Page 153 of The First Gentleman
CHAPTER
139
The White House
Three days later, once Maddy and Cole have shared sighs of relief, tears of joy, and their determination to make the state of their union unbreakable, the president delivers a speech to Congress.
“Mr. Vice President, Mr. Speaker, Members of Congress, my fellow Americans: I want to speak to you today about trust.”
Maddy faces the full Congress, the members of her cabinet, the Supreme Court justices, and the guests in the gallery, all arrayed before her. And through the TV cameras placed strategically around the chamber, she faces the entire country as well. All are waiting and wondering what she will say.
She knows she has to nail this one.
In preparing what she would say and how she would say it, she researched FDR presenting the New Deal and Social Security to the country in the wake of the Great Depression, and LBJ presenting Medicare while the country still mourned the assassination of President Kennedy.
She knew she’d have everyone’s attention and only one chance to get it right.
“For most of the last year, my husband and I leaned hard on trust. Some days it seemed trust was all we had. And as you can imagine, it was sorely tested.
“We trusted the justice system, that it would eventually discover the truth and find the First Gentleman innocent of all the charges against him. We trusted the men and women who pursue and dispense justice every day of their working lives.
“In the end, our faith was justified, and we are both profoundly grateful for that.
“During that ordeal, I loved and trusted my husband, a man I’ve known since I was a college student and with whom I’ve built a life—lately one in which my responsibilities are immense and the time we can spend together limited and so all the more precious.
“My faith in him was justified. He’s the same good man I’ve always known. Like all of us, not perfect but working every day to do better—not only for me but for our country.”
So far, Maddy has avoided looking at Cole so she can be sure to keep her voice strong and firm. But she steals a quick glance. Tears are streaming down his face.
“Throughout this administration I have trusted and deeply respected our vice president and am grateful for the care given to him by his incredible team at Walter Reed. My faith in his strength, wisdom, and tenacity was justified, and there’s nobody I’d rather have behind me”—she turns around and grins at the man sitting behind her—“including right this moment, come to think of it, than Ransom Faulkner. Welcome back, Mr. Vice President.”
The entire floor explodes in applause, and Faulkner, clearly moved, rises to his feet, bows slightly, and sits back down with the air of a judge who wants to calm the court. But the ovationlasts minutes, and Maddy lets it go on as long as she can before putting on a graver air.
“And I also trusted my chief of staff, a man I’ve known—or thought I knew—for decades. To say that I was shocked and horrified by his crimes is a profound understatement. To the family of Suzanne Bonanno, words cannot convey my sympathies for your loss, for the years of uncertainty about Suzanne’s fate, and for the pain caused by these past months of public spectacle, orchestrated so deviously by Burton Pearce. Let me assure you that the entire country shares your grief and outrage and hopes that with the truth known, as painful as it is, her memory can be a blessing.
“Yes, I trusted my chief of staff, but he deceived me and in doing so put the country in danger. He arranged or approved the deaths of innocent people who might have imperiled his plot and nearly sent my husband to jail for a long time. His cleverly concealed actions also misled the prosecutors and jury in Cole’s case, who did what they thought was right based on what they knew. The sole blame is on Burton Pearce and those whose criminal conduct enabled him, especially the mobster who killed Suzanne Bonanno and continued to kill to cover it up and shift the blame.
“We’ll never know when the dam of decency broke in Burton Pearce. I just thank God he didn’t succeed.
“As stressful as the past few months have been, the American people have trusted me with a job that doesn’t allow me to take time off. So I’ve been working every day. But, like Cole and all of you, I’m only human, so that work has been done with a hurting heart and a divided mind, still trusting and believing in justice and in people, still working hard to do the job you gave me, and still trying always to remember why I asked for it.
“I had a lot of help. During the worst days of his ordeal, Cole took me aside and reminded me of an agreement we’d made whenI decided to run for president. He told me, ‘You promised me that if you were elected to the most important job in the world, you wouldn’t major in the minors but have the strength and determination to do big things.’”
She glances back at Cole. He is beaming at her now and, like the jock he was and always will be, pumps his fist in front of his chest. Her heart beats a bit faster.
“The American people put me here and trusted me—as they did all of you—not to play petty politics with every issue but to do big things.
“This is a trust I hold sacred, as I believe you all do as well. To fulfill it, we must overcome our differences and solve the problems that sometimes seem unsurmountable. We must come together, trust each other to do the right thing, and do just that.”
Maddy knows the next few words could put it over the top. She looks out at the assembled men and women and pauses. In the silence, with what seems like the whole world waiting on her, a confidence blossoms in her chest. They can do this, they really can.
“So, as I said, trust is why I’m here today. Mine has been, with one terrible exception, justified. But now I’m going to ask for yours. To trust me and my administration with your support for a Grand Bargain, one that will, at long last, let us face up to a catastrophe we’ve allowed to creep up to our very doorstep and vanquish it.”
She takes another long pause and then, clearly and confidently, makes her case.
“Here’s what I propose. It’s not my own idea but a series of proposals crafted by the best minds in the country.”
Over the next forty minutes, President Madeline Wright tells the entire country the truth about what is facing them and how they can turn it around, how they can save Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and the economy with new revenues, newsavings, and, if they don’t work, changes in the entitlement programs to extend the lives of their trust funds to thirty years out and keep them there while gradually lowering the national debt as a percentage of annual income.
