A Look Back At The Disgraceful Treatment of A Presidential Candidate

With another presidential primary debate set for Atlanta it is worth looking back 23 years ago at an incident which still defies all logic.

Atlanta will host a Democratic Party presidential candidate debate on Wednesday, Nov. 20.

In 1996 it was the Republican Party which held a presidential primary debate in Atlanta which was just a few months away from hosting the Olympic Games (another event which turned into an even bigger disaster).

At this 1996 debate it was a candidate who did not even participate on stage that made the most news. Some contended then (and perhaps now) it was all a publicity stunt on the part of the candidate but in reality was a horrible incident which left the country and even the world looking at Atlanta wondering how in the world the city (once dubbed as the city too busy to hate) had been chosen as the Olympic host.

The rumblings about participation in the debate began when control of the participants was seized from the Atlanta Press Club. Throughout its history the Atlanta Press Club has been 100 percent fair in determining which candidates are allowed to participate in the debates it sponsors.

Simply put, if a candidate is on the ballot he or she is invited to participate. This is very important whether it is statewide races or a national one like the 1996 presidential debate leading into the Georgia primary.

At some point WSB TV, which aired the debate, declared it would have the say on who took the stage and decided a lesser number of candidates participate. WSB “re-invited” the participants so that only Lamar Alexander, Pat Buchanan, Bob Dole (the eventual nominee) and Steve Forbes would be allowed on stage.

Dole skipped the debate but there was never an indication if he did so concerning the exclusion of Keyes. (Other candidates were also denied stage access.)

Keyes, who earned a respectable seven percent in the Iowa caucus that year, was well known in GOP circles having been an ambassador during the Reagan presidency. He was a great speaker blending the skill of a debater with that a preacher delivering a fiery sermon from the pulpit. It was said he was the only candidate who could follow up Buchanan during speaking events.

A few days earlier Keyes had been excluded from a similar debate in South Carolina and had been on a hunger strike since that time. Keyes supporters arrived in Atlanta prior to the debate and camped out in tents on the lawn of WSB television.

When the time for the debate arrived Keyes, with an invitation from the Atlanta Press Club in hand, attempted to enter the studios. He was escorted away by Atlanta Police Department officials who said they were acting on behalf of the TV station.

During a second attempt to enter the studio Keyes was then handcuffed and placed in a patrol car. In watching video of the arrest it seemed the police officers involved were very uncomfortable being involved.

“You have no right to bar this door,” Keyes could be heard saying.

In the end Keyes was driven away in the back seat of a patrol car and ultimately dumped off in a seedy part of Atlanta. In a bit of irony he had to call then-Atlanta Mayor Bill Campbell to pick him up and take him back to his hotel. Keyes and Campbell were as different as politicians could be but Keyes said he had no one else to call (remember this was 1996 when a phone in your pocket was not a common thing.)

Keyes set off on foot down a stretch of Ponce de Leon regularly frequented by drug addicts and prostitutes. He eventually found his way to a Pizza Hut parking lot where he called Campbell on a pay phone.

APD later claimed Keyes was never under arrest. WSB officials stood by their decision and claimed they never asked police to intervene. APD officials said the station did ask them to arrest Keyes.

The onstage debate itself (which I re-watched recently) was uneventful. But the entire nation that night saw a black presidential candidate (dressed in a suit and nice overcoat) handcuffed, pushed into the back of a patrol car and driven away. His only crime was trying to take part in a debate in which he had every right to be in and had previously been invited to.

State party officials tried to wash their hands of the incident even though they were at the station and had to know what was going on.

“It’s embarrassing,” said Russell K. Paul, the state Republican Party chairman at the time. “I grew up in Birmingham, Ala., in the 1960s and, unfortunately, that’s what that took me back to.”

For those curious, Dole won the Georgia GOP primary which included 10 candidates. Buchanan was second followed by Alexander and Forbes. Keyes finished fifth.

With the Democrats about to take another stage in Atlanta soon, this time for the 2020 primary, that party is also excluding various candidates. No word if any plan to protest or not. In reality that would be more interesting than anything said on stage just as it was back in 1996.

Monticello native Chris Bridges is a long-time newspaper columnist. He has earned awards for his columns from the National Newspaper Association, the Georgia Press Association and the Georgia Sports Writers Association. He welcomes feedback from readers of The Monticello News at pchrisbridges@gmail.com.