CBS News
Peggy Noonan reflects on a “troubled, frayed” America
These days, you’ll find Peggy Noonan in many places: in front of commencement crowds, at political round tables, and for the past quarter-century, in the opinion section of the Wall Street Journal. But when she was just starting out in Washington, D.C., you could find Noonan at the Off the Record Bar, near her job at the White House. “I would sit over there by myself, I would order a beer or a glass of wine, and I’d just quietly sit and read,” she said.
In 1984, Noonan joined President Ronald Reagan’s staff, after working at CBS in New York. At first, she felt like an outsider in the buttoned-up West Wing, but soon became an acclaimed speechwriter. Early on, she wrote Reagan’s moving speech for D-Day’s 40th anniversary.
CBS News
Then, when the Challenger shuttle tragically exploded, Noonan was given a tough assignment: write Reagan’s address to a distraught nation. “I had a feeling of, that didn’t work, nothing worked, because nothing was worthy of that moment; nothing was worthy of that day,” she said. “But then Frank Sinatra called – he called that night to the White House to say, ‘Mr. President, you just said what needed to be said.’ And Frank didn’t call after every speech!”
By the late eighties, Noonan had cemented a reputation as a wordsmith, and Reagan turned to her for his farewell address:
“We made the city stronger, we made the city freer. All in all, not bad, not bad at all.”
George H.W. Bush turned to Noonan, too, as he rallied Republicans on his way to the White House. “You know, part of life is luck,” she said. “It was not lucky to follow dazzling Ronald Reagan and be plainer, seeming sturdy George H.W. Bush. But I believe history was not – certainly in his time – sufficiently fair to him.”
That opinion is one of many found in the pages of her new book, “A Certain Idea of America,” a collection of her recent work (to be published Tuesday by Portfolio).
Portfolio
Asked what her idea of America is today, Noonan replied, “Big, raucous, troubled, frayed.”
Noonan’s columns often delve into questions of character and leadership. “What I do not perceive now is many politicians who are actually saying, Guys, this is not good for the country. We’ve been given this beautiful thing called America. Shine it up! Keep it going!”
Costa said, “You have a lot of fun in this book, doing what you call taking the stick to certain people from time to time.”
“I don’t mind the stick at all,” said Noonan. “When I see something that I think is just awful, I love to get mad at it. I got mad at John Fetterman.”
“You don’t like that he’s wearing shorts?”
“It’s okay with me that he wears shorts,” she replied, “but he is not allowed to change the rules of the U.S. Senate to accommodate him in his little shorts and hoodie because he enjoys dressing like a child.”
Noonan, now 74, grew up in the Democratic strongholds of New York and New Jersey. “And I was very happy with that, because Democrats were cooler than Republicans,” she said. “Democrats were little Bobby Kennedy, and Republicans were, like, Dick Thornburgh!”
But in Reagan, she saw something fresh. “You looked at him, you saw his confidence, and it made you feel optimistic,” she said.
The Gipper, of course, no longer dominates the Republican Party, and President-elect Trump’s victory could transform the GOP even more in the coming years. “In terms of policy, the Republican Party has changed by becoming, not a standard, usual conservative party, but a populist party,” Noonan said. “Its issues have changed very much. But also, the edge of anger and resentment and, I’m afraid, a little paranoia that is in the Republican Party now would be something that Reagan did not recognize.”
CBS News
At the Off the Record Bar, the faces on the wall – caricatures of politicians of the past – and at the tables still catch her eye. For Noonan, it’s all part of the story – America’s, and her own.
Costa said, “In a way, you’re still the writer in the corner watching everybody at the bar in Washington.”
“Yeah, I like to watch them, she said. “They’re human, and you bring a little warmth to it, a little humor, and always bring your stick and smack them when you need to! It’s kind of nice.”
READ AN EXCERPT: “A Certain Idea of America” by Peggy Noonan
For more info:
Story produced by David Rothman. Editor: Joseph Frandino.
The following is a transcript of an interview with Rep. Jim Himes, Democrat of Connecticut, on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” that aired on Nov. 17, 2024.
MARGARET BRENNAN: And we turn now to Democratic Congressman Jim Himes. He is the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, and he joins us this morning from Stamford, Connecticut. Good morning to you.
REP. JIM HIMES: Good morning.
MARGARET BRENNAN: I feel like there is so much news, and I’m getting through a fraction of it frankly here. I want to- I want to pick up on Tulsi Gabbard, which we just- who we just discussed in the previous segment, she was a democratic colleague of yours for many, many years. You’re the ranking member on the Intelligence Committee. She never served on that kind of committee. Do you think experience is necessary? Is she fit for the job?
REP. HIMES: Margaret, how far we have come that on a major news show the question we’re examining is, is experience necessary for one of the most powerful positions in the land? Of course, it’s necessary. You know, it’s a little bit like our obsession right now with the ethics committee report on Matt Gaetz. You know- I mean, how is it that this is what we’re focusing on? Matt Gaetz is, by any standard, completely unqualified to be the Attorney General, and yet we’re sort of focused on this, you know, cherry on the cupcake of the ethics report. You know, it sort of reminds me of Al Capone in 1931. Al Capone is convicted of a couple of counts of tax evasion. Now he was a killer and a rum runner and a mafioso, and yet he was convicted of tax evasion. This is what the conversation we’re having about Matt Gaetz. You know, well, what about this ethics report? So, these people are manifestly unqualified, and, you know, they’re not prepared to run the very complicated organizations they’ve been asked to run.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Do you have any suggestion from your Republican colleagues in the Senate that either of those two individuals will not be confirmed for those positions?
REP. HIMES: Look, all I would observe is that, you know, history is- is a harsh judge and- and I understand what happens to Republicans who stand up to Donald Trump. You know, talk to Adam Kinzinger or Liz Cheney, or, you know, many of the Republicans who voted for his impeachment who are now gone. I understand that. But history is a hard- hard judge and a Republican senator who takes a vote to consent to the appointment of Matt Gaetz, a chaos agent, a performative social media, no respect for the rule of law, individual. The Republican senator who votes to confirm Matt Gaetz or Robert Kennedy or Tulsi Gabbard, will be remembered by history as somebody who completely gave up their responsibility to Donald Trump.
MARGARET BRENNAN: The Speaker of the House called him one of the greatest minds in the United States or anywhere on another program this morning. On intelligence, though, because of your committee oversight, John Ratcliffe, another former House member who went on to serve in an acting role at intelligence previously, he is the selection to run the CIA. Do you trust him to appropriately handle sensitive intelligence information?
REP. HIMES: I do Margaret and just to be balanced here, since I was pretty strong in my opinions about the Attorney General and the DNI nomination, I actually had a really good day when Marco Rubio was nominated for Secretary of State, when John Ratcliffe was nominated for CIA and when Mike Waltz was nominated to be national security advisor. I would even add the nominee for the Southern District of New York, Jay Clayton. Those are good nominations, not necessarily the nominations I would have made if I were president. But these are serious people with real experience. They’re not social media personalities. They haven’t built their careers on lies and conspiracy. So look, some of these nominations I think are quite solid, and John Ratcliffe falls in that category for me.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Okay. Last night, President elect Trump was at a UFC rally, and alongside him was someone who has had a lot of scrutiny, Elon Musk. He is a billionaire with extensive US government contracts, as I understand it, holds a security clearance himself. He has extensive business ties with China. Also had with him the Saudi Arabia private investment fund governor. They invest with his son in law, Jared Kushner, and they’ve held golf tournaments through the- one of their entities at Trump golf courses. Do you think that in this new Congress, there will be scrutiny of potential financial conflicts of interest around Mr. Trump?
REP. HIMES: Well, of course there will be, right? I mean, this is, this is sort of not subject to debate. We saw Trump’s first term, and the fact that that, you know, group of people weren’t particularly concerned with financial conflicts of interest. And look, all- I don’t know, Elon Musk, odd character, you know, you sort of have to respect what he’s done to disrupt, you know, space launch, to disrupt, you know, the auto industry and whatnot. But, you know, early reviews are not good. I read his, you know, 12 point government waste manifesto, you know. And he said, look at all this money we’re paying on interest on the debt. That’s, you know, that’s part of the wasteful spending. Guess what? You got to pay interest on the debt. And so, you know, I’m skeptical that he has any clue. Look, I- I live in Fairfield County, Connecticut. I know lots of wealthy people here, and there is a syndrome where very wealthy people who got wealthy in finance or as a tech entrepreneur decide that their heart surgeons and capable of running the United States. I think that’s what’s going on with Elon Musk. But, you know, again, early returns are not good with respect to his ability to understand the federal bureaucracy and make it more efficient, which is a laudable goal, but I’m going to reserve judgment
MARGARET BRENNAN: And no offense to the Fairfield County residents who voted for you. I’m sure. On Saturday, President Biden was meeting with Xi Jinping, and they met for a little less than two hours. The White House says they did discuss that pervasive hacking of U.S. telecom companies that allowed them to steal customer call record data, compromise private communications of those involved in government and copy information related to law enforcement actions. Do you know and can you say if the hackers have actually been kicked out of U.S. infrastructure, or is China still embedded?
REP. HIMES: Yeah, Margaret, that’s not a question I can answer with an awful lot of specificity, but the fact that we obviously know about these- these hacks means that those particular hacks probably have been addressed in one way or another. But one thing I can say with great confidence, having worked in the intelligence world for some time now, is that, I promise you, they are out there in ways that we don’t know about. So my hope is that the President made it very clear that this kind of behavior is not tolerable, and that he backs that up, and quite frankly, that Donald Trump, the next president, backs that up with action. You know, as Teddy Roosevelt said, the big stick, right? We’re pretty good at hacking networks too, and I think it’s really important for the Chinese to understand that we’re not just going to name and shame the hackers and complain about it. But that we- that we are going to go into their networks and give as good as we got. I suspect that in this realm, they need to see that we are capable of inflicting a lot of damage if they continue their present behavior.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Noted. There will be some selections as we understand it, in the coming days in the financial space. You also sit on the Financial Services Committee. Trump backer, Elon Musk, yesterday blasted one of the hedge fund CEO Scott Bessent, a crypto currency skeptic, who is being considered for that role. Howard Lutnick, the CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald, apparently also being considered for that role. He is a crypto currency fan. Does either candidate stand out to you for a better pick? And what does it really project out to you about what’s going to happen in this space for Mr. Trump?
REP. HIMES: Well, you know, it’s obviously up to the president to decide who he’d like as Treasury Secretary. You know, I would note that his first Treasury Secretary, Steve Mnuchin- I certainly had disagreements with him on any number of topics, including desanctioning the Russian aluminum company. But you know, in the cast of characters in version 1.0 of the Trump administration, Steve Mnuchin was far from the creepiest and crawliest of them. So we’ll see what he does on Treasury. What I will say is that, look crypto, you know, it’s a little bit like the Gaetz ethics report. Crypto has yet to make an impact on most Americans’ lives, and so I would just argue- and by the way, I’m open to crypto. I helped work on the legislation to regulate it, but this is not the determinative factor in our financial lives right now.
MARGARET BRENNAN: I know it’s a technical issue. I asked you to get to fairly quickly there, Congressman. I appreciate you weighing in and thank you for your time. “Face the Nation” will be back in a minute.
Watch CBS News
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.
Watch CBS News
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.