Jonathan in another TV interview - with the German television station ARD

Watch Jonathan on the Gabe Pressman show this Sunday starting at 6:30am on WNBC.
Below is a transcript of the interview. Jonathan was interviewed by Jay DeDapper, who is standing in for Gabe Pressman while he is on vacation.

Clinton Challenger Jonathan Tasini
JAY DeDAPPER, host:
The shock waves from Ned Lamont's historic victory on Tuesday night are still reverberating. This week, the Connecticut Senate race became the political stunner of the summer. Joe Lieberman, a Democratic icon, a two-time candidate for national office, beaten by a political novice. Now, the Democratic Party stands at a crossroads. How will the Iraq war factor into elections beyond the borders of Connecticut? We'll bring together a panel of experts to talk about the heart and soul of the Democratic Party. And will this man benefit?
Mr. JONATHAN TASINI (Democratic Senate Candidate): OK, ma'am, thank you very much. Thank you.
DeDAPPER: He's Senate candidate Jonathan Tasini. His bid to unseat Hillary Clinton is the longest of long shots. But he's hoping his anti-war candidacy will make him the Ned Lamont of New York.
Announcer: From Studio 6B in Rockefeller Center, this is NEWS FORUM.
DeDAPPER: And good morning, everybody. I'm political reporter Jay DeDapper. We have Jonathan Tasini with us in the studio. He is running against Hillary Clinton. We asked a question earlier this week in one of our stories, do you know this man? It is a bit of a problem running against Hillary Clinton to get attention, I would imagine.
Mr. TASINI: Well, I think it's hard in this world of money, where you need millions and millions of dollars to get attention. It's hard to do that because the media doesn't necessarily pay attention. But we're doing an amazing job, you know. We needed 15,000 signatures to get on the ballot. We got 40,000 signatures, all primarily through volunteers. So throughout the state, we're building an incredible grass roots campaign.
DeDAPPER: Are you the Ned Lamont of New York? I mean, can you do what he did in Connecticut?
Mr. TASINI: Well, what I like to look at is the recent Marist Poll, the one that came out about the--the first one that came out about our race. I'm polling exactly at the spot that Ned Lamont was at some months ago when they first started looking at that race. More important...
DeDAPPER: Which means you're 50 some odd points down?
Mr. TASINI: Yes, that's correct. I think maybe even a little more. But more important is what that poll showed where voters are at. Sixty-two percent of the voters in that poll said that they would for a candidate who opposed the war. Only 9 percent said they would vote for a candidate who supports the war, and Hillary Clinton voted for the war, continues to support the occupation. I am for immediate safe withdrawal of the troops.
DeDAPPER: When you talk about where you are at in the polls and where Ned Lamont was at in the polls, there's one big difference: He spent as much, and it may turn out as even more money, than Joe Lieberman in that rice. The ads were on the air constantly in Connecticut. That makes a big difference. She's got $22 million, Hillary Clinton. You've got, on the last filing, like 11,000 in the bank.
Mr. TASINI: Right. We're doing a little bit better because of the recent Connecticut situation. Money is coming in, flowing in every day, volunteers are coming in. Look, there's no question, my opponent, Hillary Clinton, has, as you say, $25 million. She's been helped by Rupert Murdoch, who's raised money for her, Bush fund-raiser Tom O'Gara has been raising money for her. She gets the most money from lobbyists. Only Rick Santorum gets more money from lobbyists. She gets money from the drug companies and insurance companies. We get money from regular people. So there's no question there's a money imbalance. But again, I'm so excited about this race, from the very beginning, because of the ads and grass roots effort that we have out here. People are really anxious, they want a change, they want a choice.
DeDAPPER: You've got a month to go until the New York Primary, which is held at a slightly more reasonable time, early September as opposed to early August. What can you do in the next month to close that gap? Again, without money, you're not going to be, you know, throwing up an ad blitz. And can you make just the war enough of an issue to close that gap?
Mr. TASINI: Well, let start with the last point. The war is what got me into this race, and the war is, to me, the issue in this race, as Democratic voters have said in the polls. Seventy percent believe that the Iraq war has to be the central issue. And it's not just the 2600 men and women--hundred men and women in uniform that have been killed, the tens of thousands of Iraqis that have been killed, the 1 to $2 trillion that we've spent, will spend on the war, it's that people feel that something has gone wrong in America. And I see the Iraq war as a metaphor. I'm also campaigning and trying to get health care for every single American, what we call Medicare for all, from cradle to grave. I'm campaigning against abusive corporate power. People are afraid of--that their pensions are being taken away, that their wages are not going up. Hillary Clinton is very much connected to corporate power. She supports so-called free trade like NAFTA. I oppose NAFTA. I think it's been a disaster for our country. So we have a very, very broad, progressive agenda. But clearly, the war is what people are tapping, turning very angry about.
DeDAPPER: What's why people are paying attention, and with Ned Lamont's victory, they're paying more attention. What do you think in Iraq needs to be done? You said immediately--immediate withdrawal. A lot of people, a lot of people who are progressive and liberal say maybe that's not what needs to happen right now because Iraq will fall apart, it will be bad for the US in the long run and in the short run, it'll be bad for Iraq, it'll be bad for the Iraqi people, it'll slip into civil war. You've heard the arguments.
Mr. TASINI: Well, yes, and I support for Congressman Jim McGovern from Massachusetts is proposing right now in a piece of legislation. Three things: safe and immediate withdrawal of the United States troops. As we withdraw, replacing the US military with an international security force, made up of, particularly of countries in the region. I lived in the region for a number of years. Pakistan, Egypt and Jordan want a stable Iraq for their own internal reasons. They are, frankly, not democracies, and they're worried at an unstable Iraq that the extremists, the Islamicists, the al-Qaeda elements will come into their countries and destabilize their regimes. And the third thing, which is, I believe, morally responsible--responsible for, is rebuilding Iraq. We are going to be writing checks to rebuild Iraq for many years to come.
DeDAPPER: You say you lived in the region. You lived in Israel.
Mr. TASINI: That's correct.
DeDAPPER: What do you think of this situation now? You were critical of Hillary Clinton earlier this week and critical of the US position in supporting Israel in going after Hezbollah, regardless of what the UN and some European countries are saying.
Mr. TASINI: Well, let me--a little background. My father was born in Palestine. He fought in the Israeli underground, the Haganah. I lived in Israel for seven years. My cousin was killed in 1973 in the war, and my step-grandfather was murdered by a Palestinian. He was an old man, he was just sitting on a park bench and he came behind him and hit him with an ax. In retaliation for the massacre that Baruk Goldstein, you may remember, cut down many Muslims who were at peace praying at a mosque. And for that reason, for that reason, I love Israel and I'm critical of what's happened there, because I believe that there will never be security and peace until number one, we resolve the Palestinian-Israel conflict. And that means having an independent Palestinian state and an economically viable Palestinian state.
And the current situation, I condemned Hezbollah. They broke the law, they are a terrorist organization, but, and I think this is happening in Israel now, there's much debate that the government blew it, that they should not have responded in the way they did, that it was an overreaction. And I think if Ariel Sharon, and I never thought I'd be quoting Ariel Sharon, but if he had been prime minister, he would have done what he did before, which is when the Israeli businessman was kidnapped some time ago, he negotiated with Hezbollah, released prisoners. I think this will turn out to be a disaster for Israel. And my criticism is because I love Israel and I consider it to be a militarily foolish thing to have done.
DeDAPPER: All right. Jonathan Tasini, thanks for coming in this morning. We talked about the war, we talked about Israel. You've got an uphill climb but you've got a month to go, and we'll see how it goes. Thanks for coming in this morning.
Mr. TASINI: Thank you for having me.
DeDAPPER: All right. We'll be back in just a minute.