Statement by Dennis Kucinich

[Jim O'Bryan]

Statement by Dennis Kucinich
April 18, 2018

Ted Strickland's remarks are reprehensible in their distortions and outright lies. He has obviously been enlisted into a vicious smear campaign launched by a desperate Richard Cordray whose only clear, unequivocal, and consistent position is to protect deadly assault weapons on behalf of the National Rifle Association.

The facts are these: I gave a speech at a peace conference in the United Kingdom last year in which I called for all nations involved in the Syrian conflict to end the violence that has killed hundreds of thousands of innocent men, women and children and forced millions to flee for their lives. The event was hosted and attended by peace leaders from around the world.

In that speech, I called for an end to hostilities, an end to violence, an end to political and military terrorism.

To portray my position and my actions as anything else wreaks of intellectual, moral, and political dishonesty of the most despicable kind. It reveals a desperation that has abandoned truth and decency. And it is a blatantly crass attempt by Cordray to try to rescue his failing campaign by resorting to the darkest, most horrific themes imaginable. And, it is cowardly.

Throughout my life and during my years in Congress, I have been the leading voice to end wars and restore peace. Stop the murder of innocents, whether calculated or incidental, and hold accountable those who have been responsible for death, destruction, and despair.

And I have campaigned just as passionately to get weapons of war and mass murder outlawed in our cities and in our state. My opponent, who is trying to smear me with death and destruction in foreign lands has no problem support the death and destruction caused by assault weapons here in our schools, our churches, our streets and our public places.

The killing of men, women and children -- anywhere for any reason and anyone's hands -- is an inexcusable crime against all of humanity. And when those men and women and children die at the hands of a murderer armed with an assault weapon that is legal and available because of the actions of Richard Cordray and his NRA sponsors and colleagues, that crime is even more inexcusable because it was preventable.

It's unfortunate that Ted Strickland has chosen to get down in the mud with Richard Cordray. That says a lot about both of them.

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[Jim O'Bryan]

A video I did of a speech from 2008, to underline what then Presidential Candidate Kucinich was speaking on.

Pretty amazing stuff, when you think about it. Underlines PD article claiming he was way ahead of his time.

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