Posted on 10/12/2010 9:42:26 PM PDT by kristinn
California gubernatorial candidates Meg Whitman and Jerry Brown debated tonight at Dominican University in San Rafael. The moderator was Tom Brokaw who raised the 'whore' comment with Brown.
Video of the exchange at Bay Area NBC
Transription by Kristinn.
BROKAW: Mr. Brown you did attempt to reach out to the police union. The telephone message was left on. It's now a notorious part of this campaign. In which somebody in your campaign referred to Ms. Whitman as a "whore." A campaign spokesman then described that as "salty language" and apologized after a fashion. We've heard no outrage from you about the use of that kind of language which to many women is the same as calling an African-American the n-word. Have you been in charge of the investigation in your campaign to find out who is responsible for using that phrase?
BROWN: I don't agree with that comparison, number one. Number two, this is a five week old private conversation...
WHITMAN: Oooohh.
BROWN: ...picked up on a cellphone, uh, with a garbled transmission. Very hard to detect who it is. This is not, I don't want to get into the term and how it's used. But I will say the campaign apologized promptly and I affirm that apology tonight.
BROKAW: You're repeating it to Ms. Whitman?
BROWN: Yes I am. I do. I, it's unfortunate. I'm sorry it happened. I apologize.
WHITMAN: So Jerry, it's not just me, it's the people of California who deserve better than slurs and personal attacks. That's not what California is about. It is not our better selves. And I, um, think people know exact...I think every Californian, and especially women, know exactly what's going on here. And that is a deeply offensive term to women.
BROWN: Well, can I just interject? Have you chastised your chairman, Pete Wilson, who called Congress "whores" to the public sector unions?
WHITMAN: You know better than that Jerry. That's a completely different thing. The fact you are defending your campaign...
AUDIENCE: Heckles Whitman.
WHITMAN: The fact you are defending your campaign for a slur and, um, you know, a personal attack on me I think it's not befitting of California. It's not befitting of the office that you're running for.
BROWN: It's unfortunate. Private conversation. I'm not even sure it's legal because you have to get the consent of all the parties and there's lots of people talking so, I again, Ms. Whitman I'm sorry it happened. That does not represent anything other than things that happen in a campaign. But the issue there of course is pension reform and the fact that you got the endorsement of that union. I didn't because they said I'd be too tough on unions and public employee pensions and I'll take that.
WHITMAN: So that's actually...
AUDIENCE: Cheers Brown.
BROKAW: Admonishes audience to keep quiet.
Tape ends.
Sounds like there were a lot of Brown supporters in the audience.
Good transcript.
Dubious title.
Brown and Brokaw both lose.
I'm shocked!
Regards,
TS
We have a terrible deficit problem in California, a very high unemployment rate and they waste time on this triviality.
For sure.
The audience cheering Brown. What a hole CA has become.
It’s late on both coasts now.
An ad against Whitman say she was paid $120 million shortly before 10% of the employees at eBay were laid off.
Does anyone have any information on this?
I need an answer to respond to someone that says this ad has changed their vote away from Whitman.
Sounds like Brokaw did a good job.
Nice title for thread.....(golf clap)
On this segment he did. I haven’t watched the other parts.
The discussion about calling her a whore is a triviality, but the pension reform issue is huge. I support Whitman (and Fiorina) with less reservation than most here because I think it is as good as we are going to get in CA for the time being. In this case it looks like Whitman did sell out to the unions, and that will make it harder to deal with the massive budget problem.
It’s unseemly for politicians to be calling one another whores. However, I have to admit that I’m not too surprised that many in the public find it hard to generate sympathy for any of these folks. People are really fed up this year with anybody who looks like a politician. It’s gotta be tough out there for all of them.
“Sounds like there were a lot of Brown supporters in the audience.”
It was held at a university - what do you think?
If the pension problem is so big, how can you vote for someone that cut a deal with the largest source of the problem? I agree with you it is not a good choice this election. I’m most likely going to sit this one out.
Jerry blows a whore, is that legal?
Brokaw tried his hardest to make the geriatric hopped-up Brown look a little less embalmed than usual.
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