On August 12, 1987, President Reagan spoke in the aftermath of the congressional Iran-Contra hearings, offering an acknowledgment of what had gone wrong. He admitted that the original outreach to Iran had quickly become entangled with arms sales, and those arms sales became entangled with the hostage situation. He conceded that his preoccupation with Americans held hostage had led him to let that concern intrude into areas where it didn’t belong, calling it a mistake and saying he had been stubborn in pursuing a policy that went astray. On the diversion of funds to the Contras, Reagan insisted he had not known about it, acknowledging that Colonel North and Admiral Poindexter believed they were acting in line with his wishes, but stating in emphatic terms that he had not known about the diversion of funds and had not known there were excess funds to divert.
The second half of the speech was notably forward-looking, with Reagan pivoting away from the scandal to lay out his agenda for the remaining 17 months of his presidency. He spoke about his nomination of Judge Robert Bork to the Supreme Court, progress toward an INF nuclear arms agreement with the Soviet Union, and a push for a balanced budget constitutional amendment. He also reaffirmed his commitment to the Nicaraguan Contras and welcomed a peace agreement signed by five Central American presidents, expressing hope that Nicaragua would eventually join the ranks of democratic nations in the region.
“My fellow Americans, I’ve said on several occasions that I wouldn’t comment about the congressional hearings on the Iran-Contra matter until the hearings were over. Well, that time has come so tonight I want to talk about some of the lessons we’ve learned, but rest assured that’s not my sole subject this evening. I also want to talk about the future and getting on with things because the people’s business is waiting. These past nine months have been confusing and painful ones for the country. I know you have doubts in your own minds about what happened in this whole episode. What I hope is not in doubt, however, is my commitment to the investigations themselves.”
Source
Reagan, Ronald W. “President Ronald Reagan’s Address to the Nation on the Iran-Contra Affair.” National Archives Collection RR-WHCA: Presidential Audio Recordings. Recorded August 12, 1987. https://catalog.archives.gov/id/7450191.