Pat Buchanan | |
|---|---|
 Buchanan in 2008 | |
| White House Communications Director | |
| In office February 6, 1985 – March 1, 1987 | |
| President | Ronald Reagan |
| Preceded by | Michael A. McManus Jr. |
| Succeeded by | Jack Koehler |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Patrick Joseph Buchanan (1938-11-02)November 2, 1938 (age 86) Washington, D.C., U.S. |
| Political party | Republican (before 1999, 2004–present) |
| Other political affiliations | Reform (1999–2002)Independent (2002–2004) |
| Spouse | |
| Education | Georgetown University (BA) Columbia University (MA) |
| Website | buchanan |
Patrick Joseph Buchanan (/bjuːˈkænən/bew-KAN-ən; born November 2, 1938) is an Americanpaleoconservative[1] author, political commentator, and politician. He was an assistant and special consultant to U.S. presidentsRichard Nixon,Gerald Ford, andRonald Reagan.[2] He is an influential figure in the modernpaleoconservative movement in America.
In1992 and1996, Buchanan sought theRepublican presidential nomination. In 1992, he ran against incumbent presidentGeorge H. W. Bush, campaigning against Bush's breaking of his "Read my lips: no new taxes" pledge, as well as his foreign policy, his trade and immigration policy, and his positions on social issues. At the1992 Republican National Convention, Buchanan delivered his "culture war" speech in support of the nominated President Bush. In 1996,he ran against eventual Republican nomineeBob Dole, but withdrew after getting only 21 percent of Republican primary votes. In2000, he was theReform Party's presidential nominee. Hiscampaign centered onnon-interventionism in foreign affairs, opposition to illegal immigration, and opposition to the outsourcing of manufacturing from free trade. He selected educator and conservative activistEzola Foster as his running-mate. Despite his own terminology of self-identification, expressed in the desire to be called a "supporter of the doctrine of disengagement", hisforeign policy views have been categorized asisolationist.[3]
In 2002, he co-foundedThe American Conservative magazine and launched a foundation named The American Cause.[4] He has been published inThe Occidental Observer,Human Events,National Review,The Nation, andRolling Stone. The original host onCNN'sCrossfire, he was a political commentator on theMSNBC cable network, including the showMorning Joe until February 2012, later appearing onFox News. Buchanan was also a regular panelist onThe McLaughlin Group. Many of his views, particularly his opposition toAmerican imperialism and themanagerial state, echo those of theOld Right Republicans of the first half of the 20th century. Starting in 2006, Buchanan had been a frequent contributor toVDARE[5][6] until his retirement in 2023.[6]
Buchanan was born in Washington, D.C., a son of William Baldwin Buchanan (August 13, 1905, inVirginia – January 19, 1988 in Washington, D.C.), apartner in anaccounting firm, and his wife Catherine Elizabeth (Crum) Buchanan (December 23, 1911, inCharleroi,Washington County, Pennsylvania – September 18, 1995, inOakton,Fairfax County, Virginia), a nurse and ahomemaker.[7][8] Buchanan had six brothers (Brian, Henry, James, John, Thomas, and William Jr.) and two sisters (Kathleen Theresa andAngela Marie, nicknamed Bay). Bay served asU.S. Treasurer underRonald Reagan. His father was ofIrish,English, andScottish ancestry, and his mother was ofGerman descent.[7][9] He had a great-grandfather who fought in theAmerican Civil War in theConfederate States Army, which is why he is a member of theSons of Confederate Veterans.[10] He admiresRobert E. Lee,Douglas MacArthur, andJoseph McCarthy.[11]
Of his Southern ancestry, Buchanan has written:[12]
I have family roots in the South, in Mississippi. When the Civil War came, Cyrus Baldwin enlisted and did not survive Vicksburg. William Buchanan of Okolona, who would marry Baldwin's daughter, fought at Atlanta and was captured by General Sherman. William Baldwin Buchanan was the name given to my father and by him to my late brother.As a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, I have been to their gatherings. I spoke at the 2001 SCV convention in Lafayette, LA. The Military Order of the Stars and Bars presented me with a battle flag and a wooden canteen like the ones my ancestors carried.[13]
Buchanan was born into a Catholic family and attendedCatholic schools, including theJesuit-runGonzaga College High School. As a student at a Catholic college—Georgetown University—he was in theReserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) but did not complete the program. He earned his bachelor's degree in English from Georgetown, and received his draft notice after he graduated in 1960. The District of Columbia draft board exempted Buchanan from military service because ofreactive arthritis, classifying him as4-F. He received a master's degree in journalism fromColumbia University in 1962, writing his thesis on the expanding trade between Canada and Cuba.[14]
Buchanan joined theSt. Louis Globe-Democrat at age 23. During the first year of theUnited States embargo against Cuba in 1961, Canada–Cuba trade tripled. TheGlobe-Democrat published a rewrite of Buchanan's Columbia master's project under the eight-column banner "Canada sells to Red Cuba — And Prospers" eight weeks after Buchanan started at the paper. According to Buchanan's memoirRight from the Beginning, this article was a career milestone. Buchanan later said the embargo strengthened the communist regime and he turned against it.[15] Buchanan was promoted to assistant editorial page editor in 1964 and supportedBarry Goldwater's presidential campaign. TheGlobe-Democrat did not endorse Goldwater, and Buchanan speculated there was a clandestine agreement between the paper and PresidentLyndon B. Johnson. Buchanan recalled: "The conservative movement has always advanced from its defeats ... I can't think of a single conservative who was sorry about the Goldwater campaign."[11] According to the foreword (written by Pat Buchanan) in some editions of Goldwater'sConscience of a Conservative, Buchanan was a member of theYoung Americans for Freedom and wrote press releases for that organization. He served as an executive assistant in theNixon, Mudge, Rose, Guthrie, Alexander, and Mitchell law offices in New York City in 1965.
The next year, he was the first adviser hired by Nixon's presidential campaign;[16] he worked primarily as anopposition researcher. The highly partisan speeches Buchanan wrote were consciously aimed atRichard Nixon's dedicated supporters, for which his colleagues soon nicknamed him Mr. Inside.[17] Buchanan traveled with Nixon throughout the campaigns of 1966 and 1968. He made a tour of Western Europe, Africa and, in the immediate aftermath of theSix-Day War, the Middle East.
During the course ofNixon's presidency, Buchanan became entrusted on press relations, policy positions, and political strategy.[18] Early on during Nixon's presidency, Buchanan worked as aWhite Houseassistant and speechwriter for Nixon and Vice PresidentSpiro Agnew. Buchanan coined the phrase "Silent Majority," and helped shape the strategy that drew millions ofDemocrats to Nixon. In a 1972 memo, he suggested the White House "should move to re-capture theanti-Establishment tradition or theme in American politics."[19] His daily assignments included developing political strategy, publishing the President'sDaily News Summary, and preparing briefing books for news conferences. He accompanied Nixon on histrip to China in 1972 and the summit inMoscow,Yalta andMinsk in 1974. He suggested that Nixon label Democratic opponentGeorge McGovern an extremist and burn theWhite House tapes.[20] Buchanan later argued that Nixon would have survived theWatergate scandal with his reputation intact if he had burnt the tapes.[21]
Buchanan remained as a special assistant to Nixon through the final days of the Watergate scandal. He was not accused of wrongdoing, though some mistakenly suspected him of beingDeep Throat. In 2005 when the actual identity of the press leak was revealed asFederal Bureau of Investigation Associate DirectorMark Felt, Buchanan called him "sneaky," "dishonest" and "criminal."[22] Because of his role in the Nixon campaign's "attack group," Buchanan appeared before theSenate Watergate Committee on September 26, 1973. He told the panel: "The mandate that the American people gave to this president and his administration cannot, and will not, be frustrated or repealed or overthrown as a consequence of the incumbent tragedy".[20]
When Nixon resigned in 1974, Buchanan briefly stayed on as special assistant under incoming PresidentGerald Ford. Chief of StaffAlexander Haig offered Buchanan his choice of three open ambassador posts, includingSouth Africa, for which Buchanan opted. President Ford initially signed off on the appointment, but then rescinded it after it was prematurely reported in theEvans-Novak Political Report and caused controversy, especially among the U.S. diplomatic corps.[23]
Buchanan remarked aboutWatergate: "The lost opportunity to move against the political forces frustrating the expressed national will ... To effect a political counterrevolution in the capital— ... there is no substitute for a principled and dedicated man of theRight in the Oval Office".[20]
Long after his resignation, Nixon called Buchanan a confidant and said he was neither aracist nor anantisemite nor a bigot or "hater," but a "decent, patriotic American." Nixon said Buchanan had "some strong views," such as his "isolationist" foreign policy, with which he disagreed. While Nixon did not think Buchanan should become president, he said the commentator "should be heard."[24][25] However, according to a memo President Nixon sent toJohn Ehrlichman in 1970, Nixon characterized Buchanan's attitude towards integration as "segregation forever."[26] Following Nixon's re-election in 1972, Buchanan himself had written in a memo to Nixon suggesting he should not "fritter away his present high support in the nation for an ill-advised governmental effort to forcibly integrate races."[27]
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Buchanan returned to his column and began regular appearances as a broadcast host and political commentator. He co-hosted a three-hour daily radio show with liberal columnistTom Braden called theBuchanan-Braden Program. He delivered daily commentaries onNBC radio from 1978 to 1984. Buchanan started his TV career as a regular onThe McLaughlin Group and CNN'sCrossfire (inspired byBuchanan-Braden) andThe Capital Gang, making him nationally recognizable. His several stints onCrossfire occurred between 1982 and 1999; his sparring partners included Braden,Michael Kinsley,Geraldine Ferraro, andBill Press.
Buchanan was a regular panelist onThe McLaughlin Group. He appeared most Sundays alongsideJohn McLaughlin and the more liberal Newsweek journalistEleanor Clift. His columns are syndicated nationally byCreators Syndicate.[28]
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Buchanan served asWhite House Communications Director from February 1985 to March 1987.[29] In a speech to theNational Religious Broadcasters in 1986, Buchanan said of theReagan administration: "Whether President Reagan has charted a new course that will set our compass for decades—or whether history will see him as the conservative interruption in a process of inexorable national decline—is yet to be determined".[20]
A year later, he remarked that "the greatest vacuum in American politics is to the right ofRonald Reagan."[20] While her brother was working for Reagan,Bay Buchanan started a "Buchanan for President" movement in June 1986. She said the conservative movement needed a leader, but Buchanan was initially ambivalent.[20] After leaving the White House, he returned to his column andCrossfire. Out of respect forJack Kemp he sat out the 1988 race, although Kemp later became his adversary.[19]
Buchanan was highly critical of the foreign and economic policies of theGeorge H.W. Bush administration, particularly Bush's breaking of his 1988 "Read my lips: no new taxes" pledge.[30] In 1990, Buchanan published a newsletter calledPatrick J. Buchanan: From the Right; it sent subscribers a bumper sticker reading: "Read Our Lips! No new taxes."[31] In the1992 Republican Party presidential primaries, Buchanan challenged Bush in his bid for re-nomination by the Republican Party, launching his campaign in December 1991.[32] Buchanan failed to win any primaries, but finished a strong second in the New Hampshire primary and was regarded as forcing Bush to walk back his economic policies.[30][33] The Buchanan campaign ran a number of radio and TV spots criticizing Bush's policies; in one, Buchanan accused Bush of being a "trade wimp", while another attacked him for presiding over theNational Endowment of the Arts, which he said "invested our tax dollars in pornographic and blasphemous art too shocking to show."[34]
In 1992, Buchanan explained his reasons for challenging the incumbent, PresidentGeorge H. W. Bush:
If the country wants to go in a liberal direction, if the country wants to go in the direction of [Democrats]George Mitchell andTom Foley, it doesn't bother me as long as I've made the best case I can. What I can't stand are the back-room deals. They're all in on it, the insider game, the establishment game—this is what we're running against.[11]
He ran on a platform ofimmigration reduction andsocial conservatism, including opposition tomulticulturalism,abortion, andgay rights. Buchanan challenged Bush (whose popularity was waning) when he won 38% of theNew Hampshire primary. In the primary elections, Buchanan garnered three million total votes or 23% of the vote.
Buchanan later threw his support behind Bush and delivered an address at the1992 Republican National Convention, which became known as theculture war speech, in which he described "a religious war going on in our country for the soul of America."[35] In the speech, he said ofBill andHillary Clinton:
The agenda Clinton & Clinton would impose on America—abortion on demand, alitmus test for the Supreme Court, homosexual rights, discrimination against religious schools, women in combat units—that's change, all right. But it is not the kind of change America needs. It is not the kind of change America wants. And it is not the kind of change we can abide in a nation we still call God's country.[36]
Buchanan also said, in reference to the then recently held1992 Democratic National Convention, "Like many of you last month, I watched that giant masquerade ball atMadison Square Garden—where 20,000radicals andliberals came dressed up asmoderates andcentrists—in the greatest single exhibition of cross-dressing in American political history."[37]
The contents of Buchanan's speech prompted his detractors to claim that the speech alienated moderate voters from theBush-Quayle ticket.[38] The newspaper columnistMolly Ivins wrote: "Many people did not care for Pat Buchanan's speech; it probably sounded better in the original German."[39]
Buchanan returned to his column andCrossfire. To promote the principles offederalism, traditional values, and anti-intervention, he founded The American Cause, a conservative educational foundation, in 1993.Bay Buchanan serves as theVienna,VA-based foundation's president and Pat is its chairman.[40]
Buchanan returned to radio as host ofBuchanan and Company, a three-hour talk show forMutual Broadcasting System on July 5, 1993. It pitted him against liberal co-hosts, includingBarry Lynn,Bob Beckel, andChris Matthews, in a time slot oppositeRush Limbaugh's show. To launch his 1996 campaign, Buchanan left the program on March 20, 1995.
Buchanan again ran for the Republican nomination in 1996. He was endorsed by conservativePhyllis Schlafly, among others.
In February, the liberalCenter for Public Integrity issued a report claiming Buchanan's presidential campaign co-chairman,Larry Pratt, appeared at two meetings organized bywhite supremacist andmilitia leaders. Pratt denied any tie to racism, calling the report an orchestrated smear before the New Hampshire primary. Buchanan told the conservativeManchesterUnion Leader he believed Pratt. Pratt took a leave of absence "to answer these charges," "so as not to have distraction in the campaign."[41]
In the FebruaryNew Hampshire primary, Buchanan defeated front-runnerBob Dole by about 3,000 votes. Buchanan won three other states (Alaska,Missouri, andLouisiana), and finished only slightly behind Dole in theIowa caucus. His insurgent campaign used his soaring rhetoric to mobilize grass-roots right-wing opinion against what he saw as the blandWashington establishment (personified by Dole) which he believed had controlled the party for years. At a rally later inNashua, he said:
We shocked them in Alaska. Stunned them in Louisiana. Stunned them in Iowa. They are in a terminal panic. They hear the shouts of the peasants from over the hill. All the knights and barons will be riding into the castle pulling up the drawbridge in a minute. All the peasants are coming with pitchforks. We're going to take this over the top.[42]
| External videos | |
|---|---|
 Booknotes interview with Buchanan onThe Great Betrayal, May 17, 1998,C-SPAN |
In theSuper Tuesday primaries Dole defeated Buchanan by large margins. Having collected only 21%, or 3.1 million, of the total votes in Republican primaries, Buchanan suspended his campaign in March. He declared that, if Dole were to choose apro-choice running mate, he would run as the US Taxpayers Party (nowConstitution Party) candidate.[43] Dole choseJack Kemp, and he received Buchanan's endorsement. After the 1996 campaign, Buchanan returned to his column andCrossfire. He also began a series of books with 1998'sThe Great Betrayal.
Buchanan announced his departure from the Republican Party in October 1999, disparaging them (along with the Democrats) as a "beltway party." He sought the nomination of theReform Party. Many reformers backedIowa physicistJohn Hagelin, whose platform was based onTranscendental Meditation. Party founderRoss Perot did not endorse either candidate for the Reform Party's nomination. (In late October 2000, Perot publicly endorsedGeorge W. Bush, but Perot's 1996 running-mate,Pat Choate, would go on to endorse Buchanan.)
Supporters of Hagelin charged the results of the party's open primary, which favored Buchanan by a wide margin, were "tainted." The Reform Party divisions led to dual conventions being held simultaneously in separate areas of theLong Beach Convention Center complex. Both conventions' delegates ignored the primary ballots and voted to nominate their presidential candidates from the floor, similar to the Democratic and Republican conventions. One convention nominated Buchanan while the other backed Hagelin, with each camp claiming to be the legitimate Reform Party.
Ultimately, when theFederal Elections Commission ruled Buchanan was to receive ballot status as the Reform candidate, as well as about $12.6 million in federal campaign funds secured by Perot's showing in the1996 election, Buchanan won the nomination. In his acceptance speech, Buchanan proposedUS withdrawal from the United Nations and expelling theUnited Nations Headquarters from New York, abolishing theInternal Revenue Service,Department of Education,Department of Energy,Department of Housing and Urban Development,taxes on inheritance andcapital gains, andaffirmative action programs.
As his running mate, Buchanan chose African American activist and retired teacher from Los Angeles,Ezola B. Foster. Buchanan was supported in this election run by futureSocialist Party USA presidential candidateBrian Moore, who said in 2008 he supported Buchanan in 2000 because "he was for fair trade overfree trade. He had someprogressive positions that I thought would be helpful to the common man."[44] On August 19, theNew York Right to Life Party, in convention, chose Buchanan as their nominee, with 90% of the districts voting for him.[45]
In a campaign speech atBob Jones University inGreenville, South Carolina, Buchanan attempted to rally his conservative base:
God and theTen Commandments have all been expelled from the public schools.Christmas carols are out. Christmas holidays are out. The latest decision of theUnited States Supreme Court said that children in stadiums or young people in high school games are not to speak an inspirational moment for fear they may mention God's name, and offend anatheist in the grandstand ...We may not succeed, but I believe we need a new fighting conservative traditionalist party in America. I believe, and I hope that one day we can take America back. That is why we are building thisGideon's army and heading forArmageddon, to do battle for the Lord.[46]
In the2000 presidential election, Buchanan finished fourth with 449,895 votes, 0.4% of the popular vote. (Hagelin garnered 0.1% as theNatural Law Party candidate.) InPalm Beach County, Florida, Buchanan received 3,407 votes—which some saw as inconsistent withPalm Beach County's liberal leanings, its large Jewish population and his showing in the rest of the state. Bush spokesmanAri Fleischer stated, "Palm Beach county is a Pat Buchanan stronghold and that's why Pat Buchanan received 3,407 votes there." Reform Party officials strongly disagreed, estimating the number of supporters in the county at between 400 and 500. Appearing onThe Today Show, Buchanan said: "When I took one look at that ballot onElection Night ... it's very easy for me to see how someone could have voted for me in the belief they voted forAl Gore".[47] Palm Beach County'sbutterfly ballot is credited with misdirecting over 2,000 votes from Al Gore to Pat Buchanan, tipping Florida — and the 2000 U.S. presidential election — to George W. Bush.[48]
Some observers said his campaign was aimed at spreading his message beyond his white conservative andpopulist base, while his views had not changed.[49]
Following the 2000 election, Reform Party members urged Buchanan to take an active role within the party. Buchanan declined, though he did attend their 2001 convention. In the next few years, he identified himself as a political independent, choosing not to align himself with what he viewed as theneo-conservative Republican party leadership. Prior to the2004 election, Buchanan announced he once again identified himself as a Republican, declared that he had no interest in ever running for president again, and reluctantly endorsedBush's 2004 reelection, writing: "Bush is right on taxes, judges, sovereignty, and values.Kerry is right on nothing".[50]
Buchanan also endorsed Republican presidential candidateMitt Romney in2012, stating in an article that "Obama offers more of the stalemate America has gone through for the past two years" while "Romney alone offers a possibility of hope and change."[51]
Buchanan supported the nomination ofDonald Trump, who ran on many of the same positions that Buchanan ran on twenty years prior, as Republican presidential candidate for the2016 presidential election.[52][53]
Although CNN decided not to take him back, Buchanan's column resumed.[54] A longer variation of theCrossfire format was aired byMSNBC asBuchanan & Press on July 15, 2002, reuniting Buchanan and Press. Billed as "the smartest hour on television",Buchanan and Press featured the duo interviewing guests and sparring about the top news stories. As theIraq War loomed, Buchanan and Press toned down their rivalry, as they both opposed the invasion.[55] Press claims they were the first cable hosts to discuss the planned attack.[56] MSNBC Editor-in-ChiefJerry Nachman once jokingly lamented this unusual situation:
So the point is why does onlyFox [News Channel] get this? At least, we work at the perfect place, the place that's fiercely independent. We try to have balance by putting you two guys together and then thisStockholm syndrome love fest set in between the two of you, and we no longer even have robust debate.[57]
Just hours after his talk show debuted, Buchanan was a guest on the premiere of MSNBC's short-livedDonahue program. HostPhil Donahue and Buchanan debated the separation of church and state. Buchanan called Donahue "dictatorial"[58] and said that the host got his job through affirmative action.[59]
MSNBC President Eric Sorenson canceledBuchanan & Press on November 26, 2003.[55] Buchanan stayed at MSNBC as a political analyst. He regularly appeared on the network's talk shows. He occasionally filled in on the nightly showScarborough Country during its run on MSNBC. Buchanan also was a frequent guest and co-host ofMorning Joe as well asHardball andThe Rachel Maddow Show.
In September 2009, Buchanan wrote an MSNBC opinion column arguing thatAdolf Hitler did not want war and the Allied powers' actions were unnecessary. The article was removed from the website after MSNBC was urged to do so in a public statement by theNational Jewish Democratic Council.[60] Buchanan had used the occasion of the 70th anniversary of theGerman invasion of Poland to argue that theUnited Kingdom should not havedeclared war onNazi Germany.[61][62] This revived charges of antisemitism and helping to legitimizeHolocaust denial.
In October 2011, Buchanan was indefinitely suspended from MSNBC as a contributor after the publication of his bookSuicide of a Superpower. One of the book's chapters is titled, "The End of White America."[63] The minority advocacy groupColor of Change had urged MSNBC to fire him over alleged racial slurs.[64] It was announced on February 16, 2012, that MSNBC's connection with Buchanan had ended.[65]
In 2002, Buchanan partnered with formerNew York Post editorial page editorScott McConnell and journalistTaki Theodoracopulos to foundThe American Conservative, a new magazine intended to promotetraditional conservative viewpoints on economic, immigration and foreign policies. The first issue was dated October 7, 2002.
From 2006 until his retirement in 2023,[6] Buchanan had been a frequent contributor toVDARE, afar-right website and blog founded by anti-immigration activist andpaleo-conservativePeter Brimelow. VDARE is considered awhite nationalist news source by theSouthern Poverty Law Center.[5][6]
In December 1991, a 40,000-word article byWilliam F. Buckley Jr. was published in theNational Review discussingantisemitism among conservative commentators focused largely on Buchanan; the article and many responses to it were collected in the bookIn Search of Anti-Semitism (1992). He wrote: "I find it impossible to defend Pat Buchanan against the charge that what he did and said during the period under examination amounted to anti-Semitism",[66][67] but concluded: "If you ask, do I think Pat Buchanan is an anti-Semite, my answer is he is not one. But I think he's said some anti-Semitic things."[68]
TheAnti-Defamation League has described Buchanan as an "unrepentant bigot" who "repeatedly demonizes Jews and minorities and openly affiliates with white supremacists."[69] In an article forThe Washington Post in March 1992, conservative columnistCharles Krauthammer suggested: "The real problem with Buchanan ... is not that his instincts are antisemitic but that they are, in various and distinct ways, fascistic."[70] "There's no doubt," said Krauthammer in 1999 when contacted for aSalon article, "he makes subliminal appeals to prejudice." He added: "The interesting thing is how he can say these things and still be considered a national figure."[27] Buchanan denies assertions that he is anantisemite, and some of his fellow journalists, includingMurray Rothbard,[71]Jack Germond,Al Hunt andMark Shields, have defended him against the charge.[72]
Around 1982,[73] Buchanan began to defend Cleveland auto-workerJohn Demjanjuk against the charge that Demjanjuk was a Nazi war criminal nicknamed "Ivan the Terrible" responsible for the mass murder of Jews atTreblinka. In 1986, while he was a senior figure in the Reagan administration, he was highly critical of the charges brought by theOffice of Special Investigations (OSI), the Nazi war crimes unit of theJustice Department. He claimed Demjanjuk was the victim of mistaken identity and possibly the victim of a deliberateframe-up by theSoviet Union.[74]
The following year, while still a member of the administration, he made unofficial attempts to stop the deportation of suspectedNazi war criminals from theEastern Bloc, including EstonianKarl Linnas as well as Demjanjuk.[75]Menachem Z. Rosensaft, in aNew York Timesop-ed, described Buchanan's "oft-expressed sympathy for a host of Nazi criminals" like Linnas as being "a constitutionally protected perversion."[76] Buchanan referred to such cases as being pursued by "revenge-obsessedNazi hunters" in 1987.[77] As a member of the Reagan White House, he was accused of having suppressed the Reagan Justice Department's investigation into Nazi scientists brought to America by theOSS'sOperation Paperclip.[78]
In 1990, Allan Ryan Jr., a former head of the OSI said Buchanan's accusation ofKGB involvement in the Demjanjuk case was "an absolutely cockamamie theory." Ryan accused Buchanan of being "the spokesman for Nazi war criminals in America."Neal Sher, OSI head in 1990 said Buchanan had never contacted them, even when he was a government official. "He essentially took what was fed him by our opponents, sometimes Holocaust-deniers, and just regurgitated it," Sher toldThe Washington Post.[73] In 1993, however, theSupreme Court of Israel overturned Demjanjuk's war crimes conviction and sentence ofdeath by hanging as amiscarriage of justice based onmistaken identity. Demjanjuk then returned to the United States to fight the revocation of his American citizenship.[79]
Following an elderly Demjanjuk's re-arrest and extradition to theFederal Republic of Germany in 2009,[80] Menachem Z. Rosensaft inThe Times of Israel andJeffrey Goldberg inThe Atlantic, objected to an outraged Buchanan again accusing the case of being a frame-up and comparing Demjanjuk toJesus Christ and calling him an "AmericanDreyfuss. [sic]" This was alleged by Goldberg as an example of the libel that theJews as a whole killed Christ.[81][82] Describing Buchanan's comparison as "strikingly offensive" and an attempt to "revive the charge ofblood libel" against Jews,Peter Wehner wrote inCommentary magazine: "Rarely do you find such an obscene mix of blasphemy and bigotry, and all in less than 900 words."[83] Demjanjuk was later convicted of being anaccessory to the murder of 28,000 Jewish prisoners at theSobibor extermination camp. Demjanjuk died in 2012, while the verdict had been overturned and was pending appeal.[84]
Buchanan supported President Reagan's plan to visit a German military cemetery atBitburg in 1985, where among buriedWehrmacht soldiers were the graves of 48Waffen SS members. At the insistence of German ChancellorHelmut Kohl and over the vocal objections ofJewish groups, the trip went ahead.[85] In a 1992 interview,Elie Wiesel described attending aWhite House meeting of Jewish leaders about the trip: "The only one really defending the trip was Pat Buchanan, saying, 'We cannot give the perception of the President being subjected to Jewish pressure.'"[86] Buchanan accused Wiesel of fabricating the story in anABC interview in 1992: "I didn't say it and Elie Wiesel wasn't even in the meeting ... That meeting was held three weeks before the Bitburg summit was held. If I had said that, it would have been out of there within hours and on the news."[87]
In a 1990 column for theNew York Post, Buchanan wrote that it was impossible for 850,000 Jews to be killed bydiesel exhaust fed into the gas chamber at Treblinka in a return to his interest in the Demjanjuk case. "Diesel engines do not emit enoughcarbon monoxide to kill anybody," he wrote.The Washington Post cited experts to the effect that there is more than sufficient carbon monoxide present in the fumes to speedily asphyxiate victims, causing their death.[73][88] Buchanan once argued Treblinka "was not adeath camp but a transit camp used as a 'pass-through point' for prisoners". In fact, historians have estimated that some 900,000 Jews were murdered atTreblinka.[89] WhenGeorge Will challenged him on the issue on TV in December 1991, Buchanan did not reply.[66]
In the context of theGulf War, on August 26, 1990, Buchanan appeared onThe McLaughlin Group and said: "there are only two groups that are beating the drums for war in the Middle East – the Israeli defense ministry and its 'amen corner' in the United States." Buchanan onThe McLaughlin Group on June 15, 1990, asserted: "Capitol Hill is Israeli occupied territory".[90] He also said in the August 1990 program: "The Israelis want this war desperately because they want the United States to destroy the Iraqi war machine. They want us to finish them off. They don't care about our relations with the Arab world."[91]A. M. Rosenthal, in an article forThe New York Times explicitly accused Buchanan of antisemitism on the grounds that he had used the word "Israelis" as a cover for Jews.[92]Abraham Foxman, the director of the ADL, compared Buchanan's comments to insinuations made during theSecond World War "that Jews were the only ones who sought American entry in the war against Nazi Germany".[91]
Holocaust survivorElie Wiesel in September 1990 said Buchanan "leaves the memory of Jewish victims in such disdain; a man who always takes the side of those accused of being killers; a man who is constantly criticizing Israel; a man who always has something nasty to say about the Jewish people".[73]
In a 1989 column, Buchanan called for the public hanging in Central Park of a 16-year-old black teenager and thehorsewhipping of four other youngerAfrican American andHispanic teenagers for allegedly raping a white jogger in theCentral Park Five case.[93] He also called for the civilizing of "barbarians" by putting the "fear of death" in them. Robert C. Smith, professor of political science atSan Francisco State University, characterized the column as racist.[94] The five teenagers were convicted, but their charges were later withdrawn, when in 2002 a man said he acted alone andDNA testing affirmed his guilt.[93] All sentences of the Central Park Five were vacated that same year, 13 years after Buchanan called for the public hanging and horsewhipping.[93]
Buchanan marriedWhite House staffer Shelley Ann Scarney in 1971.[95] They had atabby cat named Gipper, who reportedly would sit on Buchanan's lap during staff meetings.[96] Buchanan identifies as atraditionalist Catholic who attends Mass in theextraordinary form of the Roman Rite,[97] and strongly defendedSummorum Pontificum.[98]
| External videos | |
|---|---|
| "A Firing Line Debate: Resolved: That the Senate Should Ratify the Proposed Panama Canal Treaties."Firing Line with William F. Buckley, Jr. (January 13, 1978) |
To date, her byline [Ann Coulter] has appeared on VDARE's website nearly 400 times across a span of seven years, making her arguably the most famous person on it, along with anti-immigrant politician Pat Buchanan.
Even so, voters could not forget the fiercely dramatic 1988 pledge. Playing to feelings of inconstancy, Patrick Buchanan challenged Mr. Bush in Presidential primaries.
Cut it out, Phil. What you want done is, I say no Jewish kid can be put in a Nativity play. What you want done is no Nativity play, no Pledge of Allegiance, no Bible in school, no Ten Commandments. You are dictatorial, Phil. You're a dictatorial liberal and you don't even know it
The victim was white. The accused were black and brown. If 'the eldest of that wolf pack were tried, convicted and hanged in Central Park, by June 1, and the 13- and 14-year-olds were stripped, horsewhipped, and sent to prison,' the columnist Patrick Buchanan wrote, 'the park might soon be safe again for women.' Note for note, without mention of race, Mr. Buchanan and others echoed the historic calls for the public punishment of dark-skinned men thought to have defiled white women.
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| Preceded by | White House Director of Communications 1985–1987 | Succeeded by |
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| Preceded by | Reform nominee forPresident of the United States 2000 | Succeeded by |
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