tv [untitled] January 24, 2014 11:30am-12:01pm EST
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that's mentioned in the united states constitution representing the people of brooklyn and queens so i've had a pretty good career it as an elected official the things i care about i still care about i mean the challenges facing the middle class and those struggling to make it a challenge to find comprehensive health care for all americans these things i still care about the law i'll be looking for other ways to advance those things but i'm not sure running for office again in the future will be in the cards but do take it one day at a time. and before we get to some current is your wife still very close with she's still were invented worry. she's she's she's hillary's chief of staff to her transition whatever the you know hillary organization is now who is the one whom is secretary clinton's chief of staff do you think she's going to run. well i don't have any inside knowledge we keep kind of a fire wall in our household information like that in that i don't have any great insight i know that if hillary were to run she'd be an amazing cavity arguably the
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most qualified candidate in the history of the united states ever to run for president i know that if she does decide to run it would be great but i don't have any great insight remember you know hillary's another person that has gone from amazing achievement to amazing achievement you know being in arkansas in the first lady and then a senator i think she's entitled to breathe deeply and enjoy her for freedom from public life for these these intermediate years we sometimes lurch from one campaign to the next i think she's going to make up her mind on her own schedule if she decides to run i think sure when and if she wins i think should be a great president who's this week's time magazine is annoying doing her. well i mean look we have this tendency in american civic life to go to the next thing almost as soon as there's one election and we start talking about the next there's plenty of time for punditry there's plenty of time for predictions what i would say to you to your viewers is you know look there's plenty of stuff in here
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now we have to get to solving the many challenges that we face and that campaign two thousand and sixteen will take care of itself two thousand campaign two thousand and fourteen has even happened yet there's plenty of time and i think that if if if hillary clinton decides to run then i think that many people will support her because she's imminently qualified to give two thousand and fourteen eight incumbent senators sixteen house members have announced they're not running for reelection some see you know a brain drain others see chances of political moderation shrinking legislators leaving word zero view overall view of this congress. well we still don't have a mean the amount of retirements or not historic by by any means but i think what you are seeing is the types of people that are leaving and the reason they're leaving is the general frustration with a congress that doesn't get much done anymore i can tell you i don't miss congress very much because i turn on the c.-span or watch to watch the news there are fewer
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bills being passed in congress fewer laws being made than any time maybe in american history this the famous do nothing congress have three times as many accomplishments as this congress has and i think what you're seeing is some senior members who have who do indeed have a great deal of experience and understanding of the nuances of legislation or grill assets to our country democrat or republican alike are just finding the fact that there is a center of gravity around doing absolutely nothing in congress that is starting to control the day you know you refer to your intro to my my whimsical description of some elements of the republican party there really are large numbers of people are getting elected soley on the platform of stopping anything from happening and it used to be when i worked in congress in the eighty's when i was elected in one thousand nine hundred eight there were people who were there who whether they agreed or disagreed wanted to get things done for the american people that sentiment is left and so it's understandable why a lot of members are preferred to go home and retire rather than to continue
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wasting their time in washington. you recently have a facebook post my republican friends of do decide what to do with the tea party what could do wing what are their options which way where they go. well you know i kind of think that in campaign two thousand and twelve was the last time that kind of a an institutional republican like mitt romney would get nominated and i think that now there's so much weight behind the wing of the party that i described a moment ago that the republican party has a bit of an identity crisis and you know people say all the democrats must be gleeful to watch that having this conflict within their party but in fact is an american i want to see the republican party get back to being a party that understands that immigration reform helps business and is good for our economy that understands that having smart fiscal policy makes sense both on the revenue side and on the expenditure side that understands that
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a lot of the things we're trying to do in health care in obamacare or republican ideas about letting the marketplace try to provide as much health care as possible for people via subsidies that was a republican idea so i think the republicans have to kind of decide presidential election years is usually when they have these conversations but remember something larry it's different when i cut my teeth in politics and you've got even more experience than i there are in kind of wise men and women of a party that sit around in a in a room and say ok this is going to be a leader this one is not this is the tea party represents the center of gravity in their party but it's i believe a destructive one for the republican party. yeah baby new jersey's governor chris christie and i imagine you know him was sworn in for a second term this week we've got the bridge gate as they call it scandal out of this that get worse before it gets better. well put if you look you've got the specifics of the things which are problematic but i think that overall you know as
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someone who has was in politics for a while i can tell you that what's troubling is it seems to be whether he knew of these things or authorized them or not there does seem to be something to the idea that there's where there's smoke there's fire and that chris christie was running administration where his staffers the people that represented him felt that these were the things the boss wanted to do i can tell you the one consistent ito's in political life and is that staffs don't go off and kind of make up their own rules they try to channel what their boss would want and so it is a troubling kind of element to what chris christie's identity is and it does reinforce this idea of him as being this somewhat of a bull in a china shop in and i look it's a long way to the presidential election it's a long way even to him being up for reelection if he decides to do that and there's a lot we don't know about these scandals but it does seem to be a consistent thread of people using intimidation and underhanded tactics to do things that that that are better basically political in nature and psychologist
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friend of mine told me today and he is a political that when you work for a strong man and you do something but you think would be helpful to him you would tell him about it. well there is something to that i mean that was my reaction is well you know something like this that they were so glad for it to take the bridge gate for example there was so gleeful about what they were doing it's surprising that they didn't say to the boss say boss we want for you today a b. or c. and i don't have any in sight alex this thing is on. and it could just be that the public persona of of governor christie kind of infected the way the people around him work like they started to feel that all right we're supposed to be tough guys too and maybe that was never spoken maybe it's just a management question that that governor christie needed to reel them in and he
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never quite did these let's lose sight of the underlying things are pretty bad you know you're taking hurricane sandy relief money that many of us fought very hard to get either a citizens are advocates or elected officials and if you're really playing politics with that that's a pretty bad claim i mean we're now in a you know that's something you don't mess with and so it's very troubling if that turns out to be the case and i think that that obviously putting aside the political career of governor christie i think that there has to be a restoration of confidence among new jersey residents that everything's on the level where you would know sort of the day and age scrutiny doesn't go away those. well. yeah who doesn't go away yes and sometimes it's brought on yourself like i unfortunately did but you know it also you're reminded every day that you know there's people will remember conversations that they have people take notes people
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you know there's a record of things that go on it it's you know they. you know you threaten someone that i'm not going to withhold your your funds maybe you did it wasn't serious maybe it was something just to try to move something off the mark but it comes back it comes back to haunt you and the problem i think that governor christie has is it plays entirely into what this public perception that he had like he did cultivate this idea that i'm a no nonsense i get stuff done i you know whatever so i think it does it's easy for people to envision you know what this is a guy that took that one step too far and got a little bit out of control doing it but again i think you know you've been covering the story i think that people are going to keep getting to the bottom of it but if he i think the most likely scenario is going to turn out to be the staffers and his lieutenant governor these people are doing what they thought he want them to do which is almost as bad as him knowing about it. we'll be right back what i mean wiener and we'll talk about president barack obama what.
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the face of. economic downturn in the final months days to learn to deal sank night and the rest because i think the take it will be extremely. badly let me lean a former democratic congressman of new york a member of the house representative for six terms in an amazing new yorker profile out this week the president suggests anthony that his job approval rating may have suffered because some folks don't like the idea of having a black president but he also good seeds in some polls maybe you'd like to just
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because he's a black president what's your reaction to that. both those things are obvious and true i mean there is there is there is a structural opposition to the president since the moment he walked in the door that's visceral and angry and and maybe it exists no matter who you are but i think it's naive to believe that race plays no part of it just the same way that i'm sure that there are many people who maybe cut him extra slack on mistakes that he makes speak cause they have a sense of connection an affinity with him i don't think there's much news to the idea that there are people that did not want. obama to succeed from the very first day he got into office as a matter of fact even institutionally mitch mcconnell in one of the first speeches he gave after the election said that his singular objective was going to be to stop the president from getting reelected well he didn't succeed in doing that but it did reduce the honeymoon period to you that it would exist to down to zero in there
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was no republican cooperation all. i think there are people and you see them spewing on the internet i sometimes i get hate mail from similar types who just because of who he is makes it impossible for them to support him. probably are and this is does a lame duck president have what's his level. it's a great question i mean it you know what i have found interesting watching president obama operate is that i get the sense that he gets up every morning and says all right i'm going to get buffeted on the left by people like wiener who want me to be a purist on health care and you have buffeted on the right by the fox news of the world and i have a legislature that won't get anything done so all i can try to do is try to do everything i can to get the best deal possible for the american people every day knowing i'm not going to satisfy everyone three yards in a cloud of dust using executive powers using the bully pulpit using the challenges
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that the opportunities that present them. selves in the challenges of stalemate to kind of get little deals wherever they can but it is difficult i mean we we have a constitutional system that was set up to put many many checks to slow things down when the founding fathers were concerned about about anything they were not concerned about congress doing too little they were concerned about doing too much well now those checks are in a place that we are get very little done so a president today is the doesn't perhaps have the power that an l.b.j. had cajoling a legislature but i think that that history will will show that president obama is as tried the very best he can to get stuff done three yards and a cloud of dust and i think that some of the successes that he has manifest i think that there are going to be recognized by historians overall how do you assess him i know he's disappointed you in some areas. well look we're we're different
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types i mean. i think i would've i would have led a little bit more with my chin ideologically kind of these are the things i believe in these of the things i'm prepared to fight for like i think that if we had a conversation led by the president during health care about how medicare was created and how democrats did that and republicans had similar concerns but it turned out to be a success how so security came to pass how these things represent american values and values that he has i think it would have gotten a better outcome at the end of the day he has a much more pragmatic kind of try to carve out the scent to wherever it is approach he got elected president i did it i can say that i mean i understand the challenges he faces i was in washington i understand things aren't easy and i just i guess my can my concern for him and i mention this in my answer earlier is i think he should have been i would have liked him to kind of stake out some firmer more clearly
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ideological in the best sense of the word positions to juxtapose with the republican opposition but all of that being said everyone's got you know. ideas are like took this is everyone's got them. but the president had to figure out a way to execute and i think he's done the best he can is obamacare going to kick him well it already has there are many people that have been wondering over you know i don't have it there are many. well no i think that it is i mean what's happening is it's this the status quo is changing every day more people are getting coverage more of the challenges facing the exchanges are getting worked out you know remember something you know we talk about the challenges facing the national exchange the only reason that it is so large is because a lot of these red state governors opted out of creating their own exchanges so these challenges are working out day by day but already you've got young people that had insurance under their parents' policies never could before people preexisting conditions have coverage had never could before the the cost of health
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care in the country has leveled off dramatically more people are covered under under medicaid because of the expansion and fewer people are going uninsured into hospital emergency rooms so these things have already happened and you and i are going to be sitting here god willing in a couple of years and no one's going to talk about is obamacare going to happen it's going to be you know look we've had this success or this has worked out the way we like we've got to tweak it but just like medicare nothing happens all at once but it sure beats the alternative which was to do nothing and let the health insurance companies keep. our involved busy get in the campaigns in the coming elections in november. well i even have already said they're going to be much more involved in raising money for congressional democrats i think that president obama recognizes something i don't think he and his people really understood early on that having a democratic congress is sure better than not having one i think he's going to work hard to make sure that that that there aren't losses in the week we get some gains
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this year it's very difficult traditionally midterm elections of second of second term presidents don't generally go their way you know i happen to be elected in a similar congress i was elected in brooklyn in president clinton's second term midterm and we actually exceeded expectations and gain seats so he's going to try to do that i see so i suspect he is going to be he is going to be helpful now the way he can be most helpful is being out there at the very front lines not letting obamacare be defined by his opponents by being out there talking about the successes and talking about what we do i'm trying to educate around this issue as much as possible but i think he's going to be plenty active you said earlier you don't miss being in congress do you do you miss the whole washington scene do you miss being voting be you missed being on committee do you miss the action. you know the problem was that the action in washington as much as it was was a little bit of a kooky dance i mean you you know the many people and i have
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a great regard for many of my former colleagues a lot of them they come from all around the country you don't get there by fluke you've got to get there by really working hard and representing your neighbors but we seeing fewer and fewer people with whom you can walk up to across the aisle and say ok you believe a i believe b. let's try to figure out a way to work out an outcome that we align in there were more and more people as i said earlier who you go up and say hey i'm looking to achieve a what do you want to achieve and that's a winner we don't want anything i want this place not to move forward all i want us not to be able to pass budgets or bills because that's believe government's the enemy etc so that environment be became frankly infected everything leaders became weaker i think that speaker boehner is was one of the weaker speakers we've had and i like the man i think that he ultimately has it in his heart to try to do the right thing for the american people i think that the institution is is suffering and it's going to take a little while for a tour to recover but you know i am proud of my service there i'm proud of what was
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on you know recently a study was done by one of the capitol hill newspapers that show that more and more members of congress are moving their status out of washington back to the communities to do constituent service in case work and things like that which is still valuable services but believe me it's not the place that used to be harry truman said if you want a friend in washington get a dog when you went through or you went through. did did many disappoint you were there guys and gals that stood up with you. was there a lot of residue. no i don't i don't blame them i blame myself you know i let them down by not being honest with my friends and and by by not by by by embarrassing them by some of the things that i did in my personal life it's not their fault their you know my colleagues in washington and many of them are friends . to this day they ultimately have to try to do what they think is best for
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themselves and their constituents i don't hold them in any in any regard i can tell you when you go through a personal trial many of your viewers go to personal trials of a much more private nature you do learn who who your friends are you do learn the people that rally around you in tough times but i have no one to blame but the situation i face but myself whoa whoa fellow sophocles how much of a right do we have to do a public officials private life. well that's up to you it's not up to me i knew i knew the business i was entering into i know you live by the sword and you die by the sword but that's up for individual citizens i mean i would hear all the time all different things across the political spectrum on that question from citizens who come up to me when i ran for mayor you know everyone from saying i don't care to i'm angry at you for disappointing me to what you did was heresy. but
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that's really not for it's not for me to decide that it's when when you stand up in public life you you basically say to citizens you've got to judge for yourself both my success is in my failings i want to remind you of something that you don't need to remind me of a lot of people don't like me to. be for my stand there are a lot of you know i would go on fox news and i would have these debates on the floor and i always did i think in good spirit in the spirit of our country but you know i would always poke people on. substance the nay didn't like that so so i remember one of the earliest days of the of the mayor's campaign this summer this guy comes by was it i think it was at a. memorial day event it was a veteran going by was in a wheelchair and he sees me and says we know you're a bomb and he keeps going on like oh boy this is off to a bad start he says because you help pass obamacare you know and so i'm like ok lisa i hate me for something that i actually that i actually did in a kind of proud of but it's entirely up to citizens to make that decision is true
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there are some rumors that you may go on to television. this this represents probably the pinnacle of my television career i should retire after this appearance. nor is it true that i think should be out i'm sure that you might join new york shuttle one no there's no i don't i don't know if that's true i certainly haven't been told. look i you know as i said earlier in this discussion when you asked me whether i'd run for office again you know there's stuff i still care about and i still enjoy talking with people like like you and people still ask me for my opinion on things and i still have them. and when i'm invited to come talk about issues i am probably going to going to going to say yes from time to time but i clearly don't have a face for television but if you're in in the arena a person and i would guess that in the arena a person. wants the arena. well i don't know what
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that means it mean i do come from from the if you're not part of the solution you're part of the problem a kind of school of thought like if you can try to help to contribute to something if you have a skill if you have any insight then you should try to try to participate and we do live in a world and you're the perfect embodiment of it that you know people that have the access to have lead conversations and have them have influence i mean you know people care about your gas people care about what you have to say but you know there are other ways to be able to communicate political thoughts and besides being on the floor of congress. and i do care about outcomes like i do care about my country and i care about my city in the middle class and those struggling to make it so i will have to find a way to scratch that that it's whether it's appearing on shows like this or writing on you know my my facebook page or or volunteered to help out nonprofit
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organizations these are all ways that bad that i would like to be be involved in if my fame slash notoriety slash experience helps me influence the debate in some way i'm going to choose to do it from time to time when i'm given that opportunity you have it here thank you so much everyone for to see you when i get to new york it's been an honor thank you. i want to thank congressman anthony wiener for joining me today for my viewers out there i want to hear from you join the conversation on my facebook page and share your thoughts on twitter by pleading kids stay and using the politicking next day that's all for this week's politicking next week. as a new physician i swear to abide by the hippocratic oath. to the best of my ability
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. ukraine's president vows to do everything in his power to stop the turmoil sweeping his country announcing an amnesty for those detained in the kiev riots while. officials buildings. and as many protesters reject any negotiations with the leadership we look at the radical elements in the midst of the chaos escalate the situation then. in karo a fourth bomb goes off bringing the death toll to at least six with dozens more injured ahead of the anniversary of the two thousand and eleven uprising.
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