CNN Reports On The Obama Campaign's Misleading ACORN Story

"Now, today I'm told that the Obama campaign is saying that we may have paid them some money for canvassing, but in earlier e-mails with the Obama campaign, they did say that they paid them $800,000, a subsidiary of ACORN in the primary to garner votes." -- CNN's Drew Griffin

CNN's "The Situation Room"
October 14, 2008

CNN's Wolf Blitzer: "I want you to be very precise, Drew, and just clarify for our viewers what we know about the relationship between the Obama campaign and ACORN specifically. Because there's been confusion out there."

CNN's Drew Griffin: "I think Brian Todd laid it out very well. Barack Obama goes back with this organization. It's a community organizing organization. He was a community organizer. They crossed paths back in Chicago, worked together, he trained some of them. As an attorney, he represented the ACORN group in a motor voter case in the State of Illinois. A case that he won. And in the primary campaign, Barack Obama's campaign gave $800,000 to a subsidiary of ACORN to go out and register to vote. Now, today I'm told that the Obama campaign is saying that we may have paid them some money for canvassing, but in earlier e-mails with the Obama campaign, they did say that they paid them $800,000, a subsidiary of ACORN in the primary to garner votes. But the Obama campaign is trying to say now is, look, we are not working with them in the general election. That was the primary, this is the general election and these problems that we're seeing su rfacing right now are in the general election therefore we're not connected with ACORN."

Blitzer: "But Drew, are they confirming that they weren't with what you are describing as a subsidiary of ACORN or some third party that in turn went ahead and subcontracted to ACORN?"

Griffin: "No, in earlier e-mails with the Obama campaign, our producer Kathleen Johnson specifically spelled that out with their people, Ben LaBolt in Chicago who said, look, yeah we did work with them, a subsidiary of ACORN back in the primary, but we are not working with them anymore. I also want to point out, you know we were talking about whether or not this is a nonpartisan group or not. I attended a volunteer rally with ACORN. I would say 50% of the people had on ACORN for Obama t-shirts. So to say that this group is non-partisan or not somehow connected or at least favorable towards the Obama campaign I don't think is accurate."

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