"Do Columbia": Nixonian in every way but brains
by digby
Nixon had his plumbers break into Daniel Ellsberg's psychiatrist's office. Apparently, that gave Trump ideas:
Donald Trump in 2013 asked James O'Keefe, the controversial conservative filmmaker, if he could "get inside" Columbia University and obtain President Obama's sealed college records, according to a passage in O'Keefe's forthcoming book, a copy of which was reviewed by CNN.
O'Keefe, a guerrilla filmmaker whom critics have decried for his tactics and who pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor for entering federal property in 2010 under false pretenses, writes in "American Pravda: My Fight for Truth in the Era of Fake News" that during a meeting in New York City Trump complimented his ACORN sting videos ("That pimp and hooker thing you did, wow!"). But, O'Keefe writes, Trump "was a man with a plan" and "did not agree to this meeting to sing my praises."
What was Trump's plan?
According to O'Keefe, Trump "suspected Obama had presented himself as a foreign student on application materials to ease his way into New York's Columbia University, maybe even Harvard too, and perhaps picked up a few scholarships along the way."
O'Keefe wrote that during the 2013 meeting Trump suggested O'Keefe infiltrate Columbia and obtain the sealed records: "'Nobody else can get this information,'" O'Keefe quoted Trump as saying. "'Do you think you could get inside Columbia?'"
O'Keefe said he explained to Trump that the request did not fall into his "line of work," and that he considered himself and his colleagues to be journalists, not "private eyes."
But that didn't seem to deter Trump. At the end of the meeting, O'Keefe wrote, "Trump shook my hand, encouraged me to keep up the good work, and half-whispered, 'Do Columbia.'"