Robert Gates, the former Defense Secretary under both the Bush and Obama administrations, said Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation” that of the five Republican U.S. presidents he worked for, none would recognize the Republican Party today.
Partial transcript as follows:
JOHN DICKERSON: Let me take you back to your CIA days analyzing other countries. If you were analyzing the political structure of the United States as a CIA analyst and the minority party believed that, the majority of the voters in that party believe that the president was illegitimate. How would you assess the stability of the political organization of that country?
FMR. SEC. GATES: I would have serious concerns about the future. You know, I worked for eight presidents, five of them were Republicans. I don’t think any of them would recognize the Republican Party today.
DICKERSON: And what does that mean?
GATES: Well, I think that- I think in terms of the values and the principles that the Republican Party stood for under those five presidents are hard to find these days.
DICKERSON: Do you think that riots on the 6th of January, that the former president saying that Joe Biden stole the election, gives an opportunity to America’s enemies to say America is- is a declining power?
GATES: I think there is that, but I think it’s also broader than that, John, I think that what you see Xi Jinping saying and what you saw the Chinese foreign minister saying in Alaska in his meeting with Tony Blinken. Is- is not only pointing to our paralysis, particularly in the Congress, and inability to get anything really big done, but what happened on January 6th, but also the riots last summer, the whole Black Lives Matter are- ah, the racism that we see in our society. And- and- and they- and Xi Jinping has been very open about saying that he thinks we’re a declining power. And- and the only way to counter that, frankly, is through actions, through being able to actually get some things done in Washington that we haven’t been able to get done for a long time. But it’s also, again, it goes back to strategic communications. How do you- how do you convey the message to the rest of the world? Yeah, we’re a flawed country. We’ve- we’ve always had flaws, but we’re unique in that we’re the only country that actually talks about those flaws and actually works to try and fix them. We are an aspirational country and we’ve kind of lost that message, it seems to me.
DICKERSON: If there is a debate in America over whether the last election was legitimate, 70 percent of Republicans believe it was not. How does a country that can’t even agree on that basic, obvious truth ever get behind more abstract truths like sacrificing for democracies in places that you don’t know about, sacrificing for developing, helping developing countries because it’s in our interests, all of which are ideas which require belief in those ideas?
GATES: The one thing I think across the ideological spectrum that brings people together is when they see young people taking on the uniform of our military services and they’re taking an oath to the Constitution. And it’s why the military to this day remains perhaps the most respected institution in the country, because it’s seen by people as not being part of politics. It’s- it’s part of- it’s what the country represents. I’ve read quotes from Republicans on the Hill that- that basically say, you know, in their heart of hearts, there probably aren’t five people up here that actually believe that the election was stolen. So part of this is political gaming rather than a real conviction that the election was stolen.
DICKERSON: Can we afford–
GATES: How that manifests itself in the next election, I think is going to be a challenge.
DICKERSON: Aren’t we- Isn’t that playing footsie with some very dangerous stuff that–
GATES: Totally. It’s very dangerous.
DICKERSON: What did you make- you know, the Cheney family? What did you make of Liz Cheney’s stand and ultimate objection from Republican leadership?
GATES: I thought she was very courageous. She’s a person of- of real integrity. You know, internal politics on the Hill is- is another matter, though.
DICKERSON: Unless we solve that problem. Do you think we can solve any of these other big challenges?
GATES: I think it would be very difficult, and I think that that problem goes back 20 years or more of- of- of demonizing the other party and of- of not having friends on the other side of the aisle, of not socially gathering after hours and talking about things and having friends. That’s when you leech the hatred and the venom out of the relationship and you can focus on policies. And once you’re focused on policies, then you can figure out a way to compromise.
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN
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