 Defenders of Newman note that the report was published and distributed during the 1988 Presidential campaign of Marxist psychologist and political activist Lenora Fulani.Fulani went on to garner a quarter of a million votes and became the first African American and first woman to achieve ballot status in all 50 states.In a 1991 interview, Newman described the criticisms as "absurd" and the product of jealousies on the left, and claimed that the majority of social therapy clients don't involve themselves in his political activities.