Sunday, December 08, 2013

Meet The Press – December 8, 2013


Guests:
Charlayne Hunter-Gault
Tom Brokaw
Richard Stengel
Jesse Jackson
Charles Ogletree
Paul Gigot
Katty Kay
Harry Smith
Maya Angelou

Gregory: OMG Nelson Mandela died and
Obama is flying to South Africa on
Air Force One with George W. Bush
and Bill and Hillary Clinton

Audience: whoa

Gregory: what's happening in South Africa?

Hunter-Gault: it's raining here which
in Africa is a sign of good fortune

Gregory: rain ruins my hair

Hunter-Gault: people are dancing in the street

Gregory: Mandela was a poplar politician
you don't see that much these days

Brokaw: Mandela was like JFK and
Ronald Reagan in that people loved him

Gregory: he said he was prepared
to die for an equal society

Jesse Jackson: he defeated apartheid
and chose reconciliation

Gregory: in prison he suppressed
his emotions like Mr. Spock

Stengel: before prison he was
tempestuous and prison turned
him into a mature elder statesman

Gregory: so it was time well spent

Stengel: indeed

Gregory: in prison he was very stoic –
he wouldn't even smile when reporters
visited on 'No Hard Labor Day'

Ogletree: he paid a great price
for freedom – 27 years in prison

Gregory: what was it like when
he was finally released?

Jackson: it was huge

[ clip ]

Brokaw: what did you miss
while you were in prison?

Mandela: everything! I was in prison!

Brokaw: the good thing is prison matured
Mandela and he was no longer that scary
militant we knew when he went in

Gregory: good point

Brokaw: other world leaders need
to take a lesson from him

Gregory: should send all our world leaders
to prison for a couple of decades?

Brokaw: it couldn't hurt

Jackson: he used his suffering
in prison to galvanize the world
to create change in South Africa

Gregory: surprisingly even after he
was released from 27 years in
prison things were not easy

Stengel: South Africa was on the edge
of a civil war and he was calm in a crisis
and became the father of his nation

Gregory: Charlayne – Mandela is beloved now

Hunter-Gault: indeed that is true but
he was relentlessly attacked by horrible racists

Gregory: it was a terrible time

Hunter-Gault: that was yesterday

Gregory: President Obama said this
week that his first political action was
to protest apartheid and he was
inspired by Nelson Mandela

Ogletree: Mandela wasn't 'militant' or a 'terrorist'
he was a patriot like George Washington

Gregory: or Tom Brady

Ogletree: good one Fluffy

Gregory: Mandela was great because
he reassured whites and white people really like that

Jackson: we were able to end apartheid
by pressuring the U.S. Government

Brokaw: it's true the U.S. labeled Mandela
a terrorist but remember we needed
South Africa during the Cold War
it was our only ally in Africa

Gregory: the only African state we got
along with was run by vicious white supremacists?

Brokaw: hey you take your friends
where you can get them

Gregory: so true

Brokaw: we need more good Africans like
Mandela and not bad Africans like Mugabe

Stengel: apartheid was only created in 1948
Mandela knew that South Africa could
not survive without white businessmen so
he set aside the bitterness which believe me he had

Jackson: the Congressional black caucus
in America ended apartheid

Gregory: Mandela was like King and Gandhi
except they were killed and he was not

Ogletree: also Gandhi was a lawyer like Mandela

Stengel: Mandela told me that unlike Gandhi
or Martin Luther King for him non-violence
was not a principle but a tactic

Jackson: he told me was glad he was
arrested before innocent people were killed

Gregory: the real lesson from Nelson
Mandela is that we need more
bipartisanship and why can't Obama
can't change the tone in Washington

Audience: right

Gregory: I was in college when Mandela
was released and he was gracious and
kept his heart open and that is good

Gregory: in 1986 Ted Kennedy came
on Meet The Press

Kennedy: we need to free Nelson
Mandela also and stop all the murders

Brokaw: it's a reminder of how brutal
the white regime was at the same time
freedom was breaking out all over the world

Gregory: right

Brokaw: and then comes Mandela
and saves the nation

Gregory: Paul Gigot this week you
called Mandela a failed Marxist

Gigot: Reagan had to oppose Mandela!
He was a dirty commie!

Gregory: I see

Gigot: but he gave all that up and
now we love Mandela

Sharpton: they weren't born Marxists!
The U.S. denigrated Africans!
America choose sides and we chose the wrong side!

Gregory: uh huh

Sharpton: if you are drowning and
someone throws you a lifeline you take it!

Kay: you have to understand that
Maggie Thatcher was very worried Angola
would go commie and once Angola goes
Manchester and Birmingham are next

Gregory: that makes sense

Kay: also all we knew of Mandela was
that he was a violent communist and
thankfully when he was released 
Mandela realized Marxism was  
so old-fashioned so all was forgiven

Gigot: back then everyone agreed that
apartheid was wrong and Ronald Reagan
named a black guy Ambassador and
because of that basically it was
Ronald Reagan who freed Nelson Mandela

Sharpton: oh come on! Let's not pretend
Reagan was a supporter of Nelson Mandela!
He denounced Mandela!

Gigot: only out of love

Cheney: the ANC was full of terrorists!

Brokaw: sure Reagan hated Mandela
but he was an anti-communist but
remember Russia was probably going
to invade the U.S. through Salvador

 [ break ]

Smith: how did Mandela choose grace?

Angelou: he had courage which
is the most important thing

Smith: what do you remember
when he was released

Angelou: I saw him walk out of prison
and he was smiling and I was so proud

Smith: nice

Angelou: he not only survived –
he thrived and invited his prison
guards to his inauguration

Smith: oh snap

Angelou: very cool

Smith: what is the lesson
from Mandela's life?

Angelou: forgiveness!

Smith: what did you think when you heard he died

Angelou: I thought I should remember
his generosity of spirit

Smith: will he be remembered?

Angelou: yes because without Mandela
South Africa would have been swimming in blood

Smith: wow

Angelou: we should thank him for 
what he did for all of us

[ break ]

Gregory: Harry how about Mandela

Smith: remember if you were black in
South Africa in those days you could
be murdered at any time

Gregory: that's not good

Smith: and yet he was magnanimous

Gregory: a lesson for us all

[ break ]

Gregory: Obama has nothing left for
the next three years but Obamacare

Kay: right – it's all he's got

Gregory: Paul please bash Obamacare for me

Gigot: young people are not signing up
for Obamacare is big enough numbers
which will definitely hurt Democrats

Gregory: isn't Obamacare a failure?

Sharpton: forget the glitches – millions of
people with pre-existing conditions are
going to get health care

Gregory: unemployment is dropping
but isn't Obama terrible?

Brokaw: yes – numbers that make
Obama look good can't be trusted

Gregory: I thought so

Brokaw: yes unemployment is dropping
but we know that American kids are behind Vietnam

Gregory: isn't Obama a failure because
Congress won't raise the minimum wage?

Kay: yes because the economy is fragile

Gregory: and that's another
episode of Meet The Press



No comments: