If this doesn't run tomorrow, we will know that Berry has pulled it, and she must be held accountable.
Lyn
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Democracy Now! will run from 8-10 AM Eastern Wed Nov 8
NEWS RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE NOVEMBER 7, 2000 CONTACT: Amy Goodman (212) 209 2812/2811
ON ELECTION DAY, PACIFICA RADIO'S DEMOCRACY NOW! AND WBAI ASK CLINTON THE HARD QUESTIONS
President Clinton's temper flares when asked questions on Ralph Nader, death penalty, Middle East
New York City - When President Clinton called Pacifica Radio's WBAI on election day morning to shore up the vote for Vice President Al Gore and First Lady Hillary Clinton, he did not expect to spend 30 minutes defending his administration's record on the death penalty, the Middle East and racial profiling, among other issues. But that is exactly what happened when he encountered Amy Goodman, host of Pacifica's flagship newsmagazine Democracy Now! and Gonzalo Aburto, host of WBAI's Alternativa Latina.
The journalists confronted Clinton for flying back to Arkansas in 1992 during the presidential campaign to execute Ricky Ray Rector, a mentally impaired man, questioned his administration's support of sanctions against Iraq, killing thousands of children every month, and asked him whether he would grant executive clemency to Native American activist Leonard Peltier, who is serving life sentence for murder at Leavenworth Penitentiary in Kansas. This was the first time that Clinton has addressed the Peltier case publicly.
The interview began with Goodman asking the President: "You are calling radio stations telling people to vote. What do you say to people who feel the two parties are bought by corporations and that at this point their vote doesn't make a difference?" Clinton responded that "there is not a shred of evidence to support that."
Clinton provided lengthy answers to Goodman's and Aburto's questions, but got increasingly angry at their critical nature. At one point he showed his famous temper, raising his voice at Goodman: "You have asked questions in a hostile, combative and even disrespectful tone." He agreed with Goodman's assertion that the US "has the largest number of prisoners in the industrialized world" (2 million by the latest counts), dodged a question on whether he would issue an executive order banning racial profiling, saying "we are trying to find a way to issue orders and rules and reservations that end racial profiling" and finally lost his temper when Goodman suggested that he was partly responsible for Green Party candidate Ralph Nader's popularity "for having driven the Democratic Party to the right."
"Now you listen to this, the other thing that Ralph Nader says is that he is as pure as Ceasar's wife on the environment," Clinton fumed, proceeding to rattle off the administration's accomplishments. Goodman then countered with questions on the death penalty and the administration's passage of NAFTA and other free trade agreements, to which Clinton answered that "two thirds of the American people support that."
Democracy Now!, Pacifica Radio's daily national grassroots newsmagazine, airs Monday through Friday on community radio stations around the country. Tomorrow's two-hour "Election 2000: The Morning After" special will include the interview in full. Check local listings. In the New York area, the election special will air on November 8 on WBAI-FM 99.5 (8-10 am).
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