Rod Blagojevich, the disgraced Illinois governor, made his case on Letterman last night as part of his "media blitz". Still claiming innocence after all the evidence leveled against him, he found no ally in David Letterman who was obviously skeptical of the ousted governor. Right from the start, Letterman kept slamming Blago with one-liners and jokes referring to his case. "I've been wanting to be on your show in the worst way for the longest time," Blagojevich told Letterman at the start of their informal interview. To which the witty host replied, "Well, you're on in the worst way, believe me." How's that for an opening slam. Still, Blago took it all in, smiling and laughing though his host was
Milorad "Rod" R. Blagojevich guests on Letterman (video)
Blagojevich Letterman transcript (excerpt)
Letterman: “I was looking down the records here. Otto Kerner, Democrat, governor of the state of Illinois, convicted on 17 counts of bribery, conspiracy, perjury and charges related to accepting bribes. Daniel Walker, Democrat – he was convicted in 1987 of improprieties related to the First American Savings & Loan Association bank, sentenced to seven years, governor. Governor George Ryan, currently serving a six and a half year prison term at a medium security prison and is scheduled to be out – he’ll be out and walking around 2013 (audience, Rod laugh) “Now, I mean, is this just part of the oath of office that you guys take?” (audience and Rod laugh, applauds) “I mean, what – how is this possible? What is that?” (audience laughs, applauds)
Rod: “Well, when you read it that way, it’s obviously a dangerous thing and had I known that when I ran the first time, I wouldn’t have run. I’d have stayed as a congressman. But I’d like your listeners to know and everybody in Illinois and anyone else who’s listening that unlike those, I’ll be vindicated.” (some audience laughter) “I did nothing wrong.” (audience laughter) “I did nothing wrong. And I’ll have an opportunity to be able to go in a court to prove that I did nothing wrong.”
Letterman: “Now, here’s my impression, and I’m not a pundit or an expert, but I saw you – I saw you on ‘The View,’ I saw you on the Rachel Maddow Show, I saw you on the Today Show, I saw you, I think, every other show that is in production currently,” (audience laughs) “and the more you talked and the more you repeated your innocence, the more I said to myself, ‘Oh, this guy is guilty.’” (audience, Rod laugh; audience applauds) “Now, are you – my point is in having such a high profile during this, you run that risk. Now, I’m not saying I’m everybody, but I had that impression.”
Rod: “Well, I can appreciate your position but consider a circumstance that might involve your life. Let’s say hypothetically there was another guy who had a talk show on another station from in Burbank, let’s say he came from New Jersey. And let’s say, let’s say he said you weren’t funny and he had 20 reasons why your Top Ten List sucks, would you want him just to get away with that or would you want to be able to say it simply isn’t true? And I can just tell you that it’s a very difficult thing that I’ve gone through, unimaginable, unexpected, unanticipated and I assert my innocence because it is the truth. And the alternative is to sit in some corner, hide, cower in the fetal position and assume – and accept what people are saying that you did and you didn’t do it and I didn’t do it, and at the appropriate time, I’ll have a chance to prove that.”
Letterman: “Right, so why not wait for the appropriate time?” (audience laughs, applauds)
Rod: “Well, I get that, yep. I appreciate that. No, I appreciate that. But, again, walk a mile in my shoes – let’s say people were saying all those nasty things about you and your lawyers are telling you’ve got to wait for your court date. At the same time, you’ve got two little girls – I have a 12 year old and a 5 year old. And they’re hearing things about their dad that aren’t true. It’s very, very difficult to simply sit there and accept the things they’re saying about you, taking things out of context and twisting it and to not say, ‘It isn’t true and I’ll prove it’s not true,’ and I had a chance at my impeachment trial last week in Illinois to bring witnesses, everybody involved in this who I talked to about the senate seat, I wanted them to come in and under testimony, sworn, tell the truth. I wanted every one of those wiretap conversations heard, not two or three, but every one of them. I wanted the whole truth out, and if they would have allowed me that, I could have begun the process of vindicating myself sooner.”
Letterman: “And why was that not allowed at the impeachment?”
Rod: “It was a political dynamic – there was a decision made to remove me. There’s a lot of reasons, and among them is – and I say this to the people of Illinois – I believe my fellow Democrats are going to raise the income tax. That was one of the reasons to get me out. Obviously, this is a political problem for the Democratic party. And, then of course, the other party sees this as an opportunity to embarrass our party. So there were a lot of dynamics that converged, and as a result, I was denied the right to bring in witnesses to prove my innocence.”
Letterman: “Now, when you say the Top Ten List isn’t funny?” (audience laughs)
Rod: “No, I didn’t say that. I didn’t say that. I said, ‘Assume someone accused you.’
Letterman: “Okay, all right.”
Rod: “No, I think they’re very funny. I can give you 20 reasons why I believe that.” (audience laughs, applauds)
Letterman: “But now, and again, you’re dealing with a man who’s largely ignorant of these matters, but I was under the impression that the reason you were not able to appropriately defend yourself during the impeachment was because of the scheduled criminal trial that will take place in the spring, and therefore, without that on the docket, you would have been able to defend yourself I so assume with witnesses and whatever means at your disposal but because you will now face criminal charges, they would not allow witnesses in the impeachment. Is that roughly what happened?”
Rod: “That’s roughly what it is. They were alleging criminal activity that they were not required to prove up, they denied me the right to disprove it, and this is America where you have the right to confront witnesses and address false accusations, and my position was since you’re not going to do it, because the prosecutor has his agenda and that’s understandable, then take that off the impeachment and let’s move on and wait for the court case, and give me the same presumption of innocence that you enjoy, that Paul enjoys, and that all of your guests enjoy – the presumption of innocence and the right to confront accusers who are falsely saying things that you didn’t do.”
Letterman: “Right now, other people will say, ‘Well, what he’s doing now, he’s working on the jury pool for the spring trial. He’s trying to plead his case, trying to prejudice a group of people so that it will be difficult to get an impartial jury for that trial. Anything?” (audience laughs)
Rod: “No, um – your audience obviously likes you, everything you say, they laugh at. And that wasn’t all that funny, with all due respect.” (Rod, audience laughs)
Letterman: (looks at camera) “What? (audience laughs)
Rod: “The trial is probably going to be a year from now, it’s not anywhere near imminent, so what I’m doing here is I’m just doing the best I can to clear my name. I have daughters who have a right to know that their dad didn’t do some of the things they’re saying I did and I’m appealing to the American people to just give me the basic fairness that they would expect for themselves.
Letterman: “Now, let’s just say – I’ve heard a lot of these excerpts, these tapes and we have a little bit of audio tape here, and I think it’s you on the phone talking to your brother who is Rob, is that correct?”
Rod: “Right.”
Letterman: “Right, you’re Rod, he’s Rob, and you’re talking about a guy name Johnny Johnston who’s a race track operator in Chicago and apparently there’s some favor to be done, some money to exchange for a favor that he might want you – does that ring a bell with you?”
Rod: “Well, I mean, I can’t talk about the details but – because that would be inappropriate based on the case, but when all of those tapes are heard – and again, I wanted those heard last week in the impeachment trial, all of them. I’m the anti-Nixon. See, during Watergate, Nixon didn’t want any of his tapes heard because he had something to hide. Me, I want the full context heard so people understand what this was about. I had conversation with US Senators, with congressmen; I had conversations with all of the different people alleged in that criminal complaint. Let all of them testify under oath about the truth.”
You can read the full transcript at the Chicago Tribune's "The Watcher" blog.
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