Stephanopoulos Throws Softballs to Former Top Obama Aide, Lets Him Mislead on Kagan's Anti-Military Decisions
On Monday's GMA, ABC's George Stephanopoulos dealt with the Elena
Kagan Supreme Court nomination by interviewing former Obama official
Greg Craig, but no one from the conservative/Republican side as a guest.
The anchor did raise potential threats to Kagan's nomination, but
failed to follow through when Craig omitted a key detail about the
nominee's anti-military record as dean of Harvard Law School.
Stephanopoulos led off the interview, which began 8 minutes into the 7
am Eastern hour, with a softball question: "What's the single thing
that impresses President Obama most about Kagan?" After the former White
House counsel and former Clinton administration official played up
Kagan's allegedly "extraordinary" amount of experience, the ABC anchor
then asked, "What do you think is the single greatest threat to her
nomination- to confirmation?"
Craig raised Kagan's vocal support for Harvard Law School's policy of
banning military recruiters from its campus during her tenure as dean
in his answer: "Well, you know, to be quite honest with you, I can't
identify a single greatest threat. The Solomon Amendment dispute was a
very serious dispute. The Third Circuit Court of Appeals found the
Solomon Amendment unconstitutional. It wasn't until after that it was
declared unconstitutional did recruiters not come to Harvard Law
School." Stephanopoulos replied incorrectly that "that was her keeping
the ROTC off Harvard [Law] campus because she opposed gays- the don't
ask, don't tell policy." Craig then answered, "Yeah, it had nothing to
do with the ROTC, so much it was recruiters that were violating the
nondiscrimination policy at the university."
What Craig failed to mention is that the dispute when beyond the
Third Circuit Court, all the way to the Supreme Court. The highest court
of the land unanimously upheld the constitutionality of the Solomon
Amendment in the 2006
Rumsfeld v. Forum for Academic and Institutional Rights
decision.
Perhaps Stephanopoulos didn't know about this decision, but it's a
definite oversight on his part. The former White House counsel later
raised Kagan's time at Williams & Connolly, "one of the great law
firms in America," but he didn't mention (nor did Stephanopoulos) that
he was a
longtime employee of the firm as well, and was
there when the nominee
worked there between 1989 and 1991.
ABC's Terry Moran also was interviewed, and White House correspondent
Jake Tapper offered a brief on the Kagan nomination later in the
program just after the top of the 8 am Eastern hour, but the morning
program didn't bring any further guests to discuss the issue.
The full transcript of George Stephanopoulos's interview of Greg
Craig on Monday's Good Morning America:
STEPANOPOULOS: Let's get more on this now from Greg
Craig. He was President Obama's first White House counsel, part of the
team for last year's nomination of Justice Sonia Sotomayor. Good
morning, Greg. Thanks for joining us today-
CRAIG: Good morning, George.
STEPHANOPOULOS: And you were there last year- the President
interviewed Elena Kagan last time around. She was probably the
runner-up. What's the single thing that impresses President Obama most
about Kagan?
CRAIG: Well, I would say that it's her personal and professional
qualifications. She's a solid, hard-working, intelligent- really smart
lawyer who has had an extraordinary amount of experience in the law,
even though she hasn't been a judge. He is a constitutional lawyer, and
so is she. I think it's a terrific appointment from the personal point
of view, from the professional point of view- and politically, I think
she's also mainstream as they can get. So, there may be opposition, but I
cannot believe it would be serious opposition, given her
qualifications.
STEPHANOPOULOS: But- in the White House, you internalized the lesson
that these nominations are won and lost in the first 48 hours-
CRAIG: That's right-
STEPHANOPOULOS: So give us an insight on how you expect this to
unfold over the next 48 hours. And what do you think is the single
greatest threat to her nomination- to confirmation?
CRAIG: Well, you know, to be quite honest with you, I can't identify a
single greatest threat. The Solomon Amendment dispute was a very
serious dispute. The Third Circuit Court of Appeals found the Solomon
Amendment unconstitutional. It wasn't until after that it was declared
unconstitutional did recruiters not come to Harvard Law School-
STEPHANOPOULOS: That was her keeping the ROTC off Harvard [Law]
campus because she opposed gays- the don't ask, don't tell policy-
CRAIG: Right. Well, it was recruiters.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Right.
CRAIG: Yeah, it had nothing to do with the ROTC, so much it was
recruiters that were violating the nondiscrimination policy at the
university.
STEPHANOPOULOS: You say you can't imagine a threat, but you're
already seeing some criticism of Elena Kagan. You have conservatives,
David McIntosh saying she is one of the most inexperienced nominees to
the U.S. Supreme Court in recent memory.
CRAIG: Well, I just disagree with that. I think that's just so wrong.
If you look at her record, it is extraordinary record. She has- worked
in the private sector. She worked with Williams & Connolly in
Washington, DC, one of the great law firms in America. She then taught
at two of the great law schools in America, [University of] Chicago and
Harvard. She ran Harvard Law School brilliantly, everybody says. She
brought a consensus together with a faculty that was deeply divided, and
she served in the government. She served in all three branches of the
government with distinction, most recently as the representative of the
government of the United States, the people of the United States in
front of the Supreme Court. So I think you don't have to have judicial
experience to be a highly qualified candidate, and I think most people
would agree with that.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Another conservative activist e-mailed me just
earlier this morning, saying that her closeness to President Obama could
be an issue, that the White House is looking for someone to rubber
stamp President Obama's big government agenda. Now, I don't expect you
to agree with that, but how big a consideration is the notion that a lot
of the President's laws, like the health care plan, are going to be
coming before this court?
CRAIG: Well, there's no question about that, but- you know, no one
would say that Elena Kagan is a rubber stamp for anybody. She is her own
person. She's an independent force of nature. She works hard, and- you
know, she'll be a good judge- no question about it.
STEPHANOPOULOS: One final question- she will probably have to recuse
herself from a number of issues because she served as solicitor general,
and there's likely to be a call to release a lot of her papers from her
time in the White House. Do you think the White House should give on
that?
CRAIG: Well, I think the White House is prepared to release all the
papers that the [Senate] Judiciary Committee needs to make its decision,
and she has a long record of service in the government, and I'm sure
that they'll be available to the Judiciary Committee to review, and I
can't imagine that there's any problem with it.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Okay, Greg Craig, thanks very much for your insight
this morning.
CRAIG: Good to see you, George.
—Matthew Balan is a news analyst at the Media Research Center. You
can follow him on Twitter here.