The Senate’s most senior member prepares to retire

WASHINGTON (Gray DC) - From the window of his Capitol Hill office, Sen. Patrick Leahy looks over the National Mall and Washington Monument. It’s a daily reminder of the history that’s made in Washington D.C. for a man who will certainly become part of the history books.

“I’ll be the longest serving senator to walk out of here alive,” he tells me as he prepares to retire this year.

When Leahy first won his election in 1974 he was 34-years-old, the youngest U.S. Senator to ever be elected from the Green Mountain state. Now as President Pro Tempore of the U.S. Senate, he is third in line to the presidency following Vice President Kamala Harris and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. He has served as the chairman of the Senate Appropriations committee. He also sits on the Judiciary and Agriculture committees. He has been a champion for human rights, government oversight, the environment, death penalty reform, privacy rights, and freedom of speech online.

Leahy’s passion for politics is only matched by his love of photography. He is known for carrying a camera to document lawmakers, monuments, international trips, and even interactions with the President. Leahy plans to focus on his photography in retirement. Leahy is also known as a huge Batman fan and he has appeared in several Batman films.

At the end of his term, he plans to live in Vermont with his wife, Marcelle, his children, and his five grandchildren.

Read Sen. Leahy’s full interview with Washington News Bureau reporter Jamie Bittner below:

QUESTION

“First question I want to ask you. You have this book out (The Road Taken). What are we going to learn about Senator Patrick Leahy from this book that we haven’t learned before?”

ANSWER

“Well, I think you’ll find a lot of behind the scenes things, but I think you’ll see how I grew up, of course, in Montpelier, Vermont. But, how unexpected it was that I was going to be elected. I still have the headlines that said... Leahy unexpectedly wins. But then you see the evolution of the Senate, and this is what I really want to show. The evolution of the Senate was never perfect but was a lot better than it is today.”

QUESTION

“You were known as one of the Watergate babies. What did you learn during that time period about how to lead a nation through a presidential scandal?”

ANSWER

“I learned how you do it. Because at that time you had key Republicans and key Democrats who worked together, number one. Secondly, they kept their word. I remember sitting with Barry Goldwater, who is Mr. Conservative Republican Party. He was telling me how he and the Republican leader had to go down in the White House and privately tell President Nixon that he had to step down. He took no glee in that at all. It was really sad to have to do it. But, he said the country needed it. And, I heard that from others all the way through. No matter how you felt you had to keep your oath of office and you had to put the country first. That I heard from Democrats and Republicans when I first came here across the political spectrum. And, that is a lesson I try to repeat in the book because too many have forgotten what that time was like.”

QUESTION

“How has that knowledge helped you in healing the Nation after January 6, 2021?”

ANSWER

“I tried to bring as many Republicans and Democrats together, both in the offices I have here as President Pro Tempore and my other office up in the Capitol. They’re easily accessible and much, much bigger than anything I need. But frankly people come in to just talk about it. Or some people have a family member in town, if they want to have a dinner in there for themselves. I didn’t care if they were Republican or Democrat I just give them the key to the room. And I think that made an impression on a lot of them.”

QUESTION

“Do you feel that that day (the Capitol insurrection) was your worst day on Capitol Hill?”

ANSWER

“It was in this in this way. I mean, obviously, it was a terrifying day on 9/11 and other things that have happened. A horrible day, the day before my birthday, when Ronald Reagan was shot. But this, seeing it right here, I mean we didn’t know what was happening. We’re all in the Senate chamber and counting the electoral vote. Suddenly, plain clothesmen came in, rushed Vice President Pence off the desk. And, nobody knew what was going on. And then of course I hear noise, I looked to the side of me, there is a police officer carrying a machine gun on the floor. And another plain clothesman that carried a long gun went to the desk and said police. He said, we have to get you all out of here. And, they rushed us out and I could hear some of the noise in the back. And, we were just getting bits and pieces of what was going on. That was one of the hardest things- not knowing what was going on, to be rushed to safety, heavily armed police officers. I saw the clerk- very brave thing- grabbed the cases that had the voter certificates in them so nothing could happen to them and run with us. We went to a secure room and then we could finally turn the TV on, the TV set so we could see the pictures. Some were just closed circuit, others were the news media. And we’re looking there astounded. We just couldn’t believe that. And, we could see people overrunning the chamber, the Senate chamber, where we’d been literally a few minutes before. And, finally things started getting under control. Somebody said, well, we can vote to meet anywhere we want, which the Senate could do. We could do it in a local diner if we wanted to if we had a majority vote. Why don’t we stay here and continue the voting? And I stood up and I said, no, I’m the dean of the Senate. I’m the most senior person here. I’m not going to hide in a secret room. If it takes them hours to have the bomb sniffing dogs go through to clear the Senate chamber. Wait until it’s done. We got six year terms. Wait. And then go and let the American people see how each one of us vote, how each one of us react. And I was amazed. I got a standing ovation from Republicans and Democrats. I think everybody was so shocked when they suddenly realized that the Senate of the United States (was) hidden behind a barricaded door. What does that say to the rest of the world?”

QUESTION

“Do you think there are enough people in Congress right now who truly want to work together to better America? Or, are we still in a very divisive point in Congress?”

ANSWER

“I’m afraid we’re still a very divisive point. Some are beginning to come back to the way we used to be. I’ve been on the phone for the last ten days working on the appropriations bill and I’ve been calling equal number of Republicans and Democrats who say they want to get back. They want to. And, some people are concerned about the short term coming back together. I say think about the long term of the country. This country does not survive or prosper if we feel that only one political philosophy works, I don’t care whether it’s on the right or the left. This country came together as a country coming together from the first Continental Congress straight to two world wars and through the Civil War. We came together only because we came together. We came together during the McCarthy era, all the others. You have to do that. But, that means leaders of both Democrats and Republicans have to stop thinking what gain can I get by the next sound bite or the next news section? What can we do for the country. It may seem naive, but that’s why I wrote the book. I think I put enough examples in here of senators, polar opposites, coming together to make things better. And every time that happened, the country rejoiced.”

QUESTION

“What’s your most proud moment on what you’ve been able to accomplish for Vermont?”

ANSWER

“Well, I think keeping true to Vermont values but there’s so many things. You know, I have cast 17,000 votes. I have expanded the Green Mountain National Forest. I did a lot to help the environment. When we’ve had hurricanes, I was the one that could bring in the money to help out Vermont. The same with COVID. I’ve been able to start so many young people on their careers. I hold the Women’s Economic Opportunity Conference every year. I’ve heard from hundreds of women that that helped them to get jobs and expand their own businesses. These are important things. But when we look at what’s been done in Lake Champlain... That’s all money I have brought there. But, put to work by brilliant men and women who know how to use it. So I’m proud of that. I’m also proud of our national figure. You know, when I came to the Senate, there was a lot of division over the Vietnam War. Some members of Congress and the Senate from Vermont had raised questions about it. But, nobody ever voted to stop it. But I had been here about three months and we had a decisive vote that was going to go one way or the other in the committee house. We had to vote five times. Each time we voted to end the war in Vietnam. I was the one vote. I was the newest member. But I remember all the pressure, getting calls from the President, the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Defense. I had some come into my office, a 34-year-old who had been a state’s attorney a couple of months before. And I had many tell me I’d never be reelected. I don’t remember who those were that was 40 years ago. But it was the right thing to do. Today, virtually everybody said, of course, you had to do that.”

QUESTION

“Do you feel that that was your most difficult vote on the floor that you’ve ever taken?”

ANSWER

No, it wasn’t difficult, because I definitely felt it may mean that I would never be reelected. I was getting that from one of our state’s largest newspapers and others. So difficult in the sense that I heard from enough people that that would mean I’d never be reelected. But, it was an easy vote because it’s the only way to go. I mean some have been difficult on confirmations of people and other steps after that have been difficult. One which is very interesting, I have it in there. You can shorten this or ignore it if you want. But the question was after 9/11, did Saddam Hussein in Iraq have weapons of mass destruction? And, we were getting all kinds of briefings in that he had weapons of mass destruction. We had to go to war and take them out, which we could do easily. I listened to it and that was popular opinion around the country. I would listen to the classified briefings and they just didn’t seem right to me. And we have a home in northern Virginia that Marcelle and I use when I’m in session. We like to go walking in the neighborhood, so I’m out walking the two of us one morning. Two very fit young men come up jogging. I’d never seen them in the neighborhood before. It was a great place to jog. ‘Morning, Senator. Good morning, Mrs. Leahy.” I said good morning. ‘Senator, I heard you had some questions in that classified hearing two days ago.’ Well if I was in a classified hearing I couldn’t talk about it. ‘Understood sir. But did they show you file number eight?’ And they gave a code word for it... So I went back. I asked for file number eight... And, I’m really kind of stewing over this. Next day, I’m walking. ‘Good morning, Senator. Good Morning, Mrs. Leahy.’ The same. ‘We understand you read file number eight.’ Well, I couldn’t talk about it. ‘Understood, sir. But I bet they didn’t show you file number 12.’ They tell by the look on my face what the answer was. So, I went back and looked at file number 12. Marcelle and I had gone to church on Sunday and came back. We’re walking around the area where Robert Kennedy once lived. There’s all this stuff I read, I told my staff I’m going to vote against the war. We’re announcing on Monday. A couple of big black cars, armored cars, all that pulls up. Key member of President Bush’s inner circle. Window goes down. ‘Hi Pat. Hi Marcelle. Pat can I talk to you?’ All of the security people got out of the car. Marcelle just kept walking. ‘I hear you’ve read file 8 and file 12.’ I said I have because he was well aware of it. ‘Can I talk you out of voting against the war?’ I said, no, I’m going to vote against the war. We shall be friends. Yes. But, you’re wrong on this. So we finished our talk, he said, ‘We’ll give you a ride home.’ I said, let me tell you where I live. ‘We know where you live.’ Those interesting things are in the book.”

QUESTION

“You’ve worked under multiple U.S. presidents. Who did you have the best working relationship with?”

ANSWER

“Just a point of clarity, no Senator has ever worked under any president. We’re a separate branch of government. You work with them. I got to know most of them well. Some I knew before either one of us were elected like Jimmy Carter. He’d come up to Vermont to encourage me to run, and I told him I didn’t need much encouragement. I got along very well with him. I actually got along well with his successor, Ronald Reagan. And we used to joke and chat. He’d tell me stories. Even though we disagreed on a lot of things. I tell you one I really worked well with- the first President Bush- George H.W. Bush. I always opposed, I said it earlier, the war in Vietnam. Now, I wanted to use what’s called the Leahy War Victims Fund... So the Vietnam Veterans of America to help people who suffered loss of limbs from landmines or otherwise injury. But, we did have to work it through our government to do it, but to get the federal money to these Vietnam veterans. I’d gone down to see President Bush. I was getting push back on it. He thought it was a pretty good idea. He and the Secretary of State and I were there. He thought it was a good idea too. I said well assistant secretary so-and-so was against it. Bush turns, says over ‘Jimmy.’ I never heard James Baker called Jimmy. ‘Jimmy get him on the phone.’ He gets him on the speakerphone and started explaining why this guy Leahy had a lousy idea. He said, ‘I got somebody here, thinks it’s a good idea. Mr. President.’ There was this quick u-turn. President Bush came on. He was all for it. We took it over. I had no idea what’s going to happen. Marcelle came with me. She’s a medical surgical nurse. I invited an equal number of Republican and Democratic senators. We had people been crawling for years. Landmines. American landmines. Now they’re going to get wheelchairs paid for by the Leahy Fund. And they were introducing me and I could see one man just look at me like he must hate me because the American landmines took his legs. They asked me if I’d pick him up and put him in the wheelchair. He probably weighed 65 pounds without his legs. I picked him up. All the time he’s staring at me. I put him in the wheelchair, started to get up. He grabbed my shirt. He pulled me down. He kissed me. The same thing happened to John Glenn who is not an emotional person. He had tears. When I came back, I told President Bush that. He had tears. So I got along well with most of the presidents. I think President Trump did not care what anybody else thought and you knew you couldn’t really work out an agreement with him because he would change his mind two minutes later. But I did find one thing with every single president other than that, either Republican or Democrat, if you worked with them, they always keep their word and they knew I’d always keep mine.”

QUESTION

“For as many people who know you as a U.S. Senator, I think even more I know you as the guy from Batman. I’ve been asked so many times about you in those movies. So I’m curious, who do you think was the best Batman and what’s your favorite movie?”

ANSWER

“Well, the one I probably enjoyed the most, if you can call it enjoyment it took all night long to film one scene, was with Heath Ledger as the Joker. And, you know, he had a knife to my throat threatening to kill me, stopped at the last second. But he was the nicest guy.... Michael Keaton I always couldn’t get over the fact that he’s so short and he looks tall in the movie. Others looked different. But, it was the last The Dark Knight series. They were the best ones. And I enjoyed doing it. I enjoyed doing them. You know, I should hasten to add, they pay a lot of money and I give every single cent to the children’s library in Montpelier. I had my first library card there when I was four. It was like a small cellar it was so small. Now, it’s a state of the art library with a tiny little bat signal up on the ceiling.”

QUESTION

“So you’re a Christian Bale fan, then?”

ANSWER

“I like Christian Bale. He was interesting. He always stayed in character. And Marcelle and I had met him in the first movie but he was off to the side because he had his costume on and everything else. The next movie I was in, I was on the set he just happened to be out there. He came over to apologize to me and Marcelle. He said I know I kind of ignored you last time, but I get in character. I can’t get out of it. Unlike Heath Ledger, go from Joker, scared the hell out of you to have you laughing over a joke. But I thought he looked the most like Batman.”

QUESTION

“Could we see you in more movies in retirement? What else do you have planned for after you leave Capitol Hill?”

ANSWER

“Well, I’d like to have time for Marcelle. You know we’re avid scuba divers. It’s almost impossible a lot of times to find a break in the Senate schedule so I can go diving. There’s certainly going to be longer ones now. So, our kids dive. Our grandkids are learning how to dive. We can bring them. But, I’ll be in Vermont. We’re moving into a smaller place in Vermont. And I’ll do things with the University of Vermont. My papers will be there. I’m looking forward to that. I’m looking forward to having more time to write and read. And I really want some time to work on my photography. I love it whenever one of my photographs is published in a magazine or a newspaper. Again, that money goes to the children’s library and I sometimes think back to my first library card at the age of four. How much of what I’ve ever done came about because of that. I encourage children to read. I volunteer to read, four and five, six-year-olds reading on a Saturday morning from towns all around there. And I got handed something and it was a puzzle saying something about Batman’s enemies. I couldn’t figure out the clues. I grabbed my cell phone. I said, ‘Are you nearby?’ Door bursts open, in walks Batman. You can imagine for five, six-year-olds. They figured out all the clues for Batman. So on the way out, he said, ‘I want to thank you, children.’ That deep voice. ‘Oh, you’re welcome, Mr. Batman.’ That was fun. But I will spend some time at the university. I don’t want to be a lobbyist. I’m not going to be a lobbyist. A lot of good money. But, I don’t want that. I want time with the children and grandchildren. And, Marcelle and I’ve been married for 60 years. We would like time that we could just have us. And, we’ll have that.”

QUESTION

“What is your advice to the person who’s taking over your seat?”

ANSWER

“Be true to what you believe in. Don’t let people, single issue groups on the right or the left push you around. Be true to what you believe. You have to get things accomplished for Vermont. Now, Peter Welch has the history of doing that as a house member all these years as well as a Vermont legislator, as a very early volunteer at my very first ‘impossible’ race for the Senate. He’ll be able to do it. Like I tell all new senators, you’re going to be bombarded by special interest groups in your party or the other party or single issue groups. This is the most important thing. Step back and make up your own mind what’s the most important and work for that. The country will be better. You’ll be better. The Senate will be better.”

QUESTION

“How do you want people to remember you and your time here?”

ANSWER

“I want to them know as I say in the book, this is the road I took. It was one to put Vermont and the country first ahead of political parties or my own gain. And I’ve tried to do that. Fortunately, I grew up in a family with strong Vermont values and I carry that. I became the first member of my family to get a college degree. I realized the opportunity I had and I want to take advantage of that. But I never thought of this as a job to go out and get a job, to get wealthy or anything else. I thought, what can you do for others. If you think only what you can do for yourself, you fail as a senator.”

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