David Bossie

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David Bossie
David Bossie.jpg
Basic facts
Organization:Citizens United
Role:President
Affiliation:Republican
Education:University of Maryland


David Bossie is the president of the nonprofit Citizens United. From September 1 to November 8, 2016, he served as the deputy campaign manager for Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, taking a leave of absence from Citizens United.[1]

Bossie was named second on a Politico Magazine list of those transforming politics in 2015.[2]

Career

2020 Trump campaign litigation

On November 6, 2020, Donald Trump's (R) presidential campaign announced Bossie would coordinate the campaign's post-election lawsuits.[3] For more information on post-election lawsuits in 2020, click here.

U.S. House investigations of Bill Clinton

Bossie was a Republican staffer during the presidency of Bill Clinton (D).[4] In 1995, Bossie joined the staff of Sen. Lauch Faircloth (R-N.C.), who was involved in the Whitewater investigations.[5] In 1996, he began working as an aide to Rep. Dan Burton (R-Ind.), where Bossie served as the chief investigator for the United States House of Representatives Committee on Government Reform and Oversight, specifically looking into the 1996 Clinton campaign's fundraising practices.[6][7] Bossie resigned after he released edited tapes of prison phone calls made by Webster Hubbell, the former United States associate attorney general.[8]

Citizens United

See also: Citizens United

Early work

In 1992, Bossie began working for Citizens United (CU), a group founded by Floyd Brown. During the 1992 presidential campaign, Bossie and Brown investigated then-candidate Bill Clinton (D). The campaign for President George H.W. Bush (R) filed an FEC complaint against Bossie and Citizens United for their campaigning tactics after the group produced an "ad inviting voters to call a hot line to hear (almost certainly doctored) tape-recorded conversations between Clinton and Gennifer Flowers."[9]

President

In 2001, Bossie became the president of CU. During his presidency, the group became known for its successful landmark U.S. Supreme Court case, Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission.[7] At stake in the case was whether the group's film critical of a political candidate could be defined as an electioneering communication under the 2002 Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act, also known as the McCain-Feingold Act.[10] The Supreme Court held that corporate funding of independent political broadcasts in candidate elections cannot be limited, because doing so would violate the First Amendment.[10]

In 2016, Bossie wrote an opinion piece for the Los Angeles Times regarding his role at Citizens United and in the Citizens United Supreme Court case. Bossie said the case was primarily about free speech, not money in politics. He wrote:[11]

“ Our name, of course, has become synonymous with the landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling ... in 2010. And ever since it unfairly has become the boogeyman of liberal politicians, blamed for opening the floodgates to excesses of money in elections. Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders say opposing Citizens United should be a litmus test for the next Supreme Court justice, and both support a constitutional amendment to overturn it. To me, however, the decision represented — then and now — a sweeping victory against government censorship of free speech, especially political speech.[12] ”

In 2015, citing his work with Citizens United and the Supreme Court decision, Politico Magazine ranked Bossie second on its list of those transforming politics. The article said Bossie helped shape a new normal for super PACs and satellite spending for the 2016 election cycle.[13]

Republican Party of Maryland

Bossie was elected in 2016 to serve a four-year term as the national committeeman for the Republican Party of Maryland.[14]

Background

Bossie attended the University of Maryland, and he worked as a volunteer firefighter in Maryland for 20 years.[7]

Presidential election, 2016

More on Donald Trump's 2016 campaign staff
Staff overview
• Trump staff overview
Management and strategy

•Steve Bannon, Executive chairman
•Kellyanne Conway, Campaign manager
•David Bossie, Deputy campaign manager
•Michael Glassner, Deputy campaign manager
•Jim Murphy, National political director
•John Mashburn, Policy director

Communications

•Hope Hicks, Communications director
•Jason Miller, Senior communications advisor
•Katrina Pierson, Campaign spokesperson

Advisors

•Roger Stone, Informal advisor
•Sam Clovis, Co-chair and policy advisor
•Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Senior advisor
•Michael Biundo, Senior advisor

Donald Trump presidential campaign, 2016

See also: Donald Trump presidential campaign, 2016

On September 1, 2016, Bossie was hired as the deputy campaign manager for Donald Trump's presidential campaign. At the time, campaign manager Kellyanne Conway said, "He's a battle-tested warrior and a brilliant strategist. He's a nuts-and-bolts tactician as well, who's going to help us fully integrate our ground game and data operations, and help with overall strategy as my deputy."[1] When Bossie was hired, The Washington Post reported that he was expected to "work on crafting attacks against Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, mining past controversies involving her and former president Bill Clinton, and cultivating Trump’s bond with conservative activists."[4]

Make America Number 1 super PAC

See also: Make America Number 1

In June 2016, Republican donor Robert Mercer converted a pro-Ted Cruz super PAC, Keep the Promise I, into an anti-Hillary Clinton super PAC, Make America Number 1. The group was informally known as the Defeat Crooked Hillary PAC. Bossie was hired to run the super PAC by Kellyanne Conway, a Republican pollster who had been in charge of Keep the Promise and left to join the Trump campaign shortly after. Upon taking the role with the super PAC, Bossie said, "This is an opportunity to really refocus the presidential debate around Hillary Clinton and her character, and the whole culture of corruption that’s surrounded the Clintons for decades."[15]

Conway was promoted to Trump's campaign manager in August 2016, two weeks before Bossie was also hired.[16]

Writing

As of Nov. 2020, Bossie was also a contributor at Breitbart News and Fox News, and had authored several political books, including:[17]

  • Intelligence Failure: How Clinton’s National Security Policy Set the Stage for 9/11 (2004)
  • The Many Faces of John Kerry (2004)
  • Hillary: The Politics of Personal Destruction (2008)
  • Prince Albert: The Life and Lies of Al Gore (2010)

See also

External links

Footnotes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Politico, "Report: Trump hires Citizens United head as deputy campaign manager," September 1, 2016
  2. ↑ Politico Magazine, "Politico 50," accessed November 6, 2020
  3. ↑ The Washington Examiner, "David Bossie to lead Trump campaign legal fight over vote count," accessed November 6, 2020
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 The Washington Post, "Trump enlists veteran operative David Bossie as deputy campaign manager," September 1, 2016
  5. ↑ The Atlantic, "Meet the New Bossie, Same as the Old Bossie," September 6, 2016
  6. ↑ Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named sun
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Citizens United, "Who We Are: David N. Bossie," accessed August 10, 2016
  8. ↑ The New York Times, "May 3-9; A Top Aide Resigns," May 10, 1998
  9. ↑ Salon, "You can’t teach an old attack dog new tricks," July 20, 2004
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 New York Times, "Justices, 5-4, Reject Corporate Spending Limit," January 21, 2010
  11. ↑ Los Angeles Times, "I'm responsible for Citizens United. I'm not sorry," March 1, 2016
  12. ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
  13. ↑ Politico, "David Bossie, Charles Spies," accessed August 10, 2016
  14. ↑ Baltimore Sun, "David Bossie of Citizens United elected GOP national committeeman in Maryland," May 14, 2016
  15. ↑ Bloomberg Politics, "New Super-PAC Launches for Donors Who Won't Back Trump But Loathe Clinton," June 21, 2016
  16. ↑ The New York Times, "Donald Trump, in Shake-Up, Hires Breitbart Executive for Top Campaign Post," August 17, 2016
  17. ↑ Amazon, "Books by David N. Bossie," accessed October 14, 2016
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