Boston, Mass–Promoting his movie Fahrenheit 9/11 at the Democratic National Convention, radical filmmaker Michael Moore launched into a shouting, red-faced denunciation of Republicans Tuesday, saying supporters of the GOP are different from “real Americans”; that they are “people who hate”; that they are “up at six in the morning trying to figure out which minority group they’re going to screw today”; and that in the upcoming presidential campaign, they “are going to fight…smear…lie…and hate.”
Moore, who sat in former President Jimmy Carter’s box at the convention Monday night, has been welcomed by wildly enthusiastic audiences at his appearances in Boston. He made his remarks about Republicans during one of those appearances, at a forum sponsored by the left-wing organizing group Campaign for America’s Future. The speech drew an overflow crowd; fans stood in line for hours for a chance to hear Moore speak.
“The right wing is not where America is at,” Moore said. “Most Americans, in their heart, are liberal and progressive. It’s just a small minority of people who hate. They hate. They exist in the politics of hate.”
“They’re not patriots,” Moore said. “They’re hate-triots, and they believe in the politics of hate-triotism. Hate-triotism is where they stand, and patriotism is where real Americans stand.”
Moore, who predicted victory for Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry–”It’s all over but the voting,” he said–warned that the Republican Party will do almost anything to keep its hold on power. “They’re not going to go without a fight,” he said, “and believe me, they are better fighters than we are.”
“I mean, they are up at six in the morning trying to figure out which minority group they’re going to screw today,” Moore continued. “The hate, they eat for breakfast. They are going to fight and they are going to smear, and they are going to lie, and they are going to hate.”
Moore conceded that there are “good Republicans.” Those Republicans, he said, will vote for Kerry in November.
Moore also attacked the media for not asking the “right questions” before the war in Iraq, and he tantalized the audience by recounting a story in which he said a major–but unnamed–television personality told him that Vice President Dick Cheney had interfered with news coverage of the war. Moore said he was on a morning talk show recently, and, “After we went to commercial, the person who was interviewing me said, ‘You know, you’re right. When the war started, it was very difficult here to book the people we wanted to book and ask the questions we wanted to ask. In fact, I got a memo about my tone of voice. Apparently, the brass had received a call from Dick Cheney’s office, they said they didn’t like my tone of voice. I got a memo on it.’”
Moore said he told the person, “You’ve got to tell that story.” But the person answered, “I can’t.” Moore continued: “I said, ‘They can’t fire you. You’re one of the most well-known people in America. You’ve got to tell this story, and if you don’t tell it, I’m going to wait maybe another week.’”
The audience laughed at Moore’s threat to expose the newsperson. Moore promised to tell the whole story on his website and name the person involved. “That person is on notice now,” Moore said, “and I’m doing it in a friendly way.”