A former Michigan resident said he placed a contentious call to the Trump White House last week criticizing the president and that, almost immediately after, he received a series of “creepy” phone calls from an anonymous phone number.
Eric Richardson said that he called the White House switchboard to strenuously complain about President Trump’s willingness to scuttle the immigration reform policy for the “Dreamers” – the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.
Shortly after he hung up, Richardson said he received a series of six phone calls in quick succession that consisted of eerie silence and some static on the other end as Richardson repeatedly replied “Hello?” The longest call lasted about one minute.
Each subsequent call showed up on his mobile phone as an “unknown caller.” Richardson said he received “curt responses” from the switchboard operator on April 26 as he engaged in aggressive language, referring to Trump as a “liar” who had chosen a path of “disgraceful” retribution against those brought to the U.S. illegally as children. But no profanities or shouting were exchanged, he said.
When Richardson called back to complain about the prank calls, the White House switchboard respondent – a man (no name) whom Richardson is convinced sounded like the same person from his original call – insisted that no such call-back activity would have occurred.
Rachel Craddock of the White House Press Office told PoliticsCentral that they have “absolutely no knowledge” of misconduct by the White House switchboard last week.
Richardson admits that the entire incident could have been an “extremely weird coincidence” but he wonders what was behind this bizarre experience.
“The timing of it was peculiar. It seems like more than a coincidence,” he said. “It was creepy.”
Richardson, 30, is a software engineer in Austin, Texas, who lived in Berkeley, Mich., until he graduated at age 22 from Albion College.
For what it’s worth, Richardson said that when he called the office of GOP Texas Sen. John Cornyn, a key player in the January/February congressional effort to negotiate a path to citizenship for DACA migrants, Richardson was treated courteously by the senator’s staff.
