WASHINGTON, May 4 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Democratic National Committee Chairman stood up to Republican attempts to distract from the truth about John McCain's own words on Fox News Sunday this morning. In an interview with FNS host Chris Wallace, Dean made it clear that recent DNC ads that show John McCain's comments on the economy and on being "fine" staying in Iraq for "100 years" are showing McCain not only in his own words but also how "out of touch" he is with the American people. The interview follows an aggressive push by John McCain and the Republican Party to resort to baseless legal complaints and blatant distortions to avoid defending McCain's promise of a third Bush term on everything from the economy to the war in Iraq. Dean also discussed the Democratic race, noting that "we're conducting vigorous primaries in all 50 states and in our territories, and that's going to matter in the fall."
The following are excerpts from the interview:
On the DNC's Ads Using John McCain's Own Words
On "100 Years"
"If the Republican National Committee would like to pay for the whole six minutes, I'd be happy to do it. I've said publicly that John McCain said he wants to keep our troops in Iraq for up to 100 years. He himself said some of that could be an occupation like South Korea or Germany, but the fact of the matter is first that anybody who thinks we can keep our troops in Iraq for 100 years without them being victimized by roadside bombs, suicide bombers and militias, I think is wrong and needs...to look carefully at their judgment. Secondly, Americans don't want our troops in Iraq for 100 years no matter what they're doing over there. We can't afford that. We need the money here at home for our jobs...
"What John McCain said is his plan is to deal with Iraq, is to stay there maybe for a hundred years, whether it's an occupational force or whatever the force is. Americans do not want our troops there for a hundred years. Look, we have huge deficits. Iraq is partly responsible for that. We're not investing in health care. We're not investing in our roads. We've got unemployment rising. We need to bring our troops out of Iraq. John McCain wants to stay in Iraq. He has no plan -- he has no plan to bring our troops home. Our guys do have a plan to bring our troops home...
"Our problem is that John McCain...is distorting what he said. The fact of the matter is he began and ended his clip by saying he's willing to stay in Iraq for a hundred years. That is not what the American people want under any circumstances, whether it's like South Korea or whether it's like Germany or whether it's continuing for a hundred years to be sniped at by Shia militia and so forth."
On "Better Off"
"Chris, if you'd gone on to play that thing that you just played, you would have seen him say again at the end, but Americans are 'better off' than they were, and they are not. Gas prices have gone from $1.10 a gallon in December of 2001 to about $3.50 now. The average American income was $49,000 in 2001. 2006 it was $48,000. That is unprecedented. Never have we had a president who came in where the average American income dropped $1,000 bucks in the first six years of their term. And what McCain is offering is four more years of George Bush. He wants to extend the Bush tax cuts, of course he was opposed to that two years ago. He wants to give a tax holiday on gas, that's fine and good and then he wants to pay for it by increasing taxes, or increasing what he called user fees, which he said was a tax increase himself when he was debating that with Mitt Romney. He has no economic plan. He has no plan for getting us out of Iraq. And I don't think our ads misrepresent anything...he concludes by saying, but things are better. They're not better. Americans know it and John McCain is simply out of touch."
On the Democratic Race
"I would like to have a nominee soon, but there are also some very good things going on. 35 million people have voted. We have all those folks in our voter file. Several -- hundreds of thousands of republicans have left their party and come to vote in our primary. We have all those people in our voter file. We are -- I didn't intend this when we started the 50-state strategy, but we're essentially conducting vigorous primaries in all 50 states and in our territories, and that's going to matter in the fall...So there are some good things going on. Yes, it's tough on the party. It's why I think the unpledged delegates need to say who they're for by the end of June so we'll know who our nominee is by the end of June, but there's also enormous merit to everybody in America getting a shot to vote for these candidates in the primary."
Paid for and authorized by the Democratic National Committee, www.democrats.org. This communication is not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.
SOURCE Democratic National Committee
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