Trude Feldman - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Trude Feldman is a longtime American reporter, columnist

Columnist

A columnist is a journalist who writes for publication in a series, creating an article that usually offers commentary and opinions. Columns appear in newspapers, magazines and other publications, including blogs....

, and former member of the White House Press Corps

White House Press Corps

The White House Press Corps is the group of journalists or correspondents usually stationed at the White House in Washington, D.C. to cover the president of the United States, White House events and news briefings. Their offices are located in the West Wing....

and State Department Press Corps. She regularly wrote for McCall's
McCall's
McCall's was a monthly American women's magazine that enjoyed great popularity through much of the 20th century, peaking at a readership of 8.4 million in the early 1960s. It was established as a small-format magazine called The Queen in 1873...

magazine and has written for the New York Times Syndicate, the Washington Post, as well as numerous other media, especially publications for the Jewish community. Feldman has interviewed every U.S. president since Lyndon B. Johnson

Lyndon B. Johnson

Lyndon Baines Johnson , often referred to as LBJ, was the 36th President of the United States after his service as the 37th Vice President of the United States...

; and every U.S. vice president from Hubert H. Humphrey to Al Gore

Al Gore

Albert Arnold "Al" Gore, Jr. served as the 45th Vice President of the United States , under President Bill Clinton. He was the Democratic Party's nominee for President in the 2000 U.S. presidential election....

, with the expectation of Dick Cheney

Dick Cheney

Richard Bruce "Dick" Cheney served as the 46th Vice President of the United States , under George W. Bush....

. She has been a contributing editor for World Tribune.com.

Early life and career

Feldman was born to a Jewish rabbi and grew up in Hollywood, California. Feldman began her career in journalism with the coverage of the trial of Adolph Eichmann 1961-62. She still lives in Washington, DC.

Presidential correspondent

Feldman has interviewed every American president from Lyndon B. Johnson

Lyndon B. Johnson

Lyndon Baines Johnson , often referred to as LBJ, was the 36th President of the United States after his service as the 37th Vice President of the United States...

to George W. Bush

George W. Bush

George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....

(including Harry Truman, in his post presidential years (1968, 1971, 1972).

President Jimmy Carter

Jimmy Carter

James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. is an American politician who served as the 39th President of the United States and was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, the only U.S. President to have received the Prize after leaving office...

, in a 1977 interview with Feldman, hinted that efforts to promote an Arab-Israeli settlement might have to be suspended. Carter elaborated on this new approach in another interview with her that startled the Arabs. It was a generous face-saving offer to Begin by Carter, giving lsrael the opportunity to accept the notions of withdrawal from the West Bank and of participation by the Palestinians in a gradual, limited process of self-determination.

As his 75th birthday approached, Ronald Reagan

Ronald Reagan

Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....

scheduled an interview with Feldman on the afternoon of Jan. 28, 1986. At 11:38 that morning, however, the space shuttle Challenger disintegrated after liftoff, killing its crew of seven. While the president postponed his State of the Union speech, which had been scheduled for that evening, he didn't postpone the interview.

Feldman has covered George H. W. Bush

George H. W. Bush

George Herbert Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 41st President of the United States . He had previously served as the 43rd Vice President of the United States , a congressman, an ambassador, and Director of Central Intelligence.Bush was born in Milton, Massachusetts, to...

since he became a congressman from Texas

Texas

Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...

in 1967. She interviewed him as Ambassador to the United Nations

United Nations

The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...

, as Vice President, and as President. Her 3-part series — "George Bush at 75" — was published in the Wall Street Journal, Feb. 5, 1996, was internationally syndicated, and was inserted in the Congressional Record by Senators Richard Lugar and Joseph I. Lieberman.

She interviewed President George H.W. Bush January 19, 1993, and again after a 10-day mission to the Middle East.

President Bill Clinton

Bill Clinton

William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...

granted his first post-apology interview to Feldman, who did not ask him about the scandal, but about the Yom Kippur

Yom Kippur

Yom Kippur , also known as Day of Atonement, is the holiest and most solemn day of the year for the Jews. Its central themes are atonement and repentance. Jews traditionally observe this holy day with a 25-hour period of fasting and intensive prayer, often spending most of the day in synagogue...

tradition of the Day of Atonement.

On August 1, 1996, the Wall Street Journal Opinion Page published a Feldman interview with President Clinton in which he said:

But the truth is, no one knows what the optimum rate of growth without inflation is. The only thing I’ve tried to do in dealing with the Federal Reserve was to show that I would be responsible in getting the deficit down, but I didn’t want to get in the way of economic growth.

In her October, 2004, interview with President George W. Bush, he said:

The true history of my administration will be written 50 years from now, and you and I will not be around to see it.

State Department correspondent

Feldman has interviewed every Secretary of State, from Dean Rusk

Dean Rusk

David Dean Rusk was the United States Secretary of State from 1961 to 1969 under presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. Rusk is the second-longest serving U.S...

to Colin L. Powell. (Her interview with Condoleezza Rice

Condoleezza Rice

Condoleezza Rice is an American political scientist and diplomat. She served as the 66th United States Secretary of State, and was the second person to hold that office in the administration of President George W. Bush...

was conducted in the White House when she was National Security Advisor, soon to become the 66th Secretary of State.)

Middle East writings

Feldman has written from, and about, the Middle East since she covered the 122 sessions of the trial of Adolf Eichmann

Adolf Eichmann

Adolf Otto Eichmann was a German Nazi and SS-Obersturmbannführer and one of the major organizers of the Holocaust...

in Jerusalem. There, and in Haifa

Haifa

Haifa is the largest city in northern Israel, and the third-largest city in the country, with a population of over 268,000. Another 300,000 people live in towns directly adjacent to the city including the cities of the Krayot, as well as, Tirat Carmel, Daliyat al-Karmel and Nesher...

, and in Cyprus, Greece, she was an 'extra' in the film, Exodus. Later, she accompanied former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt

Eleanor Roosevelt

Anna Eleanor Roosevelt was the First Lady of the United States from 1933 to 1945. She supported the New Deal policies of her husband, distant cousin Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and became an advocate for civil rights. After her husband's death in 1945, Roosevelt continued to be an international...

on her five-day Middle East trip – her last before her death in 1962.

On Mideast issues, Feldman has interviewed every Israeli prime minister, including the first, David Ben Gurion, to Ariel Sharon

Ariel Sharon

Ariel Sharon is an Israeli statesman and retired general, who served as Israel’s 11th Prime Minister. He has been in a permanent vegetative state since suffering a stroke on 4 January 2006....

, with the expectation of Ehud Olmert

Ehud Olmert

Ehud Olmert is an Israeli politician and lawyer. He served as Prime Minister of Israel from 2006 to 2009, as a Cabinet Minister from 1988 to 1992 and from 2003 to 2006, and as Mayor of Jerusalem from 1993 to 2003....

.

Four months after Anwar Sadat

Anwar Sadat

Muhammad Anwar al-Sadat was the third President of Egypt, serving from 15 October 1970 until his assassination by fundamentalist army officers on 6 October 1981...

's historical 1977 peace mission to Jerusalem, he and his wife Jehan visited Washington, DC, where both were interviewed by Feldman at Blair House.

Controversy

Feldmen's writings have been generally positive, upbeat, and friendly to her interview subjects. However, they have occasionally ventured into controversial territory. In a December, 1985, article for the Dallas Morning News, "McFarlane casualty of power", she reported on the resignation of National Security Adviser Robert C. "Bud" McFarlane

Robert McFarlane

Robert Carl "Bud" McFarlane was a National Security Advisor to President Ronald Reagan, serving from 1983 through 1985.After a career in the Marines, he became part of the Reagan administration, and was a leading architect of the Strategic Defense Initiative for defending the United States...

, attributing the departure to

...subordinates whose efforts to protect their bosses with excessive zeal often hinder constructive advice and input.

Too often, staff members, rather than working for a high official, act as if they "own" him. Such possessiveness results in abuse of authority, creates obstacles and leads to misconceptions. ...

McFarlane did not volunteer the real reasons — persistent malevolence and belligerancy within the administration which resulted in the undermining of policies.

Her interview articles on the Middle East were not just friendly to Israeli leaders, but to Arab leaders as well, and she gently argued for open dialogue and an even-handed approach to a just and lasting peace in the region.

In March 2001, Feldman was in the white House and composed a note for Press Secretary Ari Fleischer

Ari Fleischer

On May 19, 2003, he announced that he would resign during the summer, citing a desire to spend more time with his wife and to work in the private sector...

. She walked into his office in his absence to lay the note in his inbox. However, a staffer told her he would not be returning the next day, so she took her note back intending to hand it to him the next time she saw him. This was used as an excuse to suspend her press pass for 90 days and begin a whispering campaign that she was a "security risk" and telling Washington figures "not to talk to her". That informal denial of access continues.

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