After a report on Newsmax.com indicated Sen. John McCain had rebuffed an offer to meet with the Rev. Billy Graham, the McCain campaign sought to clarify the matter.
Christian Ferry, McCain’s deputy campaign manager, tells Newsmax the campaign has been in the process of setting up a meeting between McCain and Graham.
Ferry said a misunderstanding of McCain’s intentions apparently arose because on June 3, 2008, the campaign sent what Ferry said was a routine letter declining an offer by Brian Jacobs, a Fort Worth, Texas, minister to broker a meeting between McCain and the evangelist.
Newsmax noted in its report that Jacobs had identified himself as a consultant to the Graham organization who had arranged a similar meeting between Graham and George W. Bush during the 2000 election.
In the June 3 McCain campaign letter, Amber Johnson, director of scheduling for the McCain campaign, wrote to Jacobs, “Thank you for your kind letter offering to set up a personal meeting between Senator McCain and Dr. Billy Graham.
"Senator McCain appreciates your invitation and the valuable opportunity it represents [italics added by McCain campaign]. Unfortunately, I must pass along our regrets and do not foresee an opportunity to add this event to the calendar.”
Ferry said that despite the suggestion that the McCain letter makes regarding no interest in such a meeting, the McCain campaign in fact had already been working with Graham’s son, Franklin Graham, to set up such a meeting.
Doug Wead, a former presidential adviser to President George H.W. Bush, authored the Newsmax report | 
