TV interview
Alan Keyes on Meet The Press
August 22, 1999
Mr. Williams: We are back on Meet The Press. Republican presidential contender Alan Keyes is with us this morning. Welcome.
Alan Keyes: Thank you.
Mr. Williams: Why is it that everyone comes away from your events and says, "You know who the exciting guy is? You know who my new guy is? It's Alan Keyes. I saw him speak"? What happens to those people between your speech and when they pull a curtain behind them?
Keyes: Oh, I don't think anything happens. I think we've done very well amongst people who have heard and who share my sense of the priorities. Because I believe we're in the midst of a great moral crisis in this country. It's not a crisis about individual behavior, it's a crisis about our moral principles as a people and whether we're following policies, making judgments with respect to issues like abortion that, in fact, accord with our basic stated views and beliefs. And if we continue to stray from that, it' s about whether we can hold on to our liberty while abandoning the truths on which that claim to freedom is based. And I think when people hear me talk about it, very often, the truth is convincing. That's the only thing I can say.
Mr. Williams: What may hurt you, it's been said, is you're an absolutist on things like abortion, chiefly abortion, and we don't have a lot of U.S. presidential absolutists in history to fall back on. Deals are cut, people move to the middle. No such luck with you.
Keyes: Well, except on certain issues. We couldn't cut deals on issues like slavery and civil rights, because at the end of the day, as a people, we're defined by one simple premise: "All men are created equal, and endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights." On the day when we as a people turn our backs completely on that premise, this whole republic will collapse, and our claim to liberty and due process and respect for our individual rights will be gone. It's a claim based on an appeal to the transcendent authority of the Creator. The issue of abortion involves turning our backs on that principle, and that's why it will not go away any more than the issue of slavery could go away.
Mr. Williams: All right. Historians would argue, however, that Abraham Lincoln was the original pragmatist and cut deals all along the way, including the knowledge that it was expanding before the Emancipation Proclamation.
Keyes: Not on that issue of principle, no.
Mr. Williams: Now, let's talk about Iowa, the straw poll. I'm reading from tomorrow's U.S. News. And Michael Barone says, "The Ames straw poll was a fair test." Was it?
Keyes: Oh, I don't think so. I think we went through it because it gave us an opportunity to go around Iowa, to talk to a lot of people in different parts of the state. Many of my supporters came up and made it quite clear, since we're a grassroots-based campaign, we're not appealing to a lot of rich special interests, or anything, and they just literally did not have the money to pay for the ticket. Iowa is going through hard times. There are a lot of folks there who can't afford to shell out even $50 because of the situation that they're in. What we did find, though, because all our people had to pay for themselves, had to get to the straw poll under their own steam- -it was a proof of the kind of hard commitment to standing there with the truth that I think is going to be decisive in the actual caucuses.
Mr. Williams: And what do you think is wrong with a country where we spend this Sunday morning talking about an allegation without proof and the resultant political problem for a Texas governor, when a Harvard PhD former ambassador is begging for news coverage?
Keyes: Well, I don't beg for news coverage. I go out and talk to people.
Mr. Williams: It wouldn't hurt.
Keyes: But the one thing I do think is wrong, I think it's more important to ask whether we as a people are respecting our moral principles than it is to obsess over whether this or that person has made some mistakes. We're never going to see a time when we don't have political leaders and human beings who don't make mistakes. But we will not survive as a free people if we don't correct the error of abandoning our basic principle. Either our rights come from God or they come from a mother's choice. You can't have it both ways.
Mr. Williams: A prediction as we go along the way, let's say New Hampshire, how will you do?
Keyes: Well, I'm not sure. We just go out. I'll carry the message to the people. We've been getting very good turnouts at our events, lots of people signing up to work and spread the word at the grassroots. I will speak my mind, tell the truth as best I can, and leave the rest in God's hands.
Mr. Williams: Alan Keyes, thank you very much for coming on the broadcast this Sunday morning.
Keyes: My pleasure.
Mr. Williams: We will be right back with more of
in just a moment.
Alan Keyes: Thank you.
Mr. Williams: Why is it that everyone comes away from your events and says, "You know who the exciting guy is? You know who my new guy is? It's Alan Keyes. I saw him speak"? What happens to those people between your speech and when they pull a curtain behind them?
Keyes: Oh, I don't think anything happens. I think we've done very well amongst people who have heard and who share my sense of the priorities. Because I believe we're in the midst of a great moral crisis in this country. It's not a crisis about individual behavior, it's a crisis about our moral principles as a people and whether we're following policies, making judgments with respect to issues like abortion that, in fact, accord with our basic stated views and beliefs. And if we continue to stray from that, it' s about whether we can hold on to our liberty while abandoning the truths on which that claim to freedom is based. And I think when people hear me talk about it, very often, the truth is convincing. That's the only thing I can say.
Mr. Williams: What may hurt you, it's been said, is you're an absolutist on things like abortion, chiefly abortion, and we don't have a lot of U.S. presidential absolutists in history to fall back on. Deals are cut, people move to the middle. No such luck with you.
Keyes: Well, except on certain issues. We couldn't cut deals on issues like slavery and civil rights, because at the end of the day, as a people, we're defined by one simple premise: "All men are created equal, and endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights." On the day when we as a people turn our backs completely on that premise, this whole republic will collapse, and our claim to liberty and due process and respect for our individual rights will be gone. It's a claim based on an appeal to the transcendent authority of the Creator. The issue of abortion involves turning our backs on that principle, and that's why it will not go away any more than the issue of slavery could go away.
Mr. Williams: All right. Historians would argue, however, that Abraham Lincoln was the original pragmatist and cut deals all along the way, including the knowledge that it was expanding before the Emancipation Proclamation.
Keyes: Not on that issue of principle, no.
Mr. Williams: Now, let's talk about Iowa, the straw poll. I'm reading from tomorrow's U.S. News. And Michael Barone says, "The Ames straw poll was a fair test." Was it?
Keyes: Oh, I don't think so. I think we went through it because it gave us an opportunity to go around Iowa, to talk to a lot of people in different parts of the state. Many of my supporters came up and made it quite clear, since we're a grassroots-based campaign, we're not appealing to a lot of rich special interests, or anything, and they just literally did not have the money to pay for the ticket. Iowa is going through hard times. There are a lot of folks there who can't afford to shell out even $50 because of the situation that they're in. What we did find, though, because all our people had to pay for themselves, had to get to the straw poll under their own steam
Mr. Williams: And what do you think is wrong with a country where we spend this Sunday morning talking about an allegation without proof and the resultant political problem for a Texas governor, when a Harvard PhD former ambassador is begging for news coverage?
Keyes: Well, I don't beg for news coverage. I go out and talk to people.
Mr. Williams: It wouldn't hurt.
Keyes: But the one thing I do think is wrong, I think it's more important to ask whether we as a people are respecting our moral principles than it is to obsess over whether this or that person has made some mistakes. We're never going to see a time when we don't have political leaders and human beings who don't make mistakes. But we will not survive as a free people if we don't correct the error of abandoning our basic principle. Either our rights come from God or they come from a mother's choice. You can't have it both ways.
Mr. Williams: A prediction as we go along the way, let's say New Hampshire, how will you do?
Keyes: Well, I'm not sure. We just go out. I'll carry the message to the people. We've been getting very good turnouts at our events, lots of people signing up to work and spread the word at the grassroots. I will speak my mind, tell the truth as best I can, and leave the rest in God's hands.
Mr. Williams: Alan Keyes, thank you very much for coming on the broadcast this Sunday morning.
Keyes: My pleasure.
Mr. Williams: We will be right back with more of
in just a moment.