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Why Was Al Gore Wearing an Earpiece?

Jeremy DerfnerPosted Monday, July 24, 2000, at 1:30 PM ET

Last week, Rush Limbaugh made a stink on his show about the conspicuous earpiece that Al Gore wore on the July 16 edition of Meet the Press. He speculated that Gore was being fed answers by his handlers. What's the story?

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According to a Meet the Press spokesperson, all guests wear earpieces while appearing on the show so that they can hear the audio tracks of news clips that are played. The stage managers usually place the IFB (interruptible fold back) on the less visible ear, but in this case Gore insisted on wearing an IFB that had been fitted to his right ear.

Ross Perot previously accused Gore of having answers fed to him via earpiece during their NAFTA debate on Larry King Live.

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Jeremy Derfner is a former Slate editorial assistant.

COMMENTS

Reader Response from The Fray:

Limbaugh did not suggest that the earpiece was being used as an info crutch by Gore. In fact he explained to his listeners that Russert would never be so unprofessional as to allow same. Limbaugh also explained the purpose of the earpiece was probably to hear audio of tape clips played by Russert during the interview. Gore certainly could have used such prompting help. His answers to Russert's questions on the fund-raising issue were boringly painful.

--Ken Gordon

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It's not an accusation George W. would have to worry about. He would probably like to blame some of the idiotic things that have come out of his mouth on confusing info being fed to him.

--Terry B.

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It wasn't an earpiece Gore had in his ear. It was an IEEE-1394 "Firewire" connector. Gore is one of us. Resistance is futile!

--A.G.Android

(To reply, click here.)

(7/25)