who we want people to be. >> but john edwards couldn't be that he was who he was for rielle hunter, who he was for elizabeth edwards words. and then it was who he was for the american public and that's the paradox inherent to politics by design individual human beings have to be the vessel's for all our lofty ideals. >> and yet to this day, we keep on investing and believing in these candidates for higher office, hoping, praying that they do not break our hearts because maybe just maybe this one is different i do think a lot of his campaign staffers were diehard believe in the cause fans and a lot of them do work in the white house right now. >> that's his legacy and i think that puts a nice bow on a story that is a big old mess

as the world's oldest democracy. >> we sure do love a strong man and from teddy roosevelt, all the way up to our reality tv president nowhere produces more of them than the empire state congress's approval rating hovering somewhere around sewer rants, we want to vote for the politician who can finally just get things done. that was elliot spitzer to a tee but when new yorkers sent the sheriff of wall street to the governor's mansion we all learned the hard way that white nights can have dark secrets spitzer was caught breaking his own sex work laws a level of hypocrisy we could never forget eliot spitzer blazed a trail through new york that had him in spitting distance of the white house right up until the

moment he set himself on fire. >> this will sound like the setup for a bad joke, but bear with me do you see the new york, you dream of begins tonight. so there's this honest politician named eliot spitzer, a white knight new york official with a reputation so pristine they called him mr. clean he rose up the ranks from attorney general to governor by taking down the mafia, as well as wall street banks these are people who are sloan month. they may not do with a gun, but the result is justice criminal. >> he won the hearts and minds of new yorkers as if he were derek jeter made out of thin crust pizza more trusted than the times? more untouchable than the subway handrails. >> he was such a hopeful person

for the people. >> now is our time to build a government that exists, not for those who hold an office but for those who pay the bill. >> probably could have been a great governor could have been president he tripped on his deck governor elliot spitzer is under investigation for allegedly meeting with a prostitute at a washington dc hotel. eliot spitzer linked an alleged prostitution ring the affidavit alleges the prostitution ring operated under the name of emperor's club vip one official says that spitzer is referred to as client number nine. >> i can remember the new york times breaking the story and literally saying holy the tabs loved it. >> but all the serious papers loved it too, because it was elliot spitzer the sheriff of wall street somebody who is doing good doing right? and he's a hero. >> there was just this like can

this possibly be true? it had so many of the elements of a class of tabloids candle that it almost felt like it was poorly written i am resigning from the office of governor elliot came out and he made this face that we call the pucker. >> that image of him was used over and over and over it was just the perfect encapsulation of like i used to be this high flying king of and now i'm just like eating bag you very much far from being remembered as the man who cleaned up new york though spitzer will be forever known for nearly swallowing his own face as he was out and is one of the biggest hypocrites in modern politics. >> that is what infuriates people more than anything. i mean, the fact that this guy was talking about ethics and morality, even those who say prostitution, it's not a big deal point to the hypocrisy in these allegations that hypocrisy that's present here is going to be his downfall. >> and when a politician obsessed with being a do-gooder gets caught with his pants down

the late night material is endless. >> i sat next to the guy three times i didn't pick up on any of this and i usually have excellent hoarder but spitzer's sex scandal is not quite like other sex scandals because with no history of inappropriate behavior with women, his self-righteousness seemed genuine or so we believed the eyes of new york are on us. new yorkers loved him. he was a crusader for the little guy brave, bold, a great leader who did not have time for distractions and that's the kind of politician we want, right? guy who cuts through the usual red tape and gets things done but by the time he got into power spitzer's noble crusade had been replaced with something darker why do we keep ending up here? why do we keep placing our hopes and confident man who make big promises then completely fail to deliver hello on. i would ask spitzer himself about this, but he

stopped returning my texts, so i turn to eliot spitzer's mentor and friends, lloyd constantine, who's known him longer than almost anyone else in his life. so my thinking about this interview, i feel like your journey with elliot is the public's journey in the sense that people really thought he was gonna be the first jewish president. you did muscular democrat? yeah. and i want you to take us on the journey. yeah. >> you've talked about how you thought the presidency was eliot spitzer's manifest destiny. that he was going to be a fighter for the people at what point did you start to think that take us back to 1982, you're working for the attorney general of new york, bob abrams. and here comes your summer in turn a young guy named eliot spitzer what was your impression? i was a little bit wary to begin with wealthy kid from well-known parents, kids like that, usually want to have the funds summer but when

elliott walks, it was love at first sight there was an understanding and in that we both believe that the law was the most powerful instrument of social change and that the law could be used to help people. >> spitzer's crusade for the people began in earnest a few years later, when he charged into the manhattan da's office in 1986 of eliot's early success stories was when he was working as a junior prosecutor and he was tasked with trying to get them up out of the garment district the gambino crime family dominated manhattan's garment district, where they forced clothing manufacturers to use their trucking company to transport goods to retailers most prosecutors went after the mob by following a paper trail from behind a desk. >> but spitzer had a novel idea to start his own factory hiring 30 workers and an undercover state trooper to run it. and simply waiting for the mafia to come to them. it took several

months, but eventually a salesman stopped by threatening to break bones, literally. >> the very quick and swift message from the gambia knows either use our trucker, if somebody will be injured beyond just the rigor of an investigation he didn't want to just read transcriptions. >> he wanted to listen to the wire taps and hear how the mob guys talked. there was a visceral enjoyment of the subterranean nature of this i played soccer and it is not getting the enforced. i mean, i was the kid who played left fullback, not because i had real talent, but i took people out. and so it wasn't that i was somebody came through with the ball. i couldn't really do things other than just take care of them. and so it was you play hard, you play rough, and

hopefully you don't get caught playing rough paid off and riding high on his takedown of the mob, he ran for attorney general a few years later he lost, but spitzer's crusade was not yet over was wildly ambitious wanted desperately, i think to be president in the united states. elliot it was probably the definition of hubris, like i am doing the right thing. the world must lie down before me remember this point, while the public saw spitzer is fighting for them, he saw himself as an untouchable hero. >> on a righteous quest. so this won't end well tomorrow night's read zakaria special could the 2024 election changed the face of america? >> foreign policy? it's going to be only america first did we get here and all lessons of history. we've learned that

isolation is and never was and never will be an acceptable response to tyrannical governments on the america. first or for read zakaria special tomorrow at 8:00 on cnn cell provider that was breached has my social from the credit check 75% of americans have had their social security numbers exposed you to recent data breaches that's why lifelock monitors millions of data points. >> it's for identity theft what are we doing with our life bri what can it crashed christmas, you're not invited pete after me, find food, dancing, distractions and you are when party crash in, turn, to crushing and you look absolutely beautiful. you look very handsome, good thing. >> there's another party. >> oh, well, wow. wow. >> you know each other. >> he met ada another christmas party holiday crashers, check your local listings, water killed down to christmas only on hallmark channel here's to getting better with age.

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vision changes, or i painted occur once-daily trilogy for copd because breathing should be beautiful all day and night shot at attorney general of new york in 1994. but he went right back to work, becoming a partner at lloyd constantine's firm elliot spitzer worked for your law firm and your relationship continues and your faith families become close? yes. you meet his wife, silva. what did you think of her? very smart. >> and i knew that they had been at auburn law together on some level. >> she was more impressive, but they were equals. >> they were equals. >> absolutely that's interesting because most americans, if they even know of eliot spitzer's wife still, they think of her as just the wrong woman at that press conference and you're saying there's so much smarter? >> yeah she was really

protective of their girls and to a certain extent had to sacrifice what as a really successful legal career in order for him to be the starring, it's not what she had hoped for in her life that sacrifice was nothing compared to what she'd faced ten years later as the wife of a scandal-plagued politician. but in 1998 with her full support, elliot ran for ag again and one honor to be here. >> as they declare victory. and what has been a long race will begin a process of creating in the attorney general's office to three eminent public interests offer in the country what was different about elliott is he expanded the jurisdiction of the attorney general's office particularly with respect to issues on wall street this was something very unique and very unprecedented spitzer watched as the internet turned the stock market into a goldmine and stock analysts received kickbacks for

overhyping weird internet companies so while the average investor was convinced to 400 retirement funds into pets pets.com stock analysts were using their bonuses to recreate scenes from the movie boiler burst, the federal commission that was supposed to be looking out for investors was not doing nearly enough to help. but luckily, new york's crusader road in on his white horse to save the day ordinary americans who have been asked to invest have been defrauded, their trust has been violated possibly an opportunity here there in new york, which is a financial services central. >> so if bad behaviors happen to anywhere in all this, they have jurisdiction. >> so spitzer's said about looking for legal tools to make sure he could do exactly what he wanted new york attorneys general had in their arsenal a powerful 1921 law called the martin act, which prohibited selling fraudulent securities

to hoodwinked investors, but they only used it against small targets. ponzi schemes, and the like. spitzer unleashed its full power against wall street, determined to catch stock analysts in why the quintessential small investor with paying the price for this. and i believe it's my job to protect them so spitzer goes through merrill lynch first end, he brings a case against them, which particularly picks on a single analyst named henry bludgeon we still believe in yahoo is a long-term platform. >> this it's really capable of competing with aol. >> there were these instances where he will be on tv saying these stocks that are the greatest thing since sliced bread and then there would be him complaining internally in an email like this is a pos which you can figure out what that means so if you're telling the public one thing and you're saying something else that sounds like fraud. >> elliot was the basis of real systemic change he had exercised more power. than

massive federal agencies like the sec. >> did he have more power or did he just use it? >> well, you know he exercised it and the market responded i represented morgan stanley, one of the targets of one of his investigations. and i talked to you know, to the chairman and ceo he wasn't worried about washington. he was worried about eliot spitzer no one thought anybody could put their hands on those companies. >> and he was able to do that so he was really the robin hood of that whole effort by taking on the wild west of wall street spitzer had earned himself a new nickname spitzer as deputized himself as the sheriff of wall street so even though you were on the other side and at least the case or two of his aggressive regulation of various financial industries. you thought that he

was doing exactly what that twenty-three-year-old first year at harvard law student was meant to do. he is using power effectively to help the people. he was the most powerful most successful and i think most effective state attorney general in the history of the united states that's pretty high praise. >> yes absolutely this all might sound like hyperbole now that we're on the other side of his shocking scandal and public downfall. >> but everyone thought this way at the time, and not just in new york, i myself believed that spitzer was on a path that could end up at the white house. but he'd been learning some pretty undemocratic lessons on his way up that he could push boundaries, seize power, and that the people would love him even more you have declared, i have officially official that you are running for governor of the great state of new york, the empire state i'm going to call

hubris spitzer was so confident he would become governor. he started staffing his administration years before the election one time, spitzer said to me, there's someone like to interview, be lieutenant governor, but i wouldn't want it'd be rejected. >> now, i realize he's talking about me and he was right. i didn't want senate governor. and at the time, hillary clinton was the junior senator from new york. so i said to spitzer, if hillary clinton comes president, you pick the new senator i would be your guy and spitzer said something to me at that point, it was very prophetic. stay out of trouble and you're my guy. and all i can say to that was physician heal thyself before election day. >> vice president harris basis voters and takes the pressing questions, lie anderson cooper moderates a cnn presidential townhall kamala harris,

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promotes healthy circulation call. now, i'm pete muntean at reagan national airport. >> this is cnn closed captioning is brought to you by purple, greatest sleep ever invented fleet more deeply and wake up rejuvenated purple mattresses, exclusive jail flex grid draws away heat, relieves pressure, and instantly sleep better, live purple thirst for. >> the new york you dream of begins tonight by the time eliot spitzer's running for governor in 2006, everyone expected him to win. in 2006, new york had been stuck in a holding pattern for years, and eliot spitzer that seemingly upright pillar of moral rectitude was just the candidate for them polls close at 9:00 p.m. election was called for spitzer at 9:00 p.m.

governor with what percentage of the sixth, almost 70%. >> 69.5. >> it's insane. almost 70% of the vote by far the greatest plurality in the history of new york, more than franklin roosevelt, more than teddy roosevelt, more than mario cuomo, more than anybody. >> but unlike his illustrious predecessors, spitzer would only last one year in office before self-destructing in a way that absolutely no one had foreseen. so i have a theory of leadership oftentimes, people rise to positions of power were they are able to remove anyone from their inner circle who will tell them when they're being an and that moment when they choose to do that often sets the course for their downfall that may have been the case but in the fall of 2006, silva, you asked me not to work for elie why she said you're

the only sort of senior older man that he listens to and he needs to have some advice. >> and if you go to work for him, he will stop listening to you but lloyd became a senior advisor to spitzer anyway because he still believed that his old friend was on his way up did you notice any change in him i had noticed the change in him prior to the election a kind of arrogance, which i had not seen before. >> it didn't sound like a modest guy to begin with what no, no. this is a kind of you know irrationality that culminated on inauguration day how so in the first 45 seconds he gets up he attacks pataki any tax for senate majority leader joe bruno not mentioning their names, but he said new

york has swept through much of the past decade while the rest of the world has passed us by instead, talking about us the things he wanted to do required really significant systemic chain. it required money, it required legislation, it required cooperation. and he goes after the people he needs in the first 45 seconds. that's not hyperbole so from day one, it was awful. from the first 45 seconds of day one, he was not everyone will agree with this vision and someone that support these solutions but progress. we will have they need this governor to govern. >> they don't need him to be a steamroller one year before he was dubbed client number nine spitzer had gone from the exalted sheriff of wall street to a reckless steamroller and then he after the u.s. his office to start a private war

that got its own tabloid nickname, trooper gate. what is the trooper? >> trooper gay thing was a national story because this was eliot spitzer early on because of this taunt at the inauguration, there was a combative relationship between senate majority leader joe bruno and eliot spitzer the state of new york owns a small fleet of planes and helicopters that are meant only for official use, but it was an open secret that bruno treated them like air uber without the surge fees upping the ante in the standoff between spitzer and the republican state senate leader. >> spitzer's aides instructed state troopers to surveil bruno and keep records of his air travel to use the power of the state police to go after a political rival is despicable possibly illegal. >> and undermines our democratic form of government. >> it made you realize like, oh wait this like avenging angel, this crusader that we're

talking about will do shady stop let me play devil's advocate for one second state senator burnout was abusing state aircraft was there a proper way to stop it just say no, the governor controls the aircraft so the next time, you know, bruno says, i need to go to yonkers. i need to go to buffalo. and you say no instead of the easy fix bitter had gone into attack mode, which you can do if your own record is spotless. problem was the so-called mr. clean had a lot of dirty laundry nobody has pointed to a single thing nor will they be able to that. i personally misstep, but i'm taking responsibility. >> eliot spitzer has never publicly admitted when he started soliciting sex workers nor has he said why particular event might have triggered that choice. some sources put it before his inauguration, which mike put his first year in office in a new context he was not in control. >> so i get a phone call from silver she says, let's go out

for lunch. >> and she says who is this guy? he looks like elliott but i don't know who this guy is and of course, i knew what she was talking about. and i said it's the intoxication of the moment he's full of all of this pride at getting this amazing electoral results. the man we know and love will be back soon. >> was he >> kamala harris, wednesday at nine eastern on cnn what do you talk about? the news sports a little family, gaza maybe. >> now, you don't do that, right here's another topic for you. as they get older, their risk of getting really sick from a respiratory virus, lake flu, covid-19 and rsv goes up a lot so talk to them about

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