worked with them you know the the joke i like to tell the press is that on my inauguration day. he was there al gore and a whole slew of democratic leaders my staff told me. michael bloomberg is here. to why don't you and they said no but he's here so almost immediately started working from one coast to the other to improve our schools both. maire bloomberg and myself inherited schools that were failing for 50 years in my case one out of 3 schools are failing schools going too much better than that we work together to improve those schools dramatically our graduation rate went up by more than 40 'd percent in new york and in l.a. and he raised teachers' salaries by 40 percent we're been bears against gun violence you know crime big issue even though new york is a save big city and the safest big city it was still an issue and as it was here in

l.a. and the 2 of us worked to reduce gun violence we started an organization called mare's against gun violence worked on climate change and a whole other slew of issues what was he like to work with. you know. he's a character he's a guy who. not a guy have a lot of words if you will but he puts his money where his mouth is or does he lets his actions speak for is words and is a guy that gets things done anybody who visited new york i was with you in new york in 2014 or something. then or now i can tell you every time i go there you marvel at what a great city it is a safe city schools are better. and he did things like span did health care to a 1000000 new yorkers during the time he was mayor so those are some of the reasons

but it's not just what he's done it's what he's going to do. michael bloomberg understands that. we've got to put america back on track we've got to make sure the economy which is run in well right now is working for everyone and we've got to make sure that we're making the kinds of investments in infrastructure in education and addressing climate change so those are some of the reasons why i came on board a puts his own money and he put his own money you know what's interesting you know everybody talks about the fact that he's a billionaire 60 times over what they don't talk enough about is that he spent more the $9000000000.00 on philanthropy. on issues to reduce gun violence you know march to get march for our lives organizations like that that sprang out of the park and shooting in health care education climate change

the list goes on and on and on and. you know i worked with him when i was out of office as well. and so you know we go way back and. i could tell you he is the real deal why would we assume that he'd support joe biden. or that you would support joe biden but i think. both michael bloomberg and myself have a great deal of respect for joe biden has served our nation as a senator and vice president under the obama administration. but it's clear. that increasingly. joe biden may not. be there at the end of the day in terms of getting the nomination and michael's absolutely committed to making sure that we have a candidate that could beat donald trump if you ask democrats across the country

what's their number one issue almost everyone says be donald trump now they care about health care and as i said. michael bloomberg has a record and a plan to expand health care to reduce drug prices they care about climate change and they want to present that actually believes in science and that's willing to challenge the nation to get onboard 'd with the paris accords but at the end of the day they also want somebody worth the wherewithal the track record the plan and the resources to be donald trump and michael bloomberg is that guy what do you think control. not much. but let me let me go on because i think one of the things that michael bloomberg and i worked on together i was the chair of the democratic convention 2012 but one of the things we

worked on together was a group called no labels and basically what we were peroni in is that we're not democrats and republicans we're not just democrats or republicans we're americans and we need to put the country before the party and the label we work together on that and i can tell you that michael bloomberg said a united are at a time when we have a divider in chief who pits jews and christians against muslims says that mexicans are criminals and rape is. that people come from africa come from countries that are from the bathroom you know i don't know another way to say it without saying that word. we need we need somebody that brings us together and i don't see that as a partisan i see that as an american who believes that presidents like the shepherd brings the flock in all the flock and donald trump is not

a man. who cares to do that or has done that in the last 3 years former democratic presidential candidate julian castro who's in boston elizabeth warren says that because of his weaknesses and baggage and limburg is the closest thing we have to donald trump on the democratic side. well that's no us unfortunate that. my friend julian castro would say something like that the fact of the matter is all of the democratic candidates are far superior to donald trump again. i know michael bloomberg. i worked with him for 15 years. and i can tell you he's got a track record is a guy that believes in. an america that welcomes immigrants he's got

a great immigration plan by the way do you see any baggage well everyone of us have bring to the table you know a lifetime of experiences he's already said as an example that he's made mistakes i haven't seen some of the other candidates who've been criticized acknowledge their own mistakes he's taken responsibility and he's put forth plans that make it clear. that he's going to move in in another direction did you haven't stopped him from school no you know you know what we have in common is we both committed to reducing crime they reduced crime something like 32 percent homicides by nearly 50 we reduced crime by 49 percent but we were a lot more violent at the time and homicides by 45 percent so very comparable i can tell you. that he acknowledges that on stop and frisk you made

a mistake and over time began to reduce it dramatically and actually reduced dramatically you think carcer a shit so yes he did employ stop and frisk he's got a criminal justice plan that addresses the drug the war on drugs that addresses the fact that we put 2. many young people of color in our prisons for too long without rehabilitation without you know an ability to come back so he said we get rid of check the box you know somebody has committed a crime and served their time and in this country you serve your time usually a long time. certainly a lot longer than europe and some other countries and you know after you've done that can be able to make up a new life and come back in and redeem yourself what. kind of leader

we have no we merely runs a great company we started from scratch put all kind of leader will he be you think . i mean he surrounds himself by talent you know both of us when obama became president. donated contributed for. people that became assistant u.s. secretaries or above and i can tell you in addition to having great people around him he listens to those people he's decisive he's a guy who believes in science and the facts always evidence based and he's someone . who really believes that you have to do which is say and so i see someone who will work to put america back on track focus his efforts. to move this country ahead in

a way that brings more people in. is a can do guy is the buying the election. look. i think michael. would agree there's way too much money in our political system with our lobbyist with you know. the supreme court decision that allows gobs of money without being able to identify who gave him but it's a system that we have and you know what he's committed to do is investing in can 49 percent the team has voted to 47 percent the fastest growing part of america 54000000 now a big part of the democratic party to get them out to vote is hard you've got to work them he's got the resources to do that and he's the only candidate that's

committed to keeping all of the battleground states offices open fully staffed whether or not he's the nominee so whoever the nominee is he's going to staff those offices one of the i think the fact that he is a wealthy man is i think important to the extent that he he intends. to spend what it takes to be down drop and trying to stay right there we'll be back with more politicking right after the break.

aeroflot russian airlines. in a world of big part of a lot of things and conspiracy it's time to wake up to dig deeper to hit the stories that mainstream media refuses to tell more than ever we need to be smart we need to stop slamming the door on the bath shouting past each other it's time for critical thinking it's time to fight for the middle for the truth the time is now for watching closely watching the hawks.

aeroflot russian airlines. and the united states presidential candidates debate the future of the us and the world. max kaiser and stacy her but dig into the burning questions of this election cycle one self big every week. tax student debt trade was corporate money universal basic income and more catch up with what's front running this sunday exclusively on r.t. . bob dylan once said money doesn't talk it screams former republican new york city mayor michael bloomberg is proving this just the sheer force of lavish spending has made him a serious contender to capture the democratic nomination are we experiencing peak

travel arrangements syndrome. welcome back to politicking i'm talking with antonio via a ghost democrat of california the 1st mayor of los angeles was national co-chair of hillary clinton's 28 presidential campaign and chaired the 2012 democratic national convention early is this month he endorsed former new york mayor mike bloomberg for the oval office and he's joining us here in studio kenny when. i have no doubt in my mind that he can win look i started out as a long shot i think in january when i came on board it was something like 5 percent nationally he's 18 percent i heard. you know i turned on the t.v. this morning and heard one station after another mentioning the name michael

bloomberg i can tell you that all the candidates know who he is and i can tell you this he's committed. to working to win this race and doing what ever it takes financially to get there there is a politics why do you think campbell i was failed i mean he was a democrat of major proportions in this state what happened. you know i. i know com a lot of work with her over the years and i thought she was a great candidate i think at the end of the day. she got squeezed by the 2. 2 polars of the democratic party. she's unabashedly a progressive but she's a practical one. and i think it was unable to communicate that well enough

to a broader cross-section of americans ran out of money. and money's top you know the mother's milk of politics has jesse henry used to say and and certainly didn't help but a great candidate and i think you'll see that she'll be back maybe a vice presidential maybe a vice presidential. do you. how do you deal with the split in your party you definitely have the progressive end and then the standard middle of the world democrat 1st will they all turn out well that the other deal with it if you mention middle of the road democrat you know. when you when you look at the democratic party there's no question that there's a continuum it goes from the left to right. but it's mostly in the center and even you know all of the

candidates you know kind of. mostly in the center could be center left or left but you know close you know there's no. there aren't it's western europe standards you know not where you left here and and i think what happens is sometimes politicians identify in the head of the pin all the things that make us different i don't think there's that chasm between most of the candidates that some people argue yes there are some people that say we need to go to medicare for all all the candidates believe that we ought to expand coverage to nearly every american. you know so what happens i think is sometimes politicians like to make these demarcations that aren't as great as people think do you fear the other side stays home.

or do you think we anger a trump was so great the turnout will be by you well i think we're going to have a vigorous debate about who should lead our party and our country but after that i think we need to come together and. that didn't happen after the 2000 during the 2016 race as you know there were many. people democrats that stayed home sanders and that's part of why i believe that michael bloomberg so important he's going to make the investments some of what also happened in 2016 is we took you know groups for granted and we thought they were going to come out and vote and. oftentimes they they need more of a push if you will you need to knock on those doors talk to those voters and. bring them out to the bring them out to the polls physically in the case of some or doing of l.a. and the homeless. it makes me sad. you know i'm

a native angeleno as you know my grandpa got here a years ago a lot of problems in know in our country but to see the number of homeless think it's gone up 16 percent 60 percent why oh well you know look there are a lot of reasons i think. housing crisis is one of them i think we need to treat this 'd like an emergency and not just an urgency i hear the word urgency we need to treat it like an emergency and do things differently i'm surprised that they didn't pass legislation to make it easier to build housing particularly along transportation corps doors and create more density in places where it makes sense for too many people what makes l.a. in california a power verty center is that. wages you know

are. not commensurate to the cost of housing housing has gone up dramatically more liberal city in america it's the least affordable city and san francisco's so new york are $2.00 of the most expensive cities and so we're going to have to build more housing provide more services address the mental health crisis you know historically we've used our jails for that purpose you know we're going to have to create mental health facilities i believe we're going to have to make it. frankly. we're going to have to reduce the difficulty that we have currently to put 2 people in there in mental facilities it's almost impossible even when they're a threat to themselves and others and there's a whole panoply of services the city and county have to work even more closely than they do the good news is the people passed a measure age and a change but as i said i think the city the county the state the federal government

need to work hand in hand to address this crisis and it as i said makes me very sad . it seems a lot of folks that trump has done just about everything to alienate latino voters however 2016 exit poll analysis by pew 28 percent of latinos support trump i explain that. well they've manipulated one every community has a core of conservative. people and the tina community is not monolithic and there homogeneous there are cubans or mexicans or salvadorans and want to mallinson the list goes on and on i think they've used certain social issues like. a woman's right to choose for an abortion to divide. tino's against

the democratic party filipinos a lot catholic or a catholic or avenge aleko right and and that issue is it's probably more significant than some other communities. but i think that what we need to explain to people is they got to both their interest and not just one issue some people only vote on one issue and if they do. obviously there's not much you can do about that but i think we need to share with. the broad range of issues that affect them as a community whether it's immigration or housing or health care or education and i think on all those points whoever the democratic nominee and i hope it's michael bloomberg is far better than the republican nominee i mean what donald trump has done is you know. he's got a stranglehold on the republican party they're no longer the conservative party they're a party of deficits and debt they're a party of tax breaks for the wealthy but not for the working folks and the middle

class and they're a part of that kind of lost their moorings and and their way and i'm hoping that we'll be able to explain that and convince more latinos not just to vote democrat. and we do want them to vote democrat but also to come out and vote because that's the biggest issue with the latino community that they don't vote in the numbers and i tell people who doesn't vote the poor. the young and the less educated not 3 of those groups you know or are larger and more dominant and in that community that's changing but today that's the situation so you've got to work harder to get that vote out and that's why i'm with michael bloomberg because he's going to invest in that vote in the unprecedented way you know any moderate republicans left. i think they don't want to admit it. but yeah i think there are some left i think

some of them live in our town we know that some of them are decent people but you know when i when i hear that i'm going to vote for donald trump because the economy's good despite the fact that he's dividing the nation despite the fact that he looks lies according to the press some 7000 times plus probably a 1000 by now that article is 3 or 4 weeks old. despite the fact that he uses the judiciary. justice department as his personal lawyer instead of the people's lawyer despite all of the things that he's done. to alienate himself from our allies around the world and ingratiate himself with dictators i think there still are some republicans who. call themselves moderate and i think you know vote for him but i think if there's a candidate like michael bloomberg i think you'll see that a number of those moderate republicans are going to say i want somebody who wants to bring us together to move the country forward and bloomberg elected would you

take a post to me in the show would you move to washington well i'm i'm i'm focused focusing on getting them elected 1st. i've often said when the president united states asked you to serve your country you say when and where sir or madam. but in this case we're not anywhere close to that so all we're thinking about and all i'm thinking about is making in the nominee. and get him elected because it seems likely antonio i'm not good at this that you'd be offered something in washington if bloomberg is president well i think he'll that. i don't know about that again i'm just focused on going to. you know. campaign around the country for him and again i think it's a power you know you asked me why am i with him because i know because i worked

with him for 15 years. i think that. you know something that he wants take around because you know they say in spanish the gimmick and can and they can in this tell me who you walk with in a tell you your thank you antonia great being with you again good to be with you larry and tony of virago so we thank him for his time today we thank you for joining me on this edition of politicking maybe you can join the conversation on my facebook page or tweet me at kings things and don't forget to use the politicking hash tag and that's all for this edition of politicking.

aeroflot russian and lights. in a world of big partisan movies lot and conspiracy it's time to wake up to dig deeper to hit the stories that mainstream media refuses to tell more than ever we need to be smarter we need to stop slamming the door on the bats and shouting past each other it's time for critical thinking it's time to fight for the middle for the truth the time is now for watching closely for watching the hawks.

aeroflot russian and lights. join me every thursday on the alex simon show and i'll be speaking to guests of the world of politics small business i'm show business i'll see you then. bob dylan once said money doesn't talk its chremes former republican new york city mayor michael bloomberg is proving this just the sheer force of lobbyist spending has made him a serious contender to capture the democratic nomination are we experiencing peak trump arrangement syndrome. this whole business about blaming russia

america is getting really pathetic because here's a guy who's effectively trying to dehumanizing whole group of people slavic people of the states this is remarkably ironic coming from white like. this not pretty you know the moon it's true but it certainly is mostly. due to the new much for the group was a little bit to do with the. white english but when you're already in the eastern seaboard nobody. seems to trace a. city. that.

has turkish backed militants in the syrian army exchange fire in washington looks to calm down on damascus and its backers despite admitting it has a massive battle on its hands against terrorists in the region. bottom protests between locals and police in ukraine over the coronavirus of quarantine nationals return home from china. and a trial that threatens the fundamentals of journalism and media freedom group says the industry's future is at stake as wiki leaks founder julian assange to protest phase of possible extradition to the united states.