Offering her memories of the late Nancy Reagan on Monday’s CBS Evening News, 60 Minutes correspondent and former White House reporter Lesley Stahl voiced her approval for how the late First Lady often pushed husband and President Ronald Reagan “to stop talking as much as he was on the social issues” like the abortion and the Second Amendment.
Stahl was initially asked by anchor Scott Pelley what she “remember[s] about Nancy Reagan” and she responded by first noting “how much she grew as First Lady because she came in and she was interested in clothes and shopping, and by the end, she had become one of the President's foreign policy advisers, domestic policy advisers, image guru, and she just developed and you watched it happen.”
She also applauded the decision by President Obama to have the flags lowered to half-staff “because our First Ladies are never really appreciated for how much they contribute to the success of the presidency they're involved in, but also, you know, helping keep the country together and she did that.”
When Pelley followed up with a question about how exactly “Mrs. Reagan was an influence on her husband in policy matters,” Stahl cited foreign policy but the push to have the President de-emphasize social issues:
Everybody knows that she pushed him into a detente with Gorbachev at the Soviet Union, but she was also trying to get him to stop talking as much as he was on the social issues, the more conservative positions he was taking, for example on abortion and gun control and of course, he didn't always listen to her.
Along with all three network evening newscasts, the morning programs similarly focused on Reagan’s passion for stem cell research that stands counter to many Republicans.
The transcript of the segment from the CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley on March 7 can be found below.
CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley
March 7, 2016
6:43 p.m. EasternSCOTT PELLEY: Lesley Stahl of 60 Minutes back in the Reagan years was covering the White House, and you knew the President and the First Lady well. What do you remember about Nancy Reagan?
LESLEY STAHL: Well, I guess first off how much she grew as First Lady because she came in and she was interested in clothes and shopping, and by the end, she had become one of the President's foreign policy advisers, domestic policy advisers, image guru, and she just developed and you watched it happen. You know, I'm really happy to see thing from at half-staff on the White House like that because our First Ladies are never really appreciated for how much they contribute to the success of the presidency they're involved in, but also, you know, helping keep the country together and she did that.
PELLEY: Mrs. Reagan was an influence on her husband in policy matters?
STAHL: Well, absolutely. Everybody knows that she pushed him into a detente with Gorbachev at the Soviet Union, but she was also trying to get him to stop talking as much as he was on the social issues, the more conservative positions he was taking, for example on abortion and gun control and of course, he didn't always listen to her.
PELLEY: She was a power behind the throne you would say?
STAHL: Absolutely, no question about it. She was protecting him. She was protecting his image and she was protecting the presidency.
PELLEY: But it was an authentic love story?
STAHL: Oh, complete. Total. You see it on camera and it was real.
PELLEY: Lesley Stahl of 60 Minutes. Leslie, thank you.
STAHL: Pleasure.
