Then US Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice (R) and Ian Cameron arrive for the State dinner in honor of India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh November 24, 2009 (Getty)
Former National Security Adviser Susan Rice – in the news over allegations she “unmasked” Trump officials – is married to a former ABC News executive producer who worked on some of the network’s top shows.
Ian Officer Cameron (sometimes known as Ian O. Cameron) and Rice have been married since 1992, according to their wedding announcement in The New York Times.
Rice has drawn the ire of conservatives after news broke that she had sought the unmasking of Trump campaign officials who were incidentally caught in surveillance; she denies any wrongdoing and says the unmasking was not for political purposes. Rice previously caused controversy after she appeared on talk shows in 2012 as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations and attributed the Benghazi attack to a video. She later admitted the information was wrong.
Here’s what you need to know:
1. Cameron Produced Numerous Prominent ABC News Programs but Left to Spend Time With His Family
(L-R) Ian O. Cameron, Susan Rice and Maureen Dowd attend The New Yorker’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner Weekend Pre-Party hosted by David Remnick at the W Hotel Rooftop on April 24, 2015 in Washington, DC. (Getty)
Cameron held many prominent positions in ABC News over a 13-year time span.
His LinkedIn page says he was a “Former Executive Producer” for ABC News, from 2008-2011, based in Washington D.C.
In 2010, TVNewser reported that “Cameron, the executive producer of ABC’s ‘This Week with Christiane Amanpour,’ is leaving the program at the end of the year.” The news site reported then that Cameron “was named executive producer of ‘This Week’ in 2008, and before that served as senior Washington producer for ‘ABC World News with Charles Gibson.’ He had been with ABC News since 1998.”
The site reprinted an email from Cameron to staff that read in part, “Having successfully launched This Week with Christiane Amanpour and with the busy mid-term election behind us, I believe the end of this year is the right time for me to move on from ABC News. As many of you know working weekends for the past two years has been difficult for my family. They have been both supportive and enormously patient, but now it’s time for me to return to a more regular schedule.”
He had also worked with George Stephanopoulos, writing, “I also want to thank George Stephanopoulos for inviting me to join This Week. It has been a privilege to contribute to the national political conversation…”
2. Cameron Was Previously a Television Producer in Canada & Has Two Children With Rice
Ian O. Cameron and Susan Rice attend The New Yorker’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner Weekend Pre-Party hosted by David Remnick at the W Hotel Rooftop on April 24, 2015 in Washington, DC. (Getty)
A Stanford University bio on Rice in 2000 says Rice and Cameron “talk every night when she is on the road,” and quoted Rice as saying, “I couldn’t do this job if I didn’t have a wonderful husband.”
The wedding announcement in the Times reported that Cameron was 31 when he married Rice, then 27. They were married in an Episcopal church in Washington D.C.
He was a television producer in Toronto for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation at the time, reported the Times. He also worked at television stations in Eureka, California and Ottawa, Canada, in the 1980s.
The BBC reported in 2013 that Rice “is married to an ABC producer, Ian Cameron, and has two children.” According to BBC, Rice “worked in the Bill Clinton administration but backed Mr. Obama for the Democratic nomination because of his opposition to the Iraq war.”
Ian Cameron and Rice were on the guest list for President Barack Obama’s final state dinner, according to Time Magazine.
3. Cameron Is the Son of a Lumber Company Owner & Graduated From Stanford University, Where He Met Rice
NEW YORK – NOVEMBER 09: US Permanent Representative to the United Nations Susan Rice and husband, Ian Cameron attend the Glamour Magazine 2009 Women of The Year Honors at Carnegie Hall on November 9, 2009 in New York City. (Photo by Michael Loccisano/Getty Images)
According to The New York Times, Cameron graduated from Stanford, and “received a master’s in international relations from the London School of Economics and Political Science.”
The Times reported in the wedding announcement that Cameron’s father was the retired owner of “the Victoria Plywood Company, a lumber company in Victoria.”
According to a Stanford University bio on Rice, “The daughter of one of Washington’s elite black families, she married a white Canadian, college sweetheart Ian Cameron, ’83.”
The bio adds that “Rice and Cameron met during her freshman orientation at Stanford. He was a senior” and quotes Cameron as saying, “She struck me right away as someone unique. She was more aware and very confident.”
4. Rice Denies Doing Anything Improper By Seeking the ‘Unmasking’ of Trump Officials
Susan Rice (Getty)
As President Obama’s National Security Adviser, Rice “requested to unmask the names of Trump transition officials caught up in surveillance,” according to Fox News.
The Rice angle exploded on social media, and President Donald Trump has tried to elevate the issue on Twitter, as questions continue to swirl about Trump’s accusations that President Obama’s administration conducted surveillance of his campaign. As National Security Adviser, Rice had authority to seek the unmasking.
Fox News cited multiple anonymous sources for its report. Bloomberg broke the story on April 3, alleging that “White House lawyers last month learned that the former national security adviser Susan Rice requested the identities of U.S. persons in raw intelligence reports on dozens of occasions that connect to the Donald Trump transition and campaign.”
On April 4, Rice adamantly denied any wrongdoing; she said unmasking was requested to better under the context behind reports and not for political purposes, and she denied ever leaking the information, according to The New York Times.
5. Some Conservatives Are Accusing ABC News of Downplaying the Rice Unmasking Story Because of Cameron
Former President Barack Obama and National Security Adviser Susan Rice (Getty)
The unmasking controversy has unfolded against the backdrop of Russian questions swirling around the Trump administration. Trump and his supporters have accused the media of bias, saying the “real story” is leaks and unmasking of officials in Trump’s administration. Trump had previously claimed that President Obama wiretapped Trump Tower without offering proof.
Others accuse Trump and his supporters of trying to deflect attention from the FBI investigation into whether Trump campaign officials coordinated with Russia in attempts to interfere with the 2016 presidential election.
Some have seized on Rice’s husband’s media background in their attempt to discredit the media; Trump supporters argue that the major networks, other than Fox, have downplayed the Rice unmasking questions.
Heavy has reached out to ABC News’ PR staff to see whether Cameron still has any link to ABC News, as his LinkedIn profile and past articles say he left the network several years ago. This story will be updated if a response is received.