I see a paragraph break just before the "80 percent", but no "John" leading that paragraph to indicate a change of speaker, and the rest of the paragraph following the "80 percent" continues to discuss, in the first person, what the speaker would or would not reveal - namely I claim that Bush cut the list to just the women.
I think that can be safely admitted. And it's obvious too, there can be teo cuts of 80% each. Start with 20 men and 5 women, cut the men and it is an 80% cut. Then, of the 5 women, 3 decline, 1 is disqualified.
It seems a bit contrived, but could be coincidental. And others have noted that ROberts was the O'Connor replacement to begin with.