Spring Break
DeFrank reminisces about years with Ford
By: Rick Rojas
Issue date: 11/14/07 Section: News
Thomas M. DeFrank says President Gerald R. Ford, the man he had the opportunity to cover as a journalist and know as a friend, was an ordinary man thrust into extraordinary circumstances.
"He was a common man in the good sense of the phrase," said DeFrank, the Washington bureau chief for the New York Daily News and a White House correspondent for Newsweek for more than 25 years.
DeFrank discussed his book, Write It When I'm Gone, which covers 16 years of off-the-record interviews with Ford, Tuesday night at the George Bush Presidential Library Complex.
He first met Ford when he was a 28-year-old writer at Newsweek in the magazine's Washington bureau during the time of the Watergate scandal. President Richard M. Nixon was under constant scrutiny. The reporting team of Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein was breaking news every couple of days in the Washington Post. Vice President Ford, a reserved man from Michigan, was widely considered the president in waiting.
"My boss came into my office and said, 'Nixon is finished,'?" DeFrank said. "?'Ford is going to be the next president.'?"
From that point, DeFrank said, his job was to cover Ford. The vice president was traveling the country in an attempt to avoid the contentious environment of Washington and DeFrank went with him. They flew in Air Force Two, a very puny plane, he said, because they would have to stop and refuel on a trip from Washington to California.
At every stop, DeFrank said, Ford would have a press conference - which meant he faced difficult questions and had to defend Nixon day-in and day-out for months.
One of those trips was to College Station in 1974, where Ford gave the commencement address at Texas A&M. DeFrank said a reporter from The Battalion called and asked about the potential of a Ford presidency. His answer: "He was equipped to be president." The headline the next morning in The Battalion: "DeFrank predicts Ford presidency."
Another person traveling with them gathered dozens of copies of The Battalion issue and put it out for everyone to see. "There was a copy of The Battalion on every seat of Air Force Two," he said.
"He was a common man in the good sense of the phrase," said DeFrank, the Washington bureau chief for the New York Daily News and a White House correspondent for Newsweek for more than 25 years.
DeFrank discussed his book, Write It When I'm Gone, which covers 16 years of off-the-record interviews with Ford, Tuesday night at the George Bush Presidential Library Complex.
He first met Ford when he was a 28-year-old writer at Newsweek in the magazine's Washington bureau during the time of the Watergate scandal. President Richard M. Nixon was under constant scrutiny. The reporting team of Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein was breaking news every couple of days in the Washington Post. Vice President Ford, a reserved man from Michigan, was widely considered the president in waiting.
"My boss came into my office and said, 'Nixon is finished,'?" DeFrank said. "?'Ford is going to be the next president.'?"
From that point, DeFrank said, his job was to cover Ford. The vice president was traveling the country in an attempt to avoid the contentious environment of Washington and DeFrank went with him. They flew in Air Force Two, a very puny plane, he said, because they would have to stop and refuel on a trip from Washington to California.
At every stop, DeFrank said, Ford would have a press conference - which meant he faced difficult questions and had to defend Nixon day-in and day-out for months.
One of those trips was to College Station in 1974, where Ford gave the commencement address at Texas A&M. DeFrank said a reporter from The Battalion called and asked about the potential of a Ford presidency. His answer: "He was equipped to be president." The headline the next morning in The Battalion: "DeFrank predicts Ford presidency."
Another person traveling with them gathered dozens of copies of The Battalion issue and put it out for everyone to see. "There was a copy of The Battalion on every seat of Air Force Two," he said.
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