Wow. Transcript of the White House press corps laughing about the burgeoning AIDS crisis in 1982

[Playinghardball]

ann friedman @annfriedman

Wow. Transcript of the White House press corps laughing about the burgeoning AIDS crisis in 1982: http://bit.ly/Ip9QqQ

1:28 PM - 2 Dec 2013

Found on the Obamadiary

[Puglover]

1. I lost 12 friends to HIV and AIDS.

Fuck every one of these bastards. I hope they rot in hell if there is one. Including their St. Ronnie.


No I haven't forgotten nor forgiven this.

[Marrah_G]

5. ~hugs~

[Dawson Leery]

2. Ronnie Raygun was the whale s**t on the ocean floor.

[NYC_SKP]

3. K/R and here is is:

October 15, 1982 - White House Press Briefing

Q: Larry, does the President have any reaction to the announcement—the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, that AIDS is now an epidemic and have over 600 cases?

MR. SPEAKES: What’s AIDS?

Q: Over a third of them have died. It’s known as “gay plague.” (Laughter.) No, it is. I mean it’s a pretty serious thing that one in every three people that get this have died. And I wondered if the President is aware of it?

MR. SPEAKES: I don’t have it. Do you? (Laughter.)

Q: No, I don’t.

MR. SPEAKES: You didn’t answer my question.

Q: Well, I just wondered, does the President—

MR. SPEAKES: How do you know? (Laughter.)

Q: In other words, the White House looks on this as a great joke?

MR. SPEAKES: No, I don’t know anything about it, Lester.

Q: Does the President, does anybody in the White House know about this epidemic, Larry?

MR. SPEAKES: I don’t think so. I don’t think there’s been any—

Q: Nobody knows?

MR. SPEAKES: There has been no personal experience here, Lester.

Q: No, I mean, I thought you were keeping—

MR. SPEAKES: I checked thoroughly with Dr. Ruge this morning and he’s had no—(laughter)—no patients suffering from AIDS or whatever it is.

Q: The President doesn’t have gay plague, is that what you’re saying or what?

MR. SPEAKES: No, I didn’t say that.

Q: Didn’t say that?

MR. SPEAKES: I thought I heard you on the State Department over there. Why didn’t you stay there? (Laughter.)

Q: Because I love you, Larry, that’s why. (Laughter.)

MR. SPEAKES: Oh, I see. Just don’t put it in those terms, Lester. (Laughter.)

Q: Oh, I retract that.

MR. SPEAKES: I hope so.

Q: It’s too late.

[Scootaloo]

4. My skin crawls n/t

[NYC_SKP]

7. It only gets worse. With the laughter. And the tongue in cheek innuendo. Simply disgusting.

The rest of related exchanges are here:

http://www.worldcat.org/wcpa/servlet/DCARead?standardNo=0393050270&standardNoType=1&excerpt=true

MR. SPEAKES: Lester's beginning to circle now. He's moving in front. (Laughter.) Go ahead.
Q: Since the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta—(laughter)—reports—
MR. SPEAKES: This is going to be an AIDS question.
Q: —that an estimated—
MR. SPEAKES: You were close.
Q: Well, look, could I ask the question, Larry?
MR. SPEAKES: You were close.
Q: An estimated 300,000 people have been exposed to AIDS, which can be transmitted through saliva. Will the President, as Commander-in-Chief, take steps to protect Armed Forces food and medical services from AIDS patients or those who run the risk of spreading AIDS in the same manner that they forbid typhoid fever people from being involved in the health or food services?
MR. SPEAKES: I don't know.
Q: Could you—Is the President concerned about this subject, Larry—
MR. SPEAKES: I haven't heard him express—
Q: —that seems to have evoked so much jocular—
MR. SPEAKES:—concern.
Q: —reaction here? I—you know—
Q: It isn't only the jocks, Lester.
Q: Has he sworn off water faucets—
Q: No, but, I mean, is he going to do anything, Larry?
MR. SPEAKES: Lester, I have not heard him express anything on it. Sorry.
Q: You mean he has no—expressed no opinion about this epidemic?
MR. SPEAKES: No, but I must confess I haven't asked him about it. (Laughter.)
Q: Would you ask him Larry?
MR. SPEAKES: Have you been checked? (Laughter.)

Unforgivable.

[Spider Jerusalem]

6. The shameful inaction of the Reagan administration to the public health crisis of AIDS...

is pretty well-documented in "And the Band Played On" (worth reading if you haven't).

[senseandsensibility]

8. Horrible... was the questioner Lester Holt?

He kept his dignity, at least.

[markpkessinger]

9. I remember that press conference . . .

. . . and I remember being utterly horrified at the time. Criminal indifference!

[LuvNewcastle]

11. I remember it too.

I was a teenager then, and I soaked the news up like a sponge. I wish I hadn't been a teenager in that awful decade. It was a nightmare in so many ways.

[freshwest]

10. The Reagan religionists whipped up the hysteria on AIDS. They knew. Evil GOP Bastids.

They defunded everything they could.

I've seen people dying of AIDS who looked like concentration camp victims, starved to death.

It's a heartbreaking, agonizing way to leave to tthis life. To add stigma to it for warped religion is just sadistic.

Reagan, Falwell and Robertson were all running buddies. There was no compassion from Reagan.

NONE!

[Warren DeMontague]

12. Ha, ha... ha.

Despicable.

So glad I don't have to walk around today as one of the people who voted for those clowns.