FREDDIE ON STEPHANOPOULOS

Here's the relevant part of the transcript from yesterday's show¹:

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS (ABC NEWS)
(Off-camera) David Osteen of the National Right to Life Committee said one of the reasons they chose you is that you clarified your position on end of life issues, families facing a situation like the Terri Schiavo case and he said you clarified that issue for him and you may be doing so publicly. What did you say to them privately that you haven't said publicly? In public you've said this should be an issue for families and the courts but not state and federal government.
FRED THOMPSON (2008 REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE)
Well, what I said was ultimately if the families can't get together is the first recourse needs to be the state government. That's what I've always said. What we talked about in a little bit more detail is the difference, different kinds of ends of life issues. And I've been a little bit, I guess, reluctant to get into it because of my own personal experience.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS (ABC NEWS)
(Off-camera) Your daughter.
FRED THOMPSON (2008 REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE)
Yeah. But I recognize that there are different kinds of situations where death is not imminent and it's potentially a starvation type issue, and it's really kind of a different category. I still think - and in that particular case, from what I know about the facts or recall about it, I would side with the parents on keeping that child alive. I think...
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS (ABC NEWS)
(Off-camera) In the Schiavo case.
FRED THOMPSON (2008 REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE)
Yes. How could you - how could you decide otherwise if they told you that the child was going to continue to live? I can't imagine a parent or a spouse or a doctor deciding anything if there's any question that this person might live.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS (ABC NEWS)
(Off-camera) But there wasn't any question in the Schiavo case.
FRED THOMPSON (2008 REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE)
No, that's my point. I mean, as I understand it, she would have probably lived longer.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS (ABC NEWS)
(Off-camera) But they've done an autopsy she was brain dead.
FRED THOMPSON (2008 REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE)
Well, I didn't know that. You know, at the time that was all kicking around and everybody was asking my opinion based on what was in the newspaper. I'm just telling you what I think about the things in general. My original statement was on this is that I don't know enough about the facts. Well, they made a big deal out of it. I mean people wrote about it, Thompson doesn't know about Schiavo for a long, long time, when, in fact, it was just trying to avoid getting into the minds and the details of this poor girl here and the legal maelstrom and the political maelstrom that was going on around it.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS (ABC NEWS)
(Off-camera) But since then..
FRED THOMPSON (2008 REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE)
I think it's time we left her rest in peace.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS (ABC NEWS)
(Off-camera) But let's set that...
FRED THOMPSON (2008 REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE)
We can talk about the legal issue.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS (ABC NEWS)
(Off-camera) I want to talk about the legal issue. Let's set that aside, because you've said now in cases where a family is divided, according to the National Right to Life Committee, the benefit of the doubt should be given to life. That would involve changing state laws across the country.
FRED THOMPSON (2008 REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE)
No, no, no. I - I don't know whether it would or not. I don't know what state - what every state in the union says about this. I can't imagine a circumstance, though, with the family making a decision that the family wouldn't decide - I'm giving my opinion. How can anyone come to the conclusion if there is a benefit of the doubt not to choose life for a loved one? That is - that would be an absurd conclusion to reach otherwise. Now, what the courts say about this, if they say something different than this, some state court says different or all of them say different, I would disagree with that. But I don't know what the state laws say about this. I was asked my personal opinion about it, not to do a treatise or an analysis on the state of the law on the United States of America.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS (ABC NEWS)
(Off-camera) But what is your - I guess what is your legal position? In the past you have said...
FRED THOMPSON (2008 REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE)
I don't have a legal position other than it ought to be resolved in a state court system. People have a right to make the laws in their own state to resolve these issues if families can't get together. If doctors and families can't stand at that bedside and make a decision, which, as I say, I hope would be always in favor of life if there is a chance for life, if there is a chance for life, and if that can't be resolved, then it should go to the state court mechanism. The details of the state law and the presumptions and burdens of proof and things of that nature have to be left up to those who fashion those laws, which would be the people, the same people who are involved in the Schiavo controversy, citizens of that state.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS (ABC NEWS)
(Off-camera) You're a strong federalist, it's clear. You think states should have the right to make laws that even you don't agree with.
FRED THOMPSON (2008 REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE)
Well, I'm a strong supporter of the Constitution. I didn't come up with that notion. Our founding fathers did.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS (ABC NEWS)
(Off-camera) How far does it...
FRED THOMPSON (2008 REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE)
They delineated certain powers to the federal government and said that the rest ought to be left to the states and the people.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS (ABC NEWS)

COMMENTARY:

Thompson said it should be left to the courts a few weeks ago. In this particular case, it was left to the courts and was thoroughly adjudicated.

¹ABC News Transcript
November 18, 2007 Sunday
SHOW: THIS WEEK 10:01 AM EST
ON THE TRAIL; FRED THOMPSON
ANCHORS: GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS
REPORTERS: GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS (PENSACOLA, FL USA)
LENGTH: 4624 words