authorities, we were able to cobble together enough to prevent the system from collapsing and avoid disaster. you know, you mentioned the president in the state of the union. he also said, we hate them like you hate a root ka nanl. and i said this to tim geithner, the treasury secretary. that means henry paulson, ben bernanke, were the dentists. how does that make you feel, the thing that everybody hates is the thing you had to do. let me tell you, i felt like i was having a root canal. without anesthesia. i was a dentist having a root canal without anesthesia at the same time. but there s a scene in the book my book, on the brink, and this was a day or two before we were going to need to step in and rescue citigroup. and what really hit me was that i was forever going to be associated with these bailouts and it would be the treasury
secretary that did all these interventions. then, i said, that would be the good news. the bad news will be if we can t cobble together something that works for citigroup and it goes down. bi i ll be the treasury secretary who presides over another great depression. back with david gergen and diane brady. the reason we have you guys on is because you re honest about this. i think i think henry paulson had it right on there and there s a whole lot of revisionist history going on on capitol hill with a whole bunch of people who want to be associated with having nothing to do with those bailouts. diane and david, we were all together during that time and it seemed like the right thing to do to a lot of people who are now saying it was the wrong thing to do. diane? it was the only thing to do. don t forget, what precipitated this was the bankruptcy of lehman brothers. people could not get any money, there was no faith in the banking system. this was as much a confidence crisis as it
tim geithner, and ben bernanke are the dentists. let me tell you. i felt like i was having a root canal. without anesthesia. i was a dentist having a root canal without anesthesia at the same time. but there s a saying in the book on my book on the brink, and this was a day or two before we were going to need to step in and rescue citigroup. and what really hit me was that i was forever going to be associated with these bailouts, and it would be the secretary treasure that did all these interventions. i said that will be the good news. the bad news will be if we can t cobble something that works for citigroup and if it goes down i ll be the secretary treasurer that pre sides over night great recession. back with david gergen and
from collapsing and avoid disaster. you mentioned the president and he said, we hate them like you hate a root canal. that means ben bernanke, you guys were the dentists. how does that make you feel the thing that everyone hates sts thing you had to do. i felt like i was having a root canal without anesthesia at the same time. there s a scene in my book on the brink. and this was a day or two before we were going to need to step in and rescue citigroup. what really hit me was that i was forever going to be associated with these bailouts and the treasury secretary that did these interventions. then i said, that will be the good news. the bad news will be if we can t
cobble together something that works for citigroup and it goes down, i ll be one who presides over another great depression. remember it was fanny and fred die and city citigroup and a whole host of other banks, ways to try to fix this without public intervention. he talks about the realization he was going to be forever knowns the guy behind the bailouts and how shocking it was. it came to him walking through the reagan library working through the citigroup stuff, the temple of free market thinking. he says there was no other alternative. he says, i asked him many times about the criticism about his ties to wall street and goldman sac sachs, we have logs of the phone calls. he worked at goldman for three decades. yes, he said those ties