during one of the Dem debates, I watched Gravel brag about how he ‘screwed the insurance companies’ by going bankrupt, it was pretty pathetic, IMO.
MR. RUSSERT: I want to ask Senator Gravel. You talk about running for president of the United States. In 1980 your condo business went bankrupt.
MR. GRAVEL: Correct.
MR. RUSSERT: In 2004 you filed for personal bankruptcy —
MR. GRAVEL: Correct.
MR. RUSSERT: — leaving $85,000 in credit bills unpaid. How can someone who did not take care of his business, could not manage his own personal finances, say that he's capable of managing the country?
MR. GRAVEL: Well, first off, if you want to make a judgment of who can be the greediest people in the world when they get to public office, you could just look up at the people up here. Money — many of them done very, very well in public office.
I left the Senate no better than when I went in.
Now, you say the condo business. I'll tell you, Donald Trump has been bankrupt a hundred times. So I went bankrupt once in business.
And the other — who did I bankrupt? I stuck the credit card companies with $90,000 worth of bills. And they deserved it, because I used the money. (Laughter.) They deserved it, and I used the money to finance the empowerment of the American people with the National Initiative, so you can make the laws.