Texas Pol Reveals He Went on Secret Middle East Mission to Torpedo Carter’s Re-Election

As the U.S. reflects on the legacy of former President Jimmy Carter, new details from a prominent Texas politician could upend the narrative surrounding one of the defining moments of his presidency: the Iran hostage crisis. According to reporting from The New York Times, former Texas Lt. Gov. Ben Barnes claims that a high-ranking member of Ronald Reagan’s 1980 presidential campaign took him on a secret diplomatic tour of the Middle East in a bid to damage Carter’s re-election campaign by convincing Iran not to release its 52 American hostages until after the election. “History needs to know that this happened. I think it’s so significant and I guess knowing that the end is near for President Carter put it on my mind more and more and more,” said Barnes, 85. After holding the hostages for 444 days in a standoff that derailed Carter’s presidency, Iran finally released them minutes after Reagan was inaugurated on January 20, 1981. Congressional investigations into collusion between the Reagan campaign and Iran did not find evidence of wrongdoing at the time, but Barnes’ account has the potential to shed light on the much-debated episode, which has become known as the “October surprise.”