|
Congressman Kucinich, I remember you when you were the boy mayor of Cleveland. You've been at this for a very long time.
I'd like to hear your thoughts on what endorsements like this mean or don't mean.
KOPPEL: When you hear some of your colleagues here -- you know, I get a little bit of a sense of sour grapes here, that if anyone else on this stage had gotten Al Gore's endorsement, he would have been happy to have it. What do you think?
KUCINICH: Well, I can't say I was really counting on it.
(LAUGHTER)
But let me say, Ted, let me say -- let me say that some of the best talent in American politics is on this stage right now.
(APPLAUSE)
And with all due respect to you, Ted Koppel, who I've admired over the years greatly...
KOPPEL: There's a zinger coming now, isn't there?
KUCINICH: Yes.
(LAUGHTER)
To begin this kind of a forum with a question about an endorsement, no matter by who, I think actually trivializes the issues that are before us.
(APPLAUSE)
For example, at this moment there are 130,000 troops in Iraq. I mean, I would like to hear you ask during this event what's the plan for getting out. This war is not over. I have a plan, which is on my Web site at kucinich.us, to get the United States out of Iraq.
KUCINICH: I want to talk about that tonight, and I hope we have a substantive discussion tonight and that we're not going to spend the night talking about endorsements.
(APPLAUSE)
Congressman Kucinich, your position on abortion has changed in recent months.
KUCINICH: That's not true.
SPRADLING: When was it?
KUCINICH: I would say last year...
SPRADLING: Last year.
KUCINICH: ... before I became a candidate for president, long before I got into the presidential campaign.
SPRADLING: OK. With that said, you started pro-life; your voting record shows it. But on your Web site -- I checked -- it says, quote, "After hearing from women in my life and in my community, I began a more intensive dialogue on the issue. That dialogue led me wholeheartedly to support a woman's right to choose."
SPRADLING: My questions are this: Can you elaborate on what that was that made you change your mind on an issue like this?
And, secondly, do you still see that life begins at conception?
KUCINICH: I think that I may be the only person who is capable of uniting this nation on this very divisive issue, specifically because of the journey that I've taken.
And I've always worked to make abortions less necessary, through sex education and birth control.
But the direction that Congress has taken, increasingly, is to make it impossible for women to be able to have an abortion if they need to protect their health.
As a matter of fact, in the Stenberg v. Carhart case, the Congress just rejected the Supreme Court's decision that said that the health of the mother had to be taken into consideration.
So when I saw the direction that was taken, all the years of discussion that I've had with women in my life, with women in Congress, it finally came to the point where I understood that women in this society will not be truly free unless they have the right to choose.
And I think that we can work to make abortions less necessary, through sex education and birth control, but only in the context of protecting Roe v. Wade.
And we also need to strive to have a society which favors prenatal care, postnatal care, child care, a living wage, universal health care and all of those things that help affirm life.
(APPLAUSE)
KUCINICH: We need to reconcile this nation. We need to stop the judgment and the recrimination and help heal this nation. And I think I can help heal this nation on this issue.
KOPPEL: This is a question to Ambassador Braun, Reverend Sharpton, Congressman Kucinich. You don't have any money, or at least not much. Reverend Sharpton has almost none. You don't have very much, Ambassador Braun.
KUCINICH: We've raised $4.5 million. I mean, that's not nothing.
(LAUGHTER)
KOPPEL: You've got about $750,000 in the bank right now, and that's close to nothing when you're coming up against this kind of opposition. But let me finish the question.
The question is, will there come a point when polls, money and then ultimately the actual votes that will take place here in places like New Hampshire, the caucuses in Iowa, will there come a point when we can expect one or more of the three of you to drop out? Or are you in this as sort of a vanity candidacy?
KOPPEL: When do you pull out?
KUCINICH: After I -- when I take the oath of office, when you're there to cover it...
(LAUGHTER)
(APPLAUSE)
... and I can tell you, Ted, you know, we started at the beginning of this evening, talking about an endorsement. Well, I want the American people to see where the media takes politics in this country.
To start with endorsements...
(APPLAUSE)
We start talking about endorsements, now we're talking about polls, and then we're talking about money. Well, you know, when you do that, you don't have to talk about what's important to the American people.
Ted, I'm the only one up here that actually...
(APPLAUSE)
... I'm the only up here on the stage that actually voted against the PATRIOT Act and voted against the war -- the only one on this stage.
I'm also...
(APPLAUSE)
... I'm also one of the few candidates up here who's talking about taking our health-care system from this for-profit system to a not-for-profit, single-payer universal health care for all.
(APPLAUSE)
I'm also the only one who has talked about getting out of NAFTA and the WTO and going back to bilateral trade...
(APPLAUSE)
... conditioned on workers' rights, human rights and the environment.
Now...
KOPPEL: Congressman?
KUCINICH: ... I may be inconvenient for some of those in the media, but, you know, I'm sorry about that.
(APPLAUSE)
KOPPEL: Congressman?
KUCINICH: Well, I'd like to take issue with something that's been said here. You know, the war's not over. The war is not over. We have 130,000 troops there. And the occupation equals a war.
Now, my plan, which I mentioned earlier, which is on a Web site at kucinich.us, and I'd like everyone to look at it, calls for the end of the occupation, for the United States to get out.
Now, the U.N. will not cooperate unless the U.S. takes a change of direction. And here's the change of direction: The Bush administration must let go of its aspirations to control the oil in Iraq.
(APPLAUSE)
They must hand over to the U.N. the handling of the oil, on a transitional basis, so the U.N. can handle it for the Iraqi people until the Iraqi people can be self-governing.
KUCINICH: The U.S. must hand over to the U.N. the contracting process. No more Halliburton sweetheart deals, no more war- profiteering, no more bids going to people who have contributed to the administration.
The United States must let go of the plan to privatize the Iraq economy, because, frankly, that's a violation of both the Hague and Geneva conventions, and that's another sticking point.
We have to turn over to the U.N. the cause of governance and helping to write a constitution.
You know, you can't say, as Dr. Dean has, that you're against the war but you're for the occupation.
(APPLAUSE)
Because by keeping our troops in Iraq for years, you're essentially keeping the war going.
The New York Times had the article yesterday, Ted, and, you know, maybe you saw it, how there is tough new tactics by the U.S. to tighten the grip on Iraqi towns. I mean, the tactics that this administration is having our men and women use are intensifying the war. There's going to be greater casualties.
Now, the plan that I just talked about, in addition to having the U.S. provide for rebuilding what we blew up, providing reparations to the innocent Iraqis who were killed, providing an opportunity for -- we have to provide some money so that we can bring U.N. troops in.
KUCINICH: But, Ted, unless we get the U.S. troops out of there totally, we're never going to see a situation where that war is going to be over. We're going to continue to be attacked.
And we need to get the U.N. in and get the U.S. out, end that occupation. And this is a centerpiece of my campaign for the presidency of the United States.
(APPLAUSE)
SPRADLING: Before -- I'll stay on this topic, but just before we move to a couple of domestic issues, I'm looking for a show of hands on this question. There's a lot of talk about objectives, but there's no real specific talk about time frame.
Obviously the opinions vary about what needs to be done. But with a show of hands -- and I'll run around real quick -- does anyone have a time frame for when the U.S. troops can be pulled out, whether it's ending the war, getting them out now or whether it's the transformation plan where you're having to move the international troops in?
Can anyone give us a time, date specific on when that can happen?
SPRADLING: Congressman Kucinich?
KUCINICH: The resolution that I talked about, going to the U.N. with a totally different approach -- from the time the U.N. approves that, 90 days later we can bring our troops home, rotate the U.N. troops in and bring our troops home.
We are not stuck there, Dr. Dean. The only difference between a rut and a grave is in the dimensions. We are not stuck there.
KUCINICH: I'll be brief. First of all, thank you Ted Koppel and ABC News.
I would suggest that Iraq is actually what this debate is about. And if you don't make the connection between the $155 billion we've spent in less than a year, the $400 billion in the bloated Pentagon budget and the fear that's driving this nation into greater and greater involvement in Iraq, if you don't make that connection, then you're never going to understand why we don't have money for health care and housing and education.
KUCINICH: If you don't make that connection, then you're never going to understand why we don't have money for health care and housing and education.
Our entire domestic agenda is at risk because of our occupation of Iraq. That's why I suggest it is urgent to put this on the agenda, to end the occupation, to get the U.N. in and the U.S. out.
We want this country to be safe. We want this country to be secure. Our presence there is leading to greater instability.
My administration, my election will be about the end of fear and the beginning of hope in America.
(APPLAUSE)
|
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
