Try not to laugh, but the Kennedy family giving a Profile in Courage award to Nancy Pelosi isn’t a partisan move. That’s the claim CBS Sunday Morning wants viewers to buy. Host Jane Pauley and reporter Martha Teichner previewed the 2019 award with Pauley haughtily insisting, “For 30 years, the Profile in Courage Award has been leading the way, honoring people for taking the high road.”
Teichner touted the prize as the epitome of honor over politics: “Every year the Profile in Courage award has been given for an act or lifetime of political courage, party not an issue.” Now, while it’s true that Republicans such as George H.W. Bush and John McCain have been awarded the Profile in Courage, Bush’s was for raising taxes and McCain’s for pushing campaign finance reform.
Pelosi, whose lifetime American Conservative Union score is 2.61, won the prize in 2019. But, according to CBS, this is only because the Democrat is a trailblazer.
MARTHA TEICHNER: Nancy Pelosi is this year's winner of the Profile in Courage award. In a statement, Caroline Kennedy calls her “the most important woman in American political history.”
CAROLINE KENNEDY: She is the first woman to be Speaker. She's the first woman to be elected Speaker in non-consecutive terms in over 60 years. So, the courage that that takes really I think makes her an example and inspiration for generations of Americans.
In 2018, NBC journalists fretted that there are “fewer” potential Profiles in Courage award winners in the Trump era.
A transcript is below. Click “expand” to read more:
CBS Sunday Morning
4/7/19
9:08JANE PAULEY: For 30 years, the Profile in Courage Award has been leading the way, honoring people for taking the high road. With Martha Teichner, we’re about to find out this year’s winner in our Sunday morning cover story.
...
MARTHA TEICHNER: Since then every year the Profile in Courage award has been given for an act or lifetime of political courage, party not an issue. Caroline Kennedy makes the presentation now joined by her son, Jack Schlossberg. Civic involvement is your inherited legacy in so many way ways.
JACK SCHLOSSBERG: To think that I inherited a legacy of public service just based on the fact that I’m related to public servants would be to misunderstood what they stood for. Everyone inherits a legacy. Made our country what it is today.
...
TEICHNER: Look at this photograph of another teenager, standing next to her idol, Senator John F. Kennedy.
HOUSE SPEAKER NANCY PELOSI: My father was the mayor of Baltimore and there was a big dinner, black tie dinner, which Senator Kennedy was going to speak. My mother, she said, “If you want to go in my place to the dinner, please do.”
TEICHNER: Yes, that is House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi. [Looking at picture of Pelosi and JFK.] It's a very sweet picture.
PELOSI: It's a great picture, relating to the inspiration that President Kennedy was to my generation and those that followed.
TEICHNER: And, yes, Nancy Pelosi is this year's winner of the Profile in Courage award. In a statement, Caroline Kennedy calls her, “the most important woman in American political history.”
CAROLINE KENNEDY: She is the first woman to be Speaker. She's the first woman to be elected Speaker in non-consecutive terms in over 60 years. So, the courage that that takes really I think makes her an example and inspiration for generations of Americans. Men and women.
PELOSI: Coming from Caroline, that's an enormous compliment. However, going with it, our shoulders for other people to stand on, I've stood on many women's shoulders who have paved the way for us and now pave the way for others. It's about the future. [Talking to Trump.] Please don't characterize the strength that I bring to this meeting as a leader of a House Democrat.
TEICHNER: Thin skinned she is not. With attacks coming at her even from within her own party, there's a lesson there.
PELOSI: You have to be ready to take a punch and be ready to throw a bunch. I'm in the arena and I know that when you're in the arena this is what you should expect. But if you don't have the courage, don't get in the arena.
