Just Plain Cher - Cher Music, Photos, Movies, Pictures, Videos - BET TONIGHT INTERVIEW

On Thursday, November 2, Cher appeared on the cable network BET on their nightly newsprogram "BET Tonight with Tavis Smiley". The interview was conducted on Halloween at a rally for Al Gore near the UCLA campus. On Friday, November 3rd, Cher, Al Gore, and Jesse Jackson were on the program, but Cher and Jesse were only on for the first segment, and Al was on for the rest of the half-hour show. Here are the two questions that Cher was asked:

Tavis Smiley: "Cher, for some reason, this guy, Al Gore, has been able to tap into a great deal of support from the entertainment community... Why you, specifically, as one of the superstars in this industry, have you signed on for Al Gore?

Cher: Well, I must say, ya know, I was a Democrat. I'm not a registered Democrat... I already voted though... I have my... I already voted.

Tavis Smiley: The absentee thing?

Cher: Yea, I had an absentee thing... But, I must say, he (Al Gore) stands for all the things I believe in. And like Rob Reiner said tonight, if Bush gives me back money, I don't need money.... I don't want money on the backs of people who are not gonna get good schools... or if he's gonna take away the right of women to have choice over their body... if he's not going to care about the people who need to be helped... if we're not going to get higher education.... then what good is money to me?? What good is more money to me? I don't want that money. Let them take that money and do what's good with it. Also, there's no free ride. Ya know, we heard that in trickle-down economics and it never trickled down -- it trickled up!! Only the rich people got it -- no one else saw it. And also, in my business if the economy isn't doing well, if the people aren't doing well, then it comes back to me in the end... ya know, people can't go to movies [and] they can't buy albums [if] they have no money to feed their children [or] they have no money to buy clothing [or] they have no money for housing. So, I wanna see the people get the benefit. I don't believe that George Bush is going to care about the people that I care about, which are the people that I've been listening to... and travelling around this country for 36 years, I've seen everybody more than once, so I want to see Al Gore be president because I believe he cares and I think that besides being really intelligent, if you don't have caring -- if you don't have care for the people that need to be helped, what good will you do?

Tavis Smiley: I wonder as a woman how you think women's issues are going to play in the vote on Tuesday. We talked earlier about Roe v. Wade... Is the position that Mr. Gore takes on that particular issue enough to get women to turn out, you think, on Tuesday to elect Al Gore and not George Bush?

Cher: Ya know, if that was the only issue, it would be enough to get me to turn out... If someone was going to tell me that one candidate would take all of my rights away as to what happened to my body, and the other candidate was going to trust me to choose what was right for me.... In my instance, ya know, in my family, ya know, it wasn't going to get in the way of me being able to make the choice over what happens to my body.... Also, what happens to my daughter's body and what happens to her daughter's body... because when you [appoint] a Supreme court, it's 30 or 40 years!!