Barbara Walters Tells David Koch ‘You’re Not Well Liked’
On Sunday, ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos previewed Barbara Walters’ upcoming “Most Fascinating People” special set to air on Sunday night by playing a clip from Walters’ interview with conservative donor and businessman David Koch.
Fill-in host Martha Raddatz introduced the clip of the interview by hyping “one of the more controversial parts of that legislation, provisions dramatically easing restrictions on the amount of cash individuals can donate to campaigns. One of the biggest Republican donors, reclusive billionaire, David Koch. Democrats love to hate him.”
The video began with Walters obnoxiously asking Koch “do you think it's fair that just because you have billions of dollars, you can influence elections?” For his part, the conservative donor pushed back against Walters and pointed out how “I contribute to public candidate campaigns and there's a federal limit on how much you can contribute to each individual candidate. I obey the law in that regard and I feel like I'm doing it properly.”
As the preview of the full interview continued, Walters continued to hit her guest from the left and insisted that “you’re not well liked primarily because of your very conservative politics. Describe your political point of view.”
Walters then did her best to suggest that there was a major rift between candidates that Koch supports and his own political values:
You support gay rights, you support a women's right to choose, but conservative candidates you support, many of them, do not have those views.
See relevant transcript below.
ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos
December 14, 2014
MARTHA RADDATZ: Now to one of the more controversial parts of that legislation, provisions dramatically easing restrictions on the amount of cash individuals can donate to campaigns. One of the biggest Republican donors, reclusive billionaire, David Koch. Democrats love to hate him, and he just sat down with Barbara Walters for her new special on the most fascinating people of the year.
BARBARA WALTERS: Do you think it's fair that just because you have billions of dollars, you can influence elections?
DAVID KOCH: Well, I contribute to public candidate campaigns and there's a federal limit on how much you can contribute to each individual candidate. I obey the law in that regard and I feel like I'm doing it properly.
WALTERS: You’re not well liked primarily because of your very conservative politics. Describe your political point of view.
KOCH: Well, I’m basically a libertarian and I'm a conservative on economic matters and I'm a social liberal.
WALTERS: You support gay rights, you support a women's right to choose, but conservative candidates you support, many of them, do not have those views.
KOCH: Well, that's their problem. I do have those views. What I want these candidates to do is to support a balanced budget. And I'm very worried that if the budget is not balanced that inflation could occur and the economy of our country could suffer terribly.
WALTERS: So the candidates you support are because of their fiscal policies most importantly?
KOCH: That’s exactly right, Barbara. I'm really focused intensely on economic and fiscal issues, because if those go bad, the country as a whole suffers terribly.
— Jeffrey Meyer is a News Analyst at the Media Research Center. Follow Jeffrey Meyer on Twitter.
