Transcript of Interview between
Bill O'Reilly and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld
from the O'Reilly Factor
Fox New Channel
Friday, December 3, 2004

O'REILLY: In THE FACTOR "Follow-Up" Segment tonight, we continue our chat with Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. Just today, another Bush Cabinet resigned, Secretary of Health Tommy Thompson, so we wanted to know how long Donald Rumsfeld has and also ask him about the Boy Scout controversy.

Roll the tape.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

O'REILLY: The ACLU is attacking the Boy Scouts.

DONALD RUMSFELD, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: Again...

O'REILLY: Again and again.

RUMSFELD: ... and again and again.

O'REILLY: We all know this is the don't-ask-don't-tell policy.

RUMSFELD: And they do it to raise money.

O'REILLY: Well...

RUMSFELD: I suppose. I shouldn't say that. I don't know.

O'REILLY: Are you a supporter of the don't-ask-don't-tell policy, number one?

RUMSFELD: That's the policy of the department.

O'REILLY: Do you support it as the secretary of defense?

RUMSFELD: Why certainly.

O'REILLY: You do.

RUMSFELD: I support all the policies of the department. I have to.

O'REILLY: Do you think it's a fair policy?

RUMSFELD: I do.

O'REILLY: All right. So don't-ask-don't-tell, the policy of this administration, you're OK with it because that's the genesis of all these attacks. But the ACLU filing a lawsuit against the DOD has succeeded now in not having the DOD not sponsor Boy Scout troops all over the world.

Now, you know, I got thousands of letters from military people going we want our kids in the Boy Scouts on the base in Okinawa and everywhere else.

RUMSFELD: Right.

O'REILLY: What are you going to do about it?

RUMSFELD: OK. Here's the situation. I was a Cub Scout, a Boy Scout, an Eagle Scout, a distinguished Eagle Scout, and I'm for the Scouts. Let there be no doubt.

The Department of Defense has had a longstanding excellent relationship with the Boy Scouts. It has been mutually beneficial. It has helped the Department of Defense and the soldiers and sailors, and it helps the Boy Scouts, and that's a good thing.

Apparently, what happened was there's a macro-lawsuit by the ACLU, and, at some moment, the Department of Justice and the -- some lawyers in the Department of Defense settled a sliver of that suit. When we found out about it, we heard that Senator Frist was sponsoring some concurrent resolutions, and we supported that, and he is now working on some legislation which we are working with him on.

The current situation is we do not believe, and I -- again, I'm not a lawyer, but I'm told by the lawyers -- I do not believe that what took place in terms of that sliver of the larger case that was settled will alter in any way anything that the Boy Scouts and the Department of Defense have done together in the past.

O'REILLY: So you'll still sponsor Scout troops?

RUMSFELD: The phraseology, I think, is...

O'REILLY: You might change the phraseology?

RUMSFELD: I think that there's a marginal difference, I'm told by the lawyers, between cooperating, allowing the jamborees to occur and all of these things...

O'REILLY: Right.

RUMSFELD: ... and a base commander officially becoming the sponsor of something.

O'REILLY: I got it. All right. So you can dance around whatever it is.

RUMSFELD: Exactly. But this is a good relationship. It ought to continue, and, as long as I'm here, I'll do everything to see that it does.

O'REILLY: Can't you institute a draft for the ACLU, just them?

(LAUGHTER)