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Washington Post
11-07-2025
- Politics
- Washington Post
David Gergen, adviser to four presidents, has died
David Gergen, a veteran of Washington politics and an adviser to four presidents in a career spanning decades in government, academia and media, has died. He was 83. Gergen worked in the administrations of Presidents Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton. Over the years, he served as a speechwriter, communications director and counselor to the president, among other roles.
Yahoo
11-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
David Gergen, adviser to four presidents, has died
David Gergen, a veteran of Washington politics and an adviser to four presidents in a career spanning decades in government, academia and media, has died. He was 83. Gergen worked in the administrations of Presidents Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton. Over the years, he served as a speechwriter, communications director and counselor to the president, among other roles. Dean Jeremy Weinstein of the Harvard Kennedy School, with which Gergen had a long relationship, said Gergen died of a long illness. Gergen 'devoted decades of his life to serving those who sought to serve,' said Hannah Riley Bowles, a former co-director of the school's Center for Public Leadership, where Gergen was the founding director. 'David was a principled leader of unmatched character, integrity and kindness, who chose to see goodness in every person he met," Riley Bowles said. Al Gore, who served as Clinton's vice president, posted on X, 'Of the countless ways that David Gergen contributed to our great country, what I will remember him for most was his kindness to everyone he worked with, his sound judgment, and his devotion to doing good in the world.' David Richmond Gergen was born in North Carolina and graduated from Yale University and the Harvard Law School, according to a biography on the Harvard Kennedy School website. He would go on to receive 27 honorary degrees over the course of his career. Gergen founded the Center for Public Leadership at the Harvard Kennedy School and remained there as professor of public service emeritus until his death, according to the school's website. After serving in the U.S. Navy in the 1960s, Gergen took his first White House job in 1971, serving as a speechwriting assistant for Nixon. Bipartisanship and collaboration were hallmarks of his long career, said colleagues who paid testimonials on social media Friday. He was also a media personality who worked as a senior political analyst for CNN. In his 2022 book 'Hearts Touched with Fire: How Great Leaders are Made,' he wrote: 'Our greatest leaders have emerged from both good times and, more often, challenging ones. … The very finest among them make the difficult calls, that can ultimately alter the course of history.' A private burial is scheduled for Mount Auburn Cemetery on Monday, said Mark Douglass, director of Douglass Funeral Home in Lexington, Massachusetts. A larger memorial service at Harvard will be held in the coming weeks, Douglass said.
Associated Press
11-07-2025
- Politics
- Associated Press
David Gergen, adviser to four presidents, has died
David Gergen, a veteran of Washington politics and an adviser to four presidents in a career spanning decades in government, academia and media, has died. He was 83. Gergen worked in the administrations of Presidents Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton. Over the years, he served as a speechwriter, communications director and counselor to the president, among other roles. Dean Jeremy Weinstein of the Harvard Kennedy School, with which Gergen had a long relationship, said Gergen died of a long illness. Gergen 'devoted decades of his life to serving those who sought to serve,' said Hannah Riley Bowles, a former co-director of the school's Center for Public Leadership, where Gergen was the founding director. 'David was a principled leader of unmatched character, integrity and kindness, who chose to see goodness in every person he met,' Riley Bowles said. Al Gore, who served as Clinton's vice president, posted on X, 'Of the countless ways that David Gergen contributed to our great country, what I will remember him for most was his kindness to everyone he worked with, his sound judgment, and his devotion to doing good in the world.' David Richmond Gergen was born in North Carolina and graduated from Yale University and the Harvard Law School, according to a biography on the Harvard Kennedy School website. He would go on to receive 27 honorary degrees over the course of his career. Gergen founded the Center for Public Leadership at the Harvard Kennedy School and remained there as professor of public service emeritus until his death, according to the school's website. After serving in the U.S. Navy in the 1960s, Gergen took his first White House job in 1971, serving as a speechwriting assistant for Nixon. Bipartisanship and collaboration were hallmarks of his long career, said colleagues who paid testimonials on social media Friday. He was also a media personality who worked as a senior political analyst for CNN. In his 2022 book 'Hearts Touched with Fire: How Great Leaders are Made,' he wrote: 'Our greatest leaders have emerged from both good times and, more often, challenging ones. … The very finest among them make the difficult calls, that can ultimately alter the course of history.' A private burial is scheduled for Mount Auburn Cemetery on Monday, said Mark Douglass, director of Douglass Funeral Home in Lexington, Massachusetts. A larger memorial service at Harvard will be held in the coming weeks, Douglass said.
Irish Times
11-06-2025
- Politics
- Irish Times
I gave my friends hats which said ‘Make America Hate Again'. That's what Trump is trying to do
Back in my youth we were taught in Latin class about the problems faced by Rome because of neighbouring wetlands known as the Pontine Marshes. Although Romans did not fully understand how malaria infected humans, they connected the marshes with illness and death. Their combined engineering skills failed to drain the marshes and it was only in the 1920s that Mussolini made reclamation of the marshes his successful national prestige project. I thought of the Pontine Marshes when Donald Trump promised American voters that he was going to 'drain the swamp' in Washington, DC. It was hard to see how he intended to effect a political revolution that could amount to draining the Washington swamp. The influence of powerful lobbyists and financial interests seemed to prosper between 2016 and 2020, when the Republican Party held the reins of power. The image of draining a swamp was powerful. But what have we now in its place? Trump 's second term has turned the Oval Office in the White House into a veritable political pigsty. The Musk-Trump spat (which saw Musk asserting that Trump's name was to be found on the Epstein files and Trump countering with the claim that Musk had 'lost his mind') was remarkable. Trump is not now interested in an immediate reconciliation – presumably for fear of weakening his authority or appearing to reward those who inflict political damage on him. READ MORE Meetings in the Oval Office political pigsty are obviously distasteful to his visitors. Apart from the ambush of Volodymyr Zelenskiy and the absurd encounter with South Africa's president Cyril Ramaphosa (in which Trump made grossly untrue allegations about persecution of Boer farmers and attempted to prove his lies with fake photographs), other world leaders have simply sat for 45 minutes hoping that no diplomatic damage would be done. Russia's president Vladimir Putin and China's president Xi Jinping have not participated in the ludicrous charades to which others have agreed. Trump's promise to end the Ukraine war within 24 hours now appears as some form of sick joke. But apart from childish antics (including threats to abandon any role in the dispute) the question remains as to what, if any, is America's preferred outcome of the Ukraine war. Trump has vaguely spoken about sanctions. To what end? Does he think that Ukraine will buckle under a combination of aerial and missile attacks and meatgrinder attritional warfare along its eastern frontline? What has happened to his ' deal ' to Americanise half of Ukraine's mineral and energy resources? Is there any rational strategy in play, or is Trump simply both incapable of stopping Putin's invasion and unwilling to admit his abject weakness? The evidence suggests that Trump's sole political yardstick is the state of US stock markets. Markets don't like war. For a president who has majored on controlling immigration, it is surprising to hear Trump advocate the introduction of golden visas for rich people, presumably including Russians, who wish to reside in the US in exchange for million-dollar investments. We had similar schemes in Ireland which turned out to be political failures. Why would America bare its security throat to an influx of dubious investor migrants from overseas states? Is that strategy a necessary part of making America great again? While it is obvious that Trump's vision of American greatness is to be measured in the wealth of its plutocrat class, I find it hard to understand how public opinion in America is not revolted by events such as the $200 million 'gift' of a jumbo jet from Qatar destined to become Trump's private property , or the launch by Trump of a cryptocurrency fund designed for his personal enrichment. Trump's promise to deport one million illegal migrants was easily made. Rounding them up and expelling them is a very different matter. They will turn out to be parents and spouses and sole economic providers of American citizens. They will turn out to be the fruit pickers, labourers, cleaners and counter staff of countless small enterprises. They may even include the maids and pool boys of Trump's billionaire coterie. In Trump's first term, I gave a number of my friends Maga hats embroidered instead with the message 'Make America Hate Again'. Sending marines and the National Guard to Los Angeles and other cities that have tolerated illegal migrants for many many years is a cowardly, premeditated Trump stratagem to provoke communal hatred. Democrats need to be a lot more politically agile than they have been in the last four years to stop Trump's political rampage.
Yahoo
17-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
WA governor accuses Trump of ‘constitutional crisis.' GOP leader calls that ‘hysterical'
In a brooding speech made Thursday to fundraisers, Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson blasted the Trump administration for its alleged assault on the U.S. Constitution. 'I'm pretty careful about the words I use, okay,' Ferguson told a room full of 200 Tri-City Democrats at a Richland hotel on Thursday night. 'So I don't throw around terms, like 'constitutional crisis,' casually. But — but — we are, in our country right now, in the midst of a constitutional crisis. That is a fact, that is a reality,' he said. He was in the Tri-Cities all day on business — his first visit to the region since being elected governor. He spoke to the Richland Rotary Club, signed 11 bills into law and met with officials with the plumbers and pipefitters union Local 598 before breaking bread with Democrats. Treasurer Mike Pellicciotti and Lands Commissioner Dave Upthegrove were also there. In his speech, Ferguson touched on the state's budget woes, election gains he made in the Tri-Cities over Jay Inslee's 2012 campaign, the impact of rising tariffs, and how he strives to create a government that cuts back on red tape and 'works for people.' At the same time, he also was critical of legislative Democrats' fiscal spending and called on more 'responsible' budgeting. The Legislature recently finished its 2025 session, which included patching a $16 billion budget shortfall with new taxes. Then, Ferguson tried to rally Tri-Citians to contribute to campaigns, organize protests, defend democracy and to fight for the rights of others as Democrats push to retake Congress next year. 'I want you to know that there is no governor in the country more prepared to defend your freedoms against this president than I am,' he told the room. He called Trump's actions 'anti-democratic,' alleging the MAGA president 'ignores' court orders. Ferguson wasn't specific, but he claimed Trump's antagonistic attitudes toward the judiciary are the 'very definition' of a constitutional crisis. Ferguson made parallels to a book his son was reading about how democracies die, which he said claims they perish 'not by some big revolution, typically — but by a gradual erosion' of liberties. In a phone interview with the Tri-City Herald, a leading Washington Republican responded to Ferguson's comments by calling them 'hysterical' and 'not reality based.' 'We're not in a constitutional crisis,' said Republican Party Chair Jim Walsh. 'It's irresponsible stuff. And why? Because Democrats don't have a good challenger to Trump — and Trump's not going to run again.' 'Gov. Ferguson needs to not mind the splinter in Trump's eye and tend to the plank in his own eye,' Walsh continued. He was referring to a case involving a state trooper who died in a crash allegedly caused last year by an undocumented immigrant in Snohomish County. Political and constitutional experts have been hesitant to claim that the U.S. is experiencing a constitutional crisis. Some Harvard Law professors in a February panel said while Trump's actions were 'deeply troubling,' they didn't meet the definition of a constitutional crisis. But a YouGov poll sponsored by Elon University found that 67% of U.S. adult respondents in April were 'very' or 'somewhat' concerned about a 'crisis' arising from disagreements between the executive and judicial branches. It's clear rhetoric between the two major U.S. political parties continues to flare. Walsh pointed to a since-deleted social media post by former FBI Director James Comey. He's being investigated by the Secret Service after sharing photo of seashells that spelled out '86 47' — 86, a slang term meaning 'to remove,' and Trump is the 47th president. Liberals say the phrase is meant to support ousting the sitting president, but conservatives have interpreted it as an incitement of political violence. 'That's not a joking matter,' Walsh said.
