Making the rounds of the net and via the Washington Post, a less glowing remembrance of the Reagan administration. The transcript from a press briefing by Larry Speakes, Reagan’s press secretary, on October 15, 1982:
Q: Larry, does the President have any reaction to the announcement — the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, that AIDS is now an epidemic and have over 600 cases?
Speakes: What’s AIDS?
Q: Over a third of them have died. It’s known as “gay plague.” (Laughter.) No, it is. I mean it’s a pretty serious thing that one in every three people that get this have died. And I wondered if the President is aware of it?
Speakes: I don’t have it. Do you? (Laughter.)
Q: No, I don’t.
Speakes: You didn’t answer my question.
Q: Well, I just wondered, does the President —
Speakes: How do you know? (Laughter.)
Q: In other words, the White House looks on this as a great joke?
Speakes: No, I don’t know anything about it, Lester.
Q: Does the President, does anybody in the White House know about this epidemic, Larry?
Speakes: I don’t think so. I don’t think there’s been any —
Q: Nobody knows?
