E-mail a friendArianna Huffington
original airdate May 23, 2008
Named one of Washington's most influential commentators by Newsweek and People, syndicated columnist Arianna Huffington started her political life as the darling of the right. She now describes herself as a progressive populist. She does political commentary on TV and has written 12 books, including the new release, Right is Wrong. She's also co-founder and editor in chief of the news and commentary Website, The Huffington Post, and co-host of Left, Right & Center, a public radio political roundtable program.
Syndicated columnist describes the controversy she created when she wrote about a dinner party conversation that included John McCain. (2:55)
Political commentator discusses her latest book, the presidential election and "The Huffington Post." Full interview. (12:09)
Arianna Huffington
Tavis: Always pleased to welcome Arianna Huffington back to this program. The influential political commentator is, of course, the creator of "The Huffington Post" which has enjoyed tremendous success since launching in 2005. She is also an author whose latest book is called "Right is Wrong: How The Lunatic Fringe…" - all right, take a deep breath here - "Hijacked America, Shredded the Constitution and Made Us All Less Safe." Arianna, nice to see you, as always.
Arianna Huffington: Glad to see you, Tavis.
Tavis: Let me start by asking why for you - let me back up. If we agree, and I think we do, that there is a fringe on both sides of the political spectrum, there's a right fringe, there's a left fringe, why then is the right lunatic fringe worse for America than the left lunatic fringe?
Huffington: Because the right lunatic fringe has actually hijacked the Republican Party. It has hijacked the country. It has driven public policy over the last seven and a half years. It has made us less safe because of the neocons' invasion of Iraq and the consequences. It has made us less prosperous because of what they have done with the economy and the obsession with tax cuts at a time of war and lack of regulation.
So really, the price we are paying for them to have allowed the country to be hijacked by the right is enormous. But the purpose of the book is not to catalog the failures, but to explain why. Why did we allow the right to hijack the country, shred the Constitution and make us all unsafe?
Tavis: And the short answer to that question is?
Huffington: The short answer is the media. The media have a huge responsibility in what has happened. They've become enablers simply by presenting every issue as having two sides even when the truth is unequivocally on one side or the other.
You take global warming. We've debated for years whether it's real instead of debating what to do about it. Take the war in Iraq. We are still debating whether we should be there or not when sixty to seventy percent of the American people, military honor lists, people who know the situation on the ground, know there can be no military victory.
Tavis: If I'm watching this program right now, I'm just itching to just jump through the screen and say, "But, Arianna, it's your friends, it's Tavis' friends, who run the media. Other than talk radio, that conservative citadel is these liberals, these leftists, these progressives who run the media, so when you say the media, don't you really mean to say your friends? Let the Bush White House off the hook."
Huffington: Absolutely, yes, totally. In fact, in the book, I don't really take on FOX. It's too easy, it's too obvious. I take on Tim Russert, I take on Bob Woodward, I take on the icons of mainstream journalism.
Also, I give credit to those who got it right. I have the honor roll in the book of all those who got it right in the lead-up to the war because it's not fair to say we all got it wrong. We all did not get it wrong, but their voices were drowned in the cacophony of the conventional wisdom. So the question is, where do we go from here? That's really the most important thing.
The problem we're facing right now is that, even though the right has been discredited, it has shrunk down to the twenty-eight percent who still approve of George Bush. Because they have John McCain at the head of the party, we are in potential trouble because John McCain is a Trojan Horse of the right. As a Greek, I know that Trojan Horses are big trouble.
We have forty-eight percent of Americans who are considering voting for John McCain. We need to educate them. We need to read the book that has an entire section called "John McCain Hijacked by the Right" to explain why the John McCain people are still considering voting for is not going to be on the ballot in 2008.
Tavis: Okay. Whether or not you support John McCain or not, tell me a better Republican, somebody that you'd be happier to see as the Republican nominee whether you support them or not, given that John McCain is the one guy who even the Republicans didn't want because of the maverick way he goes about doing the work he's done for all these years. So you don't like John McCain. I get that, but if this guy is as maverick as he has been, then what better Republican to run?
Huffington: Well, two answers. First of all, Jack Hagel is my favorite Republican. He's been an eloquent and consistent critic of the war.
Tavis: Okay.
Huffington: He's now a consistent and eloquent critic of John McCain and his obsession with Iran. But in terms of John McCain, the maverick, he's no more, Tavis. You know, we need to update our images of John McCain. You know, the John McCain who was against tax cuts now wants to make them permanent. The John McCain who introduced an immigration bill that was common sensical now says he will not be voting for it.
The John McCain who called the religious right agents of intolerance is now kissing their rings. Torture, even torture. The man who was tortured himself, a war hero, voted against the bill that would have prevented the CIA from practicing torture. So that's the job ahead of us.
Tavis: Help me understand more about what I read recently about this dinner party that you were at, at which John McCain allegedly said that he had not voted for George Bush. What's the story here?
Huffington: It was January of 2001. I think I had asked you to come with me, Tavis, but you didn't come.
Tavis: Yeah, well (laughter). Now I'm glad I didn't (laughter) for all the trouble you got yourself into now. But go ahead. See, I always get in trouble hanging out with you. That's why I turn down your invitations sometime.
Huffington: (Laughter) I was sitting next to John McCain. It was at Candace Bergen's house. John McCain was going on about George Bush, you know, how dangerous he was for the country. At some point, someone else at the table asked him whether he had voted for him and he said, "No, I did not vote for him."
The reason I wrote it is because it explains so much about why so many people love John McCain still now. They love the John McCain who so abhorred George Bush that he could not even bring himself to vote for him in 2000, and now he has completely embraced him. He's almost kind of replaced his own brain with George Bush's brain.
Tavis: John McCain's people have said that that's a lie, that you're trying to sell a book.
Huffington: The story is not even in the book. Three people who were at the dinner, Brad Whitford, Richard Schiff, and a lady who doesn't want her name published, but told "The Los Angeles Times." Three people have corroborated my story.
Tavis: Two things, though. Why tell that story now, number one, and, number two, did you think or consider at all that something that McCain allegedly said in confidence that you were going to out him for, did you have any second thoughts about doing that?
Huffington: I had no second thoughts once I saw what had happened to John McCain and once I saw the way the media continued to cover him as though he were the John McCain who did not vote for George Bush. I think the story has helped clarify the fall of John McCain.
It's a Shakespearean fall. It's a fall from grace because John McCain was a true leader. He was a maverick. He was an independent thinker, independent enough not to vote for George Bush. I mean, that's a huge statement. Now he's become the kind of leader who has not only just sacrificed all his principles, but who likes to kill the messenger when the messenger tells the truth.
Not just what I said, but Jamie Rubin. Jamie Rubin posted on "The Huffington Post" a video of his interview with John McCain when he had said that he would basically be open to some kind of communication with Hamas. He said Jamie Rubin was wrong. You see, this is really the technique of Karl Rove, which now John McCain has completely adopted. Lie and kill the messenger.
Tavis: To your point, back to the book, "Right is Wrong," about the media being so responsible for getting it wrong and basically just getting bowled over in this process, tell me how you see "The Huffington Post" and other blog sites like yours having an impact in this particular election year in the kind of way that you criticize or critique the mainstream media for not having done the last time around?
Huffington: I think a huge impact. The online media that are staying with the story obsessively even until something happens are going to be a huge countervailing force to the mainstream media.
Just to give you an example, "The New York Times" story about the Pentagon military honor lists who basically were debriefed by the Pentagon and then went on different shows and all the TV networks basically misleading the American people and distorting the truth.
Well, "The New York Times" broke the story, but dropped it. We and many others in the blogosphere have stayed with the story until something happens. There are going to be Congressional investigations. There has to be accountability and that's really what I'm asking for in the book.
Tavis: How does the blogosphere - I hear your point and I tend to think you're right that there's a huge advantage that the blogosphere can bring - underscore the word "can" - can bring to the process. I'm concerned on the flip side, though, Arianna, with all due respect to "The Huffington Post," that there's no accountability for the blogosphere.
Huffington: Oh, enormous accountability. Certainly I can vouch for "The Huffington Post." We have huge premium on fact-checking, accuracy, correcting any mistakes within twenty-four hours is our rule or a blogger's password is withdrawn. The accountability is infinitely greater than what "The New York Times" had in the lead-up to the war when they allowed distortions and lies to stay for months before apologies were issued for them.
Tavis: How appreciative of Hillary Clinton's efforts ought we as a country be?
Huffington: Well, I wrote about it this week. I wrote about the fact that if she loses, which is more than likely at the moment, it will have been a game-changing defeat because it has sent an enormous message to the younger generation not just of women, but of men, about what it is like to have a candidate who perseveres, who fights for what they believe, even when the going gets tough.
I can give you an example. My oldest daughter, whom you know, who voted for the first time in this election voted for Barack Obama. But every day, she speaks to me with admiration and even awe for what Hillary Clinton represents.
Tavis: And what's your sense, then, of what this race is going to look like? I said the other day in a conversation that I think - you tell me if I'm right or wrong about this - I said, for all the talk about hope in this campaign, this is going to be ugliest, nastiest, racist, most divisive, to say nothing of the most expensive campaign ever for the White House. Am I right or wrong about that?
Huffington: I think it is going to be incredibly nasty because the right is going to do everything it can to hold onto power, so it is our responsibility to keep consistently and repeatedly telling the truth and not allowing anything to basically get in the way of that because there is going to be an enormous attempt to distort and mislead and lie to the American people.
Tavis: And finally, then, the challenge - back to the text - the challenge for the media this time around to get it right in the coverage of this campaign is essentially what?
Huffington: It is essentially to ferret out the truth, which is the primary journalistic mission, instead of presenting the two sides with equal validity as though the truth is always to be found in the middle because you know, Tavis, that truth is not always to be found in the middle.
We are no longer debating civil rights. We are no longer debating whether women should have the vote. We should no longer be debating global warming or whether we should have gone into Iraq or whether we need some form of universal health care. All these things are now positions which sixty to seventy percent of the American people agree with.
Tavis: The new book from Arianna Huffington is called "Right is Wrong: How the Lunatic Fringe Hijacked America, Shredded the Constitution and Made Us All Less Safe and What You Need to Know to End the Madness." Arianna, it's always nice to see you.
Huffington: Glad to see you.
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