David Brody is an Emmy Award-winning, 20-year veteran news journalist who covers the White House for the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN).
He's also the author of The Brody File, a popular blog that has been featured in The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times and The Washington Post.
Brody's one-on-one interviews include then-presidential candidates Barack Obama, John McCain, Hillary Clinton, Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney.
He recently spoke with CitizenLink.
1. David, you were here at Focus as a Family News in Focus correspondent several years ago. What have you been up to since then?
I'm here in D.C., covering the White House for CBN. I’ve been doing that since the Obama administration took over. Before that, (I spent) about two years on the campaign trail, covering the 2008 campaign, so that was quite a venture. So, it’s kind of been an interesting ride. The campaign was an interesting time. I was able to interview candidate Obama four times. We were able to get some access, which was really nice, especially to bring up many of the social issues that the mainstream media doesn’t cover as much.
2. What was the most surprising thing to you when you went to Washington and started covering politics?
The mainstream media will be the first to tell you they lean liberal, no doubt. And this has been well-documented. But what’s interesting to me is the narrative that the media loves to have here in Washington, D.C. In other words, who’s up, who’s down. In essence, it’s being played out like a soap opera, where the president is up one day, and then he’s got challenges ahead.
We live in a society where not only the public can get fickle, but the press corps has a few moments themselves. It’s interesting to watch how they can turn on an administration pretty quickly.
3. Do you sense that administration officials, members of Congress and other people on the inside of Washington are a little out of touch with mainstream America?
It would depend who you ask. This White House is very aware that they need to get out of Washington quite a bit. They understand that the president plays well in the heartland, so he wants to get back out there. Because of his high approval numbers, they are going to try and ram through as much legislation as they can, because in that second, third year, who knows what’s going to happen? Lame-duck status may start to set in. But more importantly, if there’s a crisis and his poll numbers start to tank, they have problems with legislation. At this point, the administration knows they have a good hand, and they want to play it to the best of their ability.
4. Give me a measure of the president, because a lot of us on the conservative side don’t know what to think. We hear speeches like he made at Notre Dame, where he wants to find middle ground. We see a difference between his rhetoric and legislation. What’s your sense of all that?
There are two points to take away from all of this. I’ve interviewed him four times, and I can tell you this: He is a very nuanced gentleman. In other words, he sees 10 to 11 sides of an argument. It’s not so black and white with him. That drives people nuts sometimes, but it also endears him to many folks because you can’t pigeonhole him.
Because he’s a constitutional law professor, he’s going to argue all sides of an issue to the point where eventually you’re going to have to make a decision, and most of the time it ends up more on the liberal end of the spectrum. But because he’s not so black and white, it’s harder to figure him out sometimes.
5. What’s the one issue that evangelicals need to start paying attention to that maybe is a little bit off our radar?
Even though we’ve heard talk about abortion and common ground, what’s going under the radar right now are the negotiations as to what this abortion-reduction initiative is going to include. At the White House every week or so, they’re holding conference calls with moderate evangelicals — even some conservative evangelicals — as to what is any sort of White House abortion-reduction initiative going to look like. Will this be a bill they try to push through Congress? What’s in the package? And the devil’s in the details.
If this is going to be a bunch of "pro-choice" recycled language about family planning and more government money for Planned Parenthood, then it’s a nonstarter for many folks in the evangelical community. And the Obama administration wants to make sure they’re reaching out to conservative evangelicals, as well. They are well aware that they need to do that. But the question is what do they do exactly?
You’ll probably see some sort of adoption incentive or program. No one’s quite sure what form it’s going to take, but adoption will probably be a major component of this abortion-reduction initiative. There is the pro-life fetal-pain bill; will something like that be included? Pregnancy resource centers with a pro-life message — will more funding be available for those? Concerned Women for America and other groups are pushing the White House on those issues. The question is, will the White House listen and what form will it take?
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