WEBVTT - Howard Dean Still Has Something to Say 0:00:02.279 --> 0:00:05.320 This is Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the 0:00:05.440 --> 0:00:10.320 Thing from My Heart Radio. My guest today is Howard Dean. 0:00:11.119 --> 0:00:15.880 Dean has an impressive list of former titles, former governor 0:00:15.920 --> 0:00:19.880 of Vermont, former chair of the Democratic National Committee, and 0:00:20.000 --> 0:00:24.560 former candidate for the Democratic presidential primary in two thousand four, 0:00:25.280 --> 0:00:29.440 and currently he is still opinionated about what the Democrats 0:00:29.520 --> 0:00:33.320 need to do at this pivotal time. Dean's faith in 0:00:33.479 --> 0:00:37.320 people's fundamental decency is shaped in part by his years 0:00:37.360 --> 0:00:41.479 in Vermont politics. Though originally a New Yorker, Dean has 0:00:41.520 --> 0:00:44.159 lived in Vermont most of his adult life, and he 0:00:44.280 --> 0:00:47.559 was a family physician before becoming governor. When you look 0:00:47.600 --> 0:00:49.879 at a map of the states where COVID rates have 0:00:50.000 --> 0:00:53.360 been soaring, Vermont seems to be faring better than other 0:00:53.440 --> 0:00:56.640 places like New York City and l A. I wanted 0:00:56.680 --> 0:01:00.720 to know if it's simply because Vermont is rural. Yeah, 0:01:00.760 --> 0:01:02.760 I mean from a density point of do it makes 0:01:02.760 --> 0:01:05.120 a difference. We also happen to have a Republican governor 0:01:05.120 --> 0:01:07.880 who has a brain and who that cares what the 0:01:07.920 --> 0:01:10.360 facts are, which is nice. He actually confessed to having 0:01:10.440 --> 0:01:13.640 voted for Biden after the election was over. I like him. Well, 0:01:13.680 --> 0:01:16.320 there's there's Larry Hogan and Charlie Baker. I mean, there 0:01:16.319 --> 0:01:21.200 are some reasonable Republicans still, but Vermont has been very successful. Now, look, 0:01:21.200 --> 0:01:24.399 we're having a surge too, and we're having problems and 0:01:24.440 --> 0:01:27.440 we gotta, you know, buckle down. But we're a community 0:01:27.520 --> 0:01:29.480 that cares about each other. We actually sit down and 0:01:29.480 --> 0:01:33.680 have discussions about debate issues. I never hated the Republicans 0:01:33.720 --> 0:01:35.959 when I was governor. We used to sit down and 0:01:35.959 --> 0:01:39.040 work stuff out as much friction with an our crass 0:01:39.040 --> 0:01:41.400 as I did with the Republicans. This is a reasonable 0:01:41.440 --> 0:01:43.679 place where people actually care about their neighbors and believe 0:01:43.720 --> 0:01:46.880 you're supposed to respect your neighbors. Now, we were just 0:01:46.959 --> 0:01:49.000 joking before you come and we're like, could Howard Dean 0:01:49.120 --> 0:01:51.680 be the president now in the interim just till the 0:01:51.680 --> 0:01:53.640 COVID's over, then Biden could take over. Could we have 0:01:53.680 --> 0:01:57.280 a medical doctor who's president for an interim period of time? 0:01:57.720 --> 0:02:01.840 But we know what from us as a physician, where 0:02:01.840 --> 0:02:04.280 did we primarily get it wrong here in terms of 0:02:04.280 --> 0:02:06.000 the way we handle the COVID. Well, Trump has been 0:02:06.000 --> 0:02:08.760 a disaster because Trump cares about Trump and his press, 0:02:08.840 --> 0:02:12.280 and not any functional thing. I mean, he's basically gutted 0:02:12.400 --> 0:02:15.280 all the health agencies by putting lackeys in there who 0:02:15.280 --> 0:02:18.120 are afraid of him. So he ruined the good name 0:02:18.160 --> 0:02:20.959 of the CDC and and and the f d A, 0:02:21.280 --> 0:02:24.000 and you know, calling up the f d A president, 0:02:24.000 --> 0:02:25.600 head of the f d A and threatening if you 0:02:25.600 --> 0:02:27.480 don't get this thing out in the next twenty four hours, 0:02:27.520 --> 0:02:31.880 you should resign. I mean, that's not medicine, that's just nonsense. Uh. 0:02:31.880 --> 0:02:33.600 And that's why the way it's always been, the big 0:02:33.600 --> 0:02:36.600 problem is and Trump is more or less created the 0:02:37.639 --> 0:02:40.280 I'm not wearing a mask because that's my political affiliation, 0:02:40.320 --> 0:02:43.639 which is just stupidity. So yeah, we'd be better off 0:02:43.800 --> 0:02:46.320 the Trump The problem is, I mean, if you look 0:02:46.360 --> 0:02:48.560 at other countries, they are better off, a lot better 0:02:48.600 --> 0:02:51.440 off then we are. Almost all of them, not all 0:02:51.480 --> 0:02:53.639 of them. Brazil is in bad shape, Russia is in 0:02:53.800 --> 0:02:56.200 bad shape. But but most of the countries in this 0:02:56.240 --> 0:02:58.280 world are much doing a much better job than we are. 0:02:58.320 --> 0:03:00.160 And that that's right at the feet of Trump and 0:03:00.200 --> 0:03:02.560 the Republican Party, which never dared to confront of them, 0:03:02.560 --> 0:03:05.640 and locking down was the answer. Locking down, unfortunately, is 0:03:05.960 --> 0:03:08.480 some of the answer, and I think it was handled 0:03:08.480 --> 0:03:11.160 actually fairly well. We got behind in New York, and 0:03:11.200 --> 0:03:13.520 that's understandable because we didn't know what was coming. We 0:03:13.520 --> 0:03:17.200 didn't understand what was happening. They pulled themselves together. The 0:03:17.240 --> 0:03:19.520 stuff that's going on in the Midwest is ridiculous. That 0:03:19.600 --> 0:03:22.120 was a whole bunch of Republican governors that basically said, oh, 0:03:22.160 --> 0:03:24.360 we don't need to wear a mask. Well, now people 0:03:24.360 --> 0:03:26.880 are dying, dropping down like flies, and there's I c 0:03:27.040 --> 0:03:29.000 u s are all full. The danger of the i 0:03:29.160 --> 0:03:31.360 c u s being fillers twofold one is a terrible 0:03:31.360 --> 0:03:33.960 indicator of how sick everybody is. But the other is 0:03:34.080 --> 0:03:35.800 that if you have a heart attack, guests who doesn't 0:03:35.800 --> 0:03:38.840 get an i CU bed or even medical attention. So 0:03:38.960 --> 0:03:41.720 the Midwestern states, because of their mostly their own stupidity 0:03:41.760 --> 0:03:44.800 of their governors, are in bad shape. And I think 0:03:44.840 --> 0:03:46.720 we're going to get our arms around this again. I 0:03:46.760 --> 0:03:48.680 think the vaccine is going to be enormously helpful. But 0:03:48.720 --> 0:03:50.839 we've got six months of really tough stuff in front 0:03:50.840 --> 0:03:53.280 of us where there. I mean, I'm seventy two years old. 0:03:53.440 --> 0:03:55.280 I'm gonna have to be really careful for the next 0:03:55.320 --> 0:03:58.680 six months when the vaccine comes. People get a vaccine, 0:03:58.720 --> 0:04:00.280 then they have to have a second one like a 0:04:00.320 --> 0:04:04.480 month later. Yeah, right, and you think that how soon 0:04:05.000 --> 0:04:06.840 if I get the vaccine. This is something I wanted 0:04:06.840 --> 0:04:09.400 to clarify for people listening to the show. Let's say 0:04:09.400 --> 0:04:11.680 I got a vaccine the first week of January, and 0:04:11.680 --> 0:04:13.280 then a month la I have to get another vaccine, 0:04:13.320 --> 0:04:16.720 but I still have to distance from people and wear masks. Yes, 0:04:16.920 --> 0:04:19.960 you really should. The truth is you'll probably have some 0:04:20.080 --> 0:04:23.040 minimal amount of partial immunity, which will vary greatly from 0:04:23.120 --> 0:04:26.320 individual to individual, which is why the numbers of the 0:04:26.400 --> 0:04:29.760 on the second vaccine really matter. This is a peculiar 0:04:29.839 --> 0:04:33.800 virus which we have very little experience with heretofore. I mean, 0:04:33.800 --> 0:04:36.560 there have been some you know, the Stars epidemic which 0:04:36.600 --> 0:04:39.400 was very small compared to this, which we did not 0:04:39.520 --> 0:04:41.840 have a lot of success with a vaccine, but it 0:04:41.920 --> 0:04:44.200 wasn't nearly as contagious as this, and I might add 0:04:44.200 --> 0:04:46.520 the fatality rate was much higher than this one is, 0:04:47.000 --> 0:04:49.120 so thank god I didn't know the contagion right. This 0:04:49.200 --> 0:04:52.920 is very very contagious, and it's an odd virus which 0:04:53.160 --> 0:04:57.880 human beings have very little experience with So that's most likely, 0:04:57.920 --> 0:05:00.839 and I'm not a researcher, but that's most likely the 0:05:00.880 --> 0:05:03.640 reason for the two vaccines. My guess is that there's 0:05:03.760 --> 0:05:06.720 some immunity after the first shot. You really got to 0:05:06.760 --> 0:05:08.520 get the second one. This is not something you want 0:05:08.520 --> 0:05:11.159 to fool with. And then after the second shot, you 0:05:11.200 --> 0:05:14.200 still have to distance in mask and keep or you 0:05:14.320 --> 0:05:17.640 free to just move about in your safe I would 0:05:17.680 --> 0:05:20.400 distance in mask. I wouldn't think I was free until 0:05:20.520 --> 0:05:23.800 we get to hurt immunity. And that's about se vaccinated 0:05:24.520 --> 0:05:27.800 or having had the disease. We know that most people 0:05:27.839 --> 0:05:30.680 are immune after they get the disease. The problem is 0:05:30.680 --> 0:05:33.000 we don't know how for how long. It could be 0:05:33.040 --> 0:05:35.400 only three months. We don't know how long this vaccine 0:05:35.440 --> 0:05:37.800 is gonna ask. You know, the flu vaccine you have 0:05:37.839 --> 0:05:39.599 to take every year, and you have to take it 0:05:39.600 --> 0:05:41.880 every year for two reasons. One, we don't know how 0:05:41.920 --> 0:05:44.800 immune you are. And to the flu virus, which is 0:05:44.839 --> 0:05:48.400 a different, holy different family of viruses, mutates like crazy 0:05:48.600 --> 0:05:51.240 very quickly, so you may get an entirely different flu 0:05:51.360 --> 0:05:53.279 riders coming the next year. That's why you get flu 0:05:53.360 --> 0:05:57.280 shots every year. Uh, this we don't know that much 0:05:57.279 --> 0:06:00.280 about we do know there's been one mutation. Interestingly enough, 0:06:00.320 --> 0:06:03.840 despite Trump's chatter about China and all this, the virus 0:06:03.880 --> 0:06:08.080 that most Americans have is actually a European mutation. And 0:06:08.160 --> 0:06:10.640 most of the virus in New York actually came from Europe, 0:06:10.640 --> 0:06:13.279 not from China, because it was we could trace it 0:06:13.320 --> 0:06:16.600 to a European set of European travelers that actually came 0:06:16.640 --> 0:06:19.359 back from Westchester County from a conference, and that was 0:06:19.440 --> 0:06:22.599 the first case in New York. So most of the 0:06:22.720 --> 0:06:27.760 virus in this country it's the European variant. Now, your 0:06:27.800 --> 0:06:30.080 father was a Wall Street guy. My father was a 0:06:30.080 --> 0:06:33.400 Wall Street guy. The thing about my parents is that 0:06:33.440 --> 0:06:36.000 it makes them different is yes, we have a house 0:06:36.040 --> 0:06:38.640 in East Hampton. We actually grew up here. I didn't 0:06:38.640 --> 0:06:41.080 go to junior activities that the Maidstone Club. I went 0:06:41.080 --> 0:06:45.080 to the East Hampton Boys Club and met everybody. My father, Yes, 0:06:45.120 --> 0:06:47.160 he played golf all summer with the summer people, and 0:06:47.200 --> 0:06:50.160 then he shot Coote and duck all winner with the 0:06:50.200 --> 0:06:52.760 local guys. We went to a church that had a 0:06:52.760 --> 0:06:55.320 lot of local people in the vestry. It wasn't you know, 0:06:55.360 --> 0:06:59.400 the hoity toity whatever. So we really although I went 0:06:59.440 --> 0:07:01.880 to school in New York City. Uh, this is the 0:07:01.880 --> 0:07:04.120 only places I've ever voted at East Hampton, New York 0:07:04.120 --> 0:07:06.359 and Vermont. And when the time came for you to 0:07:06.360 --> 0:07:09.400 go to school and your father was a business guy 0:07:09.480 --> 0:07:11.360 and you just had to go to medical school, what 0:07:11.400 --> 0:07:13.840 prompted you to do that? Why? How do I? How? 0:07:13.880 --> 0:07:15.920 I say this nicely? I worked on Wall Street for 0:07:15.960 --> 0:07:17.880 a year and a half and I hated it. I 0:07:17.920 --> 0:07:20.720 did it wasn't for you. Well, I was in college 0:07:20.760 --> 0:07:24.400 during Vietnam, where presidents of both parties lives through their 0:07:24.400 --> 0:07:27.040 teeth about the war, and fifty five thousand Americans were killed, 0:07:27.080 --> 0:07:29.800 not to mention millions of Southeast Asians, and I had 0:07:29.840 --> 0:07:32.000 given up and everything. I went to ski bummed and 0:07:32.080 --> 0:07:34.480 Askeden and poured concrete and wash dishes for a year. 0:07:34.640 --> 0:07:36.840 Decided that was not something I was going to be 0:07:36.920 --> 0:07:40.119 happy with, and then I went to work on Wall Street. 0:07:40.200 --> 0:07:42.280 Was the path of least resistance. I learned a great deal, 0:07:42.320 --> 0:07:43.720 but I learned I didn't want to live in New 0:07:43.800 --> 0:07:45.240 York and I didn't want to work on you know, 0:07:45.280 --> 0:07:48.480 make my living pushing other people's money around. And so 0:07:48.600 --> 0:07:51.080 I decided to go to medical school because a friend 0:07:51.120 --> 0:07:53.160 of mine had gone and to do a post back. 0:07:53.200 --> 0:07:54.960 I didn't you know. This was the sixties. There were 0:07:54.960 --> 0:07:57.360 no requirements in college, so I hadn't taken a single 0:07:57.400 --> 0:07:59.840 math or or science course while I was in college. 0:07:59.840 --> 0:08:01.880 But I was good at it in high school, so 0:08:01.960 --> 0:08:04.040 I went. I loved it, and I went to Albert 0:08:04.040 --> 0:08:06.640 Einstein College of Medicine. I was at Token gem at 0:08:06.640 --> 0:08:09.040 the at the Jewish medical school. It was great. I 0:08:09.120 --> 0:08:11.160 learned a lot and met my wife. So what could 0:08:11.160 --> 0:08:15.080 what work? Would go wrong? Right? And was Vermont something 0:08:15.120 --> 0:08:18.000 that was a place you visited summer at ski to 0:08:18.120 --> 0:08:19.720 something if you're going to do the East Coast skiing 0:08:19.760 --> 0:08:22.400 at least? How did Vermont come into your life? Uh? 0:08:22.440 --> 0:08:24.960 There was a family that uh sort of became my 0:08:25.080 --> 0:08:27.160 second family when I was in college, and I used 0:08:27.200 --> 0:08:29.360 to spend a lot of time in Bondville, Vermont, which 0:08:29.400 --> 0:08:32.079 is a tiny little town near Stratton. I did ski 0:08:32.160 --> 0:08:35.560 a lot, but I came to Vermont by chance. When 0:08:35.600 --> 0:08:38.760 you leave medical school, you list your top ten choices 0:08:38.760 --> 0:08:41.959 as internships. Vermont was my fourth, and I had three 0:08:42.040 --> 0:08:46.400 high powered academic medical centers that I had applied to. Ironically, 0:08:46.400 --> 0:08:48.280 tour in New York and one was in Washington, d C. 0:08:48.440 --> 0:08:50.440 And I didn't get any of them, so I got 0:08:50.440 --> 0:08:53.199 my fourth choice. The computer matches that it's called the match, 0:08:53.240 --> 0:08:54.720 and it's a big deal when you get out of 0:08:54.760 --> 0:08:58.240 medical school. So I the match as signed me to Vermont. 0:08:58.360 --> 0:09:00.760 And if it hadn't done that, then you never would 0:09:00.800 --> 0:09:03.080 have heard of me. When did you start to become 0:09:03.160 --> 0:09:05.400 more hyper aware of what was going on? And you 0:09:05.480 --> 0:09:07.439 knew you had a passion for public affairs when you 0:09:07.480 --> 0:09:09.880 were how old? Well, I thought I had a public 0:09:09.920 --> 0:09:12.079 passion for public affairs when I was in high school 0:09:12.080 --> 0:09:14.240 and I was elected to the student council sort of 0:09:14.280 --> 0:09:17.480 by accident. And then I got disgusted with all the 0:09:17.559 --> 0:09:20.320 stuff in Vietnam and the civil rights movement, by the 0:09:20.360 --> 0:09:23.040 reaction of my own government. It didn't matter which party was, 0:09:23.080 --> 0:09:26.000 there were pots on both of them. Uh. Then Watergate happened, 0:09:26.040 --> 0:09:28.679 and the Democrats took a turn left and for better 0:09:28.720 --> 0:09:31.520 government and try to get the corruption out of the government, 0:09:31.520 --> 0:09:33.480 which they did to a large extent. Now it's behole 0:09:33.520 --> 0:09:36.720 returned thanks to the right wing Supreme Court. But I 0:09:36.760 --> 0:09:39.840 got interested in re interested in politics because I always 0:09:39.840 --> 0:09:42.800 thought that the way that Democrats could rehab themselves was 0:09:42.880 --> 0:09:45.040 to get a Southern run. And when Jimmy Carter ran 0:09:45.080 --> 0:09:47.320 for president, I signed on And that's what got me 0:09:47.320 --> 0:09:50.760 into politics. To campaign. Yeah, I signed up just as 0:09:50.840 --> 0:09:54.680 an envelope liquor and a phone call maker. And then 0:09:54.720 --> 0:09:57.120 I was mentored by two women who were twenty five 0:09:57.200 --> 0:09:59.200 years older than I, who are sisters, and one of 0:09:59.200 --> 0:10:02.199 whom was They both actually played a very active role 0:10:02.200 --> 0:10:05.320 in reconstituting the Democratic Party in Vermont. Vermont did not 0:10:05.440 --> 0:10:08.480 have a Democratic governor for a hundred and nine consecutive 0:10:08.559 --> 0:10:13.439 years between eighteen fifty three and nineteen sixty eight. So 0:10:13.720 --> 0:10:15.760 these two women had put the thing together and they 0:10:15.920 --> 0:10:19.120 mentored me. And because I worked my butt off for Carter, 0:10:19.760 --> 0:10:21.880 and I went to the convention and that was this 0:10:22.000 --> 0:10:24.360 and then I became the chair of the county and 0:10:24.400 --> 0:10:27.120 that's worked my way out. What office did you hold 0:10:27.120 --> 0:10:30.400 prior to being governor? I was lieutenant governor for five years, 0:10:30.520 --> 0:10:32.120 and then before that I was in the State House 0:10:32.160 --> 0:10:35.480 for two terms. When you have a political passion from 0:10:35.520 --> 0:10:38.599 when you're you know, during the sixties and Watergate and 0:10:38.760 --> 0:10:41.200 Vietnam and so Furth, and then you decide to run, 0:10:42.120 --> 0:10:44.120 what is it that makes you decide to give up 0:10:44.200 --> 0:10:47.480 practicing medicine to run for politics. Well, I didn't. Everything 0:10:47.559 --> 0:10:50.319 is part time up there, lieutenant governor. So I was 0:10:50.360 --> 0:10:54.800 practicing medicine until August fourteenth, and I was seeing a 0:10:54.840 --> 0:10:56.800 patient and the nurse knocks on the door and says, 0:10:56.840 --> 0:10:59.240 excuse me, I have to interrupt you for the governor's offices. 0:10:59.280 --> 0:11:01.400 On the line, I took a call in this quavering voice, 0:11:01.400 --> 0:11:03.000 and the other end of the phone says, I regret 0:11:03.000 --> 0:11:04.640 to inform you that the governor has died of a 0:11:04.640 --> 0:11:06.960 heart attack, and you're the governor. That was the end 0:11:06.960 --> 0:11:09.880 of my medical practice. Oh my god. So that's how 0:11:09.920 --> 0:11:13.320 I decided. I actually decided not to leave medicine because 0:11:13.880 --> 0:11:15.840 it was sort of my turn to run for governor. 0:11:15.880 --> 0:11:17.600 There were two other people that wanted it, and I 0:11:17.640 --> 0:11:19.839 thought to myself, you know, I'm gonna get into a primary, 0:11:19.920 --> 0:11:22.200 I'm gonna have to close my practice for five months, 0:11:22.200 --> 0:11:23.960 and I'm not gonna have a practice to come back 0:11:24.000 --> 0:11:25.960 to if I don't win. So I decided to run 0:11:25.960 --> 0:11:28.199 for a third term, which is again, lieutenant governor in 0:11:28.280 --> 0:11:32.360 Vermont's a part time job. And then the the governorship. 0:11:32.400 --> 0:11:35.079 It's a four year term two years, the governor's two 0:11:35.120 --> 0:11:37.120 years in the months two years, and I love it 0:11:37.160 --> 0:11:39.160 that way. People keep wanting to change it. That is 0:11:39.240 --> 0:11:41.320 laziness on the part of the public who doesn't want 0:11:41.360 --> 0:11:43.280 to hear all those stupid ads. I don't blame him, 0:11:43.400 --> 0:11:45.360 And it's laziness in the part of the politicians who 0:11:45.400 --> 0:11:47.720 don't want to face the public. Donald Trump is a 0:11:47.720 --> 0:11:50.560 good reason not to have four year terms. You can 0:11:50.559 --> 0:11:53.040 get rid of me anytime you want in two years, 0:11:53.040 --> 0:11:55.440 and it's happened lots of time. So I'm a big 0:11:55.480 --> 0:11:58.120 fan of two year terms. Now. It may be impractical 0:11:58.120 --> 0:11:59.920 in a place like New York, which is so big, 0:12:00.360 --> 0:12:02.840 but in the smaller states, I believe you actually get 0:12:02.840 --> 0:12:05.559 more done faster with two year terms because you're accountable 0:12:05.559 --> 0:12:08.200 every minute. How far into his term was the government 0:12:08.240 --> 0:12:10.760 when he died, Well, he'd been a governor for four 0:12:10.880 --> 0:12:13.439 terms before that, and then he'd gone and then come back, 0:12:13.800 --> 0:12:16.040 and he was eight months into his term. He was 0:12:16.080 --> 0:12:19.160 eight months And when you in that state, do they 0:12:19.200 --> 0:12:22.199 have to have a special election to have another about 0:12:22.240 --> 0:12:24.520 the term? Yeah, but that's another advantage of if you 0:12:24.559 --> 0:12:27.280 don't get you know, people who weren't really elected to 0:12:27.440 --> 0:12:30.680 serve for the majority. So I faced the voters, you know, 0:12:30.760 --> 0:12:33.400 sixteen months later or whatever. And then I was elected 0:12:33.400 --> 0:12:36.080 to five terms on my own. So you finished his term, 0:12:36.080 --> 0:12:37.760 and then what happened By the time you finished his 0:12:37.760 --> 0:12:39.360 first term, You decide you like it and you want 0:12:39.400 --> 0:12:42.079 to stay. Yeah. Well, I was really interested in healthcare. 0:12:42.080 --> 0:12:44.600 It was interesting, Alec after a week of you know, 0:12:44.679 --> 0:12:46.800 drinking water out of a fire hose and being brief 0:12:47.240 --> 0:12:49.240 because you know, I knew nothing about nothing, and now 0:12:49.280 --> 0:12:51.440 I gotta worry about the banks. And it was during 0:12:51.440 --> 0:12:54.520 the one of the recessions, and I've got a zillion things. 0:12:54.520 --> 0:12:56.400 Everybody's got to come and tell me what they're doing 0:12:56.400 --> 0:12:59.360 and how the government works. And so I'm going through 0:12:59.360 --> 0:13:01.160 all this and I don't of a moment to myself 0:13:01.200 --> 0:13:04.400 and the states and shocked because this giant political figure 0:13:04.400 --> 0:13:06.840 has suddenly dropped dead at the age of sixty three 0:13:07.240 --> 0:13:09.240 and about two weeks and I had a couple of 0:13:09.240 --> 0:13:12.640 hours to myself in my office by myself, and I thought, Wow, 0:13:13.200 --> 0:13:15.719 you never expected this. What do you really want to do? 0:13:16.160 --> 0:13:18.360 So I wrote down five things that I thought were 0:13:18.360 --> 0:13:22.360 really important. The top was universal health care and Jim Hunt, 0:13:22.400 --> 0:13:26.240 who was governor of North Carolina for sixteen years. He 0:13:26.320 --> 0:13:28.360 took me aside one time and he said, he looked 0:13:28.400 --> 0:13:30.320 me in the eye and he said, uh, you know 0:13:31.360 --> 0:13:34.360 what we do is urgent. Uh. And I looked at him, nodded, 0:13:34.360 --> 0:13:36.920 and he said, and ten percent is important. And I 0:13:37.000 --> 0:13:40.080 never forgot that. So every day be while I was 0:13:40.080 --> 0:13:42.560 in the office, I never left when on the days 0:13:42.559 --> 0:13:45.120 I was in the office without pulling out my drawer 0:13:45.120 --> 0:13:47.320 and looking at the five things I put down in 0:13:47.360 --> 0:13:50.640 that day, two weeks into my unexpected term, to make 0:13:50.679 --> 0:13:54.079 sure I've done at least one thing that further one 0:13:54.080 --> 0:13:57.440 of those causes, because every day in your life, no 0:13:57.480 --> 0:14:00.760 matter what job you have, the urgent, oh ways overcomes 0:14:00.800 --> 0:14:02.280 the important and you get to the end of your 0:14:02.320 --> 0:14:04.160 life and you haven't done the things that are important 0:14:04.160 --> 0:14:06.320 because you focused on the urgent things all the time. 0:14:06.679 --> 0:14:08.640 I teach a lot now and I advocate to my 0:14:08.720 --> 0:14:11.280 students write that list down, because even at your age, 0:14:11.320 --> 0:14:13.120 there's stuff you think is important and stuff do you 0:14:13.120 --> 0:14:14.800 think is urgent, and you've got to be able to 0:14:14.800 --> 0:14:16.760 tell the difference, and and the important stuff is going 0:14:16.800 --> 0:14:19.360 to change as you grow older. But if you don't 0:14:19.400 --> 0:14:21.160 do that you're gonna spend all your time in the 0:14:21.240 --> 0:14:25.120 urgin and none of the stuff that's important. I'm Alec 0:14:25.160 --> 0:14:28.800 Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the Thing. If you 0:14:28.920 --> 0:14:33.400 like conversations about politics, check out our archives for more 0:14:33.560 --> 0:14:37.480 in depth conversations with interesting people, like Good Morning America's 0:14:37.520 --> 0:14:42.040 George Stephanopoulos. When I left the White House in early 0:14:43.400 --> 0:14:46.040 I was I guess I was what thirt thirty six? 0:14:46.040 --> 0:14:51.160 Then I felt much older and I you know why? 0:14:51.560 --> 0:14:55.800 Oh yeah, I mean White House hears are dog years multiplied. 0:14:56.960 --> 0:15:00.760 Here more of my conversation with George Stephanopolis a Here's 0:15:00.800 --> 0:15:03.880 the Thing dot org. After the break, I talked to 0:15:03.920 --> 0:15:07.560 Howard Dean about what he thinks Biden needs to tackle. First. 0:15:17.240 --> 0:15:20.400 I'm Alec Baldwin, and you were listening to Here's the Thing. 0:15:21.160 --> 0:15:23.840 I wanted to hear what Howard Dean makes of Joe 0:15:23.880 --> 0:15:28.280 Biden's plans so far. I'm very pleased with what Biden's doing. 0:15:28.320 --> 0:15:30.960 He's not my style. I think I wanted somebody who 0:15:31.000 --> 0:15:34.040 was about forty because I think I'm desperate to turn 0:15:34.080 --> 0:15:35.960 all this over to a new generation. I think my 0:15:36.040 --> 0:15:38.960 generations hung around too long. But I think Biden was 0:15:38.960 --> 0:15:41.400 a great candidate for for what we needed. I actually 0:15:41.440 --> 0:15:44.480 thought Bernie was gonna win. I think what happened was 0:15:44.720 --> 0:15:47.120 first we had Trump, who was just chaos every day's 0:15:47.200 --> 0:15:49.680 reality television, and then we had COVID, which is scared 0:15:49.680 --> 0:15:51.400 of the living daylights out of people, and I think 0:15:51.440 --> 0:15:53.640 people just thought, jeez, I really like Bernie, and I 0:15:53.680 --> 0:15:55.600 think we really need change, but we're just gonna get 0:15:55.640 --> 0:15:59.040 four more years of confrontation. Although Bernie is a bit 0:15:59.120 --> 0:16:01.840 very different than Trump, because Bernie's honest and Trump isn't. 0:16:02.360 --> 0:16:05.240 But I think that that's when they decided they wanted Biden, 0:16:05.440 --> 0:16:07.440 and I think he was probably the best nominee we 0:16:07.520 --> 0:16:10.760 could have had. I think Biden's no nonsense, which is great. 0:16:10.920 --> 0:16:13.880 I like his cabinet appointments. He has got to focus 0:16:14.000 --> 0:16:17.320 on both the urgent and the important. The urgent is, 0:16:17.440 --> 0:16:19.840 let's try to heal the country. Let's put confidence back 0:16:19.840 --> 0:16:22.520 in government because there is almost none now. But the 0:16:22.560 --> 0:16:24.560 important is, we really do have to have a universal 0:16:24.560 --> 0:16:27.120 healthcare program that works for every American. Is ludicrous for 0:16:27.160 --> 0:16:30.080 the United States of America to be the only democracy 0:16:30.080 --> 0:16:31.840 in the in the world that doesn't have a universal 0:16:31.920 --> 0:16:34.840 healthcare program. This is absurd, and he talked a little 0:16:34.840 --> 0:16:36.880 bit about some of the things. I personally believe that 0:16:36.920 --> 0:16:38.760 the way to do it is allow everybody to sign 0:16:38.840 --> 0:16:41.400 up for Medicare. What we did this in my state 0:16:41.680 --> 0:16:44.400 in Vermont, because at the top of the list, even 0:16:44.440 --> 0:16:46.640 in the state of Vermont, was universal health care for me. 0:16:47.000 --> 0:16:50.760 So my second year we put in get rid of 0:16:50.800 --> 0:16:54.560 all these pre existing conditions. You can't charge anybody more 0:16:54.600 --> 0:16:58.640 than above what you charge your least expensive patient. And 0:16:58.680 --> 0:17:01.240 we had a huge Medicaid expand thanks to Bill Clinton, 0:17:01.520 --> 0:17:04.720 so that every child in my state for two generations 0:17:04.760 --> 0:17:07.359 has grown up with health insurance. Everybody under eighteen is 0:17:07.359 --> 0:17:11.720 eligible for Medicaid essentially, or unless they're over poverty. You 0:17:11.800 --> 0:17:13.639 can do that as a state. What you can't do 0:17:13.720 --> 0:17:15.600 is say, here, what's going to do a single payer? 0:17:15.840 --> 0:17:17.720 Maybe single payer is the right thing to do, but 0:17:17.800 --> 0:17:20.960 the change is too fast. If Jolly Verman hadn't changed 0:17:21.000 --> 0:17:24.920 his vote under Obamacare and gotten rid of the ability 0:17:24.960 --> 0:17:27.119 to sign up for Medicare, the so called public option, 0:17:27.160 --> 0:17:28.800 I think three quoters of the people in this country 0:17:28.800 --> 0:17:31.200 would be on Medicare right now, because Medicare is a 0:17:31.280 --> 0:17:33.760 much better program than the health insurance companies are the 0:17:33.800 --> 0:17:37.160 people that are opposed to universal health care. Is through 0:17:37.200 --> 0:17:40.240 any argument that they make that make sense to you. No, none, 0:17:40.640 --> 0:17:43.480 I'm not. Look, you can be opposed to government run healthcare, 0:17:43.520 --> 0:17:46.280 that's a reasonable argument. I don't happen to think. I mean, 0:17:46.320 --> 0:17:48.800 I think Medicare does a better job the insurance companies do. 0:17:49.280 --> 0:17:51.960 But to say that you shouldn't have universal healthcare, that's 0:17:52.000 --> 0:17:54.000 the argument of people who have what they need and 0:17:54.040 --> 0:17:55.919 don't give a damn about anybody else. And I have 0:17:55.960 --> 0:17:58.800 no patience for that. I'm always curious if the COVID 0:17:58.840 --> 0:18:02.320 has proven anything. It's is how linked we are, you know, biologically. 0:18:02.640 --> 0:18:05.200 Why don't they recognize that it's in their interests as 0:18:05.200 --> 0:18:07.479 well for other people to be covered. You know something, 0:18:07.800 --> 0:18:10.639 most people are not opposed to universal healthcare, including most 0:18:10.680 --> 0:18:15.080 Trump voters. The problem is what the Republicans do is 0:18:15.119 --> 0:18:19.800 basically when on the worst instincts of people, they catered racism, homophobia. 0:18:20.280 --> 0:18:23.119 What they sell is hate and that overcomes a lot 0:18:23.200 --> 0:18:26.840 of things. Uh, if you pull most Americans, they would 0:18:26.840 --> 0:18:29.679 really like a universal healthcare program, and that includes most 0:18:29.720 --> 0:18:31.760 of the Trump voters. You know, there's a guy from 0:18:31.800 --> 0:18:34.520 Georgia who is married to one of my favorite students, 0:18:35.320 --> 0:18:37.280 And we were talking one day and he says, you know, 0:18:37.760 --> 0:18:40.800 do you like Trump voters? And I had to think 0:18:40.800 --> 0:18:43.719 about it, and I said yes, because most of them 0:18:43.760 --> 0:18:46.520 used to vote for me. These are working people. These 0:18:46.520 --> 0:18:48.159 are not I mean, yes, you get the lunatics that 0:18:48.200 --> 0:18:49.720 are in the paper all the time. These are not 0:18:49.880 --> 0:18:52.760 horrible people. These are people who are working people and 0:18:52.760 --> 0:18:55.480 they and Trump brings out the worst in them, but 0:18:55.560 --> 0:18:57.680