Video: 'Dan Rather - George Bush Showdown'

(Monday, January 25, 1988, early evening EST) — U.S. Vice President George H.W. Bush, currently seeking the Republican presidential nomination, and CBS News anchor Dan Rather shouted at each other tonight during a 10-minute interview about the Iran-Contra affair on live national television.

Bush, who was interviewed from his office in the Senate, said that CBS had promised that his appearance would be for a political profile, not a “rehash” of the arms-for-hostages scandal.

At one point, Bush seemed to stun Rather by referring to the anchor’s much-noted walkout from the set of the Evening News on Sept. 11, 1987, which caused CBS to transmit a blank signal for nearly seven minutes.

“I want to talk about why I want to be President,” Bush said, his voice rising. “It’s not fair to judge my whole career by a rehash on Iran. How would you like it if I judged your career by those seven minutes when you walked off the set in New York?”