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Speaker 1: So Katie, as you're gnawing on your almond butter, we're

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Speaker 1: you're having pretzels with almond butter because you wouldn't share

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Speaker 1: your sandwich on the train. Not that I'm going to

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Speaker 1: hold that against offered both sandwiches, to be clear, But anyway,

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Speaker 1: we're here on the north side of Capitol Hill where

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Speaker 1: an impromptu rally has begun with a bunch of Democratic

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Speaker 1: senators protesting the healthcare bill that the Republicans are trying

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Speaker 1: to pass through the Senate. And they voted to discuss

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Speaker 1: the healthcare bill and emotion to proceed, which means that

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Speaker 1: they can commence debate. And these are the formal Brian

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Speaker 1: they voted so they can discuss the bill. They voted

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Speaker 1: to start talking. Anyway, we shouldn't we shouldn't overlook. This

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Speaker 1: is the one year anniversary of our podcast, Katie Anniversary.

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Speaker 1: The universary ran too, and we're back where it all

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Speaker 1: started on Capitol Hill. That's right. One of our first

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Speaker 1: podcasts was with Senator out Frankin and we walked around

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Speaker 1: the halls of Congress and talk to folks. And this was,

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Speaker 1: of course before the election. We are six months into

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Speaker 1: the Donald Trump presidency, with a lot of Democrats standing

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Speaker 1: in front of the Capital and basically talking about the

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Speaker 1: need to preserve the Affordable Care Act. And we spoke

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Speaker 1: to a lot of people who are gathered here mostly

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Speaker 1: against what the Republicans are trying to do, but one

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Speaker 1: or two Trump supporters as well. We did hear from

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Speaker 1: a lot of people who are extremely upset. For many

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Speaker 1: of these people, it's a matter of life and death,

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Speaker 1: and especially for those who have children with disabilities who

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Speaker 1: rely on Medicaid for their care. Um, there are a

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Speaker 1: lot of very emotional people. Let's listen to what some

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Speaker 1: of them had to say. I have a son with

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Speaker 1: Down syndrome and his future depends on Medicaid. With these cuts,

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Speaker 1: it's really hard to see how he live independently in work.

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Speaker 1: That's why almost of us are you today, people with

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Speaker 1: disabilities who rely on Medicaid simply to live. Do you

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Speaker 1: think this is going to make a difference to have

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Speaker 1: people come out like this, definitely, because this this cuts

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Speaker 1: across party lines. Um, you know, disability doesn't discriminate. There's

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Speaker 1: millions of families with a member who relies on Medicaid

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Speaker 1: because of a disability or an aging parent. And also

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Speaker 1: have two of those, so you know, this is a

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Speaker 1: real crisis for a lot of people in this country.

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Speaker 1: A lot of these people are here worried about what

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Speaker 1: these changes will mean, specifically to their disabled kids. Tell

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Speaker 1: me how you're feeling about the whole debate where I

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Speaker 1: don't care, you don't care, I don't care about the

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Speaker 1: bit about them. Um, just kind of just say I

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Speaker 1: don't care. Whatever the president wants, I'm for, So I

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Speaker 1: would say I'm for the along the place, and I'm

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Speaker 1: not particularly concerned about how they license. You know, the

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Speaker 1: Congressional Budget Office, as I'm sure you probably have heard,

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Speaker 1: estimates anywhere from twenty to thirty two million people will

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Speaker 1: lose their healthcare if Obamacare is repealed. And I'm curious

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Speaker 1: how you feel about that. Sad, but it's not enough

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Speaker 1: for you to speak out against the president or this

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Speaker 1: pending legislation. What medical conditions do you have? I have

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Speaker 1: sereal posing and I just require um in home care

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Speaker 1: people to get me out of bed, help me do

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Speaker 1: the things that everybody does to get ready for the day.

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Speaker 1: And if services get cut with this healthcare bell um,

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Speaker 1: I would wind up in a nursing room. Our services

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Speaker 1: like mine would be the first to go. You walked

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Speaker 1: all the way here to Washington. We'll have to get

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Speaker 1: them to hear her voice. Tell me about Lauren and

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Speaker 1: why you're here representing her. She can top should never speak.

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Speaker 1: She came off. She can't stand up, So I walked

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Speaker 1: for her because she can't walk, and I stood up

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Speaker 1: for her because she can't stand, and I'll speak for

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Speaker 1: her because she can't speak. They need to leave children

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Speaker 1: like her out of politics. This is not a political issue.

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Speaker 1: This is humanitarian. This is his life. This is a

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Speaker 1: human life. Has nothing to do with a Republican or

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Speaker 1: a Democrat, or left or right, or conservative or liberal.

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Speaker 1: This is like, of course, we're hair Brian though to

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Speaker 1: sit down and talk with Corey Booker. Uh, he's here

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Speaker 1: at this rally. He's actually still m seeing the event

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Speaker 1: on the steps in front of the Capitol and apparently

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Speaker 1: can't stop talking. It's just an editorial observation, our interview slightly. Well,

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Speaker 1: I'm looking forward to hearing from Senator Booker about all

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Speaker 1: kinds of things, what's happening here in Washington and the country,

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Speaker 1: his views on this health care legislation and Russia, President Trump. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: and his presidential aspirations. Many people have seen him as

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Speaker 1: a rising star, so we'll hear what he has to

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Speaker 1: say about that. Although, Katy, you can't swing your purse

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Speaker 1: where we are right now without hitting a potential Democratic

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Speaker 1: presidential candidate. I think I've seen a half dozen of

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Speaker 1: them in the last twenty minutes. That's true. Here is

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Speaker 1: Senator Cory Booker. Welcome to our podcasts and what a

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Speaker 1: day here in Washington, d C. God to say, for

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Speaker 1: a second, you and I've been friend for a long time.

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Speaker 1: I feel I feel at a disadvantage when I'm being

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Speaker 1: interviewed by you because I feel so comfortable with you.

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Speaker 1: I might just be telling all, well, if you want

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Speaker 1: to break some news and announce your candidacy for feel free.

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Speaker 1: I will announce I am running in for re election.

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Speaker 1: Does New Jersey law permit you to run for both?

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Speaker 1: I don't even know the question, Brian interesting, Sure you're

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Speaker 1: going to figure out the answer that question pretty too.

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Speaker 1: Are very mischievous and and Brian is very prepared. But

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Speaker 1: he was pulling stuff out of my bio in the elevator.

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Speaker 1: How did you know my favorite breakfast cereal was Captain

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Speaker 1: Crunch Crunch berriers, drink Diet Mountain even though your girlfriend

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Speaker 1: tells you not to. Well, before we talk more about

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Speaker 1: you and your background, it is a eventful day. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: let's talk about from your perspective, how do you process

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Speaker 1: what just transpired? It is so unconscionable for and I

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Speaker 1: think for those of you don't know. John McCain gave

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Speaker 1: a very dramatic speak in the Senate after he voted

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Speaker 1: to proceed to a bill when he didn't even know

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Speaker 1: what was in the bill. I mean, this whole process,

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Speaker 1: from this very beginning is a betrayal of every Senate tradition,

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Speaker 1: every Senate custom. Uh, it's even a betrayal for all

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Speaker 1: those people who thinks Obamacare was just shoved through. Obamacare

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Speaker 1: had hundreds of bipartisan meetings, committee hearings, hundreds of witnesses.

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Speaker 1: He actually was amended multiple times by the Republicans. Did

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Speaker 1: pass with nary a Republican vote. Absolutely, but there was

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Speaker 1: a process that was akin to what the Senate is

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Speaker 1: supposed to do, where lots of people are invited in.

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Speaker 1: As John McCain himself said, this was a process that

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Speaker 1: was done in secrecy, behind closed doors. Just a handful

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Speaker 1: of Republicans, no hearings, no witnesses, no input. It was

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Speaker 1: roundly condemned by non partis and not by parts of

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Speaker 1: a non parts and groups the American Medical Association, American

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Speaker 1: Hospital Association, American Cancers ACIDE, I mean, everybody who we

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Speaker 1: think of as beyond politics in the medical and healthcare

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Speaker 1: industry world condemned this bill the a r P. And

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Speaker 1: so then suddenly, literally the people are being interviewed in

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Speaker 1: the in the days before this Republicans and saying, I

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Speaker 1: don't know what's in this bill, and they just voted

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Speaker 1: to proceed to a bill that they don't even know

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Speaker 1: what's in it. And that's what's uncomfortable to me that

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Speaker 1: this is what has just transpired in the United States Senate.

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Speaker 1: But what didn't they basically say, and didn't John McCain

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Speaker 1: say in his speech Senator that we need to discuss this,

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Speaker 1: we need to consider it, and as a result, isn't

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Speaker 1: it possible that the ultimate final bill could look very

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Speaker 1: different than the one that they've just sent to Yes, well,

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Speaker 1: he actually went even further, which again said he wouldn't

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Speaker 1: vote for it, wouldn't vote for it and its current

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Speaker 1: incarnation and its current recarnation less. It changed quite a bit.

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Speaker 1: But he like others, I'm glad I've expressed skepticism about

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Speaker 1: voting for a bill. They gave massive tax breaks to

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Speaker 1: the wealthiest amongst us, savage Medicare to the tune of

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Speaker 1: ten to fifteen million Americans, drove up costs for older Americans,

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Speaker 1: undermine access to Medicaid for people in extended care. There's

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Speaker 1: a lot of parts of this bill that were hard

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Speaker 1: to pack the stomach for House members who were hoping

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Speaker 1: Republicans over here would change it. But I haven't seen

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Speaker 1: a change in which Mr mcconnells could hold together the

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Speaker 1: disparate members of his co coalition from the Rand Paul's

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Speaker 1: and Mike Lee's Susan to the Susan Collins and UM

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Speaker 1: Senator Murkowski from from Alaska. But of course he held

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Speaker 1: the Allian together. Today, I don't past the motion to proceed,

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Speaker 1: and so that a lot of Democrats believe that these complaints,

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Speaker 1: these criticisms among Republicans ring hollow because ultimately their votes

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Speaker 1: are different than their statements. Absolutely, well, let's go to

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Speaker 1: the president. I mean the president. If you just take

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Speaker 1: him on what he said, I won't cut Medicaid. I

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Speaker 1: won't cut Medicare. I'm going to provide healthcare that because

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Speaker 1: greater access that is more affordable. And I think the

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Speaker 1: exact word he used was terrific. Healthcare is gonna be terrific. Well,

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Speaker 1: this bill on account on an unqualified manner. CBO as

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Speaker 1: well as many other outside experts have said, this will

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Speaker 1: make healthcare more expensive for the average American, it will

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Speaker 1: restrict access for tens of millions of Americans, and it

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Speaker 1: will drive down the quality of the care that that

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Speaker 1: many Americans have access to. So this is nothing like

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Speaker 1: what people have been saying. Where we should be and

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Speaker 1: even what John McCain said today is we should all

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Speaker 1: take a breather. What did the affordable care acter that

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Speaker 1: we like? Most Americans love, the pre existing conditions preserving

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Speaker 1: Most Americans like Medicaid expansion. Obviously some governors didn't do it.

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Speaker 1: Most Americans are like a lot of aspects, parity between

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Speaker 1: mental health care and so called physical health care. There's

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Speaker 1: a lot in this bill that people liked, and so

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Speaker 1: let's hold the line on those things and try to

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Speaker 1: improve the things that are some what problematic. It's problematic

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Speaker 1: for example that in the health care exchanges, a small

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Speaker 1: percentage of people weren't getting subsidies and more. Well, are

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Speaker 1: you hopeful then that there will be uh some kind

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Speaker 1: of compromise going on as things move forward? Or do

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Speaker 1: you think that now Republicans have been emboldened by this

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Speaker 1: motion to proceed or whatever you call it. So the

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Speaker 1: Senate doesn't give me hope. What gives me hope is

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Speaker 1: what the American people have been doing. Incredible outpourings of

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Speaker 1: protests from people on both sides of the political aisle,

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Speaker 1: cramming into people's town hall meetings, demanding that they walk

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Speaker 1: away from a bill that would hurt them and their families.

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Speaker 1: This is the week I would say that people who

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Speaker 1: have to have to speak up again and let let

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Speaker 1: folks know there'll be consequences if they vote on such

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Speaker 1: a disastrous bill that will hurt American families of all backgrounds,

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Speaker 1: all geographies, all races, all parties. Democrats have spoken in

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Speaker 1: very general terms about fixing Obamacare. Your position is sort

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Speaker 1: of mended, don't end it, But what specific improvements or

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Speaker 1: changes do you think should be made? Well, look, I'm

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Speaker 1: one of those Americans that believes that we need to

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Speaker 1: have a different philosophy of healthcare needs to be made

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Speaker 1: real and legislation, which is that healthcare is are right,

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Speaker 1: that we need to have a nation in which everyone

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Speaker 1: is covered, in which everyone has affordable and quality healthcare.

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Speaker 1: That should be the end that we should express now.

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Speaker 1: I believe there's lots of avenues to get there. Should

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Speaker 1: there be single care well less, I'm saying medicare for all.

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Speaker 1: We we almost we were one vote shy, I say we,

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Speaker 1: I wasn't in the Senate. Then when the Affordable Care

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Speaker 1: Act pass of extending Medicare down to people aged fifty,

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Speaker 1: I believe that would have been the small end of

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Speaker 1: the wedge. I believe at the end other end of

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Speaker 1: that would have been people saying, Wow, it's working. Medicare

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Speaker 1: is working for now, for people all the way down

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Speaker 1: to fifty, Let's expand it for everybody. So I think

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Speaker 1: the Medicare for all idea is a really good idea.

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Speaker 1: Public options are a really good idea. But I do

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Speaker 1: I'm a big believer that the way we're trying to

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Speaker 1: go about this is actually giving lots of profits to

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Speaker 1: private interests that that uh that are taking money out

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Speaker 1: of the health care system and adding great expense to it.

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Speaker 1: But in the meantime, I'm also a realist, as John

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Speaker 1: McCain said today, that you know, given where we are

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Speaker 1: right now, with the Democrats in the minority and Republicans

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Speaker 1: in the majority, and Republicans and controlling two Houses of

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Speaker 1: Congress and the White House, that we're going to have

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Speaker 1: to try to do what you said, men, Obamacare, don't

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Speaker 1: end it, make it better, and do some incremental changes

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Speaker 1: before we see unless we see Congress change that doesn't

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Speaker 1: seem very desirable politically, does it. I mean, the they,

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Speaker 1: the president, and many of these people ran on the

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Speaker 1: platform of getting rid of Obamacare, appealing Obamacare. I think

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Speaker 1: they're not going to want the appearance of mending, not ending,

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Speaker 1: because it will still be Obama. This is the thing

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Speaker 1: that almost right. Well, no, I don't think. I don't

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Speaker 1: think you're right, because here's the president we have found

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Speaker 1: can lie to the American public, can have Fox News

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Speaker 1: respeating everything that they're saying. You don't think he could

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Speaker 1: have said I'm bringing in trump Care and we're going

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Speaker 1: to do this and this and this, but the real

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Speaker 1: bill would have just amended it. He could have called

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Speaker 1: it anything you want. He's one of the best carnival

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Speaker 1: barkers I've ever seen in American politics, who could tell

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Speaker 1: people that he was transforming healthcare and really what he

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Speaker 1: did was keep everything people liked and made things better.

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Speaker 1: He could have done it that way, in a bipartisan way.

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Speaker 1: Here's a president who has missed opportunity after opportunity to

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Speaker 1: be who he said he was going to be, the

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Speaker 1: great deal maker. This is a guy who had a

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Speaker 1: wide opportunity to be a unifying force in this country,

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Speaker 1: to bring people together to deal with our major issues.

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Speaker 1: But he has completely botched it, and instead he's appealing

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Speaker 1: to a very narrow base with outrageous demonization and demagoguery,

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Speaker 1: the kind of things that are hurting America given his campaign.

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Speaker 1: Are you really surprised? I'm disappointed. His campaign was outraged me.

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Speaker 1: I mean, I I was so company he was gonna

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Speaker 1: lose because I did not believe anybody can ascend to

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Speaker 1: the White House in this day and age by demeaning

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Speaker 1: and degrading other Americans, whether it's Mexicans, Muslims, uh, people

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Speaker 1: in inner cities, even the way you talked about African Americans,

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Speaker 1: all these things, Uh, not to mention women Um, I

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Speaker 1: didn't think that was possible, but hey, I was wrong,

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Speaker 1: And I think a lot of Democrats were wrong because

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Speaker 1: they didn't understand the level of pain that people were

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Speaker 1: going through and how Donald Trump was founding a way

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Speaker 1: to talk to that pain, um in ways that Democratic

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Speaker 1: leaders were not. And so here we are in this

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Speaker 1: condition right now. I just I'm curious in terms of

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Speaker 1: this healthcare legislation. Is this going to come back to

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Speaker 1: bite Republicans in the butt in two thousand and eighteen

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Speaker 1: if they in fact support a bill that leaves many

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Speaker 1: people uninsured? I certainly hope. So, I mean, are you

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Speaker 1: guys going to really make Hay with this? Listen if

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Speaker 1: you hurt my neighborhood, my community. I live in Newark,

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Speaker 1: New Jersey. I live in the Central war The median

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Speaker 1: income in my neighborhood is fourteen dollars UH per household.

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Speaker 1: When I walk around my community, people are really worried

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Speaker 1: and really afraid. And this bill that they just proceeded to,

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Speaker 1: which we don't really know what's in, but if we

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Speaker 1: listen to the CBO and their past versions, this bill

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Speaker 1: will devastate communities like mine, rural communities, cities across this

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Speaker 1: country people with disabilities. I mean, it's a devastating bill.

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Speaker 1: So will I politically say if you guys do this,

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Speaker 1: you should suffer the consequences at the polls? Heck yeah,

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Speaker 1: I hope that happens. But I got hours now, and

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Speaker 1: I'm gonna do everything I can to fight to prevent

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Speaker 1: that from happening, because I'm not looking for political advantage.

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Speaker 1: I'm looking for helping people, and we should stop this

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Speaker 1: bill um from happening. What do you make of the

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Speaker 1: argument that just as the Republicans have moved too far

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Speaker 1: to the right, Democrats have gone off the left side

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Speaker 1: of the cliff, Because how so? I mean, well, I

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Speaker 1: think on trade, you could make the argument that they've

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Speaker 1: abandoned the Trans Pacific Partnership, buying a bunch of arguments

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Speaker 1: that aren't really legitimate about what it would have done

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Speaker 1: to American workers, when really it's automation far more than

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Speaker 1: trade that have cost jobs. On single payer, my home

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Speaker 1: state of California, which has Democratic supermajorities, tried to pass

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Speaker 1: single payer and it didn't work because the cost of

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Speaker 1: it was more than the whole state budget and there

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Speaker 1: was no answer for how it could be affordable. Um,

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Speaker 1: and some of the rhetoric. This is not my opinion,

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Speaker 1: but the opinion of many independent analysts is us versus them.

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Speaker 1: But for them, isn't a Muslim or a Mexican. It's

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Speaker 1: a billionaire or a banker, or somebody in one of

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Speaker 1: the industries like prescription drugs or healthcare that Democrats have

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Speaker 1: decided are not good for America. So I'm a former mayor,

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Speaker 1: and um, you know, I think the Wall Street Jurnal

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Speaker 1: said I was the twenty one person in American history,

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Speaker 1: goes straight from being a mayor to being a United

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Speaker 1: States Senator. I had to fix stuff, um that I

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Speaker 1: couldn't use philosophy. As Fiolor Litt Guardias said, there's no

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Speaker 1: Republican or Democratic way to fix a pothole. You just

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Speaker 1: gotta fix it. And and that's the way I view

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Speaker 1: the country right now. And I've seen I've seen Trump

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Speaker 1: trash trade deals as much as you see people on

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Speaker 1: on either side of the aisle doing it. I don't

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Speaker 1: think my party, in a very pragmatic way, is going

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Speaker 1: off the rails in some way. I don't want to

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Speaker 1: use the spectrums of left and right, because I'm not

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Speaker 1: even sure what is left what is right anymore? I

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Speaker 1: think that that what we, what the core of my

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Speaker 1: party is saying, are pragmatic things that in a balance

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Speaker 1: sheet analysis UM, which is what I had to use

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Speaker 1: every day as a mayor, that net net they create wealth,

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Speaker 1: they create growth, um to create opportunity. And I'll just

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Speaker 1: give some things that people might want to characterize as

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Speaker 1: left like, let's say something like funding housing. Well Seattle

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Speaker 1: to study a great organization called Plymouth Housing Group out

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Speaker 1: there said what is more expensive supportive housing for people

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Speaker 1: with special needs and mental health issues or keeping them

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Speaker 1: on the streets. They actually found out they saved the

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Speaker 1: million dollars to taxpayers by taking people off the streets

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Speaker 1: and putting in support of housing. Why well, people who

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Speaker 1: ran cities know this. They end up in our emergency rooms,

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Speaker 1: end up in our jails. It's more expensive to do

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Speaker 1: the morally on sound thing. Let's use another example. Why

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Speaker 1: is it that all of our competitors have paid family

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Speaker 1: leave and universal preschool because they know when you invest

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Speaker 1: in children, it is in a global knowledge based environment.

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Speaker 1: It is the most valuable natural resource of country has

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Speaker 1: is no longer coal or gas or oil. It's the

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Speaker 1: genius of your children, and you've got to put an

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Speaker 1: environment to cultivate that. So I can show you all

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Speaker 1: the things are the core base of the Democratic Party

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Speaker 1: that appealed to people from Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren

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Speaker 1: all the way to Mark Warner, uh And and Joe Mansion.

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Speaker 1: Things that we believe in, like raising the minimum wage.

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Speaker 1: We now have data that looks at places like Seattle

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Speaker 1: and other places. It shows that you don't crush small businesses.

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Speaker 1: But I thought, I thought, Uh, correct me if I'm wrong,

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Speaker 1: But I thought that it really did cause a lot

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Speaker 1: of people to lose their jobs in Seattle according to

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Speaker 1: a study that a lot of businesses had to fire

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Speaker 1: people when they raise the minimum wage. So I saw

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Speaker 1: it was out on Fox News or something exactly. Know,

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Speaker 1: there's been some data that's come out that's been highly

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Speaker 1: disputed about the impact of minimum wage. But let's pull

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Speaker 1: back in from Seattle. There's so much study about places

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Speaker 1: that raise the minimum wage, including New Jersey, that raises

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Speaker 1: in the minimum wage um did not affect a business growth.

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Speaker 1: And in fact, the best evidence for that is that

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Speaker 1: when the minimum wage was established in the nineteen sixties,

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Speaker 1: in real dollars, it's much higher than it is now.

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Speaker 1: If you just had kept up with inflation, it would

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Speaker 1: be over fifteen dollars an hours. So if it was

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Speaker 1: undermining growth back then, um um, it wasn't. In fact,

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Speaker 1: those years sixties seventies were some of the greatest expansions

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Speaker 1: of the middle class we've ever seen. So so I

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Speaker 1: just wanted, I just believe that that I forget democratic

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Speaker 1: rep publican investing in children, investing in seniors, investing in

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Speaker 1: the poor. Uh, We've got to be a nation like

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Speaker 1: our past, like in the forties and the fifties and

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Speaker 1: the sixties and the seventies that invested in Americans and

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Speaker 1: invested in America education, infrastructure, science and research and development,

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Speaker 1: all those things that this generation of Republicans have turned

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Speaker 1: our government away from. And other nations including immigration, by

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Speaker 1: the way, other nations Canada, Germany, Japan. What are they saying,

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Speaker 1: Oh my god, look what America's turning away from its past. Well,

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Speaker 1: we're gonna out America. You. We're gonna invest in our

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Speaker 1: infrastructure more than you are, except for building prisons. We're

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Speaker 1: gonna invest in education more than you are. We're gonna

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Speaker 1: invest in immigration. What do they have out in Silicon Valley.

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Speaker 1: They say, hey, can't get your H one B visa,

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Speaker 1: come to Canada. We want you because college presidents come

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Speaker 1: to me and say, we're graduating people in degrees I

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Speaker 1: can't even spell micro immunology, biology, whatever it is, And

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Speaker 1: as soon as they finish their student visa, the brightest

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Speaker 1: minds of the planet Earth, we kicked them out of

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Speaker 1: our country. So we've got to get back to doing

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Speaker 1: what actually worked in a are going to build out

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Speaker 1: the middle class, to close the race gap, to give

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Speaker 1: more people avenues out, social mobility, out of poverty, into

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Speaker 1: the middle class. That other countries are not doing better

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Speaker 1: than us. We need to get back to being better

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Speaker 1: at being America than other people are. Why do you

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Speaker 1: think Hillary Clinton was unsuccessful of prosecuting the argument that

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Speaker 1: you just made, and why do you think that it

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Speaker 1: seems I think there was another survey I read recently.

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Speaker 1: I read so much sometimes you can't even remember what

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Speaker 1: you read and where that said people still don't know

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Speaker 1: what Democrats stand for. It wasn't there a recently. Y're

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Speaker 1: trying to fill in that gap with the agenda you

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Speaker 1: announced this week. But why have Democrats failed to make

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Speaker 1: this case that Hillary. Well, look, I think that we

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Speaker 1: need to get back to understanding as a country, all

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Speaker 1: of us, that we have a common pain and we

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Speaker 1: need to get back to a common national purpose. And

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Speaker 1: for some reason, we don't feel like we have a

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Speaker 1: common pain anymore. I've visited from the rural areas UH

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Speaker 1: that are predominantly white and poor in my state, to

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Speaker 1: the to the minority areas UH inner city areas are

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Speaker 1: predominantly Black, Latino and poor, and the struggles people are

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Speaker 1: having are so much the same, whether it's trying to

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Speaker 1: incarcerate yourself out of a drug problem and you're seeing

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Speaker 1: people getting arrested outrageous raised not getting drug treatment, to

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Speaker 1: not having schools that are providing the kind of pathways

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Speaker 1: to middle class jobs that we need. We have a

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Speaker 1: common pain, but we haven't talked about a common purpose.

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Speaker 1: But there's a lot of evidence that Donald Trump won

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Speaker 1: not because of economic pain, but because of cultural identification

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Speaker 1: and polarization. Many of his voters were not economically struggling

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Speaker 1: or were economically better off than they were when they

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Speaker 1: voted four years ago for Barack Obama. So if it's

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Speaker 1: just about Democrats providing a stronger economic message, um is

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Speaker 1: that actually sufficient Tandon from the who's extraordinary leader of

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Speaker 1: the Center for American Progress today and a very close

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Speaker 1: aide to Hillary Clinton. Yes, and she was saying to

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Speaker 1: me that she was looking at a map of Clinton

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Speaker 1: voters versus UM Trump voters and he's and saw that

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Speaker 1: you had these interesting UM realities where you saw a

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Speaker 1: lot of these urban areas where are starting to grow again.

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Speaker 1: I mean New York, New Jersey where I was mayor,

430
00:23:16,040 --> 00:23:20,080
Speaker 1: first time, the greatest economic development peers since the nineteen sixties. Um.

431
00:23:20,200 --> 00:23:23,040
Speaker 1: You see population growth, first time since the nineteen sixties.

432
00:23:23,040 --> 00:23:25,200
Speaker 1: There are population is growing. You're seeing a lot of

433
00:23:25,240 --> 00:23:27,560
Speaker 1: these urban areas that are starting to see economic growth

434
00:23:27,600 --> 00:23:30,800
Speaker 1: and opportunity. You're seeing a lot of folks supporting Secretary

435
00:23:30,800 --> 00:23:32,800
Speaker 1: Clinton where she want. You're seeing a lot of these

436
00:23:32,800 --> 00:23:35,720
Speaker 1: other areas that are not there, that are losing factories.

437
00:23:35,720 --> 00:23:37,720
Speaker 1: And I agree with you more because of the microchip

438
00:23:37,800 --> 00:23:41,200
Speaker 1: than Mexicans, UM, but are starting to see a loss

439
00:23:41,240 --> 00:23:43,000
Speaker 1: as coal mining towns. A lot of people that are

440
00:23:43,040 --> 00:23:46,840
Speaker 1: suffering economically and nobody is showing them that this is

441
00:23:47,040 --> 00:23:50,480
Speaker 1: an inclusive vision for America. UM. That Donald Trump was

442
00:23:50,520 --> 00:23:53,280
Speaker 1: able to come in there and exploit that pain and

443
00:23:53,400 --> 00:23:56,920
Speaker 1: actually say it's not your fault. It's the Mexican's fault.

444
00:23:57,000 --> 00:23:59,480
Speaker 1: It's not your fault, it's the Muslim's fault. It's not

445
00:23:59,600 --> 00:24:02,679
Speaker 1: your fault. It's these crazy left wing people who are

446
00:24:02,760 --> 00:24:06,600
Speaker 1: serving the elites and really sold them this idea that

447
00:24:06,720 --> 00:24:10,280
Speaker 1: we don't have a better economic plan where I know, fundamentally,

448
00:24:10,560 --> 00:24:14,000
Speaker 1: if you are struggling in a rural town, which party

449
00:24:14,119 --> 00:24:16,600
Speaker 1: is fighting for the earned income tax credit, Which party

450
00:24:16,640 --> 00:24:19,520
Speaker 1: is writing for the raising your minimum wage? Which party

451
00:24:19,560 --> 00:24:22,840
Speaker 1: wants to fight against more tax brates for the wealthiest

452
00:24:22,880 --> 00:24:25,760
Speaker 1: of people, and more opportunity for you and your schools

453
00:24:25,800 --> 00:24:29,399
Speaker 1: and your community colleges so you can afford education or training.

454
00:24:29,600 --> 00:24:32,240
Speaker 1: That's the Democratic Party. But Donald Trump was such a

455
00:24:32,359 --> 00:24:35,840
Speaker 1: good carnival barker that he strolled on in two places

456
00:24:35,880 --> 00:24:39,440
Speaker 1: where the people voted for Obama twice and really sell

457
00:24:39,560 --> 00:24:43,160
Speaker 1: to them this US versus them. Any Time a leader

458
00:24:43,520 --> 00:24:46,639
Speaker 1: tries to divide this country against itself, we should reject

459
00:24:46,880 --> 00:24:49,240
Speaker 1: that leader. Any Time a leader tries to say we're

460
00:24:49,280 --> 00:24:51,159
Speaker 1: all in this together, we need each other, we have

461
00:24:51,280 --> 00:24:54,800
Speaker 1: one common destiny, that's the leader I want to follow. Unfortunately,

462
00:24:54,840 --> 00:24:57,520
Speaker 1: Donald Trump played the divide and conquer and he was

463
00:24:57,600 --> 00:24:59,920
Speaker 1: able to win the presidency. And he's still trying to

464
00:25:00,000 --> 00:25:02,719
Speaker 1: over in that way, dividing and conquering. But he's dividing

465
00:25:02,760 --> 00:25:05,640
Speaker 1: this that the Senate, he's dividing the House, and what's

466
00:25:05,680 --> 00:25:08,440
Speaker 1: happening is America's getting the raw deal. Do you think

467
00:25:08,480 --> 00:25:12,280
Speaker 1: Bernie Sanders ever plays divide and conquered politics? Look, I

468
00:25:12,800 --> 00:25:15,520
Speaker 1: think that a Senator Sanders provided a vision for this

469
00:25:15,640 --> 00:25:20,880
Speaker 1: country on policy that was bold and visionary to say, hey,

470
00:25:21,160 --> 00:25:23,840
Speaker 1: we need to be a nation that educates again and

471
00:25:24,280 --> 00:25:26,280
Speaker 1: pointing out the reality is how expensive it is to

472
00:25:26,280 --> 00:25:28,920
Speaker 1: go to college. It's something that's really, I think, very

473
00:25:29,000 --> 00:25:32,520
Speaker 1: attractive to me. And so he painted in broad strokes,

474
00:25:32,640 --> 00:25:35,480
Speaker 1: bold strokes that capture the imagination of a lot of Americans.

475
00:25:35,960 --> 00:25:39,280
Speaker 1: And so did he vilify this US versus them wealthy

476
00:25:39,280 --> 00:25:41,640
Speaker 1: elites and what have you. I'm a person that said

477
00:25:41,720 --> 00:25:45,240
Speaker 1: that my style of politics is I'm not gonna demonize anybody,

478
00:25:45,240 --> 00:25:47,399
Speaker 1: and I'm not saying that that Bernie Sanders did, but

479
00:25:47,440 --> 00:25:50,200
Speaker 1: i am'm gonna point things out like the ridiculousness of

480
00:25:50,320 --> 00:25:53,080
Speaker 1: carried interest for crying out loud, I mean, you gotta

481
00:25:53,119 --> 00:25:56,840
Speaker 1: be kidding me. Anybody who's benefiting from that massive tax loophole,

482
00:25:57,200 --> 00:26:00,040
Speaker 1: while there are people inner cities that are struggling with

483
00:26:00,240 --> 00:26:03,840
Speaker 1: environmental desolation because we can't fund clean up super fun

484
00:26:03,880 --> 00:26:06,080
Speaker 1: clean up sites. I mean, Dear God, give up your

485
00:26:06,119 --> 00:26:08,200
Speaker 1: carried interests so that we can clean up the most

486
00:26:08,200 --> 00:26:11,480
Speaker 1: toxic environments that are poising our children. That's inexcusable to

487
00:26:11,600 --> 00:26:14,480
Speaker 1: me for people to be able to benefit and ways

488
00:26:14,520 --> 00:26:16,639
Speaker 1: through the tax code that are hurting other people. Now

489
00:26:16,680 --> 00:26:20,160
Speaker 1: I'm not demonizing those people, but I'm calling out things

490
00:26:20,200 --> 00:26:25,720
Speaker 1: that our nation is doing that it's hurting people. It's

491
00:26:25,760 --> 00:26:28,120
Speaker 1: time to take a quick break. When we return more

492
00:26:28,280 --> 00:26:38,880
Speaker 1: with Senator Corey Booker right after this, and now back

493
00:26:38,960 --> 00:26:43,160
Speaker 1: with Senator Corey Booker. I think for a lot of people,

494
00:26:43,280 --> 00:26:46,399
Speaker 1: you're probably more famous than well known, and so we

495
00:26:46,480 --> 00:26:48,680
Speaker 1: want to give people a better sense of who you

496
00:26:48,720 --> 00:26:51,200
Speaker 1: actually are, where you come from. Threw up in a

497
00:26:51,280 --> 00:26:59,119
Speaker 1: small parents were two of the first black executives. Start.

498
00:26:59,520 --> 00:27:01,480
Speaker 1: I was born a poor black child with no rhythm,

499
00:27:02,560 --> 00:27:06,320
Speaker 1: and that was Steve Martin. Yes, you know that. I

500
00:27:06,440 --> 00:27:08,960
Speaker 1: think these jokes now in front of millennial audiences and

501
00:27:09,000 --> 00:27:12,040
Speaker 1: they give me blank faces. Yeah, I'm actually an eighty

502
00:27:12,080 --> 00:27:15,439
Speaker 1: year old man in a in a thirty five year

503
00:27:15,440 --> 00:27:20,200
Speaker 1: old year old. That's the nicest thing anybody's ever said

504
00:27:20,240 --> 00:27:22,320
Speaker 1: to be. But I talk a little bit about your

505
00:27:22,400 --> 00:27:26,679
Speaker 1: childhood Corey for Senator Booker for people who are listening, because, um,

506
00:27:27,040 --> 00:27:30,879
Speaker 1: you've had such a fascinating life, and paint, uh what

507
00:27:31,119 --> 00:27:33,960
Speaker 1: life was like in a mostly white New Jersey suburb

508
00:27:34,040 --> 00:27:36,560
Speaker 1: called Harrington Park. Well, I think the great drama of

509
00:27:36,640 --> 00:27:38,960
Speaker 1: my life happened when I was only a full months old,

510
00:27:39,040 --> 00:27:41,840
Speaker 1: which is to be born to two black parents who

511
00:27:42,160 --> 00:27:46,639
Speaker 1: really struggled, Um, and are products of a revolution in

512
00:27:46,680 --> 00:27:48,879
Speaker 1: this country. They are products of a civil rights revolution

513
00:27:49,280 --> 00:27:51,880
Speaker 1: and rode that wave of the struggles of so many

514
00:27:51,960 --> 00:27:54,600
Speaker 1: people who opened up doors, including them, that opened up

515
00:27:54,640 --> 00:27:56,960
Speaker 1: doors for them that were unheard of in the black community.

516
00:27:57,040 --> 00:27:59,879
Speaker 1: My father born poor to a single mother who used

517
00:27:59,880 --> 00:28:02,240
Speaker 1: to say, son, I can I couldn't afford to be poor.

518
00:28:02,320 --> 00:28:04,280
Speaker 1: I was just poe peel, I couldn't afford the other

519
00:28:04,320 --> 00:28:07,040
Speaker 1: two letters. Um, this is my dad's child. Seemed to

520
00:28:07,040 --> 00:28:09,280
Speaker 1: get worse the older he got, But the truth is

521
00:28:09,359 --> 00:28:13,280
Speaker 1: he but my dad did grow up in a segregated

522
00:28:13,320 --> 00:28:15,359
Speaker 1: town in the mountains of North Carolina to a mother

523
00:28:15,400 --> 00:28:17,520
Speaker 1: who couldn't ultimately take care of him, and was taken

524
00:28:17,560 --> 00:28:19,960
Speaker 1: in by a family in the community, raised in the

525
00:28:20,000 --> 00:28:22,440
Speaker 1: Black church, who put money together in a collection plate

526
00:28:22,520 --> 00:28:25,000
Speaker 1: to try to get him off to a historically black college,

527
00:28:25,160 --> 00:28:27,160
Speaker 1: where he landed in the midst of the Civil Rights movement.

528
00:28:27,200 --> 00:28:29,400
Speaker 1: The sitt In movement started right there in North Carolina,

529
00:28:29,800 --> 00:28:32,119
Speaker 1: and next thing you know, he's watching the country change,

530
00:28:32,240 --> 00:28:34,800
Speaker 1: rushing with his friends to join up with people of

531
00:28:34,840 --> 00:28:38,160
Speaker 1: all backgrounds to fight to tear down these roles of segregation.

532
00:28:38,720 --> 00:28:41,360
Speaker 1: At that time, after college Lantern Washington, d C. Where

533
00:28:41,360 --> 00:28:45,600
Speaker 1: we're sitting and again right place, right time, right education,

534
00:28:46,040 --> 00:28:49,120
Speaker 1: it was activists in the Urban League and other places

535
00:28:49,160 --> 00:28:51,880
Speaker 1: that started putting pressure on companies or working with companies

536
00:28:52,160 --> 00:28:55,400
Speaker 1: to hire their first ever blacks in certain jobs. So

537
00:28:55,480 --> 00:28:59,240
Speaker 1: my dad becomes the first black person hired by IBM

538
00:28:59,280 --> 00:29:01,840
Speaker 1: in the Virginia area as a salesman. And then you

539
00:29:01,920 --> 00:29:04,920
Speaker 1: put qualified people, I don't care if they're if they're gay,

540
00:29:05,000 --> 00:29:07,600
Speaker 1: if they're people with disabilities. You give qualified people an

541
00:29:07,600 --> 00:29:09,960
Speaker 1: opportunity they thrive, and next thing you know, my dad

542
00:29:10,600 --> 00:29:13,200
Speaker 1: is just their top five percent of global salesman gets

543
00:29:13,240 --> 00:29:15,440
Speaker 1: a promotion up to Manhattan, and he will tell you

544
00:29:15,520 --> 00:29:17,440
Speaker 1: at that point in his life, and it's a late twenties,

545
00:29:17,840 --> 00:29:20,840
Speaker 1: he was living a life beyond his dreams of a

546
00:29:20,920 --> 00:29:22,640
Speaker 1: small kid in a in a poor town. And so

547
00:29:24,000 --> 00:29:26,280
Speaker 1: my mom the same story, I mean, really so similar.

548
00:29:26,720 --> 00:29:29,560
Speaker 1: She actually had two parents that My grandfather was a

549
00:29:30,440 --> 00:29:33,120
Speaker 1: U a W, one of their first early black um

550
00:29:33,600 --> 00:29:37,600
Speaker 1: UH union workers, and was able to provide my mom

551
00:29:37,760 --> 00:29:39,840
Speaker 1: with even a little bit more stability than my dad had.

552
00:29:40,360 --> 00:29:43,240
Speaker 1: And my grandmother and grandfather raised my mom and sent

553
00:29:43,320 --> 00:29:47,120
Speaker 1: her off to Fisk University, a great HBCU and in

554
00:29:47,400 --> 00:29:50,720
Speaker 1: in Memphis, Tennessee. And she herself moved to uh d

555
00:29:50,840 --> 00:29:53,800
Speaker 1: C started working in their public schools as a speech pathologist,

556
00:29:54,120 --> 00:29:57,720
Speaker 1: and then also became one of IBM's early black executives.

557
00:29:58,080 --> 00:30:00,840
Speaker 1: And so here you have these two folks, products of

558
00:30:00,880 --> 00:30:04,280
Speaker 1: the Civil rights movement, products of historically black colleges, all

559
00:30:04,360 --> 00:30:07,160
Speaker 1: these interventions that tried to create a more equal society.

560
00:30:07,440 --> 00:30:09,840
Speaker 1: And then they try to move into Harrington Park, New Jersey,

561
00:30:10,280 --> 00:30:12,280
Speaker 1: this incredible town which I would grow up in, but

562
00:30:12,320 --> 00:30:15,160
Speaker 1: they were denied houses in this area of Bergen County.

563
00:30:15,520 --> 00:30:18,880
Speaker 1: So again activism had to try to step in, and again,

564
00:30:19,280 --> 00:30:22,400
Speaker 1: you know, with the sting operation. These incredible lawyers in

565
00:30:22,480 --> 00:30:25,560
Speaker 1: their fair Housing council and activists. They let my parents

566
00:30:25,640 --> 00:30:27,040
Speaker 1: go look at the house, and then they would send

567
00:30:27,040 --> 00:30:29,200
Speaker 1: a white couple to look at my house. The house. Afterwards,

568
00:30:29,600 --> 00:30:31,480
Speaker 1: my parents loved this house. They were told it was sold.

569
00:30:31,520 --> 00:30:34,200
Speaker 1: The white couple found the house, found it was for sale,

570
00:30:34,560 --> 00:30:36,160
Speaker 1: put a bid on the house for my parents. The

571
00:30:36,200 --> 00:30:38,440
Speaker 1: bid was accepted, papers drawn up, and on the day

572
00:30:38,440 --> 00:30:41,680
Speaker 1: of the closing, they surprised the real estate agent and

573
00:30:42,800 --> 00:30:47,320
Speaker 1: surprised and they but amazingly when the real estate agent, Yeah,

574
00:30:47,400 --> 00:30:49,600
Speaker 1: but the realestate agent didn't capitulate. He didn't just say

575
00:30:49,720 --> 00:30:52,760
Speaker 1: he got me um. He actually got up and punched

576
00:30:52,840 --> 00:30:55,080
Speaker 1: my dad's lawyer in the face and singing a dog

577
00:30:55,160 --> 00:30:58,719
Speaker 1: on my dad. And after this big melee in this office,

578
00:30:59,400 --> 00:31:02,280
Speaker 1: lawyers got involved the whole thing, and eventually they relented

579
00:31:02,320 --> 00:31:04,480
Speaker 1: and we bought this house and we moved in. And

580
00:31:04,640 --> 00:31:06,520
Speaker 1: so my father used to tease us and call us

581
00:31:06,560 --> 00:31:08,840
Speaker 1: the four raisins in a tub of sweet vanilla ice cream.

582
00:31:09,240 --> 00:31:11,920
Speaker 1: And so imagine just this. By the time I'm eighteen

583
00:31:12,040 --> 00:31:16,120
Speaker 1: years old, they spent eighteen years lecturing my brother and

584
00:31:16,240 --> 00:31:19,040
Speaker 1: I do not forget where you came from. Do not

585
00:31:19,160 --> 00:31:21,800
Speaker 1: forget the struggle that got you here. You drink deeply

586
00:31:21,880 --> 00:31:24,440
Speaker 1: from wells of freedom, liberty, and opportunity that you didn't dig.

587
00:31:24,880 --> 00:31:27,680
Speaker 1: My dad's smart remark to me would always be, boy,

588
00:31:27,720 --> 00:31:29,440
Speaker 1: don't you dare walk around this house like you hit

589
00:31:29,480 --> 00:31:32,120
Speaker 1: a triple. You were born on third base, and you

590
00:31:32,280 --> 00:31:34,280
Speaker 1: can't pay back all those people that fought for you,

591
00:31:34,320 --> 00:31:35,880
Speaker 1: struggled for you. But your damn well going to pay

592
00:31:35,920 --> 00:31:38,400
Speaker 1: it forward by finding a way of being a service.

593
00:31:38,480 --> 00:31:40,920
Speaker 1: And my dad was impatient. You know who would have

594
00:31:40,920 --> 00:31:43,680
Speaker 1: thought his son. I went to Stanford University, and I

595
00:31:43,720 --> 00:31:45,720
Speaker 1: always have to confess I got in because of a

596
00:31:45,800 --> 00:31:48,440
Speaker 1: four point oh and sixteen hundred four point of yards

597
00:31:48,480 --> 00:31:54,200
Speaker 1: per carry, sixteen hundred receiving yards. I used it all

598
00:31:54,240 --> 00:31:56,240
Speaker 1: the time to let people know that I got it

599
00:31:56,440 --> 00:31:59,480
Speaker 1: because I was. I got it because I was a

600
00:31:59,560 --> 00:32:02,560
Speaker 1: damn good fotball player, at least above average high school

601
00:32:02,560 --> 00:32:07,880
Speaker 1: football player. Yeah, but my so. But my dad, as

602
00:32:07,920 --> 00:32:09,880
Speaker 1: I'm doing all that stuff, He's like, boy, you've got

603
00:32:09,960 --> 00:32:11,840
Speaker 1: more degrees in the month of July, but you ain't hot.

604
00:32:12,080 --> 00:32:13,640
Speaker 1: When are you gonna When are you gonna do something

605
00:32:13,680 --> 00:32:16,080
Speaker 1: for this country? You you were you were given all

606
00:32:16,120 --> 00:32:19,160
Speaker 1: this privilege and this opportunity to join the fight because

607
00:32:19,520 --> 00:32:22,360
Speaker 1: you won't be called to you know, ride buses on

608
00:32:22,480 --> 00:32:26,520
Speaker 1: freedom rides to march to Selma to register people to vote,

609
00:32:26,520 --> 00:32:29,360
Speaker 1: and folks were dying Goodman Cheney Schwarner in the sixties.

610
00:32:29,560 --> 00:32:31,120
Speaker 1: But all those people put that effort out for you.

611
00:32:31,680 --> 00:32:33,640
Speaker 1: What are you going to do to prove worthy? So

612
00:32:33,760 --> 00:32:36,120
Speaker 1: my brother and I, who were programmed from an early

613
00:32:36,200 --> 00:32:40,560
Speaker 1: age to feel this sort of outrageous gratitude to this country,

614
00:32:41,240 --> 00:32:44,720
Speaker 1: but also this understanding is my father, who raised us

615
00:32:44,760 --> 00:32:48,040
Speaker 1: in the Black church, who always kept us close to

616
00:32:48,280 --> 00:32:51,120
Speaker 1: the black community, you know, family and Newark, you name it.

617
00:32:51,560 --> 00:32:53,000
Speaker 1: I wanted to point out to my brother and I

618
00:32:53,160 --> 00:32:56,840
Speaker 1: that there are people struggling outrageous injustice is not of

619
00:32:56,920 --> 00:32:59,959
Speaker 1: their own making, and you need to be justice committed

620
00:33:00,120 --> 00:33:03,160
Speaker 1: dealing with those injustices as your as your ancestors, your

621
00:33:03,200 --> 00:33:06,200
Speaker 1: parents and grandparents and their generation were committed to fighting

622
00:33:06,240 --> 00:33:09,200
Speaker 1: injustices that existed then. So you mentioned new Work. I

623
00:33:09,320 --> 00:33:11,160
Speaker 1: think a lot of people would be surprised to know

624
00:33:11,280 --> 00:33:13,600
Speaker 1: that in your last year at Yale Law School, you

625
00:33:13,720 --> 00:33:17,040
Speaker 1: commuted two hours to and from Newark in order to

626
00:33:17,280 --> 00:33:19,280
Speaker 1: go to classes, which is pretty rare thing to do.

627
00:33:19,920 --> 00:33:22,479
Speaker 1: You didn't grow up in Newark, your parents didn't live

628
00:33:22,520 --> 00:33:25,920
Speaker 1: in Newark. What what connected you to Newark and why

629
00:33:25,960 --> 00:33:28,160
Speaker 1: did you decide to make your life there? Well, gosh,

630
00:33:28,160 --> 00:33:29,760
Speaker 1: by the time I was in law school, I had

631
00:33:30,400 --> 00:33:32,920
Speaker 1: um from the time I was eighteen to graduate in

632
00:33:33,000 --> 00:33:35,520
Speaker 1: law school twenty seven, that like decade was all about

633
00:33:35,520 --> 00:33:38,080
Speaker 1: cities for me, and everywhere I would go. I just

634
00:33:38,200 --> 00:33:41,680
Speaker 1: wanted to be a part of cities and not only

635
00:33:41,720 --> 00:33:45,040
Speaker 1: the urban struggle but also the urban imagination and trying

636
00:33:45,080 --> 00:33:48,000
Speaker 1: to create better things. And so I had some family

637
00:33:48,080 --> 00:33:49,960
Speaker 1: and the way you call your parents, close friends, aunts

638
00:33:49,960 --> 00:33:52,440
Speaker 1: and uncle's who lived in New York, who new New York,

639
00:33:52,520 --> 00:33:53,920
Speaker 1: and I had grown up sort of coming back and

640
00:33:54,040 --> 00:33:57,440
Speaker 1: forth there, and I just felt connected to this community

641
00:33:57,600 --> 00:33:59,920
Speaker 1: and decided that that's where I was going to move.

642
00:34:00,040 --> 00:34:02,360
Speaker 1: And my dream was to be Jeffrey Canada. He was

643
00:34:02,400 --> 00:34:04,160
Speaker 1: my hero coming out of law school, who was the

644
00:34:04,200 --> 00:34:06,560
Speaker 1: head of something called the Harlem Children's Zone. And if

645
00:34:06,600 --> 00:34:09,239
Speaker 1: you read his book for Stick Knife Gun, you see

646
00:34:09,280 --> 00:34:11,439
Speaker 1: that he looked for the toughest neighborhood he could find

647
00:34:11,520 --> 00:34:13,800
Speaker 1: and moved into that neighborhood and so I said, you

648
00:34:13,840 --> 00:34:14,960
Speaker 1: know what, I'm going to do the same thing. You

649
00:34:15,120 --> 00:34:18,960
Speaker 1: lived in public housing. I moved into on Martin Luther

650
00:34:19,040 --> 00:34:21,160
Speaker 1: King Boulevard, the southern part of that street in Newark.

651
00:34:21,760 --> 00:34:26,040
Speaker 1: Um was was um greeted with my stuff being stolen

652
00:34:26,160 --> 00:34:28,000
Speaker 1: in my car when I was moving into this small place.

653
00:34:28,480 --> 00:34:30,719
Speaker 1: But I met heroes, I meant, and I mean some

654
00:34:30,800 --> 00:34:33,800
Speaker 1: of the still some of the most moving up. And

655
00:34:34,160 --> 00:34:35,840
Speaker 1: I was saying at my BA from Stanford by my

656
00:34:35,920 --> 00:34:37,800
Speaker 1: PhD on the streets of New York. I've read that.

657
00:34:37,920 --> 00:34:39,799
Speaker 1: I mean, if you you had to think of one

658
00:34:40,040 --> 00:34:44,080
Speaker 1: person who really taught you something. I was intrigued by

659
00:34:44,160 --> 00:34:47,719
Speaker 1: that statement. Who was the best teacher you had? Well,

660
00:34:47,960 --> 00:34:52,480
Speaker 1: incredible professors in the pros, they were professors, they were

661
00:34:52,480 --> 00:34:56,919
Speaker 1: street professors, were professors of the neighborhood. So ms Virginia Jones,

662
00:34:56,960 --> 00:35:00,120
Speaker 1: who was a tenant president of the building that I

663
00:35:00,160 --> 00:35:03,920
Speaker 1: would move into, this these tough projects, whose son was

664
00:35:04,080 --> 00:35:05,880
Speaker 1: murdered in the lobby of the building in which I

665
00:35:06,000 --> 00:35:09,080
Speaker 1: lived in the eighties. Um, she you know, she caught

666
00:35:09,160 --> 00:35:11,280
Speaker 1: me right when I landed in New York from Yale.

667
00:35:11,760 --> 00:35:13,840
Speaker 1: Put me in my place real quick. She says, like

668
00:35:13,880 --> 00:35:16,560
Speaker 1: you're gonna help me, She goes, describe this neighborhood. I

669
00:35:16,600 --> 00:35:18,920
Speaker 1: still remember this moment where she says, I'm like what

670
00:35:19,080 --> 00:35:21,360
Speaker 1: she goes described the neighborhood. And I described it like

671
00:35:21,480 --> 00:35:24,000
Speaker 1: it was at a crack house that I live right

672
00:35:24,080 --> 00:35:27,360
Speaker 1: next to, and at these the projects. I described that

673
00:35:27,440 --> 00:35:30,479
Speaker 1: sort of a tough view of neighborhood, like anybody would

674
00:35:30,480 --> 00:35:32,359
Speaker 1: probably see with their own eyes. And she just said,

675
00:35:32,760 --> 00:35:35,120
Speaker 1: you know you can never help me? Then, uh? And

676
00:35:35,200 --> 00:35:36,879
Speaker 1: I go why she goes, because the world you see

677
00:35:36,920 --> 00:35:39,480
Speaker 1: outside of you is always a reflection of what you

678
00:35:39,560 --> 00:35:41,239
Speaker 1: have inside of you. And if you're one of these

679
00:35:41,280 --> 00:35:43,680
Speaker 1: people only sees problems in darkness and despair, that's all

680
00:35:43,680 --> 00:35:45,040
Speaker 1: there's ever gonna be. But if you're one of these

681
00:35:45,040 --> 00:35:48,520
Speaker 1: stubborn people who every time you open your eyes you

682
00:35:48,600 --> 00:35:50,879
Speaker 1: see hope, you see opportunity, you see love, you see

683
00:35:50,880 --> 00:35:53,000
Speaker 1: the face of God, then you can be someone that

684
00:35:53,080 --> 00:35:55,680
Speaker 1: helps me. And I began just by sitting in her

685
00:35:55,719 --> 00:35:59,640
Speaker 1: apartment and watching people line up at the door a

686
00:35:59,719 --> 00:36:02,920
Speaker 1: different times to come into for help, whether they needed

687
00:36:02,960 --> 00:36:05,600
Speaker 1: their son, needed a job, or they're having difficulty meeting

688
00:36:05,640 --> 00:36:08,600
Speaker 1: the rent or the worst slum lord I had ever

689
00:36:08,719 --> 00:36:11,920
Speaker 1: sort of experienced um, which we eventually took on and

690
00:36:12,040 --> 00:36:15,040
Speaker 1: eventually got convicted in federal court. But she was this

691
00:36:15,160 --> 00:36:19,080
Speaker 1: amazing person who lived her life to serve others. And

692
00:36:19,160 --> 00:36:20,880
Speaker 1: she was fierce. I mean, she was tough. I mean

693
00:36:20,920 --> 00:36:22,560
Speaker 1: she was a five feet in the smiseon toll but

694
00:36:22,680 --> 00:36:26,759
Speaker 1: intimidated me at six ft three. Um, and uh, you

695
00:36:26,840 --> 00:36:32,440
Speaker 1: know she she's passed away, now, are you kidding me? Um?

696
00:36:33,040 --> 00:36:36,520
Speaker 1: I couldn't go a day or or or multiple days

697
00:36:36,560 --> 00:36:38,840
Speaker 1: without her calling me up the bark orders at me,

698
00:36:38,920 --> 00:36:41,640
Speaker 1: even when I was mayor of the city. And um,

699
00:36:41,920 --> 00:36:45,319
Speaker 1: look she she taught me the definition of hope, which

700
00:36:45,480 --> 00:36:48,560
Speaker 1: was that hope is not It doesn't exist in an abstract.

701
00:36:49,360 --> 00:36:53,440
Speaker 1: Hope is confronting the wretchedness of the world. Uh, seeing

702
00:36:53,920 --> 00:36:57,239
Speaker 1: the depravity. Hope doesn't exist in abstract. You can't have

703
00:36:57,360 --> 00:37:01,120
Speaker 1: great hope unless there's great despair. Hope this active conviction

704
00:37:01,200 --> 00:37:04,279
Speaker 1: that despair will not have the last word. So yeah,

705
00:37:04,440 --> 00:37:07,400
Speaker 1: here's this woman. They murder her son in the lobby

706
00:37:07,480 --> 00:37:09,600
Speaker 1: of the building. She and I were probably to the

707
00:37:09,680 --> 00:37:11,719
Speaker 1: highest net worth owners in those buildings. We could have

708
00:37:11,760 --> 00:37:16,160
Speaker 1: lived anywhere. But she never ever left. Uh like Maymie

709
00:37:16,239 --> 00:37:19,640
Speaker 1: Till who kept Emmett Till's cough and open um. She

710
00:37:19,760 --> 00:37:21,759
Speaker 1: decided that she was going to be an agent of

711
00:37:21,880 --> 00:37:24,840
Speaker 1: hope and instrument of hope in the world that desperately

712
00:37:24,920 --> 00:37:27,239
Speaker 1: needs it. And so it was women like her that

713
00:37:27,520 --> 00:37:30,480
Speaker 1: taught me. And I I broke a few times in

714
00:37:30,600 --> 00:37:33,919
Speaker 1: my time in New York, and I still remember after

715
00:37:34,040 --> 00:37:37,640
Speaker 1: witnessing a horrible time where a young boy died and

716
00:37:37,760 --> 00:37:40,080
Speaker 1: I just wanted to give up. I was so angry

717
00:37:40,160 --> 00:37:43,560
Speaker 1: at the world. And this woman I'll never forget. It

718
00:37:43,680 --> 00:37:45,680
Speaker 1: was just her and I in the courtyard of these projects,

719
00:37:46,080 --> 00:37:48,040
Speaker 1: and I'm this big guy, but she just held me

720
00:37:48,120 --> 00:37:51,080
Speaker 1: like a little child, and I just broke inside. I

721
00:37:51,719 --> 00:37:54,440
Speaker 1: I soaked her shirt, just weeping on this woman's shoulder.

722
00:37:54,640 --> 00:37:56,719
Speaker 1: I was so angry and emotional thinking about it right now.

723
00:37:57,280 --> 00:37:59,080
Speaker 1: And all she did was hold me and say over

724
00:37:59,160 --> 00:38:03,520
Speaker 1: and over again, stay faithful, Stay faithful, Stay faithful. And

725
00:38:03,640 --> 00:38:07,200
Speaker 1: so that to me is this message right now and

726
00:38:07,360 --> 00:38:10,320
Speaker 1: most Americans, and and this has been interesting, and I

727
00:38:11,120 --> 00:38:13,200
Speaker 1: lost my temper a little bit in a speech I

728
00:38:13,320 --> 00:38:16,960
Speaker 1: was giving yesterday to a bunch of lawyers about everybody

729
00:38:17,000 --> 00:38:21,399
Speaker 1: wants to focus on Donald Trump. There's outrageous injustices going

730
00:38:21,440 --> 00:38:25,200
Speaker 1: on this world Before Donald Trump, you know, people said, oh, Corey,

731
00:38:25,360 --> 00:38:28,239
Speaker 1: there was ten percent drops in African American votes in

732
00:38:28,280 --> 00:38:33,000
Speaker 1: places like Michigan, and and and and and Pennsylvania. And

733
00:38:33,400 --> 00:38:35,920
Speaker 1: I'm like, it's not just people in rural white communities,

734
00:38:36,000 --> 00:38:39,239
Speaker 1: just people in urban black communities were beginning to lose

735
00:38:39,320 --> 00:38:41,520
Speaker 1: faith that this government's going to do anything because we're

736
00:38:41,560 --> 00:38:44,919
Speaker 1: not seeing each other or suffering. I went through Louisiana

737
00:38:45,200 --> 00:38:49,440
Speaker 1: and and um Mississippi in Alabama a few weekends ago,

738
00:38:50,000 --> 00:38:54,640
Speaker 1: just to visit places in rural America, uh to Lassie, Alabama,

739
00:38:54,840 --> 00:38:58,640
Speaker 1: Union Town, Alabama, and and just to bear witness people

740
00:38:58,760 --> 00:39:02,160
Speaker 1: pack these churches because they couldn't believe. Uh. They were

741
00:39:02,200 --> 00:39:04,880
Speaker 1: so grateful that a federal official was coming down and

742
00:39:04,960 --> 00:39:07,520
Speaker 1: looking at the hell in which they're living because we

743
00:39:07,600 --> 00:39:11,800
Speaker 1: allowed the worst type of hateful hypocrisy and corporate villainy.

744
00:39:12,120 --> 00:39:18,120
Speaker 1: Where these companies locate environmental disasters, whether it's uh landfills

745
00:39:18,600 --> 00:39:21,960
Speaker 1: or imagine a place that everybody knows it as cancer alley,

746
00:39:22,320 --> 00:39:27,240
Speaker 1: where these petrochemical companies are releasing hundreds of times higher

747
00:39:27,360 --> 00:39:31,400
Speaker 1: rates of carcinogens and to the air than other communities,

748
00:39:31,640 --> 00:39:34,080
Speaker 1: and people are just saying why won't anybody do something?

749
00:39:34,200 --> 00:39:37,239
Speaker 1: And why do we accept it? Is it racism? So look,

750
00:39:38,480 --> 00:39:40,759
Speaker 1: I think racism is something we need to confront and

751
00:39:40,840 --> 00:39:42,959
Speaker 1: tell the truth about. Why is it? When you ask

752
00:39:43,160 --> 00:39:46,000
Speaker 1: Harvard to study I think it was them that asked

753
00:39:46,239 --> 00:39:48,960
Speaker 1: Americans to to picture a drug dealer black and white

754
00:39:49,000 --> 00:39:53,200
Speaker 1: Americans say somebody black as the majority Americans to picture

755
00:39:53,239 --> 00:39:55,960
Speaker 1: a welfare recipient, and the majority of them will describe

756
00:39:55,960 --> 00:40:00,360
Speaker 1: somebody that's black, majority of both of those circumstances or

757
00:40:00,400 --> 00:40:03,400
Speaker 1: plurality or white people, and and and so I do

758
00:40:03,640 --> 00:40:06,879
Speaker 1: think racist this pernicious evil that we don't speak enough

759
00:40:07,120 --> 00:40:09,880
Speaker 1: because it often puts people in defensive posture as opposed

760
00:40:09,880 --> 00:40:12,800
Speaker 1: to speaking to it in a way that calls to

761
00:40:13,040 --> 00:40:16,160
Speaker 1: our compassion or empathy for the truth. And So what's

762
00:40:16,160 --> 00:40:20,680
Speaker 1: your question is does race complicate and compound this problem? Hell? Yeah,

763
00:40:20,880 --> 00:40:23,359
Speaker 1: when you have a criminal justice system rightfully, as as

764
00:40:23,400 --> 00:40:26,440
Speaker 1: Michelle Alexander calls the new Jim Crow, it is. It

765
00:40:26,640 --> 00:40:32,600
Speaker 1: is devastating uh aggravating racial problems in this country in

766
00:40:32,760 --> 00:40:35,320
Speaker 1: terms of disparities and an outcome because there's no difference

767
00:40:35,320 --> 00:40:38,479
Speaker 1: between blacks and whites for using drugs or even dealing drugs.

768
00:40:38,520 --> 00:40:40,880
Speaker 1: In fact, some studies show that young white folks have

769
00:40:41,040 --> 00:40:42,880
Speaker 1: young white men have a little bit higher rates. But

770
00:40:43,000 --> 00:40:44,719
Speaker 1: you and I both know, all three of us who

771
00:40:44,760 --> 00:40:47,760
Speaker 1: went to college campuses, nobody at Stanford was getting stopped

772
00:40:47,760 --> 00:40:51,240
Speaker 1: and frisked for using drugs. Um, there's no FBI stings

773
00:40:51,320 --> 00:40:53,400
Speaker 1: on the local fraternity. And you and I all of

774
00:40:53,520 --> 00:40:54,719
Speaker 1: us know. And I don't mean to put you guys

775
00:40:54,719 --> 00:40:56,560
Speaker 1: in implicate you guys in this, but you know where

776
00:40:56,600 --> 00:40:59,040
Speaker 1: to get the pot from the adder roll the ecstasy

777
00:40:59,760 --> 00:41:03,800
Speaker 1: the Brian, Brian definitely does no where to get ecstasy. Guy, Okay,

778
00:41:04,080 --> 00:41:07,399
Speaker 1: you take me well, but but rich and privileged people.

779
00:41:07,440 --> 00:41:09,600
Speaker 1: We live in a country is Brian Stevenson says, well,

780
00:41:09,640 --> 00:41:12,279
Speaker 1: you get a better sense of justice if you're rich

781
00:41:12,320 --> 00:41:14,560
Speaker 1: and guilty than if you're poor and innocent. I love

782
00:41:14,640 --> 00:41:18,440
Speaker 1: Brian Stevenson, just parenthetic. He's like the Mandela of America.

783
00:41:18,600 --> 00:41:21,439
Speaker 1: Why doesn't he run for president because he's doing more

784
00:41:21,520 --> 00:41:24,400
Speaker 1: important work and making more of a difference than he could. Uh, oh,

785
00:41:24,560 --> 00:41:26,120
Speaker 1: you don't really believe that he's making more of a

786
00:41:26,160 --> 00:41:28,240
Speaker 1: difference than if you were president in the United States.

787
00:41:29,200 --> 00:41:31,480
Speaker 1: I think the reality is I thought I thought I

788
00:41:31,560 --> 00:41:33,120
Speaker 1: heard it more. It's like, why doesn't he run for

789
00:41:33,160 --> 00:41:35,640
Speaker 1: the Senate? Clearly he's getting more done in the Senator.

790
00:41:36,719 --> 00:41:38,600
Speaker 1: If I can blink my eyes and replace the current

791
00:41:38,640 --> 00:41:41,279
Speaker 1: president with Brian Stevenson, I think that we would be

792
00:41:41,800 --> 00:41:45,920
Speaker 1: pleased before we completely lose the threat of your biography. Sorry,

793
00:41:48,320 --> 00:41:50,680
Speaker 1: we're limited on time. So you know one thing, you

794
00:41:50,800 --> 00:41:53,839
Speaker 1: are very famous for all these good works, the ten

795
00:41:53,960 --> 00:41:57,160
Speaker 1: day hunger strike to draw attention to drug dealing. You

796
00:41:57,200 --> 00:41:59,640
Speaker 1: spend a week subsisting on the budget of a food

797
00:41:59,680 --> 00:42:04,120
Speaker 1: stamp recipient. You have lived in one of the most

798
00:42:04,200 --> 00:42:06,520
Speaker 1: crime plagued areas, not just in your state, but but

799
00:42:06,719 --> 00:42:09,440
Speaker 1: the country. And I think for most people this is

800
00:42:09,480 --> 00:42:13,560
Speaker 1: all extraordinarily laudable. But the knock on you among some

801
00:42:14,080 --> 00:42:17,960
Speaker 1: snarky liberals is that these are these are stunts. As

802
00:42:18,000 --> 00:42:22,480
Speaker 1: I was researching uh this podcast, Salon wrote, He's done

803
00:42:22,520 --> 00:42:26,160
Speaker 1: a lot of stunts designed to make people aware of poverty,

804
00:42:26,320 --> 00:42:29,840
Speaker 1: or at least to make people aware of Corey Booker's

805
00:42:29,960 --> 00:42:33,600
Speaker 1: awareness of poverty. And I'm just curious, what's your reaction

806
00:42:33,680 --> 00:42:37,120
Speaker 1: when you see something like that? Um, I don't. I mean, look,

807
00:42:37,920 --> 00:42:41,279
Speaker 1: if people are not criticizing you, you probably aren't doing

808
00:42:41,400 --> 00:42:44,279
Speaker 1: that much to make change, to make a difference. And

809
00:42:44,719 --> 00:42:47,279
Speaker 1: you know, I love my neighborhood. And if people want

810
00:42:47,320 --> 00:42:49,239
Speaker 1: to say, in fact, I know lots of leaders have

811
00:42:49,320 --> 00:42:51,799
Speaker 1: decided to go live in the projects for a week

812
00:42:51,920 --> 00:42:54,040
Speaker 1: or something like that. I've lived in my community for

813
00:42:54,160 --> 00:42:55,960
Speaker 1: eight years in brick Towers, and I still live in

814
00:42:56,000 --> 00:42:59,200
Speaker 1: that same neighborhood right now. Um, I love my neighbors.

815
00:42:59,560 --> 00:43:03,000
Speaker 1: It's my community. I'm not doing it, uh to bring attention.

816
00:43:03,400 --> 00:43:06,040
Speaker 1: I'm doing because I love my community. And frankly, I'm

817
00:43:06,080 --> 00:43:08,600
Speaker 1: living my values. I think that we have divided ourselves

818
00:43:08,640 --> 00:43:11,759
Speaker 1: too much. We put walls up against um. So I

819
00:43:11,880 --> 00:43:14,200
Speaker 1: just love where I live, and I love and I

820
00:43:14,280 --> 00:43:16,319
Speaker 1: am who I am. It's hard to have an eight

821
00:43:16,400 --> 00:43:19,359
Speaker 1: year stunt, isn't it. Yes, or now it's twenty years.

822
00:43:19,480 --> 00:43:22,040
Speaker 1: Twenty years in fact, when I become mayor, I decided

823
00:43:22,040 --> 00:43:24,000
Speaker 1: to move into the only time I've moved out of

824
00:43:24,000 --> 00:43:25,319
Speaker 1: the neighborho i've lived in, and I lived in there

825
00:43:25,960 --> 00:43:28,839
Speaker 1: eight years before mayor, and I've lived there since. I've

826
00:43:28,840 --> 00:43:31,799
Speaker 1: become the center. This is my community. But I moved

827
00:43:31,800 --> 00:43:33,480
Speaker 1: aside to move into the section of the city as

828
00:43:33,560 --> 00:43:36,279
Speaker 1: mayor where they were the most shootings. Now, what if

829
00:43:36,360 --> 00:43:39,400
Speaker 1: all of our leaders had to do that? Because what

830
00:43:39,480 --> 00:43:42,840
Speaker 1: I call a hateful hypocrisy is when you are comfortable

831
00:43:42,880 --> 00:43:45,279
Speaker 1: because your family and you live in a nice neighborhood.

832
00:43:45,960 --> 00:43:49,360
Speaker 1: You're sworn to uphold this Constitution to liberty and justice

833
00:43:49,400 --> 00:43:53,279
Speaker 1: for all, but but your family is not on the line. Um.

834
00:43:53,600 --> 00:43:57,200
Speaker 1: Bryan Stevenson talks about the importance of being proximate. Yes,

835
00:43:57,520 --> 00:44:00,880
Speaker 1: you know that that we're also sided when he warned

836
00:44:00,920 --> 00:44:04,280
Speaker 1: his priests go out and be amongst the people, smell

837
00:44:04,440 --> 00:44:07,760
Speaker 1: like the people. Um. I just think there's something powerful

838
00:44:07,760 --> 00:44:12,040
Speaker 1: about leadership that doesn't separate itself, doesn't put itself above,

839
00:44:12,200 --> 00:44:15,719
Speaker 1: puts itself with And I swore to myself. In fact,

840
00:44:15,760 --> 00:44:19,279
Speaker 1: Miss Jones made me, literally made me. She said. This

841
00:44:19,360 --> 00:44:21,360
Speaker 1: is when I was left the city council. She warned

842
00:44:21,400 --> 00:44:23,400
Speaker 1: me that often we left people count and they leave us.

843
00:44:23,840 --> 00:44:25,880
Speaker 1: And I made a commitment to this amazing woman that

844
00:44:25,960 --> 00:44:28,640
Speaker 1: I will not leave where I live. I live still

845
00:44:28,680 --> 00:44:32,120
Speaker 1: in that community. I've decided your campaign song be me,

846
00:44:33,000 --> 00:44:37,800
Speaker 1: Me and Mrs Mrs Jones. I hope people will giggle

847
00:44:37,880 --> 00:44:43,000
Speaker 1: that song got a thing going on. But how do

848
00:44:43,080 --> 00:44:46,040
Speaker 1: you think that like if if I sing it every podcast.

849
00:44:46,120 --> 00:44:48,800
Speaker 1: So thank you for allowing very nicely. But I just

850
00:44:48,840 --> 00:44:50,400
Speaker 1: want to ask the question, what would what would what

851
00:44:50,480 --> 00:44:53,400
Speaker 1: would be doing right now? If about super fun sites

852
00:44:53,719 --> 00:44:56,360
Speaker 1: if every Senator like me live within a mile of

853
00:44:56,400 --> 00:44:59,800
Speaker 1: a super fun site, or about how senator didn't have

854
00:45:00,480 --> 00:45:02,760
Speaker 1: What would we do about violent crime? If every Senator

855
00:45:02,840 --> 00:45:05,400
Speaker 1: had to live in the part of their state with

856
00:45:05,480 --> 00:45:07,680
Speaker 1: the most violent crime. I don't know if any other

857
00:45:07,719 --> 00:45:09,719
Speaker 1: Senator had a shooting on their block this last month

858
00:45:09,800 --> 00:45:12,320
Speaker 1: or two, what will be doing about violent crime? What

859
00:45:12,400 --> 00:45:15,440
Speaker 1: would be doing about a drug addiction if every Senator

860
00:45:15,480 --> 00:45:17,520
Speaker 1: lived across the street. I love Cross Street from one

861
00:45:17,520 --> 00:45:20,120
Speaker 1: of Integrity House facility. I've gone and sat with the

862
00:45:20,160 --> 00:45:22,360
Speaker 1: men and women who sit in a circle of recovery.

863
00:45:23,160 --> 00:45:25,640
Speaker 1: I just think that I don't care what people say

864
00:45:25,680 --> 00:45:29,319
Speaker 1: about it. My entire adult life, I've lived and worked

865
00:45:29,320 --> 00:45:32,520
Speaker 1: in inner city communities. And over my desk in my office,

866
00:45:33,120 --> 00:45:35,400
Speaker 1: UH is the map of the central ward of Newark

867
00:45:35,440 --> 00:45:38,080
Speaker 1: where I live. That's where my career professional life coming

868
00:45:38,080 --> 00:45:40,759
Speaker 1: out of law school started. And every decision I make,

869
00:45:41,600 --> 00:45:47,960
Speaker 1: whether it's battling for healthcare, for prescription drugs, long coast

870
00:45:48,000 --> 00:45:51,160
Speaker 1: of prescription drugs, whether it's dealing with the criminal justice system,

871
00:45:51,160 --> 00:45:54,160
Speaker 1: whether it's infrastructure. I actually want to use the lens

872
00:45:54,280 --> 00:45:57,239
Speaker 1: of the community which I live in to guide my

873
00:45:57,320 --> 00:46:00,200
Speaker 1: decisions because I love it when I go home. You know,

874
00:46:00,320 --> 00:46:02,400
Speaker 1: folk don't take me seriously, and I don't take my

875
00:46:02,480 --> 00:46:05,799
Speaker 1: title seriously. They take me seriously, but they don't care. Uh,

876
00:46:05,880 --> 00:46:08,279
Speaker 1: they don't actually don't care about the politics often the

877
00:46:08,400 --> 00:46:11,480
Speaker 1: debates and the positioning. What they really care about is, hey,

878
00:46:11,920 --> 00:46:14,080
Speaker 1: this is what's going on in our street or And

879
00:46:14,160 --> 00:46:16,040
Speaker 1: when I was mayor, it gave me great satisfaction. I

880
00:46:16,120 --> 00:46:18,560
Speaker 1: got to see to stand there with people and saying, look,

881
00:46:18,560 --> 00:46:20,799
Speaker 1: we got that park built, we have that new supermarket

882
00:46:20,840 --> 00:46:24,000
Speaker 1: in town. We're building some new affordable housing here. And

883
00:46:24,400 --> 00:46:26,359
Speaker 1: as a senator who has to come down the watch

884
00:46:26,360 --> 00:46:27,719
Speaker 1: and every week, I don't want to be pulled too

885
00:46:27,760 --> 00:46:30,400
Speaker 1: far away from the urgencies that got me in politics

886
00:46:30,600 --> 00:46:33,239
Speaker 1: and the responsibility I have to the people. You. There

887
00:46:33,360 --> 00:46:37,360
Speaker 1: was an OSCAR nominated fabulous documentary about your first campaign,

888
00:46:37,680 --> 00:46:39,640
Speaker 1: which is I always advise that you're gonna have a

889
00:46:39,680 --> 00:46:42,879
Speaker 1: spectacular failure in your life. Have a documentary team there

890
00:46:42,880 --> 00:46:49,000
Speaker 1: to capture. Yeah. I think I think he comes across

891
00:46:49,040 --> 00:46:51,920
Speaker 1: a little better than Anthony Weiner and his documentary. I

892
00:46:52,000 --> 00:46:54,520
Speaker 1: will say that you want you want to know the ignominy,

893
00:46:54,680 --> 00:46:58,120
Speaker 1: and that's not it. Uh, the real shame of the

894
00:46:58,320 --> 00:47:02,320
Speaker 1: documentaries that so, my most humiliating loss gets captured in

895
00:47:02,360 --> 00:47:04,399
Speaker 1: this documentary film gets nominated for an oscar and guess

896
00:47:04,440 --> 00:47:07,000
Speaker 1: what it loses to in the Academy Awards. March of

897
00:47:07,080 --> 00:47:10,480
Speaker 1: the dag Nab Penguins. It's like, it's hard to compete

898
00:47:10,480 --> 00:47:13,640
Speaker 1: with the peg and and and and Morgan Freedman for

899
00:47:13,680 --> 00:47:16,000
Speaker 1: crying out loud driving Miss Daisy like he's got the

900
00:47:16,040 --> 00:47:18,520
Speaker 1: best voice in the world. If he had narrated our film,

901
00:47:18,880 --> 00:47:21,040
Speaker 1: we probably would know. It's the old Hollywood rule. You

902
00:47:21,200 --> 00:47:24,000
Speaker 1: never compete with the animals because the audience always likes

903
00:47:24,000 --> 00:47:29,279
Speaker 1: the thoughts. Compete with Freman, that's as well. But yeah,

904
00:47:30,760 --> 00:47:34,520
Speaker 1: you won president. You won four years after the campaign

905
00:47:34,560 --> 00:47:37,640
Speaker 1: that was captured in that film, And probably the thing

906
00:47:37,719 --> 00:47:41,000
Speaker 1: that got the most national attention was Mark Zuckerberg coming in.

907
00:47:41,680 --> 00:47:44,160
Speaker 1: Please tell me that that was not the most national attention.

908
00:47:44,200 --> 00:47:45,640
Speaker 1: I can give you more things that captured it, but

909
00:47:45,719 --> 00:47:47,319
Speaker 1: that was a big moment. That was a big moment,

910
00:47:47,520 --> 00:47:49,840
Speaker 1: and he offered to spend a hundred million dollars, did

911
00:47:49,880 --> 00:47:51,680
Speaker 1: in fact spend a hundred million dollars to try to

912
00:47:51,760 --> 00:47:54,600
Speaker 1: turn around Newark schools, which you said would be a

913
00:47:54,680 --> 00:47:58,880
Speaker 1: model of educational excellence, and other philanthropists came in with

914
00:47:59,000 --> 00:48:02,080
Speaker 1: even more money us. How do you assess the results

915
00:48:02,160 --> 00:48:06,399
Speaker 1: of that experiment an outrageous success if you just look

916
00:48:06,440 --> 00:48:08,520
Speaker 1: at the data of the New York school system and

917
00:48:08,560 --> 00:48:10,800
Speaker 1: I got by the way, he wasn't the only factor

918
00:48:10,840 --> 00:48:13,120
Speaker 1: contributing to the success as the school system has had.

919
00:48:13,440 --> 00:48:14,960
Speaker 1: But let's pull back and look at what does the

920
00:48:15,080 --> 00:48:17,919
Speaker 1: data say about the New York school system? Now, well,

921
00:48:18,680 --> 00:48:20,880
Speaker 1: we just recently, not recently, it's been about it over

922
00:48:20,880 --> 00:48:23,880
Speaker 1: a year. Were ranked the number one city in America

923
00:48:24,000 --> 00:48:28,000
Speaker 1: for beat the odds schools, high poverty, high performance. So

924
00:48:28,160 --> 00:48:31,760
Speaker 1: you have schools that have taken kids from extraordinarily different

925
00:48:31,800 --> 00:48:34,720
Speaker 1: circumstances graduating him. Number two is you hear an African

926
00:48:34,760 --> 00:48:36,600
Speaker 1: American kid in New York, which is the majority of

927
00:48:36,640 --> 00:48:38,200
Speaker 1: our kids, and they tended to be in the in

928
00:48:38,280 --> 00:48:41,160
Speaker 1: the worst performing schools. Your chances of going to a

929
00:48:41,280 --> 00:48:43,400
Speaker 1: high performing school from the time I was mayor to

930
00:48:43,480 --> 00:48:47,720
Speaker 1: about now went up three hundred percent um. The overall

931
00:48:47,800 --> 00:48:50,520
Speaker 1: performance in the New York school system on reading, math

932
00:48:50,640 --> 00:48:54,279
Speaker 1: went up double digit percentages. Our graduation rate went up

933
00:48:55,080 --> 00:48:58,239
Speaker 1: double digit percentages. So you know, in terms of a

934
00:48:58,280 --> 00:49:01,840
Speaker 1: school system a very short period of time giving parents

935
00:49:02,040 --> 00:49:05,920
Speaker 1: incredibly quigh quality options. In fact, as the studies have

936
00:49:06,000 --> 00:49:09,880
Speaker 1: shown better options and most inner city public schools have uh,

937
00:49:10,040 --> 00:49:12,880
Speaker 1: it's it's been ridiculously successful. We still have work to do.

938
00:49:13,600 --> 00:49:16,880
Speaker 1: But the supercharged success of our schools, especially that one

939
00:49:16,920 --> 00:49:20,279
Speaker 1: ind cey about more likely now if you're black and

940
00:49:20,320 --> 00:49:22,960
Speaker 1: Newark to go to a high performing school, is pretty dramatic.

941
00:49:23,000 --> 00:49:26,000
Speaker 1: But New York charter schools outperformed district schools. And I'm

942
00:49:26,040 --> 00:49:30,040
Speaker 1: just curious why there's so much controversy about charter schools

943
00:49:30,360 --> 00:49:34,200
Speaker 1: within the Democratic Party. Largely because of teachers unions. Well

944
00:49:34,200 --> 00:49:36,680
Speaker 1: I wouldn't say largely because of only teachers unions, but

945
00:49:36,800 --> 00:49:40,040
Speaker 1: that's a big factor, a big factor. But let's let's

946
00:49:40,040 --> 00:49:43,960
Speaker 1: try to separate the critics from the criticism. So I

947
00:49:44,040 --> 00:49:46,799
Speaker 1: will join people in criticizing charter schools if they are

948
00:49:47,200 --> 00:49:51,520
Speaker 1: endangering public schools, if they are creaming the best students, um,

949
00:49:51,719 --> 00:49:55,600
Speaker 1: if they are not held to the same standards of

950
00:49:55,719 --> 00:49:59,680
Speaker 1: performance as traditional district schools. So I always say, let's

951
00:49:59,719 --> 00:50:03,680
Speaker 1: filter out the the critics and just look at really

952
00:50:03,760 --> 00:50:06,359
Speaker 1: what we want. Like if if a charter school moved

953
00:50:06,400 --> 00:50:09,040
Speaker 1: into a rural area, you've gotta be kidding me. Like

954
00:50:09,160 --> 00:50:11,880
Speaker 1: Heidi hide Camp and Tester, we talked about this all

955
00:50:11,920 --> 00:50:14,080
Speaker 1: the time. It just wouldn't work and it would endanger

956
00:50:14,120 --> 00:50:16,799
Speaker 1: the system that's there um um. So, So there are

957
00:50:17,080 --> 00:50:21,080
Speaker 1: legitimate criticisms in general of charter schools, and that's why

958
00:50:21,160 --> 00:50:23,520
Speaker 1: in Newark we try to do things a different way,

959
00:50:23,840 --> 00:50:27,359
Speaker 1: creating a one enrollment plan so you're not creaming people, um,

960
00:50:27,520 --> 00:50:30,720
Speaker 1: trying to appropriately finance our school system, which is always

961
00:50:30,760 --> 00:50:33,399
Speaker 1: a battle, especially with a Republican governor, so that you're

962
00:50:33,440 --> 00:50:35,719
Speaker 1: not in any way creating a lack of equity and

963
00:50:35,840 --> 00:50:38,200
Speaker 1: funding a lot of things. I think that you can

964
00:50:38,280 --> 00:50:41,239
Speaker 1: do in an environment like Newark where charter schools can work.

965
00:50:41,560 --> 00:50:43,840
Speaker 1: But but charge schools aren't for everywhere, and you have

966
00:50:43,960 --> 00:50:46,280
Speaker 1: to make sure that they're being held to the same standards.

967
00:50:46,560 --> 00:50:49,120
Speaker 1: You emphasize public schools, but why shouldn't poor kids have

968
00:50:49,239 --> 00:50:52,040
Speaker 1: the same opportunity as rich kids to go to a

969
00:50:52,120 --> 00:50:54,640
Speaker 1: private school If that's the right choice for them again.

970
00:50:55,280 --> 00:50:58,000
Speaker 1: I'm one of those few Democrats that says I think

971
00:50:58,040 --> 00:51:00,319
Speaker 1: that we should have a system that doesn't just work

972
00:51:00,400 --> 00:51:02,440
Speaker 1: for the rich and the wealthy. That's why I've supported

973
00:51:02,440 --> 00:51:06,279
Speaker 1: things like the White Fellowship in Newark, which takes under

974
00:51:06,320 --> 00:51:10,320
Speaker 1: the most narrow circumstances. If your chill child is stopped

975
00:51:10,360 --> 00:51:14,520
Speaker 1: in a routinely failing school um and it is poor

976
00:51:15,000 --> 00:51:16,960
Speaker 1: and does not have the ability, I think the public

977
00:51:17,360 --> 00:51:19,440
Speaker 1: should be saying to that this is a crisis of

978
00:51:19,520 --> 00:51:21,719
Speaker 1: monumental proportion in the public should do whatever it can

979
00:51:22,040 --> 00:51:24,920
Speaker 1: to get that child out of that environment. And I

980
00:51:25,040 --> 00:51:26,719
Speaker 1: believe in what you call whatever you want, but a

981
00:51:26,880 --> 00:51:30,000
Speaker 1: rescue package for those children. Do I support charge schools

982
00:51:30,040 --> 00:51:32,480
Speaker 1: and innovation in the right context, in the right environment,

983
00:51:32,640 --> 00:51:34,640
Speaker 1: as we've seen in New York, I will fight for them.

984
00:51:34,880 --> 00:51:38,600
Speaker 1: Do I support rescuing kids that are in dropout factories

985
00:51:38,640 --> 00:51:41,560
Speaker 1: and things like that with interventions. Absolutely, But at the

986
00:51:41,640 --> 00:51:43,600
Speaker 1: end of the day, we can never as a country

987
00:51:43,680 --> 00:51:47,919
Speaker 1: abandon this idea of great public schools for every child.

988
00:51:48,560 --> 00:51:50,960
Speaker 1: So there are a lot of issues we want to

989
00:51:51,080 --> 00:51:53,040
Speaker 1: hit and we have very limited time in which to

990
00:51:53,120 --> 00:51:56,200
Speaker 1: do it. But you mentioned mass incarceration earlier. I know

991
00:51:56,280 --> 00:51:58,960
Speaker 1: you're very passionate about this issue. It's a major problem

992
00:51:59,000 --> 00:52:01,160
Speaker 1: in this country. And this was supposed to be the

993
00:52:01,239 --> 00:52:03,960
Speaker 1: one thing that could get done last year on a

994
00:52:04,040 --> 00:52:09,080
Speaker 1: bipartisan basis. Uh, it failed, Senator Booker and ran Paul

995
00:52:09,880 --> 00:52:13,160
Speaker 1: together using the Senate No, it's one of my earliest

996
00:52:13,160 --> 00:52:14,719
Speaker 1: thing they're used in the Senate, and it failed in

997
00:52:14,800 --> 00:52:18,680
Speaker 1: part because of h then Senator Jeff Sessions leading the

998
00:52:18,760 --> 00:52:22,440
Speaker 1: opposition to it. Why didn't that legislation come together? And

999
00:52:22,800 --> 00:52:25,600
Speaker 1: what are its prospects now? So, first of all, it

1000
00:52:26,520 --> 00:52:29,200
Speaker 1: as a guy who's now closing in October my full

1001
00:52:29,280 --> 00:52:33,200
Speaker 1: four years in the Senate, Um, there's no better journey

1002
00:52:33,280 --> 00:52:35,320
Speaker 1: that I've seen so far than me coming into the

1003
00:52:35,360 --> 00:52:37,600
Speaker 1: Senate and hearing Chuck Grassley going to the floor and

1004
00:52:37,640 --> 00:52:40,400
Speaker 1: speaking against the innovations and reforms that I wanted to

1005
00:52:40,560 --> 00:52:44,120
Speaker 1: overtime becoming a partner of mine and other Democrats in

1006
00:52:44,200 --> 00:52:47,799
Speaker 1: a very ambitious and progressive bill that actually got out

1007
00:52:47,840 --> 00:52:51,799
Speaker 1: of the Judiciary Committee with bipartisan votes and almost as

1008
00:52:51,880 --> 00:52:53,440
Speaker 1: if it got votes on the floor, it would have

1009
00:52:53,480 --> 00:52:56,640
Speaker 1: gotten eight plus votes. And so yeah, as as older

1010
00:52:56,680 --> 00:52:58,799
Speaker 1: senators or senators have been here longer, put their arm

1011
00:52:58,800 --> 00:53:00,840
Speaker 1: around me and say, look, sometimes it takes two or

1012
00:53:00,880 --> 00:53:04,440
Speaker 1: three Congresses to get something done. Don't give up on this.

1013
00:53:05,000 --> 00:53:07,240
Speaker 1: And not only haven't I given up, but we're pushing

1014
00:53:07,760 --> 00:53:11,239
Speaker 1: more legislation. Legislation focused on women in prison because folks

1015
00:53:11,280 --> 00:53:13,880
Speaker 1: don't know that about eight percent of the women in

1016
00:53:13,960 --> 00:53:17,480
Speaker 1: prison are survivors of sexual trauma sexual abuse, and we

1017
00:53:17,520 --> 00:53:19,600
Speaker 1: put them in more trauma when we put them in prison.

1018
00:53:20,120 --> 00:53:25,000
Speaker 1: We focused on marijuana, which you gratefully interviewed Rand Paul

1019
00:53:25,040 --> 00:53:28,120
Speaker 1: and Iana. But that coalition has expanded now more Republicans,

1020
00:53:28,360 --> 00:53:32,359
Speaker 1: more Democrats jumping on to reform a marijuana laws again

1021
00:53:32,440 --> 00:53:35,560
Speaker 1: most Americans. The reason why injustice is often fester because

1022
00:53:35,600 --> 00:53:38,279
Speaker 1: most Americans don't realize it. So we have people that

1023
00:53:38,440 --> 00:53:41,560
Speaker 1: have lost their voting rights for a lifetime. One out

1024
00:53:41,600 --> 00:53:44,560
Speaker 1: of five African Americans in Florida cannot vote because of

1025
00:53:44,719 --> 00:53:48,399
Speaker 1: felony disenfranchisement. And many of them were for doing things

1026
00:53:48,480 --> 00:53:51,120
Speaker 1: two of the last three presidents admitted to doing Remember

1027
00:53:51,160 --> 00:53:53,400
Speaker 1: Bush and Obama. It wasn't smoking a little bit of marijuana,

1028
00:53:53,719 --> 00:53:57,680
Speaker 1: It was felony drug possession of drugs more serious than

1029
00:53:57,840 --> 00:54:00,640
Speaker 1: than marijuana. So here we have this hip ypocrisy in

1030
00:54:00,680 --> 00:54:03,440
Speaker 1: our country where if your privileged kid going to a

1031
00:54:03,520 --> 00:54:06,440
Speaker 1: fancy college, go ahead and experiment all you want. I've

1032
00:54:06,480 --> 00:54:10,040
Speaker 1: sat in this body in Congress listening to colleagues joking

1033
00:54:10,080 --> 00:54:12,640
Speaker 1: about the laws that they've broken, broke, but they were

1034
00:54:12,680 --> 00:54:14,360
Speaker 1: privileged people. They didn't have to worry about it. They

1035
00:54:14,400 --> 00:54:16,920
Speaker 1: could flaunt the law. Meanwhile, if you're that seventeen year

1036
00:54:16,960 --> 00:54:19,560
Speaker 1: old kid who's walking home gets caught with a little

1037
00:54:19,560 --> 00:54:21,719
Speaker 1: bit of drugs, you're done because not only do you

1038
00:54:21,760 --> 00:54:24,760
Speaker 1: get arrested, now we stack mandatory minimums. I've had children

1039
00:54:24,840 --> 00:54:28,320
Speaker 1: sitting in my office pleading with me about their stories

1040
00:54:28,360 --> 00:54:30,480
Speaker 1: to do something about the fact that the prosecutors said

1041
00:54:30,520 --> 00:54:32,520
Speaker 1: to them. And by the way, we don't have juries

1042
00:54:33,160 --> 00:54:36,720
Speaker 1: and and and judges and trials anymore. Of our criminal

1043
00:54:36,760 --> 00:54:39,400
Speaker 1: convictions are done by plea bargain. Because if you, Katie,

1044
00:54:39,600 --> 00:54:42,480
Speaker 1: without seventeen year old kids sitting in my in my prosecutor,

1045
00:54:42,480 --> 00:54:44,479
Speaker 1: I can say, look, I'm gonna move to adult court.

1046
00:54:44,719 --> 00:54:47,160
Speaker 1: I'm gonna stack your charges. You're gonna face fifteen years

1047
00:54:47,200 --> 00:54:50,040
Speaker 1: for your nonviolent crimes. Or you can plead guilty. Now

1048
00:54:50,400 --> 00:54:52,400
Speaker 1: you can get out. I get a win, you get

1049
00:54:52,440 --> 00:54:54,600
Speaker 1: a felony charge. Now you can't get a job, you

1050
00:54:54,600 --> 00:54:57,280
Speaker 1: can't get a pell grant, you can't get business licenses,

1051
00:54:57,560 --> 00:55:02,200
Speaker 1: you can't vote done. And what does that seven year

1052
00:55:02,200 --> 00:55:04,560
Speaker 1: old think? Now he probably his public schools probably didn't

1053
00:55:04,560 --> 00:55:06,440
Speaker 1: serve him, doesn't have that greade of an education. Now

1054
00:55:06,520 --> 00:55:09,080
Speaker 1: he's a criminal charge. What is the likelihood that they're

1055
00:55:09,080 --> 00:55:11,240
Speaker 1: going to recentervate and get and get back into trouble

1056
00:55:11,280 --> 00:55:14,320
Speaker 1: again because we're not empowering them to succeed. That's the

1057
00:55:14,360 --> 00:55:17,239
Speaker 1: system we have right now. It's broken in so many

1058
00:55:17,280 --> 00:55:21,160
Speaker 1: different ways, and it's stacked against poor people, mentally ill people,

1059
00:55:21,200 --> 00:55:25,800
Speaker 1: addicted people, women, people of color. And so this is

1060
00:55:25,960 --> 00:55:28,200
Speaker 1: the fight for me, is taking on this system in

1061
00:55:28,360 --> 00:55:31,600
Speaker 1: every single way. And I was relentless when I was

1062
00:55:31,680 --> 00:55:33,120
Speaker 1: running for this office. I didn't care if you put

1063
00:55:33,160 --> 00:55:35,360
Speaker 1: me through the wealthiest community in New Jersey, of the

1064
00:55:35,400 --> 00:55:38,040
Speaker 1: poorest community Jersey. I was talking about this issue even

1065
00:55:38,080 --> 00:55:40,200
Speaker 1: though it didn't pull. It's one of the top concerns

1066
00:55:40,239 --> 00:55:42,560
Speaker 1: of my my state. It is one of the biggest

1067
00:55:42,640 --> 00:55:45,400
Speaker 1: cancers on the soul of this country and is costing

1068
00:55:45,480 --> 00:55:47,600
Speaker 1: us so much money. From the time I was in

1069
00:55:47,840 --> 00:55:49,680
Speaker 1: law school to the time I was mayor of the

1070
00:55:49,760 --> 00:55:51,640
Speaker 1: City of New York. We were building a new prison

1071
00:55:51,800 --> 00:55:54,120
Speaker 1: every ten days in this country. And so if you

1072
00:55:54,160 --> 00:55:56,360
Speaker 1: don't think this mass incarceration, the fact that we have

1073
00:55:56,480 --> 00:55:59,319
Speaker 1: one out of every foreign carcerated people on the planet Earth,

1074
00:55:59,600 --> 00:56:01,879
Speaker 1: the major already them for nonviolent crimes. If you don't

1075
00:56:01,880 --> 00:56:04,560
Speaker 1: think that's hurting us as Americans with the depth that

1076
00:56:04,640 --> 00:56:07,560
Speaker 1: we have, you're crazy and it's making us less safe,

1077
00:56:07,640 --> 00:56:10,160
Speaker 1: not more. Let's do our quick lightning round because I

1078
00:56:10,239 --> 00:56:12,239
Speaker 1: know we have to catch a train going back to

1079
00:56:12,360 --> 00:56:14,520
Speaker 1: New York. And you've been so generous with your time.

1080
00:56:15,600 --> 00:56:19,319
Speaker 1: I was late because of the protest. That's okay, It's

1081
00:56:19,360 --> 00:56:22,600
Speaker 1: a real treat just to have this conversation. Um, just

1082
00:56:23,040 --> 00:56:33,440
Speaker 1: just quick answers if you will Donald Trump discuss I

1083
00:56:33,640 --> 00:56:37,879
Speaker 1: just mean, what do you make of him and his presidency?

1084
00:56:38,600 --> 00:56:43,280
Speaker 1: Because every day there seems to be a new event

1085
00:56:43,640 --> 00:56:48,319
Speaker 1: that's causing consternation, National consternation, which kind of sounds like constipation.

1086
00:56:48,480 --> 00:56:50,200
Speaker 1: I hate to say it's maybe it's a little bit

1087
00:56:50,200 --> 00:56:54,840
Speaker 1: of both metaphorically. Um, Look, I think the thing that

1088
00:56:54,920 --> 00:56:58,920
Speaker 1: offends me the most about this presidency, Um, if a

1089
00:56:59,040 --> 00:57:01,880
Speaker 1: Republican one day would be pushing policies that I fundamentally

1090
00:57:01,920 --> 00:57:05,280
Speaker 1: disagree with and that would have been a battle Royale,

1091
00:57:05,400 --> 00:57:08,279
Speaker 1: and I would be upset about that. But I think

1092
00:57:08,360 --> 00:57:10,759
Speaker 1: what is making this presidency is so difficult for me,

1093
00:57:11,239 --> 00:57:14,719
Speaker 1: for my Republicans in the Senate colleagues, um, is that

1094
00:57:14,880 --> 00:57:20,800
Speaker 1: this guy is so trashing the norms, the dignity of

1095
00:57:20,880 --> 00:57:24,320
Speaker 1: the office as he trashes Americans. I mean, here's a

1096
00:57:24,360 --> 00:57:27,680
Speaker 1: guy that's more upset about north Strom's dropping his daughter

1097
00:57:27,800 --> 00:57:31,400
Speaker 1: tweeting about that than he is about the Russians invading

1098
00:57:32,000 --> 00:57:35,320
Speaker 1: our attacking our elections, which he still doubts, he doubts

1099
00:57:35,360 --> 00:57:45,240
Speaker 1: the conclusions, which Scaramucci, the new Communications Directors, said that

1100
00:57:45,480 --> 00:57:48,680
Speaker 1: he's still doubted the conclusion of these agencies. But then

1101
00:57:48,760 --> 00:57:54,400
Speaker 1: that is what he's doing, is continuing to undermine institutions

1102
00:57:54,440 --> 00:57:58,240
Speaker 1: in our country, whether it's the press, attacking the press,

1103
00:57:58,320 --> 00:58:03,240
Speaker 1: our First Amendment ideas. Every single week it seems, um

1104
00:58:03,560 --> 00:58:07,400
Speaker 1: he is attacking our intelligence agencies as as a candidate,

1105
00:58:07,440 --> 00:58:11,280
Speaker 1: he attacked our military. I know more about this than

1106
00:58:11,320 --> 00:58:13,120
Speaker 1: the General's. The guy that was going to have a

1107
00:58:13,200 --> 00:58:16,760
Speaker 1: plan to end isis in his first whatever days the

1108
00:58:17,080 --> 00:58:18,680
Speaker 1: Russian when I talked to the first time, I sat

1109
00:58:18,680 --> 00:58:21,760
Speaker 1: down with the ambassadors from Latvia, Lithuanian Estonia. These are

1110
00:58:21,840 --> 00:58:26,440
Speaker 1: Baltic nations that border the Soviet Union, and they were saying,

1111
00:58:27,720 --> 00:58:35,640
Speaker 1: excuse me, god, flashback. I'm not that old. I was

1112
00:58:35,640 --> 00:58:37,280
Speaker 1: still in high school when we had we had this

1113
00:58:37,360 --> 00:58:41,919
Speaker 1: old union, um. But they border the Russians, and their

1114
00:58:42,000 --> 00:58:44,600
Speaker 1: warnings to us almost like the chickens coming home to roosts,

1115
00:58:44,680 --> 00:58:46,640
Speaker 1: like you weren't taking us seriously when we were telling

1116
00:58:46,680 --> 00:58:49,720
Speaker 1: you that the Russians are seeking to undermine Western democracy.

1117
00:58:50,080 --> 00:58:52,040
Speaker 1: And everybody I talked to in Eastern Europe when I

1118
00:58:52,120 --> 00:58:54,200
Speaker 1: was there, said you all need to wake up. This

1119
00:58:54,360 --> 00:58:57,040
Speaker 1: is how the Russians do what they call a hybrid war.

1120
00:58:57,440 --> 00:59:00,240
Speaker 1: Not only is your physical content conflict, but then they

1121
00:59:00,280 --> 00:59:04,080
Speaker 1: take us on with propaganda, with cyber attacks, trying to

1122
00:59:04,120 --> 00:59:06,400
Speaker 1: get people to lose faith in their and the and

1123
00:59:06,440 --> 00:59:09,040
Speaker 1: the information they're getting from the press, lose faith in

1124
00:59:09,120 --> 00:59:13,880
Speaker 1: democratic institutions, lose faith in the electoral process itself. And so,

1125
00:59:14,000 --> 00:59:17,640
Speaker 1: if anything, the president's rhetoric is complicit in what our

1126
00:59:18,000 --> 00:59:21,280
Speaker 1: what our adversaries are trying to do undermine our faith

1127
00:59:21,320 --> 00:59:23,880
Speaker 1: in democracy. We can our election system, we can our

1128
00:59:23,920 --> 00:59:26,800
Speaker 1: free press, and we can the very institutions that he

1129
00:59:26,920 --> 00:59:29,600
Speaker 1: represents as president that include everything from the military to

1130
00:59:29,680 --> 00:59:33,520
Speaker 1: the intelligence. Isn't Mr Yale Law School? Can the president

1131
00:59:34,040 --> 00:59:38,600
Speaker 1: pardon himself, pardon his family, pardon his associates, and fire

1132
00:59:38,680 --> 00:59:41,000
Speaker 1: Bob Mueller? So this is this is and I just

1133
00:59:41,040 --> 00:59:43,120
Speaker 1: wanted to take one step back on that question because

1134
00:59:43,200 --> 00:59:45,520
Speaker 1: this is why I came down here with a big afro,

1135
00:59:45,720 --> 00:59:49,440
Speaker 1: pull all my pulled all my hair out, Thank you

1136
00:59:49,560 --> 00:59:56,720
Speaker 1: very much. You should have seen his afro. I never

1137
00:59:56,920 --> 01:00:00,280
Speaker 1: thought I would be sitting in interviews and it would

1138
01:00:00,280 --> 01:00:02,720
Speaker 1: come a day where questions like that would be asked,

1139
01:00:03,080 --> 01:00:06,600
Speaker 1: like with a straight face, like like the fact that

1140
01:00:06,720 --> 01:00:09,400
Speaker 1: we are sitting here as Americans and wondering if a

1141
01:00:09,600 --> 01:00:16,440
Speaker 1: president can preemptively pardon himself for serious crimes is to

1142
01:00:16,640 --> 01:00:24,560
Speaker 1: me astonishing. So if it's proven, people, the question is

1143
01:00:24,640 --> 01:00:28,600
Speaker 1: is can the president preemptively pardon himself and pardon his

1144
01:00:30,120 --> 01:00:32,880
Speaker 1: is or not even preemptively pardon himself if it's proven,

1145
01:00:33,240 --> 01:00:36,120
Speaker 1: pardon the people in his senior staff. This is a

1146
01:00:36,240 --> 01:00:39,440
Speaker 1: frightening moment for America that we have serious questions like

1147
01:00:39,560 --> 01:00:43,240
Speaker 1: this being asked. It was actually frightening to me. All

1148
01:00:43,280 --> 01:00:46,880
Speaker 1: the accusing accusations of collusion, you know, they were denying.

1149
01:00:47,040 --> 01:00:49,120
Speaker 1: People are saying, for me, it was like a lot

1150
01:00:49,160 --> 01:00:53,240
Speaker 1: of political noise. But when I read an email, we're

1151
01:00:53,520 --> 01:00:57,440
Speaker 1: literally people are saying a foreign government wants to cooperate

1152
01:00:57,560 --> 01:01:04,080
Speaker 1: with your campaign to beat your opponent. And Donald Trump Jr. Says,

1153
01:01:04,560 --> 01:01:09,480
Speaker 1: if this is real, I love it. That alone, when

1154
01:01:09,520 --> 01:01:11,680
Speaker 1: that email came forward. I can't tell you what their

1155
01:01:11,720 --> 01:01:15,200
Speaker 1: public statements were, but the conversations around this place were

1156
01:01:15,320 --> 01:01:19,680
Speaker 1: just stunned that you literally have a smoking gun of

1157
01:01:19,760 --> 01:01:23,920
Speaker 1: the intention of Donald Trump's most senior advisors seeking to

1158
01:01:24,080 --> 01:01:27,920
Speaker 1: colude with the Russians. To even go to that email

1159
01:01:27,960 --> 01:01:30,040
Speaker 1: itself should have been turned over, and then they all

1160
01:01:30,080 --> 01:01:31,760
Speaker 1: went to the meeting, and they all went to meeting.

1161
01:01:32,000 --> 01:01:34,920
Speaker 1: But do you think the patriotism do you think the

1162
01:01:35,040 --> 01:01:39,040
Speaker 1: trip drip drip has in fact somewhat normalized this because

1163
01:01:39,120 --> 01:01:42,360
Speaker 1: it comes so frequently and so often, it seems as

1164
01:01:42,400 --> 01:01:46,560
Speaker 1: if there's a kind of an explosion and then it dissipates.

1165
01:01:47,240 --> 01:01:51,280
Speaker 1: I've become comfortably numb. Um. No, I am not no,

1166
01:01:51,440 --> 01:01:54,080
Speaker 1: But I don't mean for you necessarily, I just mean

1167
01:01:54,560 --> 01:01:57,680
Speaker 1: for the public at large. Um, do you think at

1168
01:01:57,760 --> 01:02:00,920
Speaker 1: some point they're just being They're so a wash? In

1169
01:02:01,120 --> 01:02:04,800
Speaker 1: scandal that nothing sticks, and that's how I know that's

1170
01:02:04,840 --> 01:02:10,040
Speaker 1: not true. The public at multiple points has stopped bad

1171
01:02:10,160 --> 01:02:12,720
Speaker 1: things from happening more than I have as a Senator. So,

1172
01:02:12,840 --> 01:02:16,400
Speaker 1: whether it's the independent ethics overside of the House that

1173
01:02:16,600 --> 01:02:19,640
Speaker 1: was shut down by public outrage, Version one of the

1174
01:02:19,680 --> 01:02:23,400
Speaker 1: House Healthcare Bill shut down by public outrage, uh, the

1175
01:02:24,080 --> 01:02:28,320
Speaker 1: version one of the Muslim ban. I mean I watched

1176
01:02:28,360 --> 01:02:30,760
Speaker 1: one of my greatest moments as an American was witnessing

1177
01:02:30,800 --> 01:02:33,880
Speaker 1: out of Dallas Airport all of these people chanting and

1178
01:02:34,000 --> 01:02:37,920
Speaker 1: cheering as Muslim families that weren't even necessarily American citizens.

1179
01:02:38,120 --> 01:02:42,520
Speaker 1: Watching people with yamicas on showing their true faith and

1180
01:02:42,760 --> 01:02:46,040
Speaker 1: cheering people coming out of that airport reminds me of

1181
01:02:46,120 --> 01:02:48,680
Speaker 1: the story from the Bible and the Torah of of

1182
01:02:49,120 --> 01:02:52,160
Speaker 1: of Abraham sitting there in pain and watching strangers come

1183
01:02:52,240 --> 01:02:55,600
Speaker 1: and he runs to them joyously and welcomes them. I

1184
01:02:55,640 --> 01:02:59,280
Speaker 1: mean that this is us living our values. The Women's March.

1185
01:02:59,800 --> 01:03:02,400
Speaker 1: I sat down in New Jersey recently with four incredible

1186
01:03:02,760 --> 01:03:06,040
Speaker 1: women activists who weren't involved before but have been awoken

1187
01:03:06,120 --> 01:03:08,760
Speaker 1: by this crisis. So I'm seeing the best of America.

1188
01:03:08,760 --> 01:03:12,600
Speaker 1: It's just like Mr Virginia Jones. Hope is a response

1189
01:03:12,680 --> 01:03:16,240
Speaker 1: to despair, and they're not letting despair win. They're showing

1190
01:03:16,280 --> 01:03:20,000
Speaker 1: their patriotism, showing their their power by engaging now like

1191
01:03:20,080 --> 01:03:22,680
Speaker 1: they never have before. We're almost out of time, but

1192
01:03:22,800 --> 01:03:25,240
Speaker 1: we have to ask Corey, don't we Bryan about running

1193
01:03:25,280 --> 01:03:27,840
Speaker 1: for president? Well, I'm running from the president. If you

1194
01:03:27,880 --> 01:03:31,200
Speaker 1: haven't heard already, I'm like, out of here. Do you

1195
01:03:31,360 --> 01:03:34,240
Speaker 1: rule out running for president? In so let me tell

1196
01:03:34,240 --> 01:03:36,280
Speaker 1: you a horrible confession. But it's out there in the

1197
01:03:36,280 --> 01:03:38,800
Speaker 1: public already. But but I but I've never said on

1198
01:03:38,880 --> 01:03:41,920
Speaker 1: a podcast before. Well, look, I was mayor and I

1199
01:03:42,000 --> 01:03:44,160
Speaker 1: was trying to figure out what to do next. You know,

1200
01:03:44,320 --> 01:03:49,480
Speaker 1: run for re election for a third term, run for governor. Uh,

1201
01:03:50,240 --> 01:03:52,640
Speaker 1: run for my life and get that out of politics.

1202
01:03:53,280 --> 01:03:55,880
Speaker 1: And one of my guy who has never let reporters

1203
01:03:55,920 --> 01:03:57,959
Speaker 1: be your friend. That's why Katie is such a threat

1204
01:03:58,000 --> 01:04:00,520
Speaker 1: to me. But Tom Moran is one of my favorite

1205
01:04:00,600 --> 01:04:02,920
Speaker 1: journalists in America, and he's just hanging in the end.

1206
01:04:02,960 --> 01:04:04,560
Speaker 1: It's always bad at the end of an interview, when

1207
01:04:04,560 --> 01:04:06,919
Speaker 1: you're really comfortable, you start joking. He goes, what about Senate?

1208
01:04:06,960 --> 01:04:10,320
Speaker 1: Would you ever run for Senate? And I unfortunately said

1209
01:04:11,160 --> 01:04:14,760
Speaker 1: if I ever run for Senate, please stop me. And

1210
01:04:14,960 --> 01:04:18,200
Speaker 1: I invited him to do violence to me, um in

1211
01:04:18,280 --> 01:04:21,960
Speaker 1: a very grotesque way that I regret um doing. And

1212
01:04:22,040 --> 01:04:33,320
Speaker 1: everybody can google and everybody and anyway, anyway, I didn't

1213
01:04:33,360 --> 01:04:35,360
Speaker 1: say off the record. And he you know, this is

1214
01:04:35,400 --> 01:04:37,800
Speaker 1: why Tom I have You're still friends. I have a

1215
01:04:37,840 --> 01:04:40,200
Speaker 1: love hate relationship with him. So because of course, what

1216
01:04:40,280 --> 01:04:42,200
Speaker 1: did he roll out when I finally decided to run

1217
01:04:42,280 --> 01:04:44,720
Speaker 1: for senate and which I could not have envisioned. Um,

1218
01:04:44,960 --> 01:04:47,000
Speaker 1: he didn't do to you what you suggested. He he

1219
01:04:47,080 --> 01:04:48,760
Speaker 1: did not do to me. But he did expose me

1220
01:04:49,240 --> 01:04:51,240
Speaker 1: for saying such a dramatic thing that never that I

1221
01:04:51,280 --> 01:04:56,280
Speaker 1: would never enough preamble. You're filibust. I cannot see it.

1222
01:04:57,120 --> 01:05:00,280
Speaker 1: I'm very intent on trying to earn a real in

1223
01:05:00,480 --> 01:05:02,840
Speaker 1: New Jersey when I am Oh, yeah, I'm sure that's

1224
01:05:02,840 --> 01:05:09,520
Speaker 1: gonna be a very tough campaign for you. No, in

1225
01:05:09,960 --> 01:05:13,400
Speaker 1: your quiet moments of self reflection, yes, do you think

1226
01:05:13,480 --> 01:05:15,800
Speaker 1: about I try to empty my thoughts when i'm meditating.

1227
01:05:15,920 --> 01:05:18,439
Speaker 1: That's what I do. But the power off, Okay, after

1228
01:05:18,520 --> 01:05:21,640
Speaker 1: you're meditating, after you're done meditating. And he's a vegan too,

1229
01:05:21,680 --> 01:05:23,640
Speaker 1: so he's probably just meditating about how much he misses

1230
01:05:23,760 --> 01:05:28,040
Speaker 1: he doesn't a vegan meditator in the White House. Are

1231
01:05:28,080 --> 01:05:30,080
Speaker 1: you still a vegan? I am still a vegan and

1232
01:05:30,240 --> 01:05:34,760
Speaker 1: a lifetime vegan. It's a middle lifetime digress digressed. So

1233
01:05:34,840 --> 01:05:37,920
Speaker 1: are there any circumstances under which you would say, you

1234
01:05:38,000 --> 01:05:44,000
Speaker 1: know what, I feel a patriotic duty two to change,

1235
01:05:44,720 --> 01:05:47,400
Speaker 1: to work on all these issues in a way that

1236
01:05:48,160 --> 01:05:52,040
Speaker 1: I have so much power I can really really change.

1237
01:05:52,160 --> 01:05:53,919
Speaker 1: I will make you a deal right now, I'll make news.

1238
01:05:54,520 --> 01:05:56,320
Speaker 1: If you run for president, I will run as your

1239
01:05:56,360 --> 01:06:05,320
Speaker 1: vice president. Just like right, it was just like you

1240
01:06:05,440 --> 01:06:10,920
Speaker 1: literally had a physical reactions. Okay, he's not going to

1241
01:06:10,920 --> 01:06:15,760
Speaker 1: answer the question, the question see myself running for president? Okay,

1242
01:06:15,920 --> 01:06:20,040
Speaker 1: right now. Well, Corey Booker, Senator Booker, thank you so

1243
01:06:20,240 --> 01:06:23,640
Speaker 1: much for giving us so much time and for inviting

1244
01:06:23,760 --> 01:06:26,800
Speaker 1: us into your little hideaway, which is your secret office

1245
01:06:27,000 --> 01:06:30,840
Speaker 1: that people have here on Capitol Hill. I'm sorry there

1246
01:06:31,000 --> 01:06:36,120
Speaker 1: is not a full bar here um because because apparently

1247
01:06:36,320 --> 01:06:39,120
Speaker 1: some of the more senior members do, they're kind of

1248
01:06:39,400 --> 01:06:42,680
Speaker 1: tricked out with a whole bar situation. But the cafe

1249
01:06:42,720 --> 01:06:45,280
Speaker 1: car the Acela, I've definitely visited that a time, so

1250
01:06:45,400 --> 01:06:48,000
Speaker 1: we're looking forward to that if we make our train

1251
01:06:48,200 --> 01:06:52,240
Speaker 1: for lunch dinner. Sorry Booker, thank you. Yeah, we better

1252
01:06:52,440 --> 01:06:55,439
Speaker 1: get the heck out of Dodge, Thank you, Thank you both.

1253
01:06:55,520 --> 01:06:59,840
Speaker 1: I appreciate you guys being so patient too. As usual,

1254
01:07:00,000 --> 01:07:03,240
Speaker 1: you want to thank our intrepid production team, including our

1255
01:07:03,280 --> 01:07:08,040
Speaker 1: producer Gianna Palmer, our audio engineer Jared O'Connell. Thanks also

1256
01:07:08,080 --> 01:07:11,520
Speaker 1: to Emily Vina of Katie Curic Media That Behemoth and

1257
01:07:11,720 --> 01:07:16,600
Speaker 1: Nora Richie for her production assistance. Alison Bresnik makes things

1258
01:07:16,720 --> 01:07:19,000
Speaker 1: happen for social media and we thank her for that,

1259
01:07:19,560 --> 01:07:22,960
Speaker 1: and thank you as always Mark Phillips for our theme music.

1260
01:07:23,720 --> 01:07:26,480
Speaker 1: Katie and I are the executive producers of this podcast

1261
01:07:26,640 --> 01:07:30,000
Speaker 1: and everybody, don't be a stranger. Email us at comments

1262
01:07:30,160 --> 01:07:33,680
Speaker 1: at current podcast dot com or leave us a voicemail

1263
01:07:33,720 --> 01:07:36,680
Speaker 1: at nine to two four four six three seven. We

1264
01:07:36,840 --> 01:07:40,360
Speaker 1: love getting your messages, honestly, they truly make our day.

1265
01:07:40,720 --> 01:07:43,680
Speaker 1: You can also find us on social media anytime, at

1266
01:07:44,000 --> 01:07:45,960
Speaker 1: all hours of the night. When it comes to me,

1267
01:07:46,440 --> 01:07:49,400
Speaker 1: I'm Katie Curic on Twitter and Instagram and Katie Curic

1268
01:07:49,480 --> 01:07:52,439
Speaker 1: on Snapchat. I'm also on Facebook and you can find

1269
01:07:52,520 --> 01:07:56,440
Speaker 1: Brian on Twitter at Goldsmith B. Now, if you've listen

1270
01:07:56,600 --> 01:07:59,880
Speaker 1: this far, hopefully you've liked what you've heard, So let's

1271
01:07:59,880 --> 01:08:03,560
Speaker 1: the good people at Apple podcast note by rating and

1272
01:08:03,720 --> 01:08:07,040
Speaker 1: reviewing our show there so we can keep it alive,

1273
01:08:07,440 --> 01:08:11,960
Speaker 1: keep Hope alive. Everybody, please subscribe as well. Anyway, Thank

1274
01:08:12,040 --> 01:08:14,960
Speaker 1: you as always for listening. Thank you very much, And

1275
01:08:15,080 --> 01:08:18,679
Speaker 1: from somewhere en route from DC to New York, where

1276
01:08:18,720 --> 01:08:21,040
Speaker 1: I just ate a hot dog that's giving me serious

1277
01:08:21,120 --> 01:08:28,000
Speaker 1: acid indigestion. T m I, Tom's Anyone Audios. Bye,