Perot Plans To Run Until ‘Bitter End’ Candidate Declines Dole’s Request He Bow Out

Ross Perot dismissed Republican nominee Bob Dole’s overture for support as “weird and totally inconsequential,” saying Thursday he plans to stay in the presidential race “until the bitter end.”

“I have given five years of my life to this. I have worked night and day,” Perot said in a speech at the National Press Club. “Am in this for the long haul? Yes.”

Dole’s campaign manager, Scott Reed, visited Dallas on Wednesday in an attempt to win Perot’s support for his candidate, far behind President Clinton in the polls less than two weeks before the election.

The same polls put Perot’s support at 5 percent to 7 percent, which could be significant in tight races such as those in Texas, Florida and Ohio.

Perot avoided the topic of Dole’s bid in his speech. When pressed by reporters, he shied away from criticizing the Dole campaign.

He said he would not do anything to “harm another candidate’s constructive campaign.”

Perot mostly used his speech Thursday to blast both parties for ethical problems, including shady campaign finances, misuse of taxpayer’s money and supporting trade agreements which hurt American workers.

The Clinton administration was the main target of Perot’s ire.

“I never thought I would live to see a major drug dealer give $20,000 bucks in Florida and then be invited to a big Democratic reception by the Vice President of the United States … and then be invited to the White House,” he said, referring to Jorge Cabrera, who contributed $20,000 in 1995 to the Democratic Party and attended an event at the White House last December.

Cabrera was convicted on drug charges in the 1980s and again last January in a case involving 6,000 pounds of cocaine. The Democratic National Committee has since given his donation to the U.S. Treasury.

“If I steal your car and give it back, does that make me innocent?” Perot asked.

“I promise you this, if I’m ever elected president drug dealers will not be invited to the White House,” he added.

Perot also blasted Democrats for accepting contributions from foreign interests, including Indonesian and North Korean citizens. In addition, he criticized Clinton for refusing to rule out pardoning friends and business partners convicted for fraud in the Whitewater investigation.

Republicans are also in desperate need of campaign reform, Perot said. He suggested a member of the Fanjul family of Florida sugar magnates received federal crop subsidies as payback for being a major Dole fund raiser.

“Who buys sugar? Hard working people. They’re paying a premium for it because of this deal and that is wrong,” he said.

The Dole campaign said little Thursday about its overture to Perot, and some Republicans privately told reporters they saw it as an embarrassing admission of weakness.

One top official, Texas GOP Chairman Tom Pauken, told the Associate Press that it reflected a “realistic assessment that something has to be done nationally if Bob Dole is going to get over the top.”

However, “Ross Perot this year has not been a formidable candidate in the race, so I’m not sure that his endorsement or support would swing the election,” Pauken said.