Karl Rove, former deputy chief of staff and senior adviser to President Bush, defended the Republican Party and United States government’s actions at “A Conversation with Karl Rove” at Duke University Monday evening.
“The United States has nothing to apologize in its conduct in the world,” he said to the audience.
Rove’s presence attracted a range of protesters and civil rights activists who yelled phrases like “You are a murderer” and held up signs that read phrases such as “LIAR” and “Arrest Him.” An activist dressed as a prisoner also came protesting Rove and the United States government’s stance on torture.
Although news sources have reported the government’s use of torture flights in such places as Johnston County to fly people out of the country and torture them outside the United States, Rove denied the US’s involvement in torture.
He did say, however, that he did not agree a specific policy should be made on the issue.
“We don’t torture,” he said. “Should the government spell out what we should and shouldn’t do? No.”
Isel Del Valle, a senior in biological anthropology and anatomy, said she felt like Rove brushed the issue of torture off.
“I wish he could have actually addressed the torture issue more,” she said.
Del Valle said she was one of the student organizers of the event, helping with publicity after people from the political science department approached her about the event.
The 1,200 seat auditorium was filled with more people watching a live feed from Reynolds Theater on Duke’s campus.
“It’s interesting to see his perspective on things regardless of what you believe,” Del Valle said.
Rove addressed various issues and questions, including the Iraq war and the “War on Terror.”
“We’re fighting a different kind of war,” Rove said. “This is not World War II where we have to mobilize Americans to fight the Nazis.”
He also discussed the issue of immigration, which he insisted divided not only the Republican Party but the Democratic Party as well.
According to Rove, contrary to popular belief, the Republican Party lost the majority in Congress not because of the war in Iraq but because of corruption among the party and ear marks — people who voted Republican in 2004 and Democrat in 2006.
“We lost Congress over misbehavior, not because of Iraq,” Rove said.
Although Rove said he does not come from a heavily political family, he became involved with politics in high school, and though he dropped out of college, he continued his involvement in politics.
Rove gave his own perspective on the 2008 elections, supporting Republican presidential candidate John McCain’s views.
Although he said many people know Sen. Hilary Clinton, he does not give her much credit.
“Everyone knows a lot about Hilary,” he said. “We know the rest of the [candidates’] names but not their narratives … The generic group disappears when you put individual versus individual.”
