Well it’s true; Donald Rumsfeld does have a soft side.
Bradley Graham’s biography “By His Own Rules,” released this week, contrasts Rumsfeld’s infamous habit of being one to “interrupt, berate and nitpick” his employees with a more sensitive side.
Graham tells the story of Rumsfeld’s aborted interview by CNN correspondent Barbara Starr in the aftermath of Ronald Reagan’s death. Rumsfeld confessed to Starr his father had died of Alzheimer’s, the same disease Reagan had suffered from. Rumsfeld agreed to discuss it on camera, but he broke down only a few sentences into the interview and, tears in his eyes, asked for cameras to be turned off. The segment never aired.
“Suddenly, I wasn’t looking at Donald Rumsfeld,” said Starr. “I was looking at an old man weeping for his father.”
-Kristen Henry reporting
