Transcript: Nader Announces 2004 Presidential Bid

RUSSERT: Do you believe that there would be a difference between a George Bush administration and a John Kerry or John Edwards administration on judicial nominations, on tax cuts, on environmental enforcement?

NADER: Yes.

The problem is that the corporate government remains in Washington, whether it's Democrats or Republicans.

The military-industrial complex, as Eisenhower pointed out, is getting bigger and devouring half of the federal budget's discretionary expenditure, and we have no major enemy left in the world, no Soviet Union, no Communist China.

The corporate lobbyists are still swarming over Congress. Money is still pouring in from corporate interests. Washington is corporate-occupied territory, and the two parties are ferociously competing to see who's going to go to the White House and take orders from their corporate paymasters.

So they may be different in their mind, they may be different in their attention, they may be different in their rhetoric, but in the actual performance these corporate interests and their political allies are taking America down. They're taking our country apart. Massive poverty, massive child poverty, massive consumer debt, environmental devastation. That didn't occur, that didn't get worse under the Democrats?

So basically it's a question between both parties flunking, Tim, one with a D-minus, the Republicans, one with a D-plus, the Democrats. And it's time to change the equation and bring millions of American people into the political arena, so that the civic groups are not shut out when they try to improve their country.

RUSSERT: You had said, when John Edwards announced his candidacy, that it was a good idea that he run for president.

NADER: Yes.

RUSSERT: You like him?

NADER: I think the more organized the citizens are, the better a politician he's going to be. He's like an expanding accordion, unlike President Bush, who is really a giant corporation in the White House masquerading as a human being.

RUSSERT: If it got down to the final days of the election and you saw that your presence on the ballot could swing the election to George Bush, might you consider stepping out and saying, "I endorse the Democrat"?

NADER: First of all, there are 40 slam-dunk states where either the Republicans or Democrats are going to win handily. That's number one.

Second, I think there's a very good chance that President Bush is going to start declining in the polls. He's making a lot of mistakes. People are beginning to realize that he doesn't care about the American people, although he says he does.

That he's, as a conservative president, he's presiding over, and encouraging, the shipment of industries and jobs to the despotic communist regime in China.

That he fabricated the basis for the war in Iraq, which is now a quagmire. And if President Bush doesn't trust the American people with the truth, why should the American people trust George W. Bush with the presidency?

Now, you gave me a hypothetical. You know how Arnold answered that hypothetical. When that and if that eventuality occurs, in the rare event it does, you can invite me back on the program and I'll give you my answer.

RUSSERT: The Green Party has said that they wish you had run this year with them, some members of the Green Party. You have said, "No, I want to run as a true independent."

The Green Party forces have now said, "Forget it, Nader, you'll never get on the ballot in 50 states. You'll be lucky to make 40."

How uphill will your battle be? And how may state ballots do you think you can get on?

NADER: There's a tremendous bias in state laws against third parties and independent candidates, bred by the two major parties who passed these laws. They don't like competition. And, so, it's like climbing a cliff with a slippery rope.

And anybody who doubts it can look at a list of all these signature barriers and all the obstacles that a number of states, not all of them, put before third-party candidates on our Web site, votenader.org.

Now let me just say, this is going to be difficult. We're asking for volunteers to log into our Web site, votenader.org. We're asking for contributions, because this isn't just our fight. This is a fight for all third parties: Libertarian, Green Party, other third parties, other independent candidates, all the way down to the local level, who want a chance to breathe politically. They want a chance to have a chance to compete.

This is not a democracy that can be controlled by two parties in the grip of corporate interest. I don't think America belongs just to the Democrat and Republican parties.