Dan Rather was always sure there was "more than meets the eye" on Iran-contra. Rather had CBS investigate extensively into the scandal in hopes that possibly President Reagan or Vice President Bush were involved. In January of 1988, Dan Rather interviewed then-Vice President George H. W. Bush in a now-infamous interrogation. The interview is considered so much a part of history by C-SPAN that it sells video tapes of it on its Web site.

See also George Bush and Ronald Reagan.

"Beginning in 1986, and for the next eighteen months, the CBS Evening News investigated the Iran-contra debacle. Considering the magnitude of the constitutional questions raised, I believe this has been one of the most underestimated, poorly reported, and misunderstood political scandals in all American history. Our staff sorted through court records, congressional testimony, intelligence files that had been declassified under the Freedom of Information Act, and conducted dozens of interviews around the world."
"Our findings led us to the possibility not only that George Bush knew from the start, and was kept informed, but that the diversion actually ran through the office of the Vice President."
--Dan Rather in The Camera Never Blinks Twice, 1994.

"Special Prosecutor Lawrence Walsh said today that his investigation of the Iran-Contra criminal case is over." "Still unanswered, questions about the role of then-Vice President Bush."
--Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, September 17, 1992.

Dan Rather appeared on CNN’s Larry King Live:
CALLER: "I want a comparison of the Iran-contras and this situation [Clinton's scandal]."
KING: "All right, who wants to take that?"
RATHER: "Well, there certainly are comparisons in which you had suspicions of malfeasance in crimes in high office, and an independent counsel, special prosecutor appointed in both cases. There are some similarities, but there are some tremendous differences. Among them in Iran-Contra, the accusation was that the president, or at the very least, someone just below the president, had sent some of America's highest technologically advanced missiles, secretly, to the Ayatollah Khomeini, a sworn enemy of the United States of America, and the question was, why was that done and where did the money go? This is strictly domestic."
KING: "The president then was more forthcoming, wasn't he?"
RATHER: "I am not sure you could say that."
--Dan Rather and Larry King on Larry King Live, January 14, 1999.

"You've made us hypocrites in the face of the world! How could you sign on to such a policy!?"
--Dan Rather to then-Vice President George Bush on the CBS Evening News, January 25, 1988.

"The report [the Iran-contra Report] concludes that President Reagan failed to do what the Constitution requires: that he is ultimately responsible for what happened."
--Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, November 18, 1987.

"And the special prosecutor, Lawrence Walsh, kept digging tirelessly, seeking convictions and, when convictions weren't to be had, seeking justice. He had the proof that wrongs had been committed--but by the time the trials began, the whole country had heard some of the confessions of the guilty parties, which helped to tangle up the judicial process. If crimes are committed in the government, then someone ought to be held accountable--that's the American way. So Walsh kept pressing."
--Dan Rather in The Camera Never Blinks Twice, 1994.

"It [a 700-page report on Iran-contra issued by the Democratic Congress] talks about a President, at the very least, out of touch, neglecting his constitutional responsibilities. A President making wrong statements to the American people, and winding up in one of the worst credibility crises in U.S. history. In the end, as Bruce Morton reports, the congressional conclusion says responsibility for the fiasco lies with Ronald Reagan."
--Dan Rather during a CBS Special Report, November 18, 1987.

"This whole irresponsible press bilge about hostages and Iran has gotten totally out of hand. The media looks like it's trying to create another Watergate."
--Ronald Reagan in his diary, November 12, 1987, quoted in Bob Woodward's 1999 book, Shadow: Five Presidents and the Legacy of Watergate.

"There is fresh momentum in Washington tonight for more thorough investigation of accusations about the CIA and drugs, accusations never proved or disproved. At issue: Did the CIA, during the 1980s, look the other way while profits from the sale of crack cocaine in inner cities were funneled to the contra rebels in Nicaragua?"
--Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, September 23, 1996.

In 1988, Dan Rather attacked Vice President George Bush in an interview and dwelt exclusively on one subject, Iran-contra:
RATHER: "I don't want to be argumentative, Mr. Vice President."

BUSH: "You do, Dan."

RATHER: "No -- no, sir, I don't."

BUSH: "This is not a great night, because I want to talk about why I want to be president, why those 41 percent of the people are supporting me. And I don't think it's fair to judge my whole career by a rehash of Iran. How would you like it if I judged your career by those seven minutes when you walked off the set in New York?"

RATHER: "Mr. Vice President, the question is -- but you made us hypocrites in the face of the world. How could you sign on to such a policy? And the question is what does that tell us about your record?"

BUSH: "When a CIA agent is being tortured to death, maybe you err on the side of a human life. But everybody's admitted mistakes. I've admitted mistakes. And you want to dwell on them, and I want to talk about the values we believe in and experience and the integrity that goes with all of this, and what's -- I'm going to do about education, and you're--there's nothing new here. I thought this was a news program. What is new?"

RATHER: "Mr. Vice President, I appreciate you joining us tonight. I appreciate this straightforward way in which you engaged in this exchange. Clearly, some unanswered questions remain."
--Dan Rather and George Bush on the CBS Evening News, January 25, 1988.
See also Attack on Bush.

Lawrence Walsh, Independent Counsel for the Iran-contra affair, leaked a note damaging to George Bush four days before the 1992 Election:
"There is new written evidence tonight concerning what President Bush knew -- and when he knew -- about the secret deal that sent some of America's best missiles to Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini. The Grand Jury evidence raises new questions about whether Mr. Bush is telling the truth."
--Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, October 30, 1992.

In 1992, Rather reminisced about CBS and all journalists in 1988 not reporting enough about Iran-contra:
"Those questions didn't get asked. If somebody did 'get out of line' and ask one of those questions, then the rest of the press looked at him like a hitchhiker with pets. And he went back to asking the same old questions."
--Dan Rather quoted in the Houston Chronicle, July 18, 1992.

"I swear, anyone watching the nightly news on CBS would never think to associate the contras with the idea of liberation. There is not, on CBS, a moment given over to the idea of the contras or to the inequities of the government they are fighting. Hollywood could go no further than Dan Rather in polarizing the principals."
--Newt Gingrich on the floor of the House, June 2, 1987.

Dan Rather quoted a long statement by Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis made after the Iran-contra Report was released by Congress; here is a bit of it:
"Our government is the potent, the omnipresent teacher, for good or for ill, it teaches the whole people by its example. Crime is contagious. If the government becomes a law-breaker, it breeds contempt for law. It invites every man to become a law unto himself. It invites anarchy."
--Dan Rather on a late-night special entitled "Divided Judgment," November 18, 1987.

Eric Engberg "has investigated the use of secrecy, lying and deception as instruments of ideology and policy."
--Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, May 4, 1989.

"Now it's up to the special prosecutor and the grand jury. Congressional investigators have put out their final official report. In secretly sending weapons to Iran and looking after taxpayer money, the report concludes that President Reagan failed to do what the Constitution requires: that he is ultimately responsible for what happened. From his secret policy of paying ransom to Iranians to swap U.S. weapons for hostages, to the secret skimming of profits to Nicaraguan rebels and others, that if he didn't know, he should have. The bipartisan majority also concluded flat out that top officials around President Reagan plotted a cover-up. From Capitol Hill, Phil Jones begins our coverage of Congress's conclusions about where the money went, who got the cash, who broke the law, and what did President Reagan know."
--Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, November 18, 1987.

Dan Rather spoke of what he supposed was George Bush's role in Iran-contra:
"The fact is he lied. It is an unpleasant fact, but a fact nonetheless."
--Dan Rather in The Camera Never Blinks Twice, 1994.

Dan Rather explains why a federal appeals court overrode a conviction and ruled favorably for former Marine colonel Oliver North:
"Believed to be the lead, or guiding judge in this particular case: Laurence Silberman, named to the court by Ronald Reagan. Siding with Silberman for North, David Sentelle. Sentelle also named to the appeals court by Ronald Reagan. Sentelle is a long-time supporter of Jesse Helms, and it reportedly was Helms who got Reagan to appoint Sentelle to the appeals court."
--Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, July 20, 1990.

Oliver North ran for the U. S. Senate:
"[W]hy is the US Senate candidate, Oliver North, smiling when Nancy Reagan, among other people, are calling him a liar?"
"Despite these statements [by Nancy Reagan and Al Gore] that North is a documented liar, North, according to the polls, has a strong chance of defeating incumbent Democrat and former Marine in Vietnam, Charles Robb....What's going on here?"
--Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, October 28, 1994.

"The man [Oliver North] Presidents Reagan and Bush branded an American hero was portrayed in court today as a liar and a thief."
--Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, April 14, 1989.

"Good evening. Congress had its say today about President Reagan's secret sail of US arms to Iran and who got the money. A year after Mr. Reagan's weapons to Iran debacle exploded the House and Senate select committees put out their assessment of what went wrong and who was responsible. For President Reagan the words sting. The 700 page report is filled with words such as deception, dishonesty, and cover-up."
--Dan Rather in a CBS Special Report, November 18, 1987. print_file('footer'); ?>