While former President Bill Clinton has
made several major television appearances this week, he's kept mum on
repeal of “Don't Ask, Don't Tell,” which formally ended on
Tuesday.
Clinton campaigned on the promise that
he would end the military's ban on gay troops. However, the
president faced a solid wall of opposition from military leaders and
Congress, forcing him to reconsider.
Instead, Clinton backed a compromise of
sorts conceived as “Don't Ask, Don't Tell, Don't Pursue, Don't
Harass.”
Last year, he told CBS Evening News
anchor Katie Couric that he only backed the law after it was clear
Congress was headed in the opposite direction and that former
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Colin Powell convinced him to
back the change.
“Now, when Colin Powell sold me on
don't pass, don't tell, here's what he said it would be. Gay service
members would never get in trouble for going to gay bars, marching in
gay rights parades as long as they weren't in uniform. That was what
they were promised,” Clinton said. “That's a very different
'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' than we got.”
(Related: Colin
Powell says it's time to review “Don't Ask, Don't Tell.”)
Over the past 18 years, 14,346 gay and
bisexual service members have been drummed out of the military for
violating the policy, according to reports compiled by the Secretary
of Defense's Defense Manpower Data Center, the Department of Homeland
Security and the National Guard Bureau. (The figure includes members
of the National Guard.)
Clinton made major television
appearances to pitch his Clinton Global Initiative, which ended
Thursday in New York, including stops last Sunday on ABC's This
Week, NBC's Meet The Press, and CBS' Face the Nation.
Despite his high profile this week,
Clinton, who has said he regretted “Don't Ask, Don't Tell,” kept
silent on the policy he negotiated into place and signed into law18
years ago.