Interviews at Talk Radio News “Radio Row” on the eve of the New Hampshire primary
Story Transcript
ELLEN RATNER, TALK RADIO NEWS SERVICE: I’m Ellen Ratner, and I am the director of Radio Row. And our goal is that we put somewhere between 25 and 35 radio hosts in two rooms, and we bring the guests in, and they go person to person to person, and we run this for two days before the New Hampshire primary.
~~~
ED SCHULTZ, THE ED SCHULTZ SHOW: I’m Ed Schultz, your host. Good to have you with us, folks around the region. We come to you from Manchester, New Hampshire. Right off the top we’re going to start with Dennis Kucinich, a congressman from Ohio, who’s become a real good friend of mine in the program. Now, I want to talk about health care. There’s even a battle within the Democratic candidates as to what kind of health care is going to be delivered.
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DENNIS KUCINICH, US CONGRESSMAN: I think that what we have to do is focus on health care for the 47 million Americans who are uninsured, 50 million Americans who are under-insured. People are going broke. Half the bankruptcies in America are connected directly to people not being able to pay their hospital bills. I want to help the American people. I want to lift them out of poverty with this single issue. This would do more to repair the position of the middle class than any single proposal that’s out there. And that is a not-for-profit system—no more premiums, co-pays, or deductibles. We’re already paying for it.
SCHULTZ: What does a brokered convention mean to you? I know that’s never happened in my lifetime.
D. KUCINICH: Well, I think it’s quite possible; that could happen. I think that all of us are going to be making a strong effort to win as many delegates as we can. And Senator Clinton obviously understands that no one’s being anointed the next president of the United States; you’re going to have to work for it.
SCHULTZ: Behind every good man is a good woman. Elizabeth, nice to see you.
ELIZABETH KUCINICH: Very nice to be here.
SCHULTZ: What’s your take on New Hampshire?
E. KUCINICH: Amazing state, and amazing things are happening. Thank you for recognizing that, by the way, ’cause also people like to be cynical, and you’ve actually seen what’s going on. As Dennis said, hundreds and hundreds of people turning out in support of policies that we’re standing for, really standing up for themselves, standing up for their issues. And New Hampshire is showing itself to be a great, independent state, and we have high hopes for it.
~~~
WOMAN: You’re such a lucky man.
D. KUCINICH: I know that.
~~~
D. KUCINICH: We have to stop looking at the militarization of our country and realize that poverty’s a weapon of mass destruction, joblessness is a weapon of mass destruction, homelessness is a weapon of mass destruction, poor health care is a weapon of mass destruction. We’ve got to start taking care of the things here at home instead of building bases around the world to keep an American empire. My commitments to the American people include a commitment to a not-for-profit health care system—I’m going to keep running that—include a commitment to peace. And my voice represents, I believe, the voice of mainstream America, reflecting all these polls that I’ve won on the Internet. You have to realize that a lot of people want to see me stay in there. And I’m going to stay in to keep the American people hoping that we can take a new direction all the way, all the way.
~~~
D. KUCINICH: I’m the only Democrat running who has voted against the Iraq war, voted a hundred percent of the time against funding the war, who stands for repealing the PATRIOT Act, for impeachment of the vice president and the president for lying to take us into the war, and for a not-for-profit health care system that ends the poverty that our current health system is developing. So there’s no one else who’s a Democrat in this race who’s saying that. I’m for canceling NAFTA and getting out of the WTO and having trade based on workers’ rights, human rights, and environmental quality principles. If I’m not in this debate, all you have is a monologue in four tones.
~~~
HELEN GLOVER, WHJJ RADIO: I want everybody to hear all of the candidates. And you got shut out of the debate the other night. I was a little disappointed about that.
D. KUCINICH: Well, apparently, now the first primary is Disney, because they own ABC, and they made a decision. They’ve contributed to candidates, by the way.
GLOVER: Oh, really?
D. KUCINICH: Yeah. Disney has contributed—.
GLOVER: Is there a violation against that?
D. KUCINICH: No, actually, it needs to be understood by the public that Disney is trying to influence the outcome of an election by determining who should be in the debate and who shouldn’t. I’m a qualified candidate. I have a national base.
GLOVER: Why were you shut out?
D. KUCINICH: This is a question that Disney is going to have to answer. And it’s not about me, because if they are able to be the first primary, what does that make of New Hampshire? If they can make the decision about who should be in a presidential debate, then they’re actually limiting the choices of people. And we’re going to challenge that. And Disney just picked the wrong person to do that to, because I’m not someone who bows down to these corporate interests and they can just tell me, well, sorry, little boy, go away. No. No. This is about the democracy. This is also about the public’s ownership of the airwaves. Right now, our foreign policy is stupid, because what we’ve done is we’ve gone into a war based on lies, rattled the sabers against a second nation, Iran, ready to invade Pakistan. Come on.
GLOVER: That’s coming from your Democratic co-partner there, Obama. He wants to go right into Pakistan without even any approval.
D. KUCINICH: And you know what? I object to that. I disagree with him strenuously. I’m the one Democrat who says strength through peace; take a new direction, Kucinich for president. Thank you.
DISCLAIMER:
Please note that TRNN transcripts are typed from a recording of the program; The Real News Network cannot guarantee their complete accuracy.
Story Transcript
ELLEN RATNER, TALK RADIO NEWS SERVICE: I’m Ellen Ratner, and I am the director of Radio Row. And our goal is that we put somewhere between 25 and 35 radio hosts in two rooms, and we bring the guests in, and they go person to person to person, and we run this for two days before the New Hampshire primary.
~~~
ED SCHULTZ, THE ED SCHULTZ SHOW: I’m Ed Schultz, your host. Good to have you with us, folks around the region. We come to you from Manchester, New Hampshire. Right off the top we’re going to start with Dennis Kucinich, a congressman from Ohio, who’s become a real good friend of mine in the program. Now, I want to talk about health care. There’s even a battle within the Democratic candidates as to what kind of health care is going to be delivered.
DENNIS KUCINICH, US CONGRESSMAN: I think that what we have to do is focus on health care for the 47 million Americans who are uninsured, 50 million Americans who are under-insured. People are going broke. Half the bankruptcies in America are connected directly to people not being able to pay their hospital bills. I want to help the American people. I want to lift them out of poverty with this single issue. This would do more to repair the position of the middle class than any single proposal that’s out there. And that is a not-for-profit system—no more premiums, co-pays, or deductibles. We’re already paying for it.
SCHULTZ: What does a brokered convention mean to you? I know that’s never happened in my lifetime.
D. KUCINICH: Well, I think it’s quite possible; that could happen. I think that all of us are going to be making a strong effort to win as many delegates as we can. And Senator Clinton obviously understands that no one’s being anointed the next president of the United States; you’re going to have to work for it.
SCHULTZ: Behind every good man is a good woman. Elizabeth, nice to see you.
ELIZABETH KUCINICH: Very nice to be here.
SCHULTZ: What’s your take on New Hampshire?
E. KUCINICH: Amazing state, and amazing things are happening. Thank you for recognizing that, by the way, ’cause also people like to be cynical, and you’ve actually seen what’s going on. As Dennis said, hundreds and hundreds of people turning out in support of policies that we’re standing for, really standing up for themselves, standing up for their issues. And New Hampshire is showing itself to be a great, independent state, and we have high hopes for it.
~~~
WOMAN: You’re such a lucky man.
D. KUCINICH: I know that.
~~~
D. KUCINICH: We have to stop looking at the militarization of our country and realize that poverty’s a weapon of mass destruction, joblessness is a weapon of mass destruction, homelessness is a weapon of mass destruction, poor health care is a weapon of mass destruction. We’ve got to start taking care of the things here at home instead of building bases around the world to keep an American empire. My commitments to the American people include a commitment to a not-for-profit health care system—I’m going to keep running that—include a commitment to peace. And my voice represents, I believe, the voice of mainstream America, reflecting all these polls that I’ve won on the Internet. You have to realize that a lot of people want to see me stay in there. And I’m going to stay in to keep the American people hoping that we can take a new direction all the way, all the way.
~~~
D. KUCINICH: I’m the only Democrat running who has voted against the Iraq war, voted a hundred percent of the time against funding the war, who stands for repealing the PATRIOT Act, for impeachment of the vice president and the president for lying to take us into the war, and for a not-for-profit health care system that ends the poverty that our current health system is developing. So there’s no one else who’s a Democrat in this race who’s saying that. I’m for canceling NAFTA and getting out of the WTO and having trade based on workers’ rights, human rights, and environmental quality principles. If I’m not in this debate, all you have is a monologue in four tones.
~~~
HELEN GLOVER, WHJJ RADIO: I want everybody to hear all of the candidates. And you got shut out of the debate the other night. I was a little disappointed about that.
D. KUCINICH: Well, apparently, now the first primary is Disney, because they own ABC, and they made a decision. They’ve contributed to candidates, by the way.
GLOVER: Oh, really?
D. KUCINICH: Yeah. Disney has contributed—.
GLOVER: Is there a violation against that?
D. KUCINICH: No, actually, it needs to be understood by the public that Disney is trying to influence the outcome of an election by determining who should be in the debate and who shouldn’t. I’m a qualified candidate. I have a national base.
GLOVER: Why were you shut out?
D. KUCINICH: This is a question that Disney is going to have to answer. And it’s not about me, because if they are able to be the first primary, what does that make of New Hampshire? If they can make the decision about who should be in a presidential debate, then they’re actually limiting the choices of people. And we’re going to challenge that. And Disney just picked the wrong person to do that to, because I’m not someone who bows down to these corporate interests and they can just tell me, well, sorry, little boy, go away. No. No. This is about the democracy. This is also about the public’s ownership of the airwaves. Right now, our foreign policy is stupid, because what we’ve done is we’ve gone into a war based on lies, rattled the sabers against a second nation, Iran, ready to invade Pakistan. Come on.
GLOVER: That’s coming from your Democratic co-partner there, Obama. He wants to go right into Pakistan without even any approval.
D. KUCINICH: And you know what? I object to that. I disagree with him strenuously. I’m the one Democrat who says strength through peace; take a new direction, Kucinich for president. Thank you.
DISCLAIMER:
Please note that TRNN transcripts are typed from a recording of the program; The Real News Network cannot guarantee their complete accuracy.