Tom Campbell Faces Critics Head On

Earlier this week, fellow Senate candidate and Republican Carly Fiorina called on Campbell to clarify his position on U.S. aid to Israel and accused Campbell of having associations with "sympathizers of radical Islamic movements."

Campbell did not mince words, saying that he fully supports the State of Israel. He said he merely voted to cut some foreign aid to Israel and Egypt in 1997 in an effort to balance the budget.

"...it's quite something else to try to stretch that to say that I'm anti-Israel, or even worse pro-terrorist," he said. "That is really despicable."

Campbell focused many of his comments on the budget and deficit reduction. The former congressman, who initially considered a run for governor before setting his sights on the Senate, said he made that decision because federal issues have become hugely important.

"All of the federal issues have grown in major proportion," said Campbell. "And also, quite candidly, it was impossible to raise the funds I needed [for a Gubernatorial run] when I was running against two very wealthy individuals in the Republican primary; one is a billionaire and the other is more than halfway there."

Campbell pointed to his nine years of experience in the House as proof he is well versed on federal issues, including health care and unemployment.

"The state of California is one-seventh the population of the United States, but the federal budget is 40 times the size of the budget of California," said Campbell. "So the problem of spending on the federal side is the origin of the budget deficit."

Campbell said the reason unemployment is rising is because employers are afraid to hire new employees, thanks to uncertainty about the deficit, inflation and interest rates.

Watch the whole interview above, plus an interview with Republican Congressman and former Presidential candidate Ron Paul.