Fox: On the Record With Greta Van Sustren - Transcript

Show: Fox On The Record With Greta Van Susteren (22:21)
July 8, 2004 Thursday
HEADLINE: Interview With Rev. Jesse Jackson

GUESTS: Rev. Jesse Jackson

BODY:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KERRY: ... that disenfranchising million African-Americans and stealing their votes is the best that we can do in America.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAN SUSTEREN: Are African-American voters happy with Senator Kerry's VP pick? Joining us from Chicago is Reverend Jesse Jackson, founder and president of the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition.

Reverend, what about it? Why no African-American as the selection for the vice president? Does it make you mad?

JESSE JACKSON, RAINBOW/PUSH COALITION: Well, it does not. Given the choices that surfaced, one could have said, Why not a woman? Why not a black? Edwards is a good choice. A Southern Democrat with a healing message is a net asset. Edwards's notion of two Americas, one white and one black, and we have to build a bridge, America of the very wealthy, a sinking middle class and the very poor, we have to build a bridge, America North and South, build a bridge. The idea of bridge building and closing the gap, one America and the one big tent-and that message has rather universal appeal, plus his own special gifts of charisma and his ability to communicate.

VAN SUSTEREN: You mean to tell me that with 13 percent of our population at least African-American in this country in the year 2004, we can't-that the Democratic ticket, which has always been the ticket that has gotten the African-American vote, could not find a strong African- American candidate so that at least the African-Americans are represented?

JACKSON: Oh, I will not make that case. But the fact-when I ran in '88, I got more delegates than all of the eight competitors, Kerry, combined. I got about as many votes as he got, but that's beside the point. Today there's a ticket, and it's Kerry and Edwards versus Cheney and Bush. And Edwards is a good pick because of his ability to impact the South. And he has credibility. You know, in 2000, one million African- American voters were disenfranchised, one of every seven. In Florida, 179,000 votes were not counted. Fifty-four percent were black. In Cook County, right here in Illinois, for example, they had the scanners inside the booths, and the Republican state senate (ph) would not allow them to be turned on. So the schemes to intensively disenfranchise black voters determined the outcome in 2000. That must not happen again.

VAN SUSTEREN: Well, so what are we doing to make it not happen again? I mean, everyone says we can't have it happen again, but I haven't seen a tremendous amount, you know, in any of these states-it costs a lot of money to make sure people are not disenfranchised. It's very bad to disenfranchise people. But what is being done that we don't have another Florida in November?

JACKSON: Well, certainly, in Florida, they just three weeks ago took off 50,000, 60,000 more black voters in their roll-purging scheme, and a judge ordered them to put half of them back on. Furthermore, they have now made them go public and publish the names of those who were removed because some of those removed should not have been removed. So the schemes to nullify voters and disenfranchise voters continues. There is no commitment to register, there's just a commitment to nullify. That's one issue.

The second issue, of course, is there's been a net loss of jobs in every state. The South has gotten the values message, the gun and the prayer flag, the prayer cloth, the flag and gays. But they've lost jobs and health care. In South Carolina, they've lost 75,000 jobs in the last three years. Right there in North Carolina, (UNINTELLIGIBLE) North Carolina, 8,000 workers (UNINTELLIGIBLE) lost their jobs. And so the message of jobs and health care is going to ring loudly across the South this season.

VAN SUSTEREN: Well, I don't know. I mean, it's still-the polls still show-that message may ring loud across the South, but according to at least the polls I'm seeing is the president still has the South locked up. But let me switch gears for one second. Bill Cosby has made some statements that have been quite controversial lately. They've been-many people have been offended by them. What do you think of what Bill Cosby has said?

JACKSON: Well, Bill Cosby-in effect, it was an attempt to lift up, not to tear down. He's saying that no one has any right to do less than their best, and that if you are behind, you have to run faster. But he didn't just talk about more effort. He also talked about more resources. I think responsibility and resources must go hand in hand. And for many of these urban areas, you simply have second-class schools and first-class jails. But Bill's message of responsibility is not a new message, but it's a sound message. It's not just motivation, it's also the issue of responsibility and equal protection under the law. And those are outstanding Civil Rights issues. So Mr. Bush, for example, has not met one time in three years with the NAACP, that has met with every president since Warren Harding, or organized labor. Why would a president turn his back and the Department of Justice's back on labor and Civil Rights?

VAN SUSTEREN: Well, it's...

JACKSON: It's not fair, and we deserve better.

VAN SUSTEREN: All right. Well, we'll see if in November, that message comes from the African-American community. Reverend Jackson, thank you very much for joining us.

JACKSON: Thank you.

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