After the newest White House attempt to deflect responsibility for the surging spread of the coronavirus onto Dr. Anthony Fauci-after months of blaming Democrats, China, WHO, the media and former President Barack Obama, etc. – I wondered what our former Presidents had said regarding their responsibility on actions taken or not taken.
Franklin D. Roosevelt: “Great power involves great responsibility.”
Harry S. Truman (sign on desk); “The Buck Stops Here.”
Dwight D. Eisenhower: “Leadership consists of nothing but taking responsibility for everything that goes wrong and giving your subordinates credit for everything that goes well.”
John F. Kennedy (Bay of Pigs): There’s an old saying that victory has 100 fathers and defeat is an orphan…I’m the responsible officer of the government.”
Lyndon B. Johnson (in speech when declaring would not run for re-election): “With America’s sons in the fields far away, with America’s future under challenge right here at home…I do not believe that I should devote an hour or a day of my time to any personal partisan causes or to any duties other than the awesome duties of this office -the presidency of this country.”
Richard M. Nixon (Watergate): “…the easiest course would be for me to blame those to whom I delegate responsibility to run the campaign. But that would be a cowardly thing to do.
I will not place the blame on subordinates.
In any organization, the man at the top must bear the responsibility. That responsibility, therefore, belongs here, in this office.”
Gerald Ford (remarks when sworn in as President): “I have not sought this enormous responsibility, but I will not shirk it…our great Republic is a Government of laws, not of men. Here the people rule.”
Jimmy Carter (rescue attempt of Iranian hostages): “It was my decision to attempt the rescue operation. It was my decision to cancel it when problems developed in the placement of our rescue teams for a future rescue operation. The responsibility is fully my own.”
Ronald Reagan (Iran-Contra): “…I take full responsibility for my own actions and for those of my Administration. As angry as I may be about actions undertaken without my knowledge, I am still accountable for those actions. As disappointing as I may be in some who served me, I am still the one who must answer to the American people for this behavior…this happened on my watch.”
George H.W. Bush (invading Iraq): “As president, I am responsible for the decision to go into Iraq. And I’m also responsible for fixing what went wrong by reforming our intelligence capabilities. And we’re doing just that.”
Bill Clinton (Monica Lewinsky): “Still, I must take complete responsibility for all my actions, both public and private.”
George W. Bush: (Hurricane Katrina): “Katrina exposed serious problems in our response capability at all levels of government. And to the extent that the federal government did not fully do its job right, I take responsibility. I want to learn what went right and what went wrong.”
Barack Obama (killing of two innocent hostages in counterterrorism operations against al Qaeda): “As president and commander in chief, I take full responsibility for all counterterrorism operations, including the one that inadvertently took the lives of Warren and Giovani.”
Donald J. Trump (slow coronavirus testing rollout): “No, I don’t take responsibility at all.”