the company. So whatever Rick Davis and Paul Manafort did with that money – remains – to the best of my knowledge, a mystery.[1]

By the summer of 2008, the campaign had gone through another operational shake-up. Steve Schmidt was given near-full control over message and strategy, while Rick Davis retained the campaign-manager title and shifted toward longer-term matters, including convention planning and the vice-presidential process. During that period, public reporting raised serious questions about Davis Manafort, the firm associated with Rick Davis and Paul Manafort, including its foreign-client work, its ties to Oleg Deripaska, and its intersection with Ukraine and post-Soviet political interests.

During that period, public reporting raised serious questions about Davis Manafort, the firm associated with Rick Davis and Paul Manafort, including its foreign-client work, its ties to Oleg Deripaska, and its intersection with Ukraine and Russians anti-democratic efforts.

ProPublica reported that Manafort represented Oleg Deripaska and that Davis had helped arrange a 2006 meeting between Deripaska (the corrupt Putin ally) and Senator McCain. The Wall Street Journal also reported that Manafort was connected to public-relations work for a Ukrainian political party while the firm was being paid by the McCain campaign. Those were the black and white facts, as reported by multiple media sources at the time.

So, I did what I believed any patriotic American in my position should do - I opened an email, collected the most relevant public-source reporting, sent it to the head of the vetting team and several colleagues, and formally recommended an internal vetting review of Rick Davis, the campaign manager and his and his partners connection to Russia, and their efforts to undermine Ukraine. I also recommended that Senator McCain’s inner circle be notified.

The next morning, I arrived at work and found a senior campaign official waiting near my desk. She said she needed to speak with me privately.

At first, I took that as a good sign. I assumed the campaign was going to discuss how to handle the matter discreetly and professionally.

Instead, in a conference room with several others present, I was told, in substance: we read your email about the campaign manager; to keep everything running smoothly, we need you to send another email saying you misunderstood and that you do not believe Rick Davis is a problem. I was also told to focus only on the tasks assigned to me.

I remember smiling slightly at that last part.

I asked whether she was aware of Senator McCain’s instruction to the vetting team. She said, “Of course.” It was clear from the conversation that she either did not know the full context or did not want to discuss it.

“So, are you going to be staying with us, or are you going to be leaving?”

At that point – it finally became clear to me what was happening. Someone in the campaign went to Rick Davis, before they went to Senator McCain or his Senate staff, and that power move had vectored my recommendation to vet the campaign manager – directly to the campaign manager, and no doubt to his lobbying partner Manafort. I nearly smiled with the clarity of the moment and spoke slowly and clearly making eye contact with the two most senior individuals in the room:

“I will not recall the email or retract my professional recommendation that we vet the campaign manager, and his business partner for their illegal ties to Russia. And I will not lie to protect the campaign manager.”

The woman gave me her best fake, condescending smile. She was pretty, I thought – from an objective perspective – long blonde hair and intense eyes. Of course, once she spoke – anything about her physical beaty disappeared, leaving only her fake, pushy charm and cheap understanding of the world.

As fate would have it, the story – gratefully – did not end there. While it looked like Rick Davis and his lobbying firm had won, they underestimated the integrity and exceptionally high caliber of some GOP senior leaders. One of my mentors at the time, was the late Ambassador Melady, who had served in the first President Bush campaign.[2] When I reached out to him for assistance, his superb and nuanced understanding of DC’s political world kicked into high gear, and within less than a week, word broke in the news that Senator McCain was firing Rick Davis due to his firm’s connections to Russia, and to accounting irregularities.

A new campaign manager, with an exceptional track record, Steve Scmidt was selected to replace Rick Davis.[3] But as with all good plans – they can fall victim to ignorant or corrupt individuals who prize loyalty over patriotism. According to a report by the New York Times in the fall of 2007, Cindy McCain heard about the Senators decision before it hit the media (presumably from Rick Davis) and flew into DC to convince Senator McCain to keep Rick Davis on the campaign. I have never met Cindy McCain – and yet I do wonder to this day, what her logic was for intervening to help a Russian connected, corrupt campaign manager stay at the helm of her husband’s campaign, according to the Times she even referred to Rick Davis as their “best friend.”[4]

Given the superb presidency of then Senator Obama, perhaps our great nation was saved from whatever role Rick Davis and Paul Manafort would have received in a McCain Presidency. Yet, I can’t help but wonder if the late Senator McCain, who is by all accounts a national military hero, ever got the chance he deserved. The Senator had many virtues – perhaps the most memorable is his ardent, and even stubborn support for our nation’s military – while simultaneously holding military leaders accountable for every dollar Congress delivered.

I can’t help but wonder what unanticipated and secondary impacts came from the 2008 campaign. If nothing else, I think it’s clear the Kremlin became aware of just how easy it is to play and overplay their hand in seeking to influence our presidential elections.

Consider for a moment this scenario: What if you turn on your TV tomorrow and the only channel you can access is FOX News – the other channels are simply not available.

No doubt many of my colleagues would be okay with that. Now consider the opposite: what if starting at midnight tonight – the only channel available was MSNBC?

Now consider that possibility and imagine it being stuck that way permanently. No internet access, no more newspapers, no more radio – the only source of data you have from now until the November Midterms is stuck on a channel you believe to the core of your being is lying to you, or at a minimum is favoring the party you dislike most.

That is what happens and is happening to American voters. The data you receive and have access to on social media is manipulated to influence you by our nation’s enemies.

I don’t think this reality has truly sunk in for most Americans. Let me frame it differently: What if you saw a news report that read the following: “Foreign cyber actor has micro-targeted you as a (insert GOP or Democrat) voter and is even now manipulating the content you receive on Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X, and TikTok.”

If the reality of this does not startle you, I would ask you to pause and think for a moment. How would you (how even would I) know if foreign cyber actors were interfering with the data we receive?

Epistemologically this remains a “known unknown.” Due to the sophistication of nation-state and non-nation state information and cognitive warfare tools, it would in fact likely take part of our nation’s military, intelligence community and close allies to get to the bottom of this.

Fortunately, we have a whole branch in the State Department, the Global Engagement Center handling this…or rather we did. It was unfunded and shuttered once Trump took office in 2024.[5] Why?

Well at least Congress and the nations intelligence community stood up the Foreign Malign Influence Center and placed it under the Director of National Intelligence to ensure we are protected. But despite Congress authorizing and approving funds for it, President Trump shuttered the center and refuses to fund it.[6] Why?

Well, certainly a Presidential campaign could never be influenced by a communist, or authoritarian actor who promotes communism, attacks democracy, kills tens of thousands of innocent citizens a month in Ukraine, and who assassinates Americans on our own soil…right?[7]

Oh, a jury convicted Manafort who was Trumps Campaign Chairman? Surely that’s not the same Manafort that founded “Pegasus Consulting,” with Rick Davis? Oh, it is…[8]

Perhaps a more disturbing reality is this: The Democratic party (knowingly or not), is not simply running midterm campaigns against incumbent Republicans and Trump-loyalists, nationwide: they are also, perhaps for the first time in our nations history fighting nation-state actors for information space in our own nation.

The sad truth is this: Due to the Trump administrations closure of key federal agencies, and the Supreme Court decision in Citizens United (allowing unlimited funding to campaigns with no accountability) - American elections are now - to a far larger degree than before - vulnerable to being influenced, purchased and manipulated by our foreign enemies and multinational corporations.

I am not comfortable with the status quo: these foreign states may be supporting Democrats, or Republicans, or Trump, or his opposition.

The main point I would like to highlight is this: should we as Americans bury our heads in the sand and let our elected leaders in Congress defund federal agencies that protect us - or should we demand more?

I hope we focus on the two issues that can really let America get a clearer picture of foreign disinformation. Finally, I would be remiss in mentioning that Trumps “S-A-V-E America Act” would require no less than four forms of ID before you are allowed to vote. It would also actively block the legitimate votes of our patriotic active duty troops overseas by ending mail-in ballots.

In the 2024 Presidential election, more than 40% of Americans stayed home and did not vote. That lack of participation is the true threat to Americas future. We need more, not fewer Americans exercising their God-given right to chose who represents them.

Later Public Record on Russian Interference and Subversion

[1] See: NYT: https://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/23/us/politics/23davis.html, and: “All told, 3eDC billed the campaign more than $1 million for Web services during the first half of the year. (The amount still owed the company accounts for about a third of the campaign’s debt.) News reports also noted that Davis Manafort, the business development and consulting practice from which Mr. Davis is on leave, had been giving campaign advice to the Ukrainian prime minister, Viktor F. Yanukovich, a favorite of the Kremlin, whose power Mr. McCain often warns against.” See, also: All told, 3eDC billed the campaign more than $1 million for Web services during the first half of the year. (The amount still owed the company accounts for about a third of the campaign’s debt.) News reports also noted that Davis Manafort, the business development and consulting practice from which Mr. Davis is on leave, had been giving campaign advice to the Ukrainian prime minister, Viktor F. Yanukovich, a favorite of the Kremlin, whose power Mr. McCain often warns against. See also: https://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/25/us/politics/25davis.html.

[2] See: https://www.iwp.edu/archived-content/iwp-mourns-the-passing-of-amb-thomas-patrick-melady/

[3] See: https://www.npr.org/2008/07/02/92145192/shake-up-in-mccain-campaign-follows-criticism

[4] See: https://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/26/magazine/26mccain-t.html

[5] See: Congressional Research Service: https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/IN12475

[6] See: Congressional Research Service: https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/IF12470.

[7] See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_Davis_(political_consultant)

[8] See: https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/manafort-case-system-worked