Full Ginsburg Explained

The "Full Ginsburg" is a term used in American politics to refer to a person who appears on all five American major Sunday morning talk shows on the same day: This Week on ABC, Fox News Sunday on Fox, Face the Nation on CBS, Meet the Press on NBC, and State of the Union on CNN.^[1] State of the Union replaced Late Edition on CNN in January 2009.

The term is named for William H. Ginsburg, the lawyer for Monica Lewinsky during the sexual conduct scandal involving President Bill Clinton. Ginsburg was the first person to accomplish this feat, on February 1, 1998.^[2]

Completed full Ginsburgs

Name	Office	Reason for appearance	Date
William H. Ginsburg	Attorney for Monica Lewinsky	Representing his client, Monica Lewinsky, as the Lewinsky scandal erupted	February 1, 1998
Congressman Rick Lazio	Nominee for U.S. Senate in New York's 2000 Senate election, U.S. Representative from the State of New York		May 21, 2000^[3]
Secretary Dick Cheney	Republican nominee for Vice President of the United States, former Secretary of Defense and U.S. Representative from Wyoming	2000 Republican National Convention	July 30, 2000
Senator John Edwards	Democratic nominee for Vice President of the United States, United States Senator from North Carolina	Approaching presidential election	October 10, 2004
Secretary Michael Chertoff	Secretary of Homeland Security	Hurricane Katrina	September 4, 2005
Senator Hillary Clinton	Junior senator from New York, candidate in 2008 presidential election	Her presidential bid	September 23, 2007
Secretary Kathleen Sebelius	Secretary of Health and Human Services	Swine flu	May 3, 2009
Secretary Janet Napolitano	Secretary of Homeland Security
Dr. Richard Besser	Acting director for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Former President Bill Clinton	Former President of the United States	Haiti earthquake	January 17, 2010^[4]
Former President George W. Bush	Former President of the United States
Dr. Rajiv Shah	Administrator of United States Agency for International Development
Lieutenant General P.K. "Ken" Keen	Deputy commander of United States Southern Command
Rep. Michele Bachmann	Member of the U.S. House of Representatives	Her presidential bid	August 14, 2011^[5]
Jack Lew	White House Chief of Staff	2012 federal budget	February 12, 2012^[6]
Susan Rice	United States Ambassador to the United Nations	Reactions to Innocence of Muslims and the attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi	September 16, 2012
Timothy Geithner	United States Secretary of the Treasury	Fiscal cliff^[7]	December 2, 2012
Jeb Bush	Former Governor of Florida	Promoting his book Immigration Wars: Forging an American Solution^[8]	March 10, 2013
Marco Rubio	United States Senator from Florida	Immigration reform	April 14, 2013
Daniel Pfeiffer	Senior advisor to the president for strategy and communications	Addressing the IRS Tea Party investigation, Associated Press records seizures, and investigation of response to the 2012 Benghazi attack	May 19, 2013
Secretary John Kerry	United States Secretary of State	Addressing possible military action against Syria by the United States	September 1, 2013
Denis McDonough	White House Chief of Staff		September 8, 2013
Jack Lew	United States Secretary of the Treasury	2013 United States government shutdown	October 6, 2013
Secretary John Kerry	United States Secretary of State	Addressing Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 and Operation Protective Edge	July 20, 2014
Denis McDonough	White House Chief of Staff	Following up on the 2015 State of the Union Address	January 25, 2015
Robert Sumwalt	NTSB Board Member	Discussing the 2015 Philadelphia train derailment	May 17, 2015
Paul Ryan	Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives	Discussion of his role as the new Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives	November 1, 2015
Marco Rubio	United States Senator from Florida	His presidential bid^[9]	February 14, 2016
His presidential bid^[10]		February 21, 2016
Ted Cruz	United States Senator from Texas	His presidential bid^[11]	February 28, 2016
Tim Kaine	United States Senator and former Governor of Virginia	His vice presidential bid^[12]	September 18, 2016
Rudy Giuliani	Former Mayor of New York City	2016 presidential election on behalf of Donald Trump presidential campaign^[13]	October 9, 2016
Jay Sekulow	Member of President Donald Trump's legal teamChief counsel for the American Center for Law and Justice^[14] ^[15]	Donald Trump Jr. and Jared Kushner's meeting with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya^[16] ^[17]	July 16, 2017
Mike Pompeo	United States Secretary of State	President Trump canceling secret talks with the Taliban^[18]	September 8, 2019
President Trump ordering the killing of Qasem Soleimani, the highest military commander in Iran^[19]		January 5, 2020
Pete Buttigieg	Former mayor of South Bend, Indiana	His presidential campaign^[20]	February 9, 2020
Anthony Fauci	Head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases	COVID-19 pandemic in the United States^[21]	March 15, 2020
Senator Joe Manchin	United States Senator from West Virginia	Inflation Reduction Act of 2022	July 31, 2022
John Lauro	Attorney for former President Donald Trump	Federal prosecution of Donald Trump (election obstruction case)	August 6, 2023
John Kirby	Biden administration White House National Security Communications Advisor	2024 Iranian strikes in Israel^[22] ^[23] ^[24]	14 April 2024

People who have completed multiple full Ginsburgs

Name	Number of full Ginsburgs	Dates
Marco Rubio	3	April 14, 2013 February 14, 2016 February 21, 2016
Jack Lew	2	February 12, 2012 October 6, 2013
John Kerry		September 1, 2013 July 20, 2014
Denis McDonough		September 8, 2013 January 25, 2015
Mike Pompeo		September 8, 2019 January 5, 2020

Variations

On September 20, 2009, President Barack Obama, to promote his health care reform proposals, did what The Politico called a "modified Full Ginsburg" when he appeared on five programs, opting for Univision's Spanish-language Al Punto to be his fifth program appearance instead of Fox News Sunday.^[25]

Obama also appeared on Monday, September 9, 2013, with reporters from each of the five networks, plus an extra sixth, to discuss possible military intervention in Syria.^[26] He appeared with CNN's Wolf Blitzer on The Situation Room,^[27] with ABC's Diane Sawyer on ABC World News,^[28] with NBC's Savannah Guthrie on NBC Nightly News,^[29] with CBS's Scott Pelley on CBS Evening News^[30] and with Fox's Chris Wallace on Fox News's Special Report with Bret Baier,^[31] in addition to PBS's Gwen Ifill on PBS NewsHour.^[32]

The first person to appear on all six shows in the same week was former governor of Florida Jeb Bush, who achieved the feat on March 10, 2013.^[33]

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio became the first person to appear on seven Sunday talk shows the same day, on April 14, 2013: all English-language shows listed above, plus Univision's Al Punto and Telemundo's Enfoque, both American Spanish-language shows.^{[34] [35]}

Notes and References

1. News: Jay. Newton-Small. Lexicon . https://web.archive.org/web/20071013133727/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1666276,00.html . dead . October 13, 2007 . the full Ginsburg DEFINITION The ful gins-burg n. The appearance on all five political TV talk shows on the same Sunday morning. . . September 27, 2007. September 25, 2007 .
2. News: Clinton makes the Sunday talk-show rounds. . Puzzanghera. Jim . . September 24, 2007. September 25, 2007 .
3. "Lazio's Coming Out Party" Slate. May 22, 2000. http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/pundit_central/2000/05/lazios_coming_out_party.html
4. News: the talk shows. The Washington Post. January 17, 2010.
5. Web site: Bachmann Takes Post-Straw Poll Victory Lap on Sunday Shows . National Journal . August 14, 2011 . August 14, 2011 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20120406062054/http://www.nationaljournal.com/bachmann-takes-post-straw-poll-victory-lap-on-sunday-shows-20110814 . April 6, 2012 .
6. News: Today on the trail: Candidates off the trail, on the airwaves . Washington Post . February 12, 2012 . February 12, 2012.
7. Silva, Mark (November 30, 2012). Geithner's `Full Ginsburg:’ Sunday. Bloomberg. Retrieved November 30, 2012.
8. Book: Immigration Wars: Forging an American Solution. 978-1476713458. Bush . Jeb . Bolick . Clint . March 5, 2013 .
9. News: Eight Rubio take-aways. . Rubin. Jennifer . The Washington Post . February 14, 2016. February 14, 2016 .
10. Web site: Alex Conant on Twitter: ".@MarcoRubio going on all 5 Sunday shows tomorrow to celebrate 2nd place comeback in SC. 2nd week in a row he'll do full Ginsburg. #history" . Twitter.com . February 20, 2016 . October 9, 2016.
11. http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_NEWS_SHOWS?SITE=AP Guest lineups for the Sunday news shows
12. http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_NEWS_SHOWS?SITE=AP Guest lineups for the Sunday news shows
13. http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_NEWS_SHOWS?SITE=AP Guest lineups for the Sunday news shows
14. Web site: Trump's Legal Team is Preparing for War . www.vanityfair.com . June 12, 2017. July 18, 2017.
15. Web site: Jay Sekulow, Trump's unlikely lawyer. www.washingtonpost.com . July 18, 2017 .
16. http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_NEWS_SHOWS?SITE=AP Guest lineups for the Sunday news shows
17. https://www.axios.com/trump-lawyer-if-russia-meeting-nefarious-why-did-secret-service-allow--2460274736.html Trump lawyer: 'if Russia meeting nefarious, why did Secret Service allow it?'
18. Web site: WATCH: Top Moments From Pompeo's Sunday Show Blitz After Trump Cancels Taliban Meeting. September 8, 2019. November 27, 2020.
19. Web site: US kills Iran's most powerful general in Baghdad airstrike. January 2, 2020. AP NEWS. November 27, 2020.
20. https://www.mediaite.com/tv/mayor-pete-is-everywhere-on-tv-this-week-even-tmz-live/ Mayor Pete Is Everywhere on TV This Week, Even… TMZ Live?
21. https://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/article/Guest-lineups-for-the-Sunday-news-shows-15130423.php Guest lineups for the Sunday news shows
22. Web site: 2024-04-14 . Transcript: John Kirby, National Security Council spokesperson, on "Face the Nation," April 14, 2024 - CBS News . 2024-04-16 . www.cbsnews.com . en-US.
23. Web site: Staff . Fox News . 2024-04-14 . 'Fox News Sunday' on April 14, 2024 . 2024-04-16 . Fox News . en-US.
24. https://abcnews.go.com/ThisWeek/video/1-1-john-kirby-109216670
25. Web site: The Politico. Javers. Eamon. September 18, 2009. Obama's Risky Full Ginsburg.
26. Web site: The Politico. Byers. Dylan. June 8, 2014. The Syria Six.
27. Web site: CNN. September 7, 2013. June 8, 2014. CNN's Wolf Blitzer to sit down with Pres. Obama on Monday, Sept. 9.
28. Web site: Internet Archive. June 8, 2014. ABC World News With Diane Sawyer. September 9, 2013.
29. Web site: NBC News. September 9, 2013. June 8, 2014. Savannah Guthrie's full interview with President Obama.
30. Web site: Associated Press. Espo. David. Pace. Julie. June 8, 2014. Obama: I might lose congressional vote on Syria.
31. Web site: Fox News. Wallace. Chris. September 8, 2013. June 8, 2014. Chris Wallace Previews Interview With President Obama.
32. Web site: PBS. Bellantoni. Christina. June 8, 2014. Gwen Ifill to Interview President Barack Obama Monday. September 7, 2013 .
33. http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=8C187FBB-8F3A-4F85-9D95-72D1D95C299C Sunday talk show tip sheet: March 10, 2013
34. http://www.politico.com/multimedia/video/2013/04/full-marco---rubio-hits-the-sunday-shows-mike-allen-reports.html 'Full Marco' - Rubio hits the Sunday shows, Mike Allen reports
35. News: Rubio pitches immigration deal on seven television shows. April 15, 2013. Denver Post. April 15, 2013. Denver Post staff.