WEBVTT - Anthony Weiner on Term Limits and Text Messages 0:00:02.800 --> 0:00:06.120 This is Alec Baldwin and you're listening to. Here's the thing, 0:00:06.880 --> 0:00:10.879 My chance to talk with artists, policy makers, and performers, 0:00:11.360 --> 0:00:15.520 to hear their stories. What inspires their creations, what decisions 0:00:15.640 --> 0:00:21.720 change their careers, what relationships influenced their work. My guest today, 0:00:21.760 --> 0:00:26.120 Anthony Weiner is the subject of a documentary simply titled 0:00:26.120 --> 0:00:30.080 Weener that opens in theaters later this month. The film 0:00:30.200 --> 0:00:33.919 covers the former congressman's two thousand thirteen bid for New 0:00:34.000 --> 0:00:37.600 York City mayor, which ultimately ends in his defeat amid 0:00:37.680 --> 0:00:42.560 a sexting scandal. This was Weener's second time facing this issue. 0:00:42.960 --> 0:00:46.960 The first resulted in his resignation from Congress. But in 0:00:47.040 --> 0:00:50.600 spite of his problems, Weener does emerge in the film 0:00:50.640 --> 0:00:53.880 as an effective campaigner and one who is not without 0:00:54.040 --> 0:00:57.800 his supporters. It's easy to see why he's a natural. 0:00:58.120 --> 0:01:01.600 He's charismatic and quick on his feet. If you had 0:01:01.640 --> 0:01:07.120 won the election, the last election you ran for, how 0:01:07.120 --> 0:01:08.520 do you think things would be different right now in 0:01:08.520 --> 0:01:10.960 the city. I've always had this theory about mayors in 0:01:11.000 --> 0:01:14.640 New York City that we go from personality like mayors, 0:01:14.760 --> 0:01:17.959 you know, the coaches, the Giuliani's and then we'd like 0:01:18.000 --> 0:01:20.160 to kind of take a deep breath afterwards and have 0:01:20.280 --> 0:01:24.000 more of a commer or technical maybe. Guy and I 0:01:24.040 --> 0:01:26.399 had the theory that we were due after Bloomberg for 0:01:26.520 --> 0:01:30.040 more personality, kind of someone really enjoyed it, someone really 0:01:30.040 --> 0:01:31.560 like engaging in it, so and mixing it up a 0:01:31.600 --> 0:01:34.039 little bit more, and the blaza hasn't quite been man. 0:01:34.080 --> 0:01:35.840 I think there's kind of an appetite a little bit 0:01:35.880 --> 0:01:39.000 for a different head of personality. I would obviously be 0:01:39.000 --> 0:01:41.120 a different type of mayor than he. I mean a 0:01:41.200 --> 0:01:44.360 little more peripatetic, a little bit more like doing stuff. 0:01:44.360 --> 0:01:46.640 I had a thousand ideas, a little ideas, big ideas 0:01:46.640 --> 0:01:48.240 that I would have like been doing every single day, 0:01:48.320 --> 0:01:51.160 less kind of like this thematic thing that he's got 0:01:51.200 --> 0:01:53.920 going about being a progressive mayor. All that being said, 0:01:54.080 --> 0:01:55.640 you know that it's not as hard as a job 0:01:55.680 --> 0:01:59.040 as it used to be. You know, Money's boy. Well, 0:01:59.200 --> 0:02:02.160 so much of being a mayor is defined in the 0:02:02.240 --> 0:02:04.920 past has been to finding these two big things. One 0:02:05.200 --> 0:02:07.919 is the budget has always been very tough, very dependent 0:02:07.960 --> 0:02:11.440 on Washington, very depending on Albany. The second thing is 0:02:11.480 --> 0:02:13.960 that you get buffeted used to get buffeted by the 0:02:13.960 --> 0:02:17.520 tabloid wars constantly in New York City, Like, you know, 0:02:17.600 --> 0:02:19.919 chewing up mayors was what the tabloids used to do, 0:02:20.280 --> 0:02:22.160 and they're just not what they used to be. Like, 0:02:22.240 --> 0:02:24.960 you don't have the day to day headwind being a 0:02:24.960 --> 0:02:27.480 politician New York City that you would have in the past. 0:02:27.880 --> 0:02:30.520 And then the third thing is just that progressively, over 0:02:30.560 --> 0:02:32.560 the course of time, government at all levels has gotten 0:02:32.560 --> 0:02:36.440 more competent. It's less driven by just you know, guys 0:02:36.440 --> 0:02:39.760 who knew guys who knew guys and three fifty employees. 0:02:39.760 --> 0:02:41.240 It's not saying that every one of them is good, 0:02:41.720 --> 0:02:44.320 but are ways of spotting and weeding out the ones 0:02:44.320 --> 0:02:46.280 who aren't that good. I mean, you know, a day 0:02:46.320 --> 0:02:49.240 to day sanitation man works pretty hard, knows his job 0:02:49.280 --> 0:02:51.240 pretty well. Technology is a good way of keeping up 0:02:51.240 --> 0:02:53.360 with them. So those types of things have made the 0:02:53.360 --> 0:02:55.600 city less breakable than it used to. So you don't 0:02:55.600 --> 0:02:59.120 think the police is a kind of a closed chop 0:02:59.160 --> 0:03:00.720 and it's you gotta know somebody to be get a 0:03:00.760 --> 0:03:04.040 job well, less so than maybe it used to be. 0:03:04.880 --> 0:03:07.560 What I will say is this is that the size 0:03:07.560 --> 0:03:10.120 of the police department being bigger it's bigger than the FBI, 0:03:10.120 --> 0:03:14.720 it's one, it's one of the biggest parlemoud people. I mean, 0:03:14.760 --> 0:03:16.240 they're not all out on the street at the same time. 0:03:16.280 --> 0:03:19.720 But then they're arguably one of the larger paramilitary forces 0:03:19.760 --> 0:03:22.560 in the world, and they're incredibly efficient to do a 0:03:22.600 --> 0:03:26.360 good job. But invariably, every so often you're gonna have 0:03:26.880 --> 0:03:31.200 problems within any agency that large. But you know, very 0:03:31.320 --> 0:03:33.760 rarely does someone stop a cop on the street and 0:03:33.840 --> 0:03:35.920 day I didn't get mug today, Thank you for that. 0:03:35.960 --> 0:03:38.000 Like you basically only see the cops when there's a problem. 0:03:38.040 --> 0:03:41.360 You know something's going wrong. But the recent pressure, in 0:03:41.360 --> 0:03:43.800 my view of the recent pressure on statistical improvement every 0:03:43.880 --> 0:03:45.840 day since crime has basically been eliminated in so many 0:03:45.840 --> 0:03:48.360 people's lives. I mean, it's a completely different city than 0:03:48.400 --> 0:03:50.000 it was in the seventies when I was growing up. 0:03:50.000 --> 0:03:53.080 I mean, you know, the idea of like you know, 0:03:53.120 --> 0:03:55.119 I have a four year old son, like you, when 0:03:55.120 --> 0:03:56.520 you were old enough to have a bike, you're old 0:03:56.600 --> 0:03:58.440 enough to have your bike stolen. Basically you're old enough 0:03:58.440 --> 0:04:01.080 to be the idea of Wilding and Central Park in 0:04:01.080 --> 0:04:03.680 the exactly. I mean, it's just even little things like 0:04:04.080 --> 0:04:05.880 if you had nothing to do when you wanted to 0:04:05.920 --> 0:04:07.400 get mugged, you got on the L train. You know. 0:04:07.440 --> 0:04:09.040 Now you get on the L train and it's all 0:04:09.080 --> 0:04:11.720 these hipsters and nothing else, and it's, uh, it's just 0:04:11.760 --> 0:04:15.120 a much, much safer, better city. And so we're not 0:04:15.200 --> 0:04:17.560 used to it. We're not a customers culturally to say 0:04:17.600 --> 0:04:19.520 things are better, but things are amazing now. One thing 0:04:19.520 --> 0:04:22.160 I wanted people to understand. I mean, you said that 0:04:22.160 --> 0:04:24.960 the budget was at the mercy of Albany and of Washington, 0:04:25.120 --> 0:04:28.120 and the city is still it's safe to say, in 0:04:28.240 --> 0:04:32.279 receivership from the economic crisis of years ago. They really 0:04:32.320 --> 0:04:36.560 don't handle their own finances without some rubber stamp from Albany. Correct. Well, Look, 0:04:36.560 --> 0:04:39.280 the City of New York is a creation, a constitutional 0:04:39.360 --> 0:04:41.880 creation of the state legislature and of the of the 0:04:41.920 --> 0:04:45.760 State Constitution. As such, it's not it's still The Mayor 0:04:45.760 --> 0:04:48.120 of New York City is a fairly powerful mayorality compared 0:04:48.160 --> 0:04:50.240 to a lot of other cities, and the city Council 0:04:50.240 --> 0:04:52.239 has a lot of responsibility. When you say it's a creation, 0:04:52.240 --> 0:04:54.279 what do you mean meaning the five counties have a 0:04:54.320 --> 0:04:57.560 special right, meaning literally, the political subdivision of the City 0:04:57.560 --> 0:04:59.280 of New York was a creation of law, is the 0:04:59.360 --> 0:05:02.680 creation of of the of the state constitution, and as 0:05:02.720 --> 0:05:05.920 such you're at the whim. And all throughout state law 0:05:06.000 --> 0:05:08.599 you'll see things like cities of excess of a million 0:05:08.640 --> 0:05:11.000 people must do a B or C. And you do 0:05:11.120 --> 0:05:13.680 have a state legislature. That's still so, where does the 0:05:13.680 --> 0:05:16.440 city's money come from? I mean, for people who don't 0:05:16.600 --> 0:05:20.280 understand the political process and as much detail as you do, 0:05:20.320 --> 0:05:24.520 they nonetheless recall that basic kind of primmer where federal 0:05:24.560 --> 0:05:27.840 dollars come largely from income tax, and state from sales tax, 0:05:27.839 --> 0:05:30.600 and municipal dollars from property tax. Is that still true 0:05:30.600 --> 0:05:33.640 in New York City that the problems comes from. Here's 0:05:33.640 --> 0:05:36.000 here's where the city less so than most cities, like, 0:05:36.040 --> 0:05:38.480 for example, our education budget is not tied to property 0:05:38.520 --> 0:05:39.960 taxes as it is in Long Island, a lot of 0:05:40.000 --> 0:05:42.159 suburbs and a lot of cities around the country, because 0:05:42.160 --> 0:05:45.320 we have two giant engines of revenue. One is the 0:05:45.320 --> 0:05:47.799 financial sector, which you know when you hear about people 0:05:47.800 --> 0:05:50.000 getting needs of scene bonuses, we're getting a piece of 0:05:50.000 --> 0:05:53.000 the action on those bonuses. Although the day to day 0:05:53.040 --> 0:05:55.680 transaction type of things don't create revenue for the city. 0:05:55.680 --> 0:05:58.040 But all the deals, the big deals, we're getting a 0:05:58.040 --> 0:05:59.839 little piece of that. And the second thing is real estate, 0:06:00.040 --> 0:06:02.799 which has I mean, it said, mind bogglingly high levels. 0:06:02.839 --> 0:06:05.760 I mean, you can literally buy a forty million dollar 0:06:05.800 --> 0:06:08.960 apartment in New York City and it's um. Those two 0:06:09.040 --> 0:06:12.880 revenue streams are very very strong. Now we do have 0:06:13.080 --> 0:06:16.560 a byzantine property tax assessment system, which has apartments being 0:06:16.560 --> 0:06:18.679 taxed a certain level, co ops being attached a certain 0:06:18.760 --> 0:06:23.480 certain level, and that it's it's another very complicated thing. 0:06:23.520 --> 0:06:25.080 What it it is. It's kind of like one of 0:06:25.120 --> 0:06:28.280 these things, you know, camel is a horse designed by committee. 0:06:28.279 --> 0:06:30.159 It's a little bit like over the course of time, 0:06:30.560 --> 0:06:33.320 different constituencies have put their finger on the scale and 0:06:33.320 --> 0:06:37.839 now created this weird system. So you're born in Brooklyn, yeah, 0:06:37.880 --> 0:06:40.120 and you went to Plattsburgh way up there in the boondocks. 0:06:40.839 --> 0:06:45.200 It's a province of Canada. Virtually, it is I need 0:06:45.200 --> 0:06:47.520 to be close enough that a thirty minute car ride 0:06:47.520 --> 0:06:49.279 can get me six and a half percent alcohol bre 0:06:49.320 --> 0:06:51.440 That was basically the criteria when my dad and I 0:06:51.480 --> 0:06:53.120 were talking, like where do you want to go to school? Son? 0:06:53.160 --> 0:06:55.320 It's you know, he's like, will he do. He's just 0:06:55.360 --> 0:06:57.599 a neighborhood lawyer guy. And my mom was a school teacher. 0:06:57.640 --> 0:06:58.920 But you know, like I basically said I was not 0:06:58.920 --> 0:07:01.880 good a student. They say, you can go anywhere you want. 0:07:02.120 --> 0:07:04.640 It's a sunny state over Seniork or a Cunee school, 0:07:04.680 --> 0:07:06.440 anyway you want. So I just I kind of look, 0:07:06.480 --> 0:07:08.560 what's the furthest one away that I can go play 0:07:08.560 --> 0:07:10.720 hockey every day? And who was the tougher one? Your 0:07:10.720 --> 0:07:13.720 mother or your father? Who are you? Like, I'm probably 0:07:13.720 --> 0:07:15.240 more like my dad and that I'm sucked up in 0:07:15.280 --> 0:07:17.120 the same way he is. But you know it's uh, 0:07:17.280 --> 0:07:20.880 probably my dad had the greatest kind of influence on 0:07:20.920 --> 0:07:23.080 the path I took in life, for good reasons and 0:07:23.120 --> 0:07:25.320 bad reasons. That you know, he was the he inspired 0:07:25.360 --> 0:07:28.480 you to go into politics, and not in that way, no, 0:07:28.600 --> 0:07:30.560 but he would be the one like arguing all the 0:07:30.600 --> 0:07:33.120 time and like, hey, you to defend your positions and 0:07:33.160 --> 0:07:35.160 that kind of stuff. But you know, it's funny you 0:07:35.240 --> 0:07:38.200 actually had you you were there a little bit at 0:07:38.200 --> 0:07:40.960 the birth of my career. In a strange one, Let's 0:07:40.960 --> 0:07:42.320 see if you can figure it out. Has to do 0:07:42.360 --> 0:07:48.800 with Chuck No Glen Gary, Glenn Ross. You guys, you 0:07:48.840 --> 0:07:52.080 guys were filming while I was running for city council 0:07:52.120 --> 0:07:54.280 for the first time. You guys were filming. It's externals, 0:07:54.280 --> 0:07:56.440 I know what you guys call them by the Sheepshead 0:07:56.480 --> 0:08:00.800 based subway stop and I don't know, I think the 0:08:00.880 --> 0:08:04.480 outsides of the thing. And so crowd would form, like 0:08:04.480 --> 0:08:05.960 people in line. I'm like, what's going on? And she 0:08:06.160 --> 0:08:08.560 say bad? Like where not? You say, get some signs, 0:08:08.560 --> 0:08:10.960 get some signs. Totally, I'm like working the lines and 0:08:11.000 --> 0:08:12.880 I'm like a Jewish version out of that guy who's 0:08:12.880 --> 0:08:16.160 in this movie. I'm a Jewish version. I'm the Jewish Alpacino. Yeah, 0:08:16.160 --> 0:08:18.640 because you know, when you're running for city counts, like 0:08:18.640 --> 0:08:20.920 a gathering of like twenty people is wow, I hit 0:08:20.960 --> 0:08:23.120 the jackpotty. And then I'm thinking, I, well, I should 0:08:23.160 --> 0:08:25.360 probably make an issue of all this double parking. These 0:08:25.400 --> 0:08:28.360 guys are doing, these Hollywood guys. But but yeah, that 0:08:28.440 --> 0:08:32.720 was it. Uh, that was like politics, don't you you did? No, No, 0:08:32.760 --> 0:08:35.160 I totally do. I totally do a movie. And we're 0:08:35.160 --> 0:08:37.400 gonna get to the movie. In the movie, you're waving 0:08:37.440 --> 0:08:39.800 that band or your and you look like a kid 0:08:39.880 --> 0:08:42.480 you're so happy. Yeah, and these people are all jumping 0:08:42.520 --> 0:08:45.599 up and down and they part of you loved retail politics, No, 0:08:45.679 --> 0:08:47.400 I love I love that stuff. I don't know who 0:08:47.440 --> 0:08:50.880 you were talking to, Um, maybe it's only been Jerry Seinfeld. Way, 0:08:50.880 --> 0:08:52.439 it's like all that. I just love power. It's clearly 0:08:52.440 --> 0:08:55.800 deals a power. People don't understand that, you know, to 0:08:55.960 --> 0:08:59.320 go into polo, going to any profession and to really 0:08:59.440 --> 0:09:01.640 enjoy to love it. And like a lot of a 0:09:01.640 --> 0:09:05.800 lot of times you're doing you're enjoying the the constituent 0:09:05.920 --> 0:09:10.000 parts of a job, like being in Washington and sitting 0:09:10.000 --> 0:09:13.080 there and being committee hearings and passing laws that gratifies it. 0:09:13.120 --> 0:09:15.240 That obviously scratches an itch. You want to make the 0:09:15.280 --> 0:09:17.640 world better, But there's an element of that that is 0:09:18.240 --> 0:09:20.800 really not completely on the level because you're not really 0:09:20.840 --> 0:09:23.200 passing laws all that often. You're usually having hearings of 0:09:23.280 --> 0:09:26.160 things that you've heard before, etcetera. But when you're at 0:09:26.200 --> 0:09:29.400 home and you're you know, solving the problem from someone 0:09:29.440 --> 0:09:31.240 because they came in and they can't figure out you know, 0:09:31.320 --> 0:09:34.560 my my my husband has actually happened. My husband dropped 0:09:34.559 --> 0:09:36.199 his dentures down the sewo we don't know who to 0:09:36.280 --> 0:09:39.240 call it. They get the back and you're like trying 0:09:39.240 --> 0:09:41.520 to figure out, well, if it got washed out, I 0:09:41.559 --> 0:09:43.959 gotta call this guy. You want what switched to your 0:09:43.960 --> 0:09:46.040 throat so this guy's dns don't get washed away. Whatever 0:09:46.040 --> 0:09:49.320 it is, you've got to kind of like you are. 0:09:49.360 --> 0:09:51.600 You're either good at that or you're not, like unpacking 0:09:51.640 --> 0:09:53.600 how to do it, and you have to like it. 0:09:53.679 --> 0:09:57.560 Like I have run against in my day, people who, 0:09:58.080 --> 0:10:01.400 no doubt would be excellent presentatives in the classic sense, 0:10:01.480 --> 0:10:03.480 going there and casting the right vote and probably giving 0:10:03.480 --> 0:10:06.160 a good speech or writing a good book. But they 0:10:06.160 --> 0:10:09.120 clearly didn't like the other stuff. And the other stuff 0:10:09.640 --> 0:10:13.080 is not inconsequential. And I don't you know anyone who 0:10:13.160 --> 0:10:15.120 makes it, say, to congress or to be a mayor 0:10:15.160 --> 0:10:17.640 of a city, they've got to like that. You cannot 0:10:17.760 --> 0:10:20.360 fake that stuff. And I legitimately that's the only part 0:10:20.360 --> 0:10:21.760 of the job I really miss, is that is that 0:10:21.840 --> 0:10:23.560 kind of stuff. You were in Congress? How long were 0:10:23.559 --> 0:10:25.000 you in the countress? I was in I was in 0:10:25.040 --> 0:10:26.960 a city council for seven years. I was in Congress, 0:10:27.040 --> 0:10:30.000 I guess thirteen years. In Congress for thirteen years. What 0:10:30.040 --> 0:10:31.840 was the shortest thing you did the city council. Now 0:10:31.840 --> 0:10:34.280 that you know, seven years, I mean like basically that 0:10:34.360 --> 0:10:36.160 the TikTok for me is I mean I never had 0:10:36.360 --> 0:10:38.280 you know, I have no marketable skills because I never 0:10:38.320 --> 0:10:42.160 had a real job out of college. I up at Plattsburgh. 0:10:42.440 --> 0:10:44.760 I wrote my congressman, who I had a look up 0:10:44.840 --> 0:10:46.720 in one of these guide books in the library. Who 0:10:46.760 --> 0:10:49.480 my congressman was, sent Ruck Schumer A letter spelled his 0:10:49.600 --> 0:10:51.800 name wrong. Can I come in violence and I basically 0:10:51.800 --> 0:10:54.320 do an internship there. They're like, you're there for six 0:10:54.400 --> 0:10:57.000 or seven years? Well what happened was I was an 0:10:57.000 --> 0:10:59.640 intern's finished six seven years. But I basically you know, 0:10:59.679 --> 0:11:02.559 liked and quill I failed upwards, you know, like for 0:11:02.600 --> 0:11:03.920 a while. Yeah, you're pretty good up in to mail 0:11:03.920 --> 0:11:07.719 was about six years. Just about everything that I mean, 0:11:07.760 --> 0:11:10.040 he if you can only have one political kind of 0:11:10.040 --> 0:11:14.520 mentor kind of guy you know so much exactly Eskimo, 0:11:14.840 --> 0:11:17.000 someone who you know, when I started working for Chuck, 0:11:17.040 --> 0:11:18.760 I was six three, had blonde here in a little nose. 0:11:18.800 --> 0:11:22.240 I kind of morphed into this semitic collectible version of myself. 0:11:22.840 --> 0:11:25.160 But uh, you know, like because he did the inside 0:11:25.160 --> 0:11:27.840 game and the outside game about as skillfully as anyone does. 0:11:28.400 --> 0:11:30.600 Um So, then I just kind of like I did 0:11:30.600 --> 0:11:32.920 a few years in Washington in the eighties, and then 0:11:33.320 --> 0:11:36.120 when I decided I wanted to try it myself, I 0:11:36.200 --> 0:11:38.760 had this brilliant idea. I was going to move to Florida, 0:11:39.400 --> 0:11:42.080 where they're just there were like adding districts left and right, 0:11:42.120 --> 0:11:44.000 just so much population was being and I figured, a 0:11:44.080 --> 0:11:46.720 Jewish guy from Brooklyn, I'll fit and find down there, 0:11:47.320 --> 0:11:50.040 and Chuck I would have been I would have named 0:11:51.000 --> 0:11:52.520 I would have fit in great. You know, it would 0:11:52.520 --> 0:11:55.680 obviously you would have to lose the anthony somehow, but 0:11:55.880 --> 0:11:58.040 um and Chuck said, no, you should come back and 0:11:58.040 --> 0:12:01.560 work in my district. David okay, David Winer, Yeah, I 0:12:01.600 --> 0:12:05.720 mean totally the library. Yeah yeah, vote even though even 0:12:05.760 --> 0:12:09.360 though votes for a Winer, it just worked so perfectly, Dad, Yeah, okay, 0:12:09.360 --> 0:12:11.120 all right, thanks that that might have been the problem. 0:12:11.760 --> 0:12:14.520 That was probably it. I wish I was spoken to thank. 0:12:16.120 --> 0:12:17.800 Uh So. Yeah. So I basically came back round for 0:12:17.840 --> 0:12:19.760 the city council, won a six way raised by a 0:12:19.800 --> 0:12:22.199 couple hundred votes, and it was like your years in 0:12:22.240 --> 0:12:26.520 the city council. Um it was great. I mean, look, 0:12:26.520 --> 0:12:28.160 I was a kid. I was electors at the time. 0:12:28.240 --> 0:12:29.880 I mean, now I think people have gotten life was 0:12:29.920 --> 0:12:33.680 like twenty seven got elected and um had apprentice for 0:12:33.679 --> 0:12:36.200 the job, you know, ran against all the county organizations 0:12:36.200 --> 0:12:38.240 and county machines and everything else and still one. And 0:12:38.280 --> 0:12:40.480 so when I got in, I didn't really owe anyone 0:12:40.520 --> 0:12:42.000 all that much, so I can kind of do really 0:12:42.040 --> 0:12:43.719 what I wanted. And what was something you did that 0:12:43.840 --> 0:12:46.240 was memorable to you? Like, what, what's something that defines 0:12:46.280 --> 0:12:48.160 your period? Well, the thing I mean, I had a 0:12:48.200 --> 0:12:50.360 signature issue that kind of was visited on me. That 0:12:50.520 --> 0:12:54.200 so since I wasn't kind of an insider guy, I 0:12:54.200 --> 0:12:57.400 didn't have great committee picks, And so I was interested 0:12:57.440 --> 0:13:00.880 in the idea that people in public housing part of 0:13:00.920 --> 0:13:03.360 the reason they have such crummy lot in life is 0:13:03.400 --> 0:13:05.760 that their representation is never very good because who the heck, 0:13:06.120 --> 0:13:07.800 you know, they're not a lot of they're not heavily voting, 0:13:07.800 --> 0:13:10.000 they're overly poor, a lot of headaches. So I asked 0:13:10.080 --> 0:13:12.480 them to create for me a subcommittee on public housing, 0:13:13.160 --> 0:13:17.320 and by as fortune or misfortune would have it, in 0:13:17.360 --> 0:13:20.400 the mid nineties, there started to be this circumstance where 0:13:20.400 --> 0:13:22.680 there were these terrible fires in the hallways of the 0:13:22.679 --> 0:13:26.040 public housing developments, and no one knew what was going on. 0:13:26.720 --> 0:13:29.880 And I had a mole in the fire department who 0:13:29.960 --> 0:13:33.560 kept sending me documents that showed that a buddy of 0:13:33.760 --> 0:13:39.200 Rudy Giuliani had started a paint company because he can 0:13:39.240 --> 0:13:42.200 make money selling it to the Giuliani administration, and the 0:13:42.240 --> 0:13:46.840 paint was horrible and flammable, and that people would be 0:13:46.880 --> 0:13:49.240 in the hallways and smoke in the in the lobbies 0:13:49.280 --> 0:13:51.280 in the hallways, and it was creating these terrible fires 0:13:51.280 --> 0:13:54.280 and people were dying. And because I was getting all 0:13:54.320 --> 0:13:57.200 of these in these documents, I knew what was going 0:13:57.240 --> 0:14:00.640 on and was able to stop it, but not not 0:14:00.720 --> 0:14:03.120 until I basically had this head on war with the 0:14:03.160 --> 0:14:06.959 Giuliani administration. Um what was eventually done about though we 0:14:07.080 --> 0:14:11.880 basically eventually the Julian administration fesst up and they but 0:14:11.920 --> 0:14:14.160 the guy had a business and they repainted everything like that, 0:14:14.160 --> 0:14:15.920 which was my original thing is you got to repaint 0:14:15.920 --> 0:14:17.600 all this stuff, like it's not enough just to like 0:14:17.640 --> 0:14:21.040 do asst housing city public housing, you know, and um, 0:14:21.080 --> 0:14:23.360 it's like a cousin of Giuliani or something like that. 0:14:23.360 --> 0:14:27.240 How did Giuliani react? Not very well? A funny story. 0:14:27.360 --> 0:14:29.880 So finally the New York Times does a story about 0:14:29.920 --> 0:14:32.640 it because another one of these stare hole fires, and 0:14:32.680 --> 0:14:35.760 I get another document, and the fire commissioner and now 0:14:35.760 --> 0:14:37.680 the mayor himself both say they have no way of 0:14:37.680 --> 0:14:39.880 knowing this was a problem. And I had a document 0:14:40.000 --> 0:14:42.200 that was directed to the fire commissioners to stamp received 0:14:42.200 --> 0:14:45.560 by his office. So I hold a press conferensations around 0:14:45.600 --> 0:14:48.600 the time of Christmas cold Day. I'm at the bottom 0:14:48.600 --> 0:14:50.200 of the steps of City Hall, which is where city 0:14:50.200 --> 0:14:53.800 councilmen do their press conferences, and I'm releasing this document. 0:14:54.040 --> 0:14:56.160 I'm standing in front of the cameras and I'm like, 0:14:56.240 --> 0:14:59.080 and I'm here to deliver this, this document to the mayor, 0:14:59.080 --> 0:15:01.280 who says that they had no idea of knowing, showing 0:15:01.320 --> 0:15:04.560 that they indeed did, and a cameraman and remember my 0:15:04.600 --> 0:15:06.520 back is to city Hall. My camera says we should 0:15:06.560 --> 0:15:08.000 give it directly to Mary. So that's why I'm here. 0:15:08.040 --> 0:15:10.720 Says no, directly to him. He's right there. So the 0:15:10.800 --> 0:15:14.560 mayor had walked up the steps with his son Andrew 0:15:14.640 --> 0:15:16.480 by the hand. It was right before Christmas. It was 0:15:16.520 --> 0:15:18.240 a cold day, It's like a Sunday or something like that, 0:15:19.000 --> 0:15:21.080 And the New York Times captured this picture of me 0:15:21.160 --> 0:15:22.880 at the bottom of the stairs and him at the top, 0:15:22.960 --> 0:15:25.920 me holding this letter and him like Zeus at the 0:15:25.920 --> 0:15:29.280 top of the stairs, like glaring at me down. The 0:15:30.160 --> 0:15:33.040 footnote of that story is he became convinced that someone 0:15:33.080 --> 0:15:36.760 in his office had given me his schedule to know 0:15:36.920 --> 0:15:38.920 exactly when he was going to be walking up with 0:15:38.960 --> 0:15:43.400 his son, and that one I had violated the whatever 0:15:43.560 --> 0:15:46.080 code I don't known't involved the families, you know, whatever 0:15:46.080 --> 0:15:50.080 it is. And he began an inquisition within his shop. 0:15:51.240 --> 0:15:52.880 How did we get in my stay when it's just 0:15:53.320 --> 0:15:55.800 weird fluke of scheduling that I happened to be standing 0:15:55.800 --> 0:15:57.600 there on a Sunday because I had this this semeon. 0:15:58.080 --> 0:16:00.160 It was one of the I mean that that was 0:16:00.160 --> 0:16:02.320 the van going tension with him after that. Oh well, 0:16:02.360 --> 0:16:04.760 I had been on. Giuliani famously kept a list, you know, 0:16:04.800 --> 0:16:06.720 one of these Nicksonian kind of ship lists, and I 0:16:06.720 --> 0:16:09.360 had been on that early on, and and it would 0:16:09.400 --> 0:16:12.120 probably just made it worse. But yeah, he sends someone 0:16:12.160 --> 0:16:15.520 out to say that, uh, the mayor wants see you, 0:16:15.560 --> 0:16:16.920 which was then still a big deal. I mean, let 0:16:16.960 --> 0:16:18.320 me go. I'm as this a councilman. I mean I 0:16:18.360 --> 0:16:20.800 would run into the mayor, but to be quality, and 0:16:20.840 --> 0:16:23.480 I'm what's gonna happen? I mean, did you want to 0:16:23.560 --> 0:16:25.040 apologize that you want to take this letter, did you 0:16:25.040 --> 0:16:26.920 want to say here's what we're doing about it? Or 0:16:27.120 --> 0:16:29.320 did he just want to yell at me? Whatever it was? 0:16:29.960 --> 0:16:34.000 And so I'm waiting outside, uh for him to summon 0:16:34.040 --> 0:16:37.840 me in about thirty minutes good bye, and the same guy, 0:16:37.920 --> 0:16:40.480 the same staffer that had said, wait, the mayor wants 0:16:40.520 --> 0:16:42.440 to see you, came out city changed. He doesn't want 0:16:42.440 --> 0:16:44.440 to see you. You can go, And apparently he was 0:16:44.560 --> 0:16:46.440 the game he was playing. I don't think it was that. 0:16:46.560 --> 0:16:49.480 I think that he was so livid at this that 0:16:49.600 --> 0:16:51.760 just wanted to tear my head off, and someone talked 0:16:51.800 --> 0:16:54.640 about and someone basically said yeah, and he changed his 0:16:54.720 --> 0:16:56.280 focus on instead. I want to find out how the 0:16:56.280 --> 0:16:59.080 hell he knew my schedule. But that's all. That's all 0:16:59.120 --> 0:17:01.360 secondary that that what it Well, it was the first 0:17:01.400 --> 0:17:03.680 time I kind of had a real issue in the city, 0:17:03.720 --> 0:17:06.679 how really doing good things. It was not kind of 0:17:06.720 --> 0:17:08.919 like this weird fabricated thing because it really was a 0:17:09.000 --> 0:17:13.080 dangerous situation. Um. And then the following year, I think 0:17:13.080 --> 0:17:16.520 I Chuck announces he's running for Senate against the motto. 0:17:17.240 --> 0:17:20.000 So then I announced that I'm gonna run, and I 0:17:20.040 --> 0:17:21.720 didn't have much of a chance of winning. It was 0:17:21.760 --> 0:17:24.159 like three men versus one woman, three guys from Brooklyn, 0:17:24.160 --> 0:17:27.000 one woment from Queen's and again just by you know, 0:17:27.080 --> 0:17:29.800 didn't have kind of really just a good strategy, just 0:17:29.880 --> 0:17:31.800 running and had knocked in a lot a lot of doors, 0:17:32.320 --> 0:17:35.560 won by a couple hunch of votes. Now you go 0:17:35.640 --> 0:17:42.119 to Washington and you're there for six terms, and again, 0:17:42.280 --> 0:17:44.480 what's what's a highlight? Aments It's tough to distill it 0:17:44.520 --> 0:17:46.359 down twelve years into you know, we give us one 0:17:46.440 --> 0:17:47.840 or two highlights of what the kind of work you 0:17:47.880 --> 0:17:50.439 were doing. Well, I mean, you've got us ever you 0:17:50.480 --> 0:17:52.840 were representing, Chuck was serving the Chuck's district. So I'm 0:17:52.840 --> 0:17:58.040 representing democratic district in New York City, but not as 0:17:59.000 --> 0:18:02.119 liberal as you might have met. For example, Obama in 0:18:02.200 --> 0:18:05.439 two thousand eight only got in my district. You know, 0:18:05.560 --> 0:18:07.240 it's it's it was as a matter of fact, when 0:18:07.280 --> 0:18:09.880 I had my scandal, and I left the Republican took 0:18:09.880 --> 0:18:11.679 it for for a brief cup of coffee, and then 0:18:11.720 --> 0:18:15.400 they redrew it again. So it's a pretty conservative district, 0:18:16.119 --> 0:18:19.639 and I kind of developed a rhythm after a while 0:18:19.760 --> 0:18:22.639 of prosecuting it by kind of like the old adage, 0:18:22.680 --> 0:18:24.480 there's nothing in the middle of the road but dead 0:18:24.480 --> 0:18:27.400 possums and yellow yellow lines, like, I'm going to really 0:18:27.480 --> 0:18:31.200 kind of lean into being being who I am and 0:18:31.280 --> 0:18:33.320 kind of being progressive on some stuff, being hawkish, and 0:18:33.520 --> 0:18:35.280 you're kind of being true to who I was, and 0:18:35.359 --> 0:18:38.080 rather than trying to shoot this middle line kind of 0:18:38.160 --> 0:18:41.240