Stephanopoulos Doesn’t Ask Kerry About CIA Leaker’s Contributions to His Campaign

Dontcha just love it when a high-profile Democrat goes on ABC’s “This Week” largely to get softball questions thrown at him or her by one of President Clinton’s former advisers? Well, this Sunday, it wasn’t just a function of softballs. Instead, it was the obvious question that George Stephanopoulos chose to not ask Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) that was so confounding and disturbing (video link to follow).

Stephanopoulos addressed recent revelations of a CIA agent named Mary McCarthy who was fired this week for leaking information about secret terrorist detention centers to The Washington Post’s Dana Priest. When Kerry seemingly praised McCarthy for doing what she did – “So I'm glad she told the truth” – Stephanopoulos didn’t bother asking the senator whether his feelings on this matter related to yesterday’s revelations by The New York Times that “Public records show that Ms. McCarthy contributed $2,000 in 2004 to the presidential campaign of John Kerry.” (In reality, donations to Kerry and other Democrats by McCarthy and a man believed to be her husband likely totaled $7,500 in 2004 as described by NewsBuster Christopher Fotos and the JustOneMinute blog.) Yet, for some reason, Stephanopoulos never broached this possible conflict with Kerry during his interview.

Why not, George? Wasn’t it indeed news that this leaker gave a large amount of money likely relative to her salary to Democrat causes in 2004, including to your guest?

Apparently not.

What follows is a transcript of this segment along with a video link courtesy of Ian Schwartz and Expose the Left.

Stephanopoulos:  On another -- on another front, excuse me,  a CIA official Mary McCarthy lost her job this week for disclosing classified information according to the CIA probably about a "Washington Post" story which revealed the existence of secret prisons in Europe. A lot of different views on this. Your colleague Senator Pat Roberts has praised the action. But some former CIA officers have described Mary McCarthy as a sacrificial lamb who is acting in the finest American tradition by revealing human rights violations. What's your view?

Kerry: Well, I read that. I don't know whether she did it or not. So, I mean it's hard to have a view on that. But here's my fundamental view about this:  that you have somebody being fired from the CIA for allegedly telling the truth, and you have no one fired from the White House for revealing a CIA agent in order to support a lie. That underscores what's really wrong in Washington, D.C. here.

Stephanopoulos: That's one issue of hypocrisy but should the CIA officer be able to make decisions on his or her own...

Kerry: Of course not. Of course, not. Look the CIA agent has an obligation to uphold the law and clearly leaking is against the law, and nobody should leak. I abhor leaking. I don't like it. But if you're leaking to tell the truth, Americans are going to look at that, at least mitigate or think about what are the consequences that you, you know, put on that person. Obviously they're not going to keep their job, but there are other larger issues here. You know, classification in Washington is a tool that is used to hide the truth from the American people. Daniel Patrick Moynihan was eloquent and forceful in always talking about how we needed to, you know, end this endless declassification that takes place in this state, and it has become a tool to hide the truth from Americans.

Stephanopoulos: These --

Kerry: So I'm glad she told the truth but she's going to obviously have to -- if she did it, if she did it -- suffer the consequences of breaking the law.

Video Link