Diary Entry - 02/25/1983
Key Facts
President Reagan holds a question and answer session with a group of high school students.
President Reagan meets with Anne Burford, Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency.
An interesting day. Anne (Gorsuch) Burford came in. She’s taken a beating due to a cluster of Demagogs—Dem. Congressmen trying to scare up a “sewergate” re the E.P.A. She wants to turn over all papers to the committees on the hill with no regard to what it does to “Executive Privilege.” She may have a point. Aided by the press they’ve created a false image making it look as if there is a scandal cover-up in E.P.A. I’ve set our people & I called Bill Smith to get into this & see if we shouldn’t do as she asks but at the same time make it publicly clear we are doing it only to head off a lynch mob. This was my day to do a Q&A with high school students from around the country. Later C-span T.V. replayed this & followed with the same students in the studio being questioned about our session. They had a misunderstanding about one of my answers. I couldn’t resist—I joined the viewers calling in & got through. I straightened them out on the answer & it was fun to watch their reactions.
