Former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich addressed a crowd of about 1000 students at Cahn Auditorium on Tuesday night. Blagojevich, WCAS ’79, was impeached and removed from office last year. He has been charged with various federal crimes, including racketeering, bribery and conspiracy.
At the event hosted by the Northwestern University College Democrats, Blagojevich denied any criminal wrongdoing. “I am innocent of all charges. Every allegation against me is false” said the former Governor.
After a lengthy opening statement, Blagojevich was grilled by a panel of three Northwestern professors. During the question and answer session, Blagojevich repeatedly claimed he had been removed from office without a chance to defend himself. According to Blagojevich, he was “illegally and unethically hijacked from office without due process.”
While Blagojevich did not reveal the exact content of his infamous taped phone calls, he stated that Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan was his first pick for Barack Obama’s senate seat. His choice of Madigan was part of a larger political deal he was trying to strike with Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan, his political rival.
Mike Madigan and Illinois Senate President John Cullerton were constant targets of Blagojevich. The former governor accused the pair for their own unethical behavior, some of which he accredited to his arrest.
Blagojevich was also critical of the media. He asked them, “Where have you been and why have you not brought the healthy skepticism?” Blagojevich felt that the media has not done an adequate job of pressing for the release of the taped phone calls.
“I’m the anti-Nixon” he said. “Play the tapes, they will prove me innocent.”
Among the more shocking events of the night, Blagojevich admitted that his decision to appoint Roland Burris to the U.S. Senate was racially motivated. He felt morally obligated to appoint an African American to what he called the “most exclusive club in America.” Blagojevich even claimed that Senate leaders such as Harry Reid were “segregationist” in their beliefs for not seating Burris.
When asked by Northwestern Law professor Tonja Jacobi about any quid pro quo allegations in the FBI affidavit, Blagojevich denied there were any.
“I was surprised that he didn’t think that the indictment made a claim of quid pro quo. It made claim after claim. I could have spoken for another half hour about the different allegations,” said Jacobi after the event ended. “Where exactly does he draw the line between what is legitimate and illegitimate conduct for anyone in office?”
Blagojevich further defended his innocence by saying that if he had truly done what those allegations claimed he did, he would be “nowhere near this event. [He] would be 100 miles away.”
However instead, he chose to take the stage, explaining that his presence took courage. He went on to explain, “I got in trouble saying it when I was Governor, but I’ll say it now: testicular virility.”
The panel then posed questions written by students. Kyle Krym, a Weinberg sophomore, was among the lucky few whose questions were selected. Krym asked Blagojevich what his advice on ethics would be to someone who wanted to take office for the first time. Blagojevich answered, “surround yourself with good lawyers.”
“I thought it was a very cynical point of view, although coming from him, I found it very apt,” said Krym.
“The event was meant to open a discourse on issues important to public policy; corruption, ethics in government,” said College Democrats Vice President of Programming Dan Rockoff. “I think we were able to challenge Governor Blagojevich in a way he hasn’t been challenged in a while.”
“We reached hundreds of students, who otherwise the message wouldn’t have gotten to. The auditorium was sold out. I think that’s phenomenal.”
Blagojevich reflected fondly on his experience as a student at Northwestern, saying “It’s a great school with a great tradition of academics.” Blagojevich said he worked multiple jobs to pay for his tuition in lieu of seeking financial aid as he “wasn’t good enough to get a scholarship.”
Blagojevich thanked Northwestern for allowing him to plead his case. Many attending the event, however, did not have their minds changed. Towards the end of the night, one audience member yelled out the word, “shame.”
Blagojevich replied, “What, you don’t like Roland Burris?”
Replied the audience member, “No, you.”
Updated: This story has been updated to fix an error regarding the “shame” comment. Thanks to commenter ‘NU Student’ for the correction. The typo in the first line has also been corrected; thanks to commenter “K.”