After Obama Win, GMA's Cuomo Decides to Grill Bill Ayers

Isn't this convenient? Finally, more than a week after Election Day, Chris Cuomo of ABC News' "Good Morning America" puts together a fairly hard-hitting look at terrorist William Ayers, the would-be mass murderer, who helped to launch the career of then-Illinois state senate candidate Barack Obama.

Now that it hardly matters anymore politically, now that Obama has secured at least 365 of the 538 votes in the Electoral College, Cuomo finally decides it's time to be a journalist and asks Bill Ayers hard questions over and over again. It's not a bad interview, but wouldn't it have had more news value a few weeks ago when Americans were weighing the content of now-President-elect Obama's character? (Article on GMA website here summarizes the interview.)

Although a "terrorist" is one who seeks to create a climate of public fear in order to accomplish a political goal -"terrorist" and "killer" aren't necessarily the same thing-the former Weather Underground leader still insists he was never a terrorist.

Ayers remains evasive and parses his words carefully. "I never hurt or killed anyone," he tells Cuomo, leaving out the fact that his terrorist group plotted to kill hundreds of U.S. military personnel and their dates at a March 1970 dance at Fort Dix. The only reason it didn't take place was because his fellow terrorists blew themselves up while making the bomb.

I suppose Osama bin Laden may not have actually killed anyone either. He just planned attacks. By Ayers's reasoning, bin Laden is not a terrorist.

Ayers also denounced his critics' supposed use of "guilt by association" and "the politics of fear" in tying him to Obama.

Cuomo could have challenged Ayers more, but at least it's a beginning. Now doubt we're going to be hearing a lot more from Ayers as he tours the country promoting his crackpot book, Race Course Against White Supremacy, co-written with his wife and fellow terrorist, Bernardine Dohrn.

Cuomo also took Ayers to task for contradictory descriptions of his relationship with Obama. It appears Cuomo was relying on the Chicago Tribune report that NewsBuster Tom Blumer referenced earlier today. (NB's John Stephenson previewed the Ayers interview yesterday.)

Transcript to follow...





(Note: This post does not necessarily reflect the views of Capital Research Center, a nonpartisan think tank that studies the politics of philanthropy.)