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| GEN. COLIN POWELL | |
 August 1, 2000  |
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Gwen Ifill spoke with Retired General Colin Powell after he addressed the Republican convention on Monday night.
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GWEN IFILL: General Colin Powell, welcome. GEN. COLIN POWELL: Thank you, Gwen. GWEN IFILL: We keep hearing about this new face of the Republican Party. What is that?
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GWEN IFILL: You talk about making the party more inclusive. You disagree with Governor Bush on several key issues, certainly on abortion. In your speech you talked about affirmative action. These are things that you and Governor Bush don't necessarily see eye to eye on. Is it the big tent you're talking about, or are you just talking about - GEN. COLIN POWELL: What I'm saying is that we see - we don't agree on abortion. He's pro-life and I believe in a woman's right to choose. But we can stand side by side and both of us give our opinions. I don't think it should be a litmus test to being a good Republican that you have to be pro-life. Some others in the party would disagree with me. And I think what Governor Bush is saying, is that's our party platform. We believe in the right to life, but there are many members of the Republican Party who believe in the philosophy of the Republican Party who don't agree with that. Let's not cast them in the darkness just because they don't agree with that particular position of the party. Let's have a big tent party that welcomes then in. There are lots of Republicans who will not be terribly happy with what I said tonight, but then let's have a debate about it. You know, I believe in affirmative action. You don't, let's argue about it, and let's not just say that you have got to be an anti-affirmative action person to be a good Republican in good standing. I don't agree with that.
GEN. COLIN POWELL: I hope so. They didn't do so well in 1996 by not moving in this direction, and I hope that our party has enough wisdom gained over the last four years to realize we are becoming more and more of a party, more of a nation that has more people of color, more people coming in from lands around the world where the people are not white, and that if we are going to stay relevant, if we are going to be talking to the America of fifteen, twenty years from now, we have got to have not only a better face on our party but we have to have programs to support that face. It just can't be let's have an event once every four years and say we're for inclusion and then everybody goes home again. We've got to work in housing. We've got to meet with leaders of the African-American community, dialogue with them, understand the dimensions and the struggle that still exists in this country, a struggle that is not over. You can't tell me it's over when 52 percent of all men in jail are black men. There's something wrong. They're in jail because they committed crimes. Why did they commit those crimes? Where did the hopelessness creep in? What did we fail to give them in this American society of ours that we talk about all the time? That's the message we're trying to give to the party. |
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GWEN IFILL: Your friend and colleague Dick Cheney would be vice president if George W. Bush was elected. What kind of vice president would he be? He cast a lot of votes that Democrats are raising questions about which you would probably disagree with as well. GEN. COLIN POWELL: Sure I would. Dick is more conservative than I am, especially ten or 15 years ago when he was in the Congress and I was National Security Adviser. I'd probably argue with every single one of those with Dick. And Dick will explain his votes in the time and context in which those votes were taken. But he will be a loyal vice president. He will be a seasoned, experienced manager standing next to President Bush. And he will follow the lead of President Bush. Dick is first and foremost someone who will serve his president well. And if they are Governor Bush's policies, they will be Secretary Cheney, then Vice President Cheney's policies. GWEN IFILL: How about Secretary Powell? Do you want to be Secretary of State?
GWEN IFILL: Let me try this again. Do you want to be Secretary of State? GEN. COLIN POWELL: I'm coming to that. Give me time. You get to pick the question, Gwen, I pick the answer. We haven't had a conversation yet, and if the governor thinks there may be a role for me in his administration, in due course, I'm sure he will enter into a discussion with me about it, and I'd consider it. Secretary of State is an important, challenging job, and I would certainly consider it. But it would be presumptuous of me to start trolling for a job. I'm very happy in private life. I have a nice business on the speaking circuit. It gives me enormous amounts of time to spend with my non-profit programs. GWEN IFILL: People have already started to say you would be too cautious to be Secretary of State. GEN. COLIN POWELL: Oh, there are always those. I have a cottage industry of critics who say that. But I think I know a little bit about national security policy. I know a little bit about the use of the armed forces of the United States. And I think I know how to use the armed forces well and correctly. And I think I would bring quite a bit of experience, useful experience to that job.
GEN. COLIN POWELL: No, increasingly there are going to be politicians who have never served. It is part of having peace. And in the case of Secretary Cheney, he served not at all, whereas Governor Bush served in the National Guard as a pilot. But Secretary Cheney served not at all. But he took us... he led us through several very, very difficult conflicts, the Panama invasion. He took us through Desert Shield and Desert Storm, and I can tell you, I was with him every single day. And he spent an enormous amount of time learning what the armed forces was all about, not just listening to me and the other members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, but learning so that he understood what we were doing and why we were advising him to do certain things. So you can learn it. What it takes is a willingness to learn the basic leadership ability that you have developed over the years and the ability to manage large and complex organizations. GWEN IFILL: You are a powerful symbol in your party and publicly a powerful symbol far beyond it. You talked tonight about the burden being on us. How powerful is it to be a symbol, and how much of symbolism can be translated to action after a convention like this?
GWEN IFILL: General Colin Powell, thank you very much for joining us. GEN. COLIN POWELL: Thank you, Gwen. |
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GEN.
COLIN POWELL: Well, I'm trying to help the party put a new face on,
and I think Governor Bush will be very, very effective at displaying
that face to the American people, and the statement says we understand
that there are difficulties in our community. We want to reach out to
the African-American communities, especially, and let them know that
the Republican Party has programs that will benefit them - programs
in education, programs in health, programs in housing; we will not ignore
their needs. We will not just say that this vote is going to the Democrats,
and we're not going to fight for it. That's really what I was tried
to do tonight. I've seen Governor Bush lean in this direction. I watched
his speech at the NAACP very, very carefully. In '96, our candidate
wouldn't go to the NAACP because he thought that he was being set up,
he said. Governor Bush went, and what I was trying to do tonight was
to pick up what he said to the NAACP and charge the party - challenge
the party to help him make us a more inclusive party and fight for those
votes.
GWEN
IFILL: Watching the first night of this party's convention, did you
get the sense that maybe the Republican Party from four years ago when
you also had tough words for your own party is coming around more to
where you are?
GEN.
COLIN POWELL: I have not had any conversations with the governor about
a future role in his administration. Perhaps... 
GWEN
IFILL: You served as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Neither
Dick Cheney nor George W. Bush served in the active military. Does that
bother you at all? 
GEN.
COLIN POWELL: I hope it can be translated into action. We have yet to
hear from Governor Bush. We'll hear from him Thursday night, and we
will see how he wants to move the nation forward under his leadership.
So symbols can be translated into action. And there's no point being
a symbol unless you use your symbolic position to try to force action.
And what I was doing tonight is to be here to help launch this convention
and not just to be a symbol, but to challenge all of the delegates present,
to challenge my party to get behind the leadership of the governor,
and to pick up what he said to the NAACP, and what I know also his heartfelt
feeling that we have to move in this direction -- we can leave no child
behind.