Christopher Dodd

Transcript: Christopher Dodd during the third Democratic 2008 presidential primary debate (June 28, 2007) (the All-American Presidential Forum on PBS moderated by Tavis Smiley held at Howard University in Washington, DC)

MR. DODD: Well, let me add -- let me add my voice in thanking Howard University for hosting this this evening and Tavis, thank you as well.

It’s an appropriate first question that was asked here. And to bring up the issue of education, of discrimination, at this wonderful institution is critically important. The shame of all of this is that long before the decision was reached today or yesterday in the Seattle cases, the shame of resegregation has been occurring for years in our country here. The reality that our public educational system is today a segregated system and that we have not taken enough leadership over the years to understand the great damage that has done to our country.

This evening there’ll be many subjects that’ll be raised, and important ones. None is more important, in my view, than the issue of education. Whether or not from the earliest education opportunity to the highest level of education opportunity, this is the key to equal access to our society. It is something that can never be taken away from you if you get it. To say today that you’re going to exclude race as a means of allowing for the diversity in our communities is a major step backwards. And as president of the United States, I would use whatever tool is available to me to see to it that we reverse this decision today, get back on the track to see to it that our country once again will identify with the identity of unity as a nation, blind, if you will, to the racial distinctions in our society. That’s the only way we’re going to deal with the new frontiers of the 21st century. The barrios, the ghettos, and the reservations of our society. That’s what I stand for, that’s what we’ll achieve as a Democratic administration.

MR. WICKHAM: Thank you, Tavis. This question is about the link between education and poverty. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2006 the unemployment rate of black high school graduates -- black high school graduates -- was 33 percent higher than the unemployment rate for white high school dropouts. To what do you attribute this inequity, which keeps many black families locked in the grip of poverty?

SEN. DODD: Thank you, Tavis.

As I said at the outset on the first question, I don’t believe there’s any other issue as important as this one we’ll discuss this evening, as education. There’s a lot of good talk here, and I admire the fact that my colleagues here and candidates all care deeply about this issue. I stand before you as a candidate. We have to make a decision about, who is our best candidate to win the presidency in 2008?

For 26 years, through five terms in the United States Senate, I have dedicated myself to this issue. I’m very proud of the fact that Marian Wright Edelman of the Children’s Defense Fund has come to me over and over again, and proud to have authored the legislation to deal with the whole child, that authored the first child care legislation in this country, to begin in the earliest days to make sure that parents have the assurance that there will be a quality place for their child to be, and an affordable place, an available place, and then to begin with early childhood education, to see to it that we’d have a good Head Start program.

I’m proud of the fact that I was called the Senator of the Decade by National Head Start Association. (Applause.) I have walked the walk on these issues; I am committed to these issues. There’s nothing that will be a higher priority to me as president of the United States than to see to it that America’s children, from the earliest days of their arrival, certainly through the upper education branches of our educational system, have the equal opportunity.

None of us here can guarantee success --

MR. SMILEY: Senator Dodd.

SEN. DODD: -- but we have an obligation to guarantee an opportunity to that success. The key to that door is the education of the American child. (Applause.)

MS. MARTIN: Thank you, Tavis. Good evening, Governor. Good evening, candidates. I’m sure you’ll agree there are a lot of beautiful young people out here in the audience today, and we’re very pleased to be here at Howard University. So you can imagine how disturbed we were to find out from the Centers for Disease Control that African-Americans, though 17 percent of all American teenagers, they are 69 percent of the population of teenagers diagnosed with HIV/AIDS. Governor and candidates, what is the plan to stop and to protect these young people from this scourge?

SEN. DODD: Well, thank you.

I want to -- I’d certainly underscore a number of the suggestions that have been made dealing with this. I’d add another one additionally, and that is the -- a need for far broader usage of school-based clinics in our society, where children have the opportunity to be able to confront and talk with people that may be willing to give them the kind of sound advice they need on sexual education and the like.

But also each and every one of us can play a role in this. There’s a job, obviously, for government here in funding and support. But I believe that each and every citizen bears a responsibility to reach out and do what they can to educate a child. Our church is doing this in many ways. We need to do a better job in our schools, inviting parents and insisting there be more participation in our school systems.

It isn’t just HIV/AIDS. The minority community, the African American community, in our country suffers from a lack of access to a wide variety of health care needs. Infant mortality among the black community is two-and-a-half times what it is in the white community. The problems of cardiovascular diseases, obesity, diabetes -- you go down a long list. (Applause.)

It isn’t just AIDS; it’s a wide range of these issues. And we need to begin to address this issue by understanding that it isn’t just universal coverage but access to that coverage which has been missing --

MR. SMILEY: Senator Dodd.

SEN. DODD: -- and to understand there’s a variety of issues that need to be addressed in addition to HIV/AIDS.

MR. SMILEY: Senator Dodd. (Laughter.)

SEN. DODD: But each and every one of us as citizens can make a difference. (Applause.)

MR. SMILEY: Senator Clinton.

SEN. DODD: I was going to say, Tavis, I was going to say, I’ll take Global Warming for 600 here. I thought maybe -- (laughter).

MR. SMILEY: Yeah, and I -- Senator.

SEN. DODD: (Laughs.)

MR. SMILEY: Senator Dodd.

SEN. DODD: Sort of the end of the line here.

MR. NAVARRETTE: Thank you, Tavis. This week billionaire Warren Buffett said that the very wealthy aren’t taxed nearly enough. In fact, he noted -- (applause) -- in fact, he noted that he’s taxed at a lower rate than some of his employees, who earn much less. Do you agree that the rich aren’t paying their fair share of taxes? And if so, what would you do about it?

SEN. DODD: Thank you, Tavis. I happen to believe very strongly that our tax and fiscal policies ought to reflect our moral values and that our tax and fiscal policies ought to be fair, responsible, and pro-growth, as well. We live in a society where obviously it’s going to be important to expand our economy so that jobs will be created, businesses can grow, people have an opportunity in this life.

I’m deeply disappointed, as many. We had a very good period of time, I might say, under the Clinton administration, where we balanced the budget. We had a tax policy that was much more fair. We need to get back to those days again where we had that kind of fiscal policy.

One of the taxes that needs to be addressed -- because we’re losing manufacturing jobs in this country. We today reward industries that leave America by giving them tax breaks. I would like to see us reward companies that stay in our inner cities, go to places where jobs ought to be created. (Applause.) That to be a part of our tax policy as well.

MR. WICKHAM: Okay. Okay, please stay with me on this one. According to FBI data, blacks were roughly 29 percent of persons arrested in this country between 1996 and 2005. Whites were 70 percent of people arrested during this period. Yet at the end of this 10-year period, whites were 40 percent of those who were inmates in this country, and blacks were approximately 38 percent. What does this data suggest to you?

SEN. DODD: Well, I agree -- I think the mandatory minimum sentencing has been a disaster. I’m a strong supporter of Charlie Rangel’s efforts here to eliminate the distinction between crack cocaine and powder cocaine. (Applause.) That’ll have a big difference in terms of who actually goes to jail in this country.

And then obviously, as well, we need to have a Justice Department that is not going to be politicized, as we’ve watched this one, with U.S. attorneys who do the political work rather than doing the justices’ work in our country. As president, I will insist upon that. I’m sure the rest of my colleagues would here. We’ll get better justice with Democrats in the White House.

MS. MARTIN: Okay. The question is, would you support a federal law guaranteeing the right to return to New Orleans and other Gulf regions devastated by Hurricane Katrina, based on the United Nations human rights standards governing the internal displacement of citizens -- and I can go further -- that includes the requirement that authorities establish conditions and provides the means to allow internally displaced persons to return voluntarily in safety and dignity?

SEN. DODD: I would as well. I -- New Orleans and Katrina have become a symbol of everything that went wrong with this administration’s failure to respond to a people in need. I could think of no better way to have New Orleans and Katrina, that event, become a symbol of what we can do right in this country, by giving people the opportunity to come back and the support they will need to regain their lives.

This is an American city. Anywhere else in America, we’d want to step up and see to it that people would get that help; this is the least we ought to be able to do to see to it they get their lives back together.

MR. NAVARRETTE: A lot of Americans are concerned with outsourcing of U.S. jobs. Most corporations, I think it’s fair to say, don’t share that concern. In fact, they argue that we’re living in a global economy and Americans have to compete in that environment. Which side are you on? And if you agree that outsourcing is a problem, what’s your solution?

SEN. DODD: Yes, I disagree. I think it’s a huge issue here. The fact of the matter is we’re exporting a lot of valuable jobs in this country and we shouldn’t be doing it. I offered legislation that was passed that prohibited the Defense Department for outsourcing contracts, going off our shores here when many hard-working Americans ought to be allowed to do those jobs.

I talked earlier about providing tax incentives. When you have people literally driving to the international airports to fly to some country to provide some funding for a local project in those nations, bypassing the very communities that could very well use those kind of jobs and economic growth, that is wrong. I will continue to do what I can to see to it that we limit outsourcing American jobs. (Applause.)

MR. WICKHAM: This question is about Darfur. This is the second time that our nation has had a chance to do something about genocide in Africa. The first came in Rwanda in 1994, when we did nothing as more than a half a million people were slaughtered there. What does this country’s unwillingness to move aggressively to end the slaughters that take place in Darfur today -- what does it say about our claim to moral leadership?

SEN. DODD: Well, we’ve unfortunately, as a result of our conflict in Iraq, the sustaining of a military presence there, have lost our moral authority, unfortunately. And as a result of that, our ability to mobilize the world on issues like Darfur has been severely damaged.

But the United States should be able to take some unilateral action here in providing the kind of protection where people are being slaughtered in that country; and in the meantime, get our military out of Iraq, as I’ve planned and offered to do, and thus regain that stature, which we need to be doing as a nation in this world and be able to build those coalitions --

MR. SMILEY: Senator Dodd.

SEN. DODD: -- (that will ?) respond to an issue like Darfur. But in the meantime, the United States ought to act. (Applause.)

Read Christopher Dodd's transcript from the first primary debate here

Read Christopher Dodd's transcript from the second primary debate here

2008 Democratic Candidates:

Joe Biden
Hillary Clinton
Christopher Dodd
John Edwards
Mike Gravel
Dennis Kucinich
Barack Obama
Bill Richardson