FiveThirtyEight
Seth Masket

The use of the White House as a political prop in a convention is pretty striking. In 1997, Gore found himself repeatedly in trouble for making Democratic fundraising phone calls from his White House office. While the VP is exempt from the Hatch Act, this was considered a significant norm violation, and it resulted in Attorney General Janet Reno investigating Gore and his public approval dropping. The scandal dogged Gore, who otherwise maintained a pretty clean reputation, and it lingered throughout his presidential run in 2000.


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