Sen. Joe Donnelly, D-Ind., welcomed Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh into his offices Wednesday. The Indiana Democrat did not, however, welcome the press. He brought his own camera instead.
Shortly after the meeting Donnelly released footage, but no audio, of him rubbing shoulders with the nominee. His challenger, Republican Mike Braun, isn’t happy. Here is why: The Braun campaign thinks Donnelly secretly recorded the meeting so that Democrats would have material for their attack ads — a claim bolstered by the fact that Donnelly immediately released the b-roll footage online.
Braun spokesman, Josh Kelley, makes it sound like the mild-mannered Democrat pulled off some sort of clandestine mission:
But Donnelly, his staff insists, was not trying to pull a fast one. Instead they were doing an assist for all the television stations back home in Indiana.
“We provided a photo and video from the official Senate office to Indiana TV stations,” Donnelly spokesman Michael Campbell tells me, “which several did use, for their segments about the senator’s meeting with Judge Kavanaugh.”
Both camps are going overboard with this little cinematic scandal. Democrats, who are eager to elevate the press when it suits their purposes, should just let the press do the photography. Republicans, who regularly attack the press as so-called “fake news,” should realize that their opponents already have all the b-roll footage they need to attack the nominee.
