Barbara Bush: "George was scheduled to have an interview with Dan Rather before the President's speech (1988). It was billed as a political profile, which they had done on all the other candidates and which had been benign stories devoid of controversy. However, CBS opened with a six-minute 'exposé' on George's alleged role in Iran-contra that was filled with false assumptions. It was just plain ugly. Then came nine minutes of Dan grilling George. There were raised voices on both sides. At one point George sad: 'You have impugned my integrity...if this is a political profile for an election, I have a very different opinion as to what it should be.' George rarely gets angry, but Dan kept on about Iran-contra with the most vicious slander, never listening to an answer. At one time George interrupted Dan and said: 'It is not fair to judge my whole career by a rehash on Iran. How would you like it if I judged your whole career by those seven minutes you walked off the set in New York.' (He was referring to an incident several years earlier when Dan had done just that, resulting in dead air.)
"After the interview each side accused the other of an ambush. Our campaign felt CBS purposely misled them on the content of the interview; CBS said that the Bush campaign deliberately planned an attack. I do believe we came out the winner: CBS reported getting complaint calls; ours were of support.
"I was there and, believe me, there was no plot or plan to attack. But you can just take so much. I really do feel that CBS news programs often start an interview with an unflattering opener, and in this case, an untrue one. This puts many interviewees on the defensive. George often has to remind me of that when I see an interview featuring a political opponent and I'm taking some comfort in their unease. George forgives to a fault, but he will never trust Dan Rather again." --Barbara Bush in her 1994 book, Barbara Bush: A Memoir.