During a softball interview with former Secretary of State John Kerry on Tuesday, to promote his new memoir, the hosts of CBS This Morning invited the Democrat to speculate on President Trump being removed from office, denounce Republicans, and talk about the possibility of a 2020 presidential run. Not one tough question was put to him about his tenure in the Obama administration.
Kerry melodramatically touted his book, Every Day is Extra, as “a story of a life that shows how we can confront the challenge that we face in America today” and “an insight into how individual citizens can bring us back from the brink.” He then invoked comparisons of the Trump administration to the Watergate era:
We’ve been through this before. We had Richard Nixon in 1970, ’71, ’72, ’73, breaking the law, attacking the Justice Department, enemies list. We had, you know, riots in the streets of America. We had people being assassinated in ’68 and before that. So, it was a rough time in our country, and it’s citizens that brought us back from that.
Co-host Norah O’Donnell fretted that Trump’s presidency wouldn’t end the same way: “But Nixon, ultimately, resigned. I doubt that President – ” Kerry interrupted: “Because he broke the law and because he was about to be impeached.”
O’Donnell talked about Kerry having attended high school with Special Counsel Robert Mueller and asked: “Do you believe that his report will be taken seriously by both Republicans and Democrats in Congress, that they would move forward in some way in terms of removal of office or whatever it may be?”
Kerry responded:
Well, I believe Bob Mueller is an incredibly qualified, capable, straight-up public servant. He was a great leader of the FBI, unprecedented tenure. He is going to come out with whatever he comes out with, what he believes represents the truth. And then it’s up to the American citizen, not Democrats and Republicans, but the American citizens to decide how they respond to that, and we’re lucky to have somebody as qualified as Bob Mueller to take on this task.
Going back to selling their guest’s book, co-host Gayle King highlighted: “You talk a lot about the truth in your book. May I mention it? Every Day is Extra.” Kerry urged her to “hold up” a copy of it for the camera. She obliged as she teed him up slam the President and the GOP yet again: “You said you learned that when you push for the truth, people who are invested in lies retaliate. Do you think that’s happening today, number one?”
Kerry predictably seized the opportunity:
Well, it is happening today. Of course it’s happening today. Unfortunately, the President attacks people who tell the truth. In fact, we have a party that regrettably has turned its back, to some degree, on the truth, and I think it’s very, very regrettable.
In case it wasn’t clear who he was attacking, O’Donnell clarified: “Meaning the Republican Party?” Kerry agreed: “The Republican Party, and the Senate particularly, but also in the House. Truth has less currency than it should have in a democracy of our quality.”
The one-time Democratic presidential nominee even claimed that he was a victim of such supposed dishonesty in 2004:
We’ve entered a new period of life. I mean, I saw it in my campaign. Norah, you remember the attacks against me were sort of the beginning of alternative facts. And now we see this on a regular basis. Facts don’t apparently matter to some people.
Wrapping up the friendly chat, King eagerly asked if Kerry would be running for president again: “Are you thinking about running in 2020?” Kerry replied: “I've said again and again, and it’s hard to get away from that, but I mean, I doubt very much I'll be running for office again.” He added: “But I’ll say this, that no one should be focused on 2020 right now. We should be focused on 2018....we have a chance to have a course correction, and I think in my book I lay out the ways that people can really engage and do that.”
Democrats can always count on the network news to provide them with a easy platform to hawk a book and attack their political opponents.
Here are excerpts of the nearly 10-minute-long September 4 interview on CBS This Morning:
8:33 AM ET
JOHN DICKERSON: Every senator, current and president [sic] is always – current and present – is always running for president. Which is a segue to John Kerry. He has spent most of his life in public service –
JOHN KERRY: Wrong segue. [Laughter]
DICKERSON: He fought in – the Gentleman’s time has expired. He fought in the Vietnam war and became an anti-war activist when he returned home. In 1984, he was elected to the U.S. Senate. He served for 28 years, including as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Most recently, he served as President Obama’s secretary of state. He was a chief negotiator of the Paris Climate agreement and the Iran nuclear deal. Kerry’s new book is called, Every Day is Extra. He shares his life story, from growing up as the son of a diplomat to becoming America’s top diplomat decades later. Every Day is Extra is published by Simon and Schuster, a division of CBS. Mr. Secretary, good morning.
JOHN KERRY: Thank you, John. Happy to be with you.
DICKERSON: Speaking of the presidents and presidency, you had an interview on Face the Nation to which the President, President Trump, tweeted about you possibly running for president, and he said, “I should only be so lucky.” What’s your response to that?
KERRY: Well, you know, the President – I’m really not going to get into a back-and-forth on tweets. You know, I could give him a nickname, Agent Orange or something, and I could get back and forth, but it doesn’t take you anywhere. The President uses tweets as a weapon of mass distraction, and he obviously has exposed the world to the potential of a weapon of mass destruction in Iran by pulling out of a deal that everybody in the world supports. So, I'd rather stay on the substance because he wants to distract it and get into a fight. I want to stay on the real things.
GAYLE KING: But let’s not miss his point, though. Because he’s saying he hopes you run because he believes he can beat you, is what he’s saying.
KERRY: He says that – look, nothing he says you can believe, and you always know there’s a different motive. So let’s not even get into that. What’s important is, frankly, in my book, I lay out the challenge to our country. It’s not a policy book, that’s what’s important. It’s a story of a life that shows how we can confront the challenge that we face in America today. And that’s really more important, frankly, than listening to a guy who as president of the United States can’t even go to the funeral of a war hero. That’s the real issue before the country.
DICKERSON: Is that – is it a moral issue before the country that you’re most concerned about?
KERRY: No, it’s all kinds of things. And I write, again, in the book, I lay out – look, I'm an optimist and the book is a book of optimistic. And it’s an insight, not a policy book, but an insight into how individual citizens can bring us back from the brink.
We’ve been through this before. We had Richard Nixon in 1970, ’71, ’72, ’73, breaking the law, attacking the Justice Department, enemies list. We had, you know, riots in the streets of America. We had people being assassinated in ’68 and before that. So, it was a rough time in our country, and it’s citizens that brought us back from that. And this book, I think, is a road map through stories about people’s lives and how the Senate changed and what happened, and I think it shows people where we can make the difference.
NORAH O’DONNELL: But Nixon, ultimately, resigned. I doubt that President –
KERRY: Because he broke the law and because he was about to be impeached.
O’DONNELL: Well, you went to high school, St. Paul’s, with Bob Mueller, who is the Special Counsel.
KERRY: I did.
O’DONNELL: I know you played sports together. You’ve known him, you’re the same age, served in Vietnam at the same time. Do you believe that his report will be taken seriously by both Republicans and Democrats in Congress, that they would move forward in some way in terms of removal of office or whatever it may be?
KERRY: Well, I believe Bob Mueller is an incredibly qualified, capable, straight-up public servant. He was a great leader of the FBI, unprecedented tenure. He is going to come out with whatever he comes out with, what he believes represents the truth. And then it’s up to the American citizen, not Democrats and Republicans, but the American citizens to decide how they respond to that, and we’re lucky to have somebody as qualified as Bob Mueller to take on this task.
KING: You talk a lot about the truth in your book. May I mention it? Every Day is Extra.
KERRY: Please, hold it up and put it on.
KING: Because you’re right, it’s more than just policy. There is some policy, but it’s very anecdotal. You said you learned that when you push for the truth, people who are invested in lies retaliate. Do you think that’s happening today, number one? And you always say, “But the truth is worth fighting for.”
KERRY: Well, it is happening today. Of course it’s happening today. Unfortunately, the President attacks people who tell the truth. In fact, we have a party that regrettably has turned its back, to some degree, on the truth, and I think it’s very, very regrettable.
O’DONNELL: Meaning the Republican Party?
KERRY: The Republican Party, and the Senate particularly, but also in the House. Truth has less currency than it should have in a democracy of our quality. Truth is the essence, and you have baseline of facts. You need to be able to know what the facts are. We’ve entered a new period of life. I mean, I saw it in my campaign. Norah, you remember the attacks against me were sort of the beginning of alternative facts. And now we see this on a regular basis. Facts don’t apparently matter to some people. I believe they matter to the American people.
John McCain believed they mattered to the American people. John was always ready to tell the truth. And I think the last days have been a reminder of that value that is so important to America, and I write about it. I have a whole chapter in the book about John McCain and our journey together and –
KING: You said that you flirted but you never dated, that at one point you all considered running together, that you thought of asking him to be your running mate.
KERRY: We had a couple of very serious conversations about it, and it obviously didn’t happen. John, evidently, liked the idea because he then thought about it with respect to Joe Lieberman in the next round. But again, the same kind of difficulties that we confronted apparently rose, and it wasn’t doable. But the spirit was there.
(...)
8:41 AM ET
KING: Are you thinking about running in 2020?
KERRY: We’re not doing – no, I –
KING: At all?
KERRY: I've said again and again, and it’s hard to get away from that, but I mean, I doubt very much I'll be running for office again.
KING: Yeah, okay.
KERRY: But I’ll say this, that no one should be focused on 2020 right now. We should be focused on 2018, because the magic number for America to think about is 54.2%. That was the number of eligible voters that turned out to vote for the presidency in 2016. When I ran in ’04, it was 60.4% turned out. When Obama was elected in ’08, it was 62.5%. What we need people to engage and make a difference, and in 2018, we have a chance to have a course correction, and I think in my book I lay out the ways that people can really engage and do that.
O’DONNELL: Thank you. We are out of time. But Secretary Kerry, thank you so much.
KERRY: My pleasure to be with you.
O’DONNELL: Thank you so much.
KERRY: A lot to talk about.
