Presidential Historian Gives Takes On Focus On 'Cover-Ups' Relating To JFK Assassination

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At a House Oversight Committee hearing prior to the Congressional recess, Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA) questioned Presidential Historian Alexis Coe about the release of documents pertaining to the JFK assassination.

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00:00that down. I believe that that is the one outstanding document that the CIA will not

00:04be able to find, so isn't that interesting? I'd like to now recognize Mr. Garcia for five minutes.

00:10Thank you, Madam Chair. Ms. Ko, I want to just start. Thank you. I know you're an experienced

00:15historian. You've written a biography, of course, of President Kennedy. For me,

00:20I'm always interested. I'm a big believer in the notion that the FBI and the CIA,

00:30particularly in earlier versions, have been an overclassified and enormous amount of information,

00:36not just on the topic of President Kennedy's assassination, but just throughout the

00:40government. There's a lot, I think, to criticize those agencies and a lot that the American public

00:47should be concerned with in the way they have influenced and tried to influence American

00:53policy and world events throughout the decades. I think that part is clear. I also think it's

00:58important, before taking this job, I'm a long-time educator, so the faculty, done an enormous amount

01:04of research. For me, following facts and ensuring that we are sticking to facts is really important,

01:14even as we seek to gain more clarity about historical events, and so I appreciate that.

01:20As it relates to the March 18th release of the documents, which I think has brought certainly

01:25more color and more information to the historical record, you had said earlier in your testimony that

01:33there was not necessarily an enormous amount of new information, but there certainly was some

01:39additional kind of color to what we already know. Do you want to talk about that and how important

01:47was that declassification of additional records to the broader picture of President Kennedy?

01:56Thank you, and thank you for this time and these questions. I have to say that I am

02:01a little bit concerned about the way certain theories were presented as facts on the panel and that

02:11there's a lot of demand for more information, which is always good, but it's based on the pretense

02:19that what has been found has radically changed everything, and I don't see that as true. I think

02:25we're still finding things. I'm not convinced that some of the details weren't already out there,

02:31there have been leaks, there has been access, so I do think that this idea of a grand conspiracy,

02:38I do think that, and I'm glad that we can all agree that there was incredible overreach in the mid-20th

02:46century and for some time, and there are wonderful books on Hoover that give greater color to that

02:53and background that have made contributions, and in particular I think last year or the year before

02:58there was a biography called G-Man by a professor named Beverly Gage, and that was excellent.

03:04What I find to be an interesting disconnect here is that there is so much concern about cover-ups

03:12with the CIA when it comes to Kennedy, and I don't see that same concern being translated to

03:19Martin Luther King and to his records. It feels like Hoover 2.0, and in that case, in the case of MLK,

03:31we do know that there's actually a historical precedent. The FBI mounted illegal surveillance. There was

03:39character assassination. And I think just to put your time, and just so you know, there also is a lot of

03:44interest, I know, from members of the committee on both sides of the aisle on what you're discussing.

03:48I want to go to, before I go to Judge Tondheim, because I also am in a similar place where I feel

03:54that, you know, my researcher brain is very much, I agree, I don't know that the release of the documents

04:03presented any sort of groundbreaking new information. Certainly added, colored, and more, and more,

04:10rounded out kind of what we already know. But I do, I want to just caution us in not using what was

04:15released as a kind of jumping off point to additional conspiracies, right? Now, I think there are

04:24valuable questions, and I respect members of this committee that are looking to get certain questions

04:29answered, that there's a lot of concern in the public. There is public interest in this. I mean,

04:34there is no question in that. And so I do, I respect that. But I also value that we stick to

04:40what we know. Certainly going to, if there are questions that lead us in a different direction,

04:46we'll follow those. But I think that's really important. Judge Tondheim, I just also want to ask you,

04:50just similar to what I asked Ms. Coe, do you think that this release of the records that just happened

04:58has added any, any, any substantial new information to what we already know?

05:03You know, I think any release of records gives you more, more color, more pieces of the puzzle,

05:10so to speak. And I think this has been a very interesting, I haven't a chance to look through

05:14a lot of the materials, but a lot of the materials that have redactions in were materials we never saw.

05:20So they weren't shown to us before. So I think that is significant, that there are documents being

05:25released there. I don't see any answers, any new answers to any of the old questions here.

05:31But it's filling out the record more. And I'd like to see a time when everything has been released,

05:37unredacted. It's 60 some years since the assassination. It's, it's, the assassination was

05:44closer to World War One than we are to the assassination. Let's release the materials. And that's my

05:51plea here. It's just get everything out. Let people decide what they want.

05:55Well, thank you, Nate. With that, I yield back.

05:56Thank you, Rep. Garcia.

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