Remembering presidential advisor and political analyst David Gergen

Transcript

Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors.

Amna Nawaz: And we have a passing of note to share.

Presidential adviser and former “News Hour” contributor David Gergen has died at 83 after being diagnosed with Lewy body dementia. Throughout his career, Gergen served four presidents, both Democrats and Republicans, and he spent many Friday nights offering his insights and analysis right here on “The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour.”

Geoff Bennett has this remembrance.

David Gergen, Former Presidential Adviser: I cannot remember a nicer man having a rockier start to his presidency. These guys are running a ship that’s sinking fiscally. Jim, there are ways to speak out and there are ways to speak out, as you well know.

Jim Lehrer, Co-Founder and Former Anchor, “PBS NewsHour”: And Gergen and Shields.

Geoff Bennett: On Friday evenings, David Gergen could be found respectfully sparring on PBS with his seatmate Mark Shields about the week in politics.

David Gergen: We ought to appreciate Jesse Jackson for all that he has done, but we ought to be able to separate out the fact that this remarkable Black American has gone so far and done so well, and that’s terrific, from what his positions are. And his positions do, in fact, not represent the mainstream for many Americans.

Geoff Bennett: Starting in 1984, David was a fixture on the “News Hour” for several years as the inaugural conservative voice on the program’s Friday political analysis segments.

David Gergen: Represents radicalism.

Geoff Bennett: It was his first foray into television news.

David Gergen: I was interested mainly in your book.

Geoff Bennett: He also offered his perspective on a range of issues from religion to the arts in a segment known as “The Gergen Dialogue.”

David Gergen: The beach, is there any other spot on earth that holds as much fascination for man?

Geoff Bennett: A Durham, North Carolina, native, Gergen attended Yale University, where he was managing editor of The Yale Daily News. He got a taste for politics after interning in Democratic Governor Terry Sanford’s office.

After Yale, Gergen earned a law degree from Harvard and served in the U.S. Navy, stationed in Japan. Despite not knowing any Republicans growing up and even voting for Hubert Humphrey in the 1968 election, Gergen got his start in Washington at the Nixon White House, where he worked as an assistant on the speechwriting team.

In 1975, after President Nixon’s resignation, he joined Gerald Ford’s administration as the director of communications.

Gerald Ford, Former President of the United States: Let us restore the golden rule to our political process and let brotherly love purge our hearts of suspicion and of hate.

Geoff Bennett: There, Gergen had his work cut out for him, working to rebuild trust in America’s political establishment in the wake of the Watergate scandal.

Then, in 1981, during Ronald Reagan’s first term, Gergen began work as an adviser and eventually became the administration’s director of communications at a pivotal moment in American politics, navigating a recession, the ongoing Cold War and the early years of the AIDS crisis.

From there, he transitioned to journalism, eventually serving as chief editor for U.S. News & World Report and offering his sober and measured political commentary on PBS and later a number of other news outlets, most recently as a senior analyst for CNN.

Judy Woodruff: He did his homework. He knew the issues.

Geoff Bennett: “News Hour” special correspondent Judy Woodruff worked alongside Gergen for many years.

Judy Woodruff: David was able to explain the policy and describe it in a way that made it understandable and acceptable that the president was doing something that might otherwise be considered controversial.

David Gergen: I also want to salute you, Mr. President.

Geoff Bennett: Gergen returned to the White House in 1993 for a fourth and final stint as a senior adviser to Democratic President Bill Clinton and his secretary of state, Warren Christopher.

David Gergen: In asking me to serve at your side, sir, you are indeed honoring your pledge to seek a national bipartisan government.

Judy Woodruff: I can’t imagine where David Gergen would fit on the spectrum today. He’d be somewhere in the middle, and that’s a disappearing act. It’s just a hard thing to imagine in this current environment, when we are so polarized, so divided by our politics.

Geoff Bennett: His perspective, both working in politics and covering it as a journalist, was the premise for his first book, “Eyewitness to Power.” The bestseller documented his 30 years in and out of the White House, but also his greatest lessons learned.

“There is nothing more important to the success of an actor,” it is said, “than the performance in his first scene and his last,” he wrote. “The same applies in politics and in other fields of leadership.”

In stepping away from the daily Beltway grind, Gergen was able to devote time to academia as both a professor of public service at Harvard University’s Kennedy School and founding director of the Center for Public Leadership, a topic he wrote about extensively in his second book, “Hearts Touched With Fire,” published in 2022.

He returned to PBS for a conversation with Judy Woodruff about the new era of politics, making the case for leaders to pass the torch.

David Gergen: I think people like Biden and Trump ought to both step back and leave and open the door to younger people from the next generations to serve as president. We just can’t take the risks that are involved, and especially on health.

Geoff Bennett: David Gergen is survived by his wife of 57 years and their two children and five grandchildren.