Telegram from Senator Joseph McCarthy to President Harry S. Truman Background On February 9, 1950, Senator Joseph McCarthy stepped into the spotlight of national attention with a speech given at Wheeling, West Virginia. McCarthy was nearing the end of his first term as senator and needed a big issue to energize his run for a second term. Holding up a piece of paper, he claimed to have in his possession information proving that more than 200 employees in the State Department were card-carrying me