Giuliani Blogger Conference Call
by Ryan Sager
Wed, 16 May 2007 at 2:02 PM
updated Wed, 16 May 2007 at 2:05 PM
At 1:30 p.m. today, Rudy Giuliani held his first conference call with bloggers (there have been other Giuliani campaign calls, but, as I understand it, this is the first one he's talked to personally).
After a very brief intro where he expressed his preference for last night's debate over the previous one in California (big surprise), he took some questions. Topics touched on: Iraq, the polls, Israel, Ron Paul, and torture. Some of the mayor's responses, below the fold...
On the debate:
"I thought it covered a full range of topics, and I would urge the Democrats [laughs] to do a debate on Fox. Maybe they shouldn't run away from it so much. They might find that they'll be able to explain their positions at somewhat greater length. And I hope this becomes the pattern for the future debates."
On the Iraq war vote today in the Senate:
"This is not helpful in being able to achieve the kind of results in Iraq that we should have if we want to be safe against terrorists."
"They don't get it. I don't think they understand the nature of the Islamic, terrorist threat."
"I think it indicates a certain level of denial."
On his drop in the polls since February:
"I don't really pay attention to polls, except I did notice yesterday I was at 38% in the one in the Wall Street Journal [laughs]."
"We're pretty excited about where we are. ... In almost all of them we're ahead."
"I expect that we're going to be up and down."
"It's a long campaign, but I would think I wouldn't trade my position with anybody else's right now."
On Israel:
"Peace in Israel, and in the Palestinian Authority, is right now in the hands — the ball is in the court of the Palestinian Authority."
"There are at least two things they have to accomplish ... They have to recognize the right of Israel to exist. ... The second commitment they have to make is that they are going to make concerted efforts to end terrorism."
"These were the things missing all during the Arafat era, all during the terrible mistakes that I thought we made in the 1990s, during the Clinton administration. ... continually negotiating with Arafat, not seeing him in a realistic light."
On Ron Paul:
"The last time I heard something like that, it was the press release the Saudi prince put out after he gave me the $10 million for the Twin Towers fund."
"When I reflected on it and heard it again, a second time, I realized there was just tremendous confusion in what he was saying."
[According to Mr. Giuliani, Paul was saying, because we attacked Iraq in the 1990s, al Qaeda planned to come here and kill us.]
"I'm still having a hard time assessing what he was actually saying."
"What didn't make sense is this desire to blame everything on America."
"They hate us because of our freedom of religion, because of our freedom for women, because we represent the modern world."
"It's not about Israel and Palestine. It's not about whether we wanted to hold Saddam Hussein to what he agreed to."
On torture:
"Last night's debate was about the definition of torture, and whether you — how you define torture, and I haven't changed my position one bit."
"I said, I don't think we should embrace torture, even in that situation."
"But I do think we should go right up to the limit in a situation like that. Which means enhanced techniques, aggressive techniques."
"It was quite clear in what I said, and I think honestly what Governor Romney said, that neither one of us was talking about torture. But we were talking about going further than Senator McCain was talking about."
"The technique that was being described last night [water-boarding] would not fit into the category of torture."
"I happen to be reading George Tenet's book ... and he doesn't seem to think it falls into the category of torture. And he was kind of an expert on it."
"If some of them are aggressive, those are the ones we can do, if they fit in the category of torture, well then we shouldn't do them."
"And I think the rationale here is not necessarily that they're going to comply with how we behave. I don't know that I'd put too much emphasis on that.... We are dealing with people who are not going to be impressed either way. They're going horrible things to us no matter what. And we should maintain civilized and decent standards, because that's what America is all about. But not because we think in this particular situation we're going to get too much out of it in terms of reciprocity. That doesn't mean we shouldn't do it, but we've got to be clear-headed about what we're doing and why we're doing it."
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