And Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, made it clear to the senators that he personally believes the law is dishonest. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ADMIRAL MIKE MULLEN, CHAIRMAN OF THE JOINT CHIEFS: Speaking for myself and myself only, it is my personal belief that allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly would be the right thing to do. No matter how I look at this issue, I cannot escape being troubled by the fact that we have in place a policy which forces young men and women to lie about who they are in order to defend their fellow citizens.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: The service members' legal defense network says more than 13,000 people have been discharged because of "don't ask, don't tell."
The policy, of course, began back with former President Bill Clinton, who back then had actually asked his inner circle to vote for or against it in private meetings. Senior political analyst, David Gergen, who at the time was an adviser to Clinton, was in the room when the votes were cast. David joins us now for a 360 insider briefing.
That must have been a fascinating moment. The president, what, he was basically polling his inner cycle?
DAVID GERGEN, CNN SR. PLOLITICAL ANALYST: Yes, it was, Anderson.
He -- President Clinton, as a candidate, had said he would like to end the prohibition against gays in the military. It wasn't much of -- it wasn't an issue, really, in the 1992 campaign. And shortly after he was elected back in November of 1992, he said he planned to move ahead in response to a question at a press conference, and all hell broke loose.
So when he became president, he met with the joint chiefs, the top military people, and they said, "Don't do this, Mr. President. Don't get rid of this prohibition."
And then leaders of Congress came in to see him from the various armed services committees and said, "Don't do this, Mr. President. You've got to keep this prohibition."
So that's when he decided to go for the compromise of "don't ask, don't tell," which allowed you to stay in as a gay, as long as you didn't talk about it. That was a compromise that was very carefully worked out. George Stephanopoulos representing the White House at the Pentagon to try to work out this compromise.
And then the president called -- I joined his administration in June of 1993. And he called about a dozen of us together for a late evening talk, a late evening, uncharacteristic of Bill Clinton to say, "Look, I've got to make a decision now. I need to know about how you feel about 'don't ask, don't tell,' as a compromise. Should I do this?"
And he went around, and he asked each of us in the group, did we want to do this compromise or not? And each of us -- I was included -- said, "Yes, Mr. President, you have to do this. You can't get further than this."
There was one exception, Anderson. That was Al Gore. He argued vigorously and eloquently that the president ought to move all the way to removing the prohibition and letting gays serve openly in the military. The president himself embraced that compromise, announced it then.
COOPER: Yes.
GERGEN: And we've been living with it since.
I must tell you, at that time, the public was against it. The Congress was against it, the joint chiefs.
Times have changed, and I would have to tell you, I think everybody in that room, the vast majority of people in that room, including Colin Powell, then head of the joint chiefs, certainly I would, would now view, let's get rid of "don't ask, don't tell." Let's get -- move to letting gays serve openly. I very much believe that. I'm biased on the subject now.
COOPER: Let's talk about the politics of this. Because I want to show our viewers something that Senator John McCain said today after Secretary Gates and Admiral Mullen made their comments. Let's play that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: I'm happy to say that we still have a Congress of the United States that would have -- would have to pass a law to repeal "don't ask, don't tell," despite your efforts to repeal it, in many respects, by fiat.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: He's clearly -- he says, at this point, you know. These are with two wars going on; it's not the right time for that.
A lot of liberal groups pointed to something else that the senator said back in 2006. I want to play that for our viewers, as well.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MCCAIN: The day that this -- the leadership of the military comes to me and says, "Senator, we ought to change the policy," then I think we ought to consider seriously changing it, because those leaders in the military are the ones we give the responsibility to.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: So a lot of liberal groups, David, today were saying, look, you had Mike Mullen, you know, I think highest ranking guy in uniform, saying that he personally believes this. Dana Bash talked to the spokeswoman for McCain -- for McCain, who said, and I quote, that "he is still strongly opposed to changing the policy, but he will defer to military leaders when the time comes."
He also -- the spokeswoman also pointed out that Mullen was giving his personal opinion, not an opinion on behalf of the entire military.
GERGEN: I understand what liberal groups are saying about the discrepancy.
I think the one thing we ought to understand about John McCain is, whatever else you may think about where he stands politically, he has been very, very consistent in his loyalty to what he thinks the best interests of the military are. I think his whole -- his life is a story of dedication to the United States military. So I think he's speaking from a place of conviction.
And where we find on this now, Anderson, is that the head of the joint chiefs, Mike Mullen, pointed by George W. Bush, let's remember, and Secretary Gates, also appointed by George W. Bush, both supported this today.
But what we haven't heard from the other chiefs, and my sense is, from talking to people in the military, that what you're going to find is the U.S. Army and the Air Force and the Navy are comfortable with moving ahead, with getting rid of this "don't ask, don't tell" and moving as the president wants.
The U.S. Marine Corps is a different story. Back when Bill Clinton was president, the U.S. Marine Corps and General Mundy, then as a commandant, was very resistant, and today the U.S. Marine Corps, I think, at the leadership, is resistant.
What happened, interestingly, and the chief's testimony, Mike Mullen's testimony today was the U.S. Marines were arguing back in the early '90s, being gay is immoral, as a way of life. And today, Mike Mullen seized back that moral high ground and said, "No, no, no. To serve, in effect, and being placed in a situation where you're lying about your life, that is a lack of integrity." And he put it back on a new moral high ground and gave it more power to the idea of getting rid of this "don't ask, don't tell" policy.
COOPER: David Gergen, insider briefing. David, appreciate it. Thank you.
GERGEN: Thank you.