Christopher Hitchens on Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Richard Nixon and Jesse Jackson (1988)

I have a question for mr. Hitchens there I don't know where the gentleman comes from I've never even heard of it until I've sat here this morning watching c-span and I can see exactly what liberal that he is and how strong what he is probably trying for the third party ah so you know how to thunder going far as the Jesse Jackson I'd like him to tell me where does Jesse Jackson give his money to go in a campaign who backs him up completely how come both have disposed of him in any way they're afraid to up go into his background and bring out anything in regards to his background whatsoever political wise custom never having better presidents we use bottled Reagan here in the United States if he doesn't like the United States why is he over here and trying to ruin it okay thank you um well you're more insulting than you intend to be madam by calling me a liberal I said earlier I was a socialist you can't be listening that we regard liberals as dangerous compromises where I come from you're also the first question I've come across who thinks Jackson has too much money in his campaign it's it's really appalling I think that every political article that you read describes campaigns in terms of how much money they can raise how much money they have behind them describes a failing campaign as cash-poor as if that was crime in itself the jackson camera is notoriously the one with the least money so where it comes from is from individual donations for the most part he hasn't got any any Meili backing of major capital well yeah I mean I it would of course be his right to raise a lot more money wouldn't you say well you know I mean one way Jessie raises money is to shake down McDonald's managers in certain areas the Republic reported this a few weeks ago he also has collections in church or his campaign that's also I think what will they think of next for twining and it's Richard Nixon related in The New York Times yesterday the front page here is of the New York Times Magazine dealing with Gorbachev by Richard Nixon and it's an article from a forthcoming book these about the publisher he's about to make a speech in New York that's open to cameras overall general reaction to why Richard Nixon all those is being quoted everywhere well because all of a sudden he looks good by comparison I imagine because this administration has managed to surpass the level of malfeasance that he attained and also because this is a very forgiving and sentimental culture well I would I don't think it's the question of the culture being forgiving whether it's the press which loves to destroy and then build up again in order to destroy at a later date Nixon of course is quoted widely because he has something the saying is when the most astute politicians of our century he follows that continues to follow everything very closely and he has something to contribute I mean most politicians nowadays do not he does I think the longer lives for having him back and sort of rehabilitated which is what seems to be happening ought to be that he removes the lock that he maintains personally on a whole section of the presidential archives of his period and opens those to historians the room ceases to contest that in the courts let me add one give us an honest interview about the motive for the Watergate burglary then I think you know things could be put on a fair footing again this is cover of Time magazine this week here's another man that everybody will recognize a word that's back a phrase it's back the big mo what do you think of George Bush are incredibly little I mean it seems to have it seems evident even to his own supporters that he has no principles and it can be filled up with whatever stance or position may seem appropriate to the latest polling figures he's been a gross and persistent liar about his part in the iran-contra scandal um and I think that now that the field has some narrowed to him and the absurd rather flappers died away people will out start asking what was in that memo the rather was trying to ask about rather than how well Bush did in avoiding the question questions going to keep coming up I think the coincidence of Bush's nearing the nomination at about the time that Lawrence Walsh nears his conclusions is going to prove very exciting and we may finally see a little justice down to the administration's perpetrators lie well the fact the crisper Hitchens's of this world think incredibly little of George Bush I think is something Bush should be happy about people have consistently underestimated him throughout this campaign from the early days he was belittled by the press by the intelligentsia as a man who stands for nothing has no principles the only weakness I can detect so far is that Bush does not project well on television primarily he's the most engaging man a very decent man and anyone you talk to will tell you that he's a very principled man that he's a very civilized decent man which again in politics is somewhat of a rarity and as far as the iran-contra goes it's very curious that people never brought up Bush's role in it until he became a major candidate that's absolutely untrue that's absolutely true the if if you didn't read what everyone was trying to say about him it was only because it was a very conformist pressing time but um the idea the idea that one has waited that to make this point because he's near the nomination it's completely false I remember writing about it at the time of that memo with an arm near in Jerusalem but sure it said he shows quite deaf advice president has do you loyal to this president can't be held responsible for what is the president's responsibility and the Lawrence Welsh Inquisition because he can't call it a really independent investigation today it's an astounding thing what is happening with the special prosecutor phenomena in this country I know the minister of course me the meat of the pieces in this is in the suggestion that the Republican seven no further claim on the loyalty of the the movement right which is probably true but I mean it's hard to be sympathetic to them they they were the last significant political group in the country to notice what was obvious to the rest of us from the stop just the Ronald Reagan is a fraud and now they realized that he didn't mean a word he really said that he he let down even his dearest friends broke every promise he'd made even in that quarter and they're sort of appalled and hurt and upset and and I just think it's delightful well I call on a regular fraud is again something we all like to hear from people like Christopher Hitchens I mean what that all Republican fraud had two consecutive on the hall highly successful terms in which the president is extremely popular and thanks to that popularity his vice president merges as the front-runner for the Republican nomination his policies along in the larger sense have been very successful this is one reason why white conservatives like Jack Kemp haven't been able to make a bigger impact on the race Paul Gigot pointed this out in Wall Street Journal last Friday very good point that a lot of what the Conservatives wanted Reagan implemented and so the question now for conservatives is where do we go from here defeatism such as the item coded by Buchanan isn't the answer with political conservatives have to mature politically and I think the only thing they can do that it has asking a lot here's the nation here's what it looks like in the March 5th issue and I want to open it up and look at the Christopher Hitchens column right here and I just want to read you and get bloody do or respond to what mr. Hitchens says a continuing theme in the tenure of Ronald Reagan the president of laughter and forgetting has been the steady politicization of the Justice Department what do you think of the reference to the president the United States says the president of laughter and forgetting oh well it's obviously mr. Hitchens is clever and picking up on the movie based on cocoon TRO novel but I think I'd rather read mr. Hitchens when he talks about describes the strips to Havana and conversations with Castro and other Cubans he seems to be more at home pieces like that imagine yeah that's that's feeble even by the standards of the American Spectator never had a conversation with Castro recently wrote a report from Cuba from the vana Film Festival's matter of fact about the by the failure of the Cuban Communist Party to live up to the reports of glasnost in the Soviet Union so your remark as ignorant as well as an attempt at a slur well I put on the politicization of the Justice Department I would I'd only add that I see yesterday mr. me see it again doesn't think you should step down and I don't know when I don't ask the question in this way you know when he would ever admit to the idea of a conflict of interest I don't know it's so far proved impossible to show him convincingly what the idea means there's no evidence that he understands it I think it's actually a very serious thing that's why I wrote that column that the Justice Department is presided over by a man who's has so many friends who are on the take all of whose business dealings appear to be questionable and none of whose statements on the central political scandal of this administration of turned out to be true but were had a certain marginal utility in allowing the the perpetrators to get away to cover their tracks this is a very serious thing to have in a gentleman probably a crook probably a crook that sort of been the view of Meese from day one ever since he came to the administration and then to the Justice Department and it emanates from people who are simply

Channel: CEHitchens33

Views: 531,596

Keywords: Christopher, Hitchens, 1988, CSPAN

Id: zMTupcRri-c

Length: 9min 58sec (598 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 23 2009