While pundits start to evaluate how Donald Trump and Mike Pence performed on 60 Minutes over the weekend, let’s focus on how Lesley Stahl did. As one might expect, it was a lively debate (with all kinds of interruptions), and not a softball interview. That’s quite a contrast with how the same Lesley Stahl interviewed the Democratic ticket of John Kerry and John Edwards in 2004, and then brought in their wives for more soft soap.
After the congratulations to Pence on Sunday night, Stahl turned right to the issues: “Before we actually talk about the politics, you know, there've been so many major world events very recently, in the last week. I don't know if you can remember the last time we have seen a world this much in chaos. You even said, ‘It's spinning apart.’ Are you ready for this world that we are facing today?”
Fair enough, but it doesn’t match July 11, 2004 -- you could call it a 7-Eleven Slurpee -- when Stahl began with questions about who was more spectacular:
LESLEY STAHL: You seem so pumped up since you chose Senator Edwards as your running mate.
JOHN KERRY: Absolutely. He's spectacular.
STAHL: You think so? Do you think that he--his energy is rubbing off on you?
KERRY: Well, I certainly hope so. I mean, I want it to. I love it. But it's more than that.
EDWARDS: But he's got pretty good energy without me, your know?
KERRY: It's more than that.
EDWARDS: I wouldn't go too far.
STAHL: Well, let's be honest. You have more energy.
Stahl spent a long time with the Democratic ticket on their compatibility and how they would run, and avoided the issues for quite a while. And then Stahl brought up “alleged switching around on issues,” a true laugh line.
STAHL: The Republicans have done everything in their power to portray you as a serial flip-flopper. They've spent a lot of money on it. I got a document like that with all your alleged switching around on issues. How damaging has that been, do you think, to your candidacy?
Then CBS showed the infamous “I actually voted for the $87 billion before I voted against it.” Then this is Stahl “dropping the hammer,” CBS-style:
EDWARDS: I just wanted 30 seconds to defend him on this.
STAHL: You got it. You got it.
Stahl was utterly consistent – consistently liberal, that is – in hammering both Kerry and Mike Pence on the "mistake" of voting to authorize the Iraq War. But in 2004, after three questions on that, she changed the subject to leftist Ronald Prescott Reagan (“Junior”) trashing President Bush as much like Osama bin Laden, which apparently all concerned thought was a fair analogy to consider:
STAHL: All right. I'm going to change the subject. I don't know if you saw this, but Ron Reagan Jr. was very critical of President Bush invoking religion when it comes to policy, and particularly the war in Iraq. He said something like, he felt that Bush was justifying the war in Iraq by citing God. And he said that was what Osama bin Laden does, and said that it doesn't--there's no place for that. What do you think of that?
KERRY: Well, Abraham Lincoln wisely avoided trying to invoke the God on the side of the North vs. the South, but prayed that he was on God's side. I think that that's the lesson that John and I would bring to this. We are both people of deep faith. And...
EDWARDS: And our faith is very important to us, both of us.
John Edwards certainly demonstrated his ardent devotion in the years after that. So it’s a little sad that the late Elizabeth Edwards was making anniversary jokes as Stahl continued the puff piece:
STAHL: I'd like to ask the women, how--how do you think the honeymoon is going?
Mrs. EDWARDS: I think we're in for a--we need to start looking right now for silver anniversary gifts. We're--because this-- this is a marriage that's working. Yeah.
Mrs. KERRY: We're just (singing) 'Getting to know you....' No, we've had--we're, what, four days in? And all we've done is laugh and have a good time.
STAHL: What are you laughing about? I've heard you say that even out in front of crowds.
Sen. EDWARDS: Now, don't tell everything.
STAHL: Tell everything.
Sen. EDWARDS: This is the one we have to worry about telling everything.
STAHL: I know. That's why I'm interviewing her.
Mrs. KERRY: You know what it is? When you have-when you're happy and when you feel good chemistry and you're at ease with yourself and those around you, and you have good energy and all of that, you laugh. It feels good. It's therapeutic. It's happy.
This is why we issued a report on this program titled Syrupy Minutes. "They either carry an axe or a shoe-shine kit."
Stahl ended in 2004 with a “delicate” inquiry to Mrs. Kerry: "Teresa, I want to ask you something that's a little delicate. How do you take all of the jokes about Senator Kerry's charisma or, as they say, lack of it." Elizabeth Edwards responded that "he had enough charisma to get this incredible woman to marry him, so he can't be completely out of charisma."
John Kerry got the last word: "I don't worry about it very much. I don't really worry about it. You know, I remember when people wrote about John Kerry's charisma. I mean, I got elected four times. I won the nomination."
Stahl chimed in: "So there, right?" Kerry echoed her: "So there."
When it came to the convention this year, Stahl was all doom and gloom as it wrapped up: “Worried about violence outside [the convention]? This is an open-carry state. People can carry guns. There'll be demonstrators. They've already said they're going to carry assault rifles. Are you worried? And would you call on people not to carry their guns?”
With Kerry, Stahl offered one question on where Kerry suggested Edwards may have been in “diapers” when he was in Vietnam. With Pence, Stahl hammered away at their differing views on a pile of issues, including trade, a Muslim immigration ban, and whether John McCain was a hero.
Stahl’s final question to Trump challenged him with the obvious:
STAHL: You're not known to be a humble man. But I wonder--
TRUMP: I think I am, actually humble. I think I'm much more humble than you would understand.
STAHL: As you think about-- prospect of running this country in these tough times where the world is spinning apart-- are you awed? Are you intimidated? Are you humbled by the enormity of this?
Few in America are naive enough to believe that the 60 Minutes crew will conclude its Hillary Clinton interview in the next few weeks with the assertion “You’re not known to be an honest woman.....” After all, Steve Kroft addressed her 2013 What-difference-does-it-make testimony on the Benghazi debacle by merely asking: “You had a very long day. Also, how is your health?”
