-
SAM DONALDSON
(Off Camera) It did. It did. There's still debate. I for one believed that Ronald Reagan didn't know that Oliver North and others may have been diverting money to the Contras, which arguably, George and I have this argument all the time, was against the law, because everyone knew he wanted to help the Contras. He made speech after speech about the freedom fighters in Central America to overthrow the Communist leaning government in Nicaragua but because he was depending on other people to do it. And George, I have maintained that his first term worked so well because he had such good people in place. His second time he moved people. People moved. They wanted to go to this department, that department. It didn't work so well because he didn't have people in the right places.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS
(Off Camera) You know, Sam, we only have ...
COKIE ROBERTS
(Off Camera) You know, it wasn't a diversion to the Contras that bothered him, it was arms for hostages, and he kept saying, I know that this happened but I don't really believe it happened. I mean, he had a terrible time wrapping his mind around the idea that the United States had actually done it.
SAM DONALDSON
(Off Camera) But this may be destructive for the future. On March 6th, 1987, Howard Baker and others convinced the president that he needed to make a speech to the nation, there was an impeachment, you know that word, thing brewing on Capitol Hill, and he said, something to the effect that although my heart tells me that I didn't do it, the facts are that I did. He, in other words, admitted a mistake.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS
(Off Camera) Accepted responsibility and survived.
SAM DONALDSON
(Off Camera) Accepted not only responsibility but the blame in the sense that he did it.
COKIE ROBERTS
(Off Camera) He said mistakes were made, however, though. He did use the passive voice.
SAM DONALDSON
(Off Camera) Well, maybe I'm rewriting history too much.
Well, why stop now Sam. You've been on a roll for years.