National Public Radio Tavis Smiley Transcript

December 18, 2003 Thursday

HEADLINE: Carol Moseley Braun discusses her campaign for president

ANCHORS: TONY COX

BODY:
TONY COX, host:

From NPR in Los Angeles, I'm Tony Cox in for Tavis Smiley.

On today's program, find out what new sport is taking the place of basketball for some inner-city youth. Our regular commentator, Michael Eric Dyson, explores the decision by Essie Mae Washington-Williams to reveal the secret relationship she had with her father, the late US Senator Strom Thurmond. And it's jazz, hip-hop, soul and rock with a message. Coming up a little later, our conversation with artist, activist, musician Michael Franti.

But first, Democratic presidential contender, Ambassador Carol Moseley Braun. She rose from a local politician position in Chicago to become only the second black US senator of the 20th century and the first African-American woman ever in that elected post. After losing her fight for re-election in 1998, she was appointed by then President Clinton as ambassador to New Zealand. Upon her return, many of her supporters expected she would announce plans to regain her Senate seat. Instead, in a surprise move, she launched an exploratory committee in January for the 2004 presidential campaign, citing the need to, quote, "advance the cause of women in higher office and paving the way for a woman president," end quote.

Here is Carol Moseley Braun at a recent Democratic presidential debate, sponsored by ABC News.

(Soundbite of debate)

Former Senator CAROL MOSELEY BRAUN (Democratic Presidential Candidate): I want to take the 'men only' sign off the White House door and do things differently and provide for the domestic security of the American people so that we can have a future of hope, an economy that works for everybody and an environment that we're proud and a legacy we're proud to leave to our children.

COX: To comment on her campaign and the issues shaping the 2004 race for the White House, I'm joined today by Carol Moseley Braun, Democratic candidate for president. Ambassador, welcome to the TAVIS SMILEY show.

Ms. BRAUN: Delighted to be with you.

COX: As the only woman in the race, you have certainly discussed the issues of inclusion during your campaign. Is it enough to say that you are running on behalf of women or who exactly does your candidacy speak for?

Ms. BRAUN: I hope it speaks for everyday ordinary Americans, male and female, for the interests of people who are concerned about making a living and supporting their families, for people who are concerned about their kids being able to get a quality education, or for people who have issues or concerns about health care and whether or not they can afford it or provide for their parents' long-term care needs.

I mean, there are any number of domestic, not to mention international issues facing the American people that I believe take a different approach than the current administration has taken certainly, and different approach really than I think we've limited ourselves to over time. I mean, when you can only tap half of the talent available to the community as a whole, then by definition, you limit the range of perspective, and you limit the capacity of your government, and so I just think it's important not just to argue on behalf of women, but to argue on behalf of all Americans that women have something to give that can help build our country, help direct our country towards peace and prosperity and progress in a way that expands our democracy and makes government work better for everyday people.

COX: Against the backdrop of Al Gore going to Harlem to support Dean and Representative James Clyburn backing Dick Gephardt and Reverend Andrew Young supposedly endorsing Wesley Clark, is your campaign resonating in the African-American community in the ways you had hoped?

Ms. BRAUN: Well, I think so. When I go out and go to-not just to schools but to churches and in the neighborhood, if you will, just retail politics, people are warm and welcoming, and I find the support to be there for me. In addition to some of the more high-profile people, I have not engaged in the endorsements game, because that's what that is really, but at the same time, I've got as many high-profile endorsers as anybody else, and so I'm heading forward with this message and it's a message again that resonates in the African-American community, as well as in the majority community and other minority communities as well. I mean, people of color actually make up the majority, I mean, if you think about it, so to use the term minority is kind of misleading, but at the same time, whether it is the Hispanic community, the East Asian community, the black community, the white community, if you will, my message is one, I hope, of universal appeal to Americans and one that will resonate with Americans, you know, without regard to where they come from.

COX: As you know, there were dramatic developments in Iraq this week with the capture of Saddam Hussein. You have been a fierce opponent of the US-led war against Iraq. Two questions. One is, what is your position now in the wake of Saddam's capture? And secondly, that you have been a longtime opponent of the death penalty. Does that mean that Saddam Hussein, you would be against the death penalty for him?

Ms. BRAUN: Two things. First off, my position is absolutely consistent, which is and was that the war in Iraq was a misadventure that took us off the bead of hunting down Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda and breaking up the terrorist cells that jeopardized the American people. So just to be clear about that, I mean, we still have-and I am still very critical of this administration for dropping the ball on the war on terrorism, stopping the hunt of bin Laden-well, not stopping, but they certainly have frittered away assets, particularly intelligence assets, around the globe that could have been brought to bear on finding the people who so violated all of us on September 11th. So, you know, that this president wanted to go after Saddam Hussein and, you know, revenge to the attempted assassination of his dad and to make certain that Saddam was not there to threaten him anymore, you know, that was his decision as president. I just think that it was a misadventure. It cost an awful lot of lives. It's going to cost the American people a tremendous amount of money, but as much to the point, what it's done is fritter away a lot of the goodwill that we could have had in a search for the terrorists that we still have to go find.

COX: What about the death penalty?

Ms. BRAUN: Well, on the death penalty, you know, international law does not allow for the death penalty and, you know, if you just want to have revenge and make Saddam Hussein some kind of a martyr for the people who agree with him, then, you know, you can head down that path. But it doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Of course, he was a tyrant and a murderer and a bad guy. Nobody holds any brook for Saddam Hussein, I don't believe. But having said that, I think that it is important for us to, again, join the rest of the international community, join the rest of the world in saying that there are penalties for war crimes, but that the death penalty is not something that a state undertakes to do to prove that killing is wrong. If there's one really bad thing that has come out of this whole war in Iraq is that this administration has allowed a really bad guy to become an organizing principal, a focus of all of the forces of opposition to us.

COX: Well, let's move the discussion to another point, in the time that we have available today. You've been asked many times about your campaign, which lags in financial and popular support compared to the rest of the Democratic field. Is it your intention, Ambassador, to remain in the race, even if the strength of your candidacy does not improve, until a standard-bearer is chosen at the convention?

Ms. BRAUN: Well, let me say at the outset, everybody belongs to what I call the ABB Club, which is Anybody But Bush. But I have to challenge you on your assumption that it lags behind the rest of the field. My campaign absolutely does not lag behind the rest of the field. And, indeed, while we don't have a lot of money, at the same time, we have done, I think, extremely well with the resources for we have had. And we have traction in quarters that I think have surprised some people. No, I don't have the millions of dollars to go on television and do those ads and to have a big paid staff, but I have a lot of volunteers. People are signing up. My Web site is carolforpresident.com. People are signing up every day to help us. And I think, frankly, there's a refreshing element of, you know, old-fashioned democracy when you have people just saying, 'We're willing to help and we're not looking to get paid for this.'

COX: How effective can your voice be heard-and I know that being heard is obviously very important in a campaign of this type-but how effective can your voice be heard when you are not attracting the kind of national attention that follows the front-running candidates, or do you disagree with that also?

Ms. BRAUN: No, no, no. Listen, I have never been given a chance to win an election. When I ran for state representative, they told me that the blacks wouldn't vote for me because I wasn't part of the Chicago machine, the whites wouldn't vote for me because I was black, and nobody would vote for me because I was a woman. And I went on to win my state representative election. And when I was told I couldn't win for countywide executive office, I won that. When I was told I couldn't possibly win for the United States Senate, I won that. And I just have every confidence that when people start to vote, that will give me a signal in terms of whether or not my campaign is resonating with the voters. I think it is, and I think it is on some very important levels. And so we're in this to win this, as I say-in it to win it-and again, it's not personal. It's business. It's about who's got a message for fixing the problems the American people face?

COX: Let me ask you, as we close this discussion, as a strategy, how long can the Democrats afford to keep a full slate of candidates while the Republicans are able to focus their efforts to re-elect the president on one candidate and one platform?

Ms. BRAUN: Remember, it's the old Will Rogers. I don't belong to no organized group, I'm a Democrat. We're in the primary session right now. These are the primaries. They're also known as the preliminaries. And what that means is Democratic voters will get a chance to choose the standard-bearer that they want, that-to say, 'Who do we want speaking to what issues that we like?' And so I think it's important to have diversity of voice among the Democratic candidates in the preliminaries so that the voter can say, 'I want to vote for this guy or this woman because I care about health care' or 'I want to vote for this candidate because I care about my job or the economy. I want to vote for this candidate because of what they say to me about education or environment.' That's the basis on which candidates are chosen. All this horse race stuff, you know, is what I guess sells newspapers, and there's a whole industry around it. But in the end, it's the people's business that's at stake, and I think that in the end, this process is healthy for the people.

COX: Former US senator and ambassador Carol Moseley Braun is a Democratic candidate for president of the United States. Ambassador, thank you for being with us today.

Ms. BRAUN: Delighted to be with you.

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