1. Mediaite
  2. Gossip Cop
  3. Geekosystem
  4. Styleite
  5. SportsGrid
  6. The Mary Sue
  7. The Jane Dough
  8. The Braiser
Advertisement

Eliot Spitzer Grills Rep. Dennis Kucinich On Being Too Friendly With Syrian Dictator

video
» 25 comments

Most of what comes into American news from Syria are horrible tales of purges currently being undertaken by the draconian regime in power, in order to assure dictator Bashar al-Assad‘s immunity from the democratic movements across the Middle East. Rep. Dennis Kucinich, however, has brought back from Syria a different story, and on In the Arena last night, host Eliot Spitzer took the Congressman to task for fraternizing with a murderer.

Spitzer first allowed Rep. Kucinich to explain what he was doing in Syria in the first place, and what he got out of his rare private meeting with the Syrian leader– “Does he genuinely want to reform governance?” While Rep. Kucinich joked that he couldn’t “look into his soul,” he did vouch for al-Assad’s awareness that he needed “to bring democratic reforms… he is ready to work with pro-democracy advocates.”

That last part, however, Spitzer found no justification for, and he didn’t mince his words: “this is a brutal dictator who over the course of his and his father’s regime has murdered tens of thousands of people.” To Kucinich’s argument that the possible replacements for a toppled Assad regime may be a worse remedy than the disease, Spitzer presented disbelief. “You can’t possibly be saying that the concern of disruption after his departure should in any way excuse or permit us to support his continued reign of terror.” This incensed Rep. Kucinich, who snapped back, “don’t try to put me in a position where I’m suddenly endorsing a regime whose human rights record has been abominable and where there’s violence in the streets.” At that assertion, Spitzer seemed to shift his accusations from support to mere naivete: “he’s Western-educated, listens to Western music… and then he murders.”

The heated exchanged via CNN below:

Follow us on Twitter.

Sign up for Mediaite's daily newsletter.

Email Twitter Facebook Digg Reddit Stumble Upon Yahoo Buzz LinkedIn Tumblr Delicious
  • GoneFishing

    No one thinks Assad is a fan of civil rights, but to think it will get better just because Assad is gone is naive in the extreme. If you are wondering where all this unrest is suddenly coming from, you need look no further than Iran.

    The Ayatollah, who holds supreme power in Iran is in the end game of a plan started 20ys ago; a Middle East that is unified under a single Islamic identity.

    Libya and Khadafi did not support Iran, but the ‘Rebels’ do.

    Egypt did not support Iran, but those seeking power there do.

    Bahrain did not support Iran, but those organizing the protests are funded buy Iran.

    Yemen does not support Iran, But those protesting, bombing and murdering do.

    Neither does Lebanon, Mauritania, Saudi Arabia, Sudan or Western Sahara…but the protesters or ‘rebels’ in everyone of those countries do support Iran and the Ayatollah. Every One.

    Iran is behind every so-called ‘Peoples’ Uprising’ through the mid-east, and Iran is support these up-risings with weapons, explosives, money and intelligence.

    This ground swell of protest was no accident, and while many western ‘Journalists’ have a love affair for Protests no matter where they are…this is not flower-power and Berkeley in the 60′s. This is murder and intimidation directed by Iran for political ends…A Greater Islam. This chain of insurgent led revolts is not intended to produce anything like western style Democratic Governments, and only a Western reporter would be so naive or ignorant to think it is

    The Goal is to create a Pan-Islamic block of nations with one mind and one leader, Iran; That is the reality.

  • struckgld

    Dennis Kucinich believes he was taken by Aliens to another planet. Pardon me for pondering for a minute WHAT KIND OF IDIOTS IN THIS COUNTRY PAY SO LITTLE ATTENTION TO THE PEOPLE THEY VOTE FOR THAT THEY VOTED THIS GUY AS THEIR REPRESENTATIVE!

  • glenn113

    Eliot is right. There are tons of right-wing nuts. Dennis happens to be a left-wing nut.

  • glenn113

    The left still has a long, long way to go to even get close to the right-wing.

  • Jaurez

    Coddling terrorist dictators and being progressive go hand in hand.

  • Yoda002

    Syria gets out of control it creates huge problems in the whole region. I’m afraid we may end up having to send troops there in the near future.

  • btimsah

    I care about America, not Syria. Our blood and treasure should not be spent on improving, or changing their government in form or fashion. It’s up to the people of Syria to fight for the changes they want, just as it was up to our founders and those who fought for our revolution and survival. I care about the people of Syria, but their form of government is THEIR responsibility, not ours. Period.

    This interview and the way the interventionists are spinning what Kucinich did because they’re control freak interventionists who want war all over the war. They’d be happy with 15 wars and would continue to say – we can’t question our President in a time of war. What? Excuse me, but I can and will.

    NO MORE LIES. NO MORE SPINNING.

  • Pokerdude777

    I’m sick and tired of America being the world police. Let’s stop losing Precious American lives and much needed Financial resources for these third world lunatic fringes. I’m sick of hearing about aids in Africa and hunger in Haiti when we have homeless hungry children here. Our jails are full of people who need medical treatment for drug related offenses. Let’s fix all our problems first.

    If it affects the safety of American citizens it’s one thing, but if it only affects the price of oil then we keep our nose out of the lunes way. Issue a warning to the idiots if we are being affected and when no response comes just use tomahawk missles and drones.

  • ghjgbh

    welcome to our website:

    === http://globalsell.org/ ===-

    shirts,bags,hat and the decorations.
    if you like to order anything you like.
    More details,
    please just browse our website Quality is our Dignity;
    Service is our Lift.
    enjoy yourself.
    thank you!!

  • Sanders Youth

    Thank you again Francis, you are on quite a roll with your hard hitting reporting this day. Everyone who is a Real American from Real America knows that Dennis Kucinich sympathizes with cold blooded murderers like Bashar al-Assad who listens to Western music. Not only that his favorite music is of a UK blues based (Satanic black music) band by the name of Led Zeppelin who have written many songs praising their real Lord Satan. In fact I have played one of their albums backwards ever since my pastor told me about it called Stairway to Heaven and when you play it backwards it is a prayer to Satan, it is chilling and will scare all good God fearing Christians as it should.

    Notice in this clip that the known Satanist and husband of a woman from the same country as the Satanists Led Zeppelin writes something down, I have gotten good at something called “secondary writing”‘ which my pastor taught me, it is when you can tell what someone writes by watching their pen. I have decoded what the known Satanist Kucinich has written and it is “My Sweet Satan” which incidentally is the same Satanic Prayer in the song Stairway to Heaven, the favorite music of the Satanist Bashar al-Assad.

    Also Dennis Kucinich’s wife has a tongue ring, which is the jewelry of Satan.

    God Bless.

  • Sanders Youth

    glenn113 said:
    Eliot is right. There are tons of right-wing nuts. Dennis happens to be a left-wing nut.

    Glenn not only is Dennis Kucinich a left wing nut, but he is a tool of Satan who if you will read my earlier post wrote a secret Satanic message at the end of the clip. We as Americans need to take note of the evil influence that Satan has in our government.

    I don’t know if you are aware of this but Washington DC was designed by a French Freemason and known Satanist. If you look at a map of Washington DC you will notice streets shaped in the five point pentagram and one that is shaped like an owl which is the animal kingdom’s most Satanic animal

    All Real Americans from the Real America need to wake up, we are being ruled by known Satanists and Dennis Kucinich’s wife is a well known Satanic Witch from the U.K. with a tongue ring and she has red hair which as everyone knows is Satan’s favorite color of hair.

    God Bless.

  • glenn113

    I know this much that America is no longer a democracy. It has turned into a plutocracy being ruled by big corporations , i.e. The Koch Brothers, big oil, G.E.. and the big radio and television monopoly, Newstech. (Fox News) who provide the propoganda for the very wealthy. You could show the Tea Party people the facts until you’re blue in your face but their mind is made up. They are so misguided that the Koch Brothers, Freedom Works, Kar Rove, etc. has them doing their groundwork for them and against their own interests.. It is what it is..

  • http://www.zazzle.com/talkingpoints NORBIT Jr.

    glenn113 said:
    I know this much that America is no longer a democracy. It has turned into a plutocracy being ruled by big corporations , i.e. The Koch Brothers, big oil, G.E.. and the big radio and television monopoly, Newstech. (Fox News) who provide the propoganda for the very wealthy. You could show the Tea Party people the facts until you’re blue in your face but their mind is made up. They are so misguided that the Koch Brothers, Freedom Works, Kar Rove, etc. has them doing their groundwork for them and against their own interests.. It is what it is..

    The willingness to take on responsibility, and their well-reasoned positions on current situations, will preclude the scenario you laid out above from ever happening.

    The threat – albeit, significantly reduced in the last election – really lies in a further concentration of centralized government control.
    How many times, throughout history, must these people be shown that it doesn’t work?!

  • The Lantern of Truth

    Eliot Spitzer Grills Rep. Dennis Kucinich

    No one would grill Kucinich . He’s vegetarian .

  • Sanders Youth

    And God Bless The Children Of The Beasts Motley Crue.

  • The Voice of Reason

    glenn113 said:
    Eliot is right. There are tons of right-wing nuts. Dennis happens to be a left-wing nut.

    glenn113 said:
    The left still has a long, long way to go to even get close to the right-wing.

    What? When was that even touched upon? So you see a story about people being tortured, beaten, and massacred in countries around the world, and the first thing that comes to your mind is ‘my side is better than theirs’. How disgusting. This had nothing to do with political sidings, and you bring it in. Are you really that unaware globally? Because you really have a one-track, narrow-minded world view. People like you are disgusting.

    All while rape, and slaughter plague a world in turmoil. Truly sickening.

  • GreyGoose

    glenn113 said:
    America is no longer a democracy.

    Before you go being critical of TP-ers, you just get a bit of knowledge yourself. America never was a democracy, it is a republic.

  • GreyGoose

    Kuciich is just following the lead of the Obama administration. Since he became Pres, Obama has been try to be nice to Syria “so that they might like us.” Just a couple months ago- as Assad was machine-gunning citizens in the street- Sec.of State Clinton called Assad a “reformer.”

    http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/143161

  • GreyGoose

    NORBIT Jr. said:
    The threat – albeit, significantly reduced in the last election – really lies in a further concentration of centralized government control.
    How many times, throughout history, must these people be shown that it doesn’t work?!

    He doesn’t know what you’re talking about. Dude gets all his talking points from Kos & Crew. Anytime you see one of these zombies mention Koch Bros & Carl Rove in the same sentence, chances are they know nothing beyond what their masters tell them.

  • carlinist

    GoneFishing said:
    The Goal is to create a Pan-Islamic block of nations with one mind and one leader, Iran; That is the reality.

    I dissent from that argument
    Here is the thing with the Arabs in the middle eastern countries don’t like US. That is a fact. While some believe its because of Isreal, it really isn’t. Take a look at Saudi Arabia, where all the Arab folk have been kept subjugated by the government for long. In Saudi Arabia, companies(mostly oil) openly hire Immigrants over the Arabs and the if you look at the proportion between the Arab labor and the immigrant labor in that country, it is extremely disproportionate and gives the immigrants the advantage. While this has led very high anti immigrant sentiment, it has also led very high anti-government sentiments too because the government, not only has done little, but has actually allowed companies to do so for a long time, since they give them income. While this has not been the problem for these many years, it has been now because of the ECONOMY. When people are impoverished, and are in deep economic trouble, they turn to the government. When the government does nothing, they turn to other groups, like religion, which in the case of middle east, is Islam. Mosques are what have sheltered the Egyptian underground and has aided them in their recent revolution. The Islamic groups comprise mostly of the Muslim Brotherhood which has aided recent struggles. While it is easy to blame these groups for “Islamic theocracy”, it really isn’t as easy as that. Look at Iran, where we, during Operation Ajax, put the Shah in power. It was poverty among people there and the autocracy of his rule there that allowed the Islamists to gain control of Iran. People there weren’t inherently extremists. They turned to Islamists when they had no other options and the Islamists took advantage( by power grabbing, which happens most of the time in revolutions). the National front, a liberal secular group overthrew the Shah, but in the end, Islam won, due to wide support from the people there for the Ayatollah and Anti American sentiments the group showed. The National Front simply didn’t show that level of extremism and anger and thus the people chose Islam, believing the National Front wouldn’t change anything and in the end the group got banned and supressed.. Has the support of the theocracy grown in Iran over the years? mixed results, some hate the authoritarian rule, while some support it, simply because they hate the US and so does that government.

    Same is going on now in these states. While not getting involved might lead to resentment towards us, like it did in the Iran, getting involved and arming them will make them more dangerous, like the Taliban we armed during the cold war. Middle East is the product of our continual involvement in the Internal affairs of the governments there to benefit our interests (mostly oil). We have made their governments deaf to their “electorate”, either deliberately or unknowingly. We have made them hate US. The paradox of involvement is something that is going to cost us a lot either way. Middle East is a sink hole that we should get out of before it consumes our economy and increases our debt. We are in the Middle East for oil and we have altered the governments there severely, to a point where people there have risen up and projected their anger on the governments there and the US. Iran does benefit from this and will gain short term advantages in the middle east. However, over along term, if we don’t get involved and leave the Middle East, Iran will soon lose prominence, considering the main object(US) that has kept them in power for this long has gone, it will fade and the government there will lose power. Ultimately the Shiite-Sunni gap will restore balance in the Middle East.

    Let us get out of middle east and end our energy dependence there by getting some oil here. Let us fund more nuclear energy projects and stop using nuclear energy on bombs and rather use them on more productive causes.

    Anyways going back to my main argument, While Iran will gain some benefits from the revolution, calling the revolutionaries as simply Iranian saboteurs who destroy secular middle eastern governments and bring Iranian control in the middle east, is simply an inaccurate exaggeration and shows you have no idea whats going on.
    I have lived in middle east for years as an immigrant and trust me I know. Knowing the ideology of people is key to understanding politics.. always.

  • carlinist

    GreyGoose said:
    it is a republic.

    actually a constitutional republic :P

    Now its more of a corporate run meritocracy which is run by consumers who buy stuff they don’t want with money they don’t have.. but…

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Danny-Ross/100002149217620 Danny Ross

    President Assad is the ruler of his country. He rules with the support of something like 15% of the population by terrorizing the remaining 85%. His party has been in power in Syria since 1963, when it seized power in coup. He sees no reason to allow this situation to change because the Scolder-in-chief wants it. Change the situation: Suppose that there were protests in the USA demanding that President Obama give up power. Does anyone think there wouldn’t be people killed putting down the protests, or that President Obama would just leave?

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Bruce-Kennedy/1439463341 Bruce

    GoneFishing said:
    No one thinks Assad is a fan of civil rights, but to think it will get better just because Assad is gone is naive in the extreme. If you are wondering where all this unrest is suddenly coming from, you need look no further than Iran.

    The Ayatollah, who holds supreme power in Iran is in the end game of a plan started 20ys ago; a Middle East that is unified under a single Islamic identity.

    Libya and Khadafi did not support Iran, but the ‘Rebels’ do.

    Egypt did not support Iran, but those seeking power there do.

    Bahrain did not support Iran, but those organizing the protests are funded buy Iran.

    Yemen does not support Iran, But those protesting, bombing and murdering do.

    Neither does Lebanon, Mauritania, Saudi Arabia, Sudan or Western Sahara…but the protesters or ‘rebels’ in everyone of those countries do support Iran and the Ayatollah. Every One.

    Iran is behind every so-called ‘Peoples’ Uprising’ through the mid-east, and Iran is support these up-risings with weapons, explosives, money and intelligence.

    This ground swell of protest was no accident, and while many western ‘Journalists’ have a love affair for Protests no matter where they are…this is not flower-power and Berkeley in the 60’s. This is murder and intimidation directed by Iran for political ends…A Greater Islam. This chain of insurgent led revolts is not intended to produce anything like western style Democratic Governments, and only a Western reporter would be so naive or ignorant to think it is

    The Goal is to create a Pan-Islamic block of nations with one mind and one leader, Iran; That is the reality.

    Dude I’m going to play Ronald Regan, here. Trust but verify. How is it you know what the intentions of all these Middle Eastern countries are? And explain to me, when everyone knows that Syria is allied with Iran, why Iran would be orchestrating these protests against it’s ally?

  • http://none pyrope

    Dennis seems plenty short on friends, but he should definitely try to schmooze a different kind of people.

  • GoneFishing

    Bruce said:
    Dude I’m going to play Ronald Regan, here. Trust but verify. How is it you know what the intentions of all these Middle Eastern countries are? And explain to me, when everyone knows that Syria is allied with Iran, why Iran would be orchestrating these protests against it’s ally?

    A good question. While Assad has worked with Iran in the past, that is not happening now. For whatever reason (determining motive in someone like the Ayatollah is chancy at the best of times) It seems Iran is backing the Rebels in Syria. I suspect for the same reason they are backing the Rebels in Libya. Neither Assad nor Khadafi wish to be the subject of anyone; They Like being King. Irans goal however is to be ‘First among Equals’ in a new Islamic union or caliphate…Imagine an EU like structure, but where all are ruled by Sharia Law, with final judgment coming from the Ayatollah.

© 2012 Mediaite, LLC | About Us | Advertise | Newsletter | Jobs | Privacy | User Agreement | Disclaimer | Power Grid FAQ | Contact | Archives | RSS RSS
Dan Abrams, Founder | Power Grid by Sound Strategies | Hosting by Datagram