PITTSBURGH -- Ross Perot stepped out of virtual seclusion Sunday to campaign in New Jersey and Pennsylvania with new sensational charges that the Bush camp plotted a smear campaign against the Texas billionaire's daughter.
The independent presidential candidate made the allegations in campaign appearances in Flemington, N.J., and Pittsburgh, as well as in interviews Sunday with CBS's '60 Minutes' and the Boston Herald.
Contending that it was the alleged plot that prompted him to abruptly abandon his campaign in July, Perot told boisterous supporters in Pittsburgh that he wanted them 'to hear it directly from me,' but admitted he had no proof.
Citing three separate reports he received of alleged GOP plans to disparage his daughter and even disrupt her August wedding, Perot said, 'I could not allow my daughter's happiest day of her life to be ruined because of people who will do anything to win.
'I cannot prove that any of that happened. ...(But) it was a risk I could not take.'
Earlier, before an estimated 20,000 people packed in at the Flemington Fairgrounds in New Jersey, Perot said, 'The Republicans tried to smear my daughter.'
President Bush, campaigning in Sioux Falls, S.D., responded, 'I have enough confidence in the media to be sure they'll make him document that. That's preposterous, and outrageous as a matter of fact. But you know, if he has some proof, put it out.'
'There's nothing to it,' added press secretary Marlin Fitzwater. 'There haven't been any dirty tricks against Ross Perot. This business about his daughter is just crazy. He's been told that. He knows that.'
With the leveling of the unusual charges, Perot emerged from the cloak of television and radio appearances for the first time since he re-entered the presidential race Oct. 1 to attend the rallies surrounded by his wife and children.
His venture onto the campaign platform also coincided with national public opinion polls showing that his maverick campaign has surged since the string of three-way presidential debates, in some instances garnering as much as 20 percentage points, mostly at the expense of Democrat Bill Clinton.
His spokesman, Orson Swindle, told the NBC 'Meet the Press' program Sunday morning that his candidate was becoming 'more credible with each passing day.'
But Perot's allegations hinted of a vague conspiracy-like campaign on the part of Bush operatives to embarrass his youngest daughter, Caroline, by doctoring a photograph of her and planning to disrupt her wedding.
According to CBS, some of the allegations were investigated and dismissed.
'They were going to smear her with a fake photograph that they had done with a computer where you put a head on another body and they were actually going to have people in the church disrupt the wedding,' he told the Boston Herald.
He said he was concerned the attacks on his daughter would distract attention from his economic message, and he was anxious to protect his daughter's privacy. Perot's withdrawal in July triggered an avalanche of voter disillusionment after his pledge to enter the race if supporters placed his name on the ballot of all 50 states.
On the CBS program, he alleged the plans were formulated and approved at the highest level. 'This was run at the top,' he said.
Perot, who was stung earlier this week when Bush said some of his economic plans were 'nutty' and that a vote for his candidacy would be a wasted one, also charged that after he left the race July 16, the Bush campaign hired a former CIA contract employee to tap into his comuterized stock trading program. Perot claimed this was a move intended to prevent him from bankrolling a revived campaign.
Both CBS and the Herald said Perot offered no proof of his charges, although the network reported that charges the Bush camp tried to wiretap Perot's Dallas offices were investigated and found wanting. 'We found nothing to substantiate the allegation of a conspiracy to commit wiretapping against Mr. Perot,' agent Buck Revell of the Dallas office was quoted as saying.
Perot also said he had spoken directly to James Baker, Bush's chief of staff, about the allegations, and Baker's assistant, Margaret Tutwiler, confirmed Sunday the two had discussed the matter but that 'there was no evidence presented' and Baker thought the matter 'was far-fetched.'
Bush campaign chairman Robert Teeter, asked about the charges on the NBC program, said 'all the people in the campaign' had been questioned about the charges, and, 'It's just plain not true.'
'There is no basis whatsover. We have not engaged in any of that kind of behavior. Nor will we,' Teeter said.
Perot has leveled a number of charges against Bush, including allegations last week at the third debate that the president had deliberately ceded a section of Kuwait to Iraq's Saddam Hussein before Iraqi troops invaded the tiny emirate.
In the Herald interview, Perot acknowledged he did not know exactly what the Bush camp's alleged plans involved.
'They were never specific, but watch how they disrupt rallies; watch how they tried to disrupt the Democratic Convention....They got a bunch of neo-Nazis in there to do this kind of stuff,' he said.
