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David Paterson | Former Governor Unpacks the Local Headlines of the Day · Sid & Friends In The Morning

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Former Governor David Patterson, who we started talking about his
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: sleep patterns. We'll move on to something a little more interesting.
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: So I wanted to start with this race. I don't
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: know if you've been following this, Governor, but there is
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: a race in Massachusetts today, a primary. Probably the highest
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: profile race out there. I don't know if there's even
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: any other primaries today except this one in Massachusetts. But
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: it's between, for the Senate seat there, 80-year-old incumbent ed
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: markey is taking on this forty seven-year-old congressman seth moulton
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: for the democratic nomination for senate and uh... one of
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  Speaker 1: the big things that molten campaign has been trying to
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: do is talk about ed markey's ages you know eighty
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: and they say that's too old for him still to
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  Speaker 1: be a senator in washington dc would you make it.
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  Speaker 2: Happen well uh.
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  Speaker 3: it i didn't see a clip of one of the
• 0:50
  Speaker 3: debates that they had And Markey, in my opinion, sounded
• 0:55
  Speaker 3: somewhat confused. Now, that doesn't mean that he can't win
• 0:59
  Speaker 3: and it doesn't mean that he can't serve. And it
• 1:01
  Speaker 3: was just part of the actual debate. But I think
• 1:08
  Speaker 3: it's interesting. that people campaign to try to appease seniors.
• 1:15
  Speaker 3: And then when they become a senior themselves, people campaign
• 1:18
  Speaker 3: against them because they say it's too old. So I
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  Speaker 3: think that I actually think Markey will win.
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  Speaker 2: I hope so. I mean, I like the traditional guy
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  Speaker 2: versus the socialist.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, well, yeah, that's a no brainer. I mean, it
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: is interesting, though, that we have All these candidates in
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: the race, some in Congress already, who are at an
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: advanced age. And there's been so much discussion about this.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, but you look at the president, of course,
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: who turned 80 years old. He seems to have endless energy.
• 1:47
  Speaker 4: Well, he always has had endless energy. But I'm under
• 1:51
  Speaker 4: the impression that right now the Congress is the third
• 1:55
  Speaker 4: oldest Congress in U.S.
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  Speaker 2: History.
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: So is that a bad thing, David Patterson?
• 2:02
  Speaker 3: Well, you know, as long as people are healthy and
• 2:05
  Speaker 3: they're confident and, you know, they come in and they,
• 2:09
  Speaker 3: you know, we had some, when I was in the
• 2:11
  Speaker 3: state Senate, we had some people who were ancient. I mean,
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  Speaker 3: we had some people who I thought had fought in
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  Speaker 3: World War II. But they came in and when there
• 2:21
  Speaker 3: was an issue that interested them, they spoke about it.
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  Speaker 3: And I don't think it detracts from the process because
• 2:27
  Speaker 3: there's so many other people there. In other words, there
• 2:30
  Speaker 3: are 100 senators there. So if one of them can't
• 2:32
  Speaker 3: find their way to the floor sometimes, I don't see
• 2:36
  Speaker 3: that as a big deal. It's a natural process of aging.
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: Well, Congressman. I'm sorry. Governor. Could have been a senator.
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: Think about this one.
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  Speaker 1: Oh, man.
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  Speaker 4: You have Senator Chuck Grassley, who's 92 years old. You
• 2:57
  Speaker 4: have Congressmember Hal Rogers from Kentucky.
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: Who's 88.
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  Speaker 4: You know, again, when you start saying that they fought
• 3:06
  Speaker 4: in World War II, no, I think they fought in
• 3:08
  Speaker 4: the Civil War. I mean, let's be fair about it.
• 3:12
  Speaker 4: There comes a point in time that, you know, with
• 3:15
  Speaker 4: technology today and so on, I can't understand how somebody
• 3:19
  Speaker 4: like Chuck Grassley understands AI. You know, sometimes I try
• 3:23
  Speaker 4: to explain, you know, just easy things from the cell
• 3:27
  Speaker 4: phone to my folks. Has anybody seen Mitch McConnell yet?
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  Speaker 2: No.
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: No, they say he's going to be back in the
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: Senate sometime this month, but nobody's seen him. He's been MIA.
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  Speaker 3: See, I think absent the natural process of having to
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  Speaker 3: run in your own state or your own district is
• 3:48
  Speaker 3: the way you should come in and out. Even if
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: you know, nobody's seen Senator Grassley in a long time
• 3:56
  Speaker 3: and that kind of thing. You'll probably always have that
• 4:00
  Speaker 3: because there will be a few people who serve for
• 4:02
  Speaker 3: a long time. They get elected over and over again.
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  Speaker 3: But as long as they can show up and participate
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  Speaker 3: in the process, it's difficult for me. First of all,
• 4:13
  Speaker 3: if we want them to leave, how do they leave?
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  Speaker 3: We vote them out. Now, if we do anything other
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  Speaker 3: than vote them out, then I think we're tampering with
• 4:24
  Speaker 3: our own democracy.
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: Talking with former Governor David Patterson. Okay, so midterms now, what,
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: 10 weeks away? Republicans doing this interesting thing next week.
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: They're going to gather in Texas for essentially a political
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: convention that we've never seen in the midterms. Will it
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: make a lick of a difference for the Republicans come November?
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  Speaker 3: I think it will. I think it was kind of ingenious.
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  Speaker 3: Nobody ever said that the people who were running couldn't
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  Speaker 3: all get together and have a convention, and it will
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  Speaker 3: obviously get covered by the media, and it gives them
• 4:58
  Speaker 3: a chance to highlight the issues that they've been talking about,
• 5:02
  Speaker 3: that in many ways the only time they can bring
• 5:04
  Speaker 3: it to the public is if they pay for advertising
• 5:07
  Speaker 3: time and put themselves on TV. But here, I guess
• 5:11
  Speaker 3: most conventions are two or three days. This will be
• 5:13
  Speaker 3: a chance for them to really– define the difference between
• 5:17
  Speaker 3: themselves and the Democrats and totally difference between themselves and
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  Speaker 3: the socialists.
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: Well, and that's the one they're going to have to
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  Speaker 1: pound on, right? I mean, I think that's their inroad here,
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  Speaker 1: if they have any chance of winning in the midterms,
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: is talk about the democratic socialists, no?
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  Speaker 3: That's right.
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  Speaker 4: You know, but you have more than just talking about it.
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  Speaker 4: When it comes to these democratic socialists, what they have
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  Speaker 4: done is they have fractured the democratic party. Because now
• 5:47
  Speaker 4: you have, as John constantly talks about, the moderate democrat, right?
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  Speaker 4: That's the individual, that's the individual, for example, who, you know,
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  Speaker 4: that's the individual like I consider myself. then you have
• 6:02
  Speaker 4: the DSA, and then you have those that are, I
• 6:05
  Speaker 4: don't even know how to describe them. So you really
• 6:08
  Speaker 4: have three specific groups right now in the Democratic Party
• 6:14
  Speaker 4: that are all competing against one another. And I think
• 6:17
  Speaker 4: that that is actually an opportunity for Republicans. If they
• 6:22
  Speaker 4: play the game right, it's an opportunity for them to,
• 6:27
  Speaker 4: to continue to hold the House and the Senate come November.
• 6:32
  Speaker 3: I couldn't agree with you more, Michael. In the history
• 6:38
  Speaker 3: of being an observer and then becoming an elected official myself,
• 6:44
  Speaker 3: the socialists were around in the 60s and they would
• 6:47
  Speaker 3: pass out literature and it was almost like a joke
• 6:50
  Speaker 3: and they would make these claims that weren't even correct
• 6:55
  Speaker 3: and that kind of thing. And then they kind of
• 6:58
  Speaker 3: popped up a little bit in the late 80s. Same thing.
• 7:03
  Speaker 3: But I think the difference now.
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  Speaker 2: It popped up in the movie Barbra Streisand.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: Wait, which movie was that?
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: Oh, the movie The Way We Were.
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: Oh, yeah, that's right. She's handing out the pamphlets.
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: She's handing out the pamphlets in front of the Plaza Hotel.
• 7:18
  Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly. But I think the difference now is communication.
• 7:23
  Speaker 3: The ability to have podcasts, the ability to reach people
• 7:29
  Speaker 3: from all different type of electronic means. And in that respect,
• 7:36
  Speaker 3: their ability to get their message out has increased. It
• 7:44
  Speaker 3: became more interesting to people to listen to it, whether
• 7:48
  Speaker 3: they followed it or not, than it was to hear,
• 7:51
  Speaker 3: you know, see a bunch of people standing out on
• 7:53
  Speaker 3: the street passing out leaflets. But that's going to be
• 7:56
  Speaker 3: the challenge for those of us in the Democratic Party
• 8:00
  Speaker 3: who feel like there's an attempt to hijack it. And
• 8:03
  Speaker 3: it's really going to be to tell the public what
• 8:06
  Speaker 3: has happened when other socialists have won. And you don't
• 8:10
  Speaker 3: have to go any further than 90 miles away from
• 8:12
  Speaker 3: Florida to Cuba to find out what pretending that you're
• 8:16
  Speaker 3: for the people until you get into power and then
• 8:19
  Speaker 3: becoming a ruthless dictator is like.
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah, but, you know, it's been interesting here in New York.
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  Speaker 2: By the way, he mentions Cuba. Right. I had the
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: Cuban ambassador on the Sunday show. Nice guy. I like
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: the guy. He's a very decent person. But it's his
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: opportunity to allow Washington to listen to him. And I
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: don't think he offered anything that was.
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  Speaker 2: The president would listen to.
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  Speaker 1: What was he saying?
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  Speaker 2: He was just listening that they want to cooperate, but
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: they want to stay socialist. Right. I said, I think
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  Speaker 2: the president would want somebody that's going to be part
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  Speaker 2: of North America and loyal to the United States of America,
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: not loyal to, what was it called in the James
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: Bond day? Spectre.
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: Spectre.
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: Who's Spectre now? Russia, North Korea, China, Russia, Iran. Is
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: that Specter?
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: That sounds about right.
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: Hey, Governor, quick question for you.
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  Speaker 4: You think Kathy Hochul is DSA?
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  Speaker 3: No, I don't think she is. And actually, when I
• 9:28
  Speaker 3: knew her, when she was a city clerk of Buffalo,
• 9:31
  Speaker 3: she was pretty conservative and conservative. And that was one
• 9:36
  Speaker 3: of the reasons that Governor Cuomo picked her to be
• 9:39
  Speaker 3: his lieutenant governor. He wanted to cover the upstate region.
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  Speaker 3: And she was probably the best known of the people
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  Speaker 3: in those areas around Buffalo, New York. What happens sometimes,
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  Speaker 3: I think, with all of us is you... can kind
• 10:02
  Speaker 3: of exceed when you're feeling pressure. So I think to
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  Speaker 3: some degree that's happened to her. Bruce Blakeman has been
• 10:13
  Speaker 3: a very good candidate against her and has raised a
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  Speaker 3: lot of issues. If I were Bruce Blakeman, I would
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  Speaker 3: not have done the commercial with the president. They're friends.
• 10:24
  Speaker 3: That's fine. But in Democratic circles, the president lost in 2016, 2020, 2024,
• 10:34
  Speaker 3: and he will be out in 2028. But it doesn't
• 10:40
  Speaker 3: take much to get Democrats to move in a certain direction.
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  Speaker 3: And I thought that that commercial was... almost like antagonizing
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  Speaker 3: people who were watching commercials just to see which candidate
• 10:56
  Speaker 3: they would like better.
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I felt the same way because he has those
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: people supporting him already. The Trump supporters are going to
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: vote for Bruce Blakeman. He needs to run the table,
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  Speaker 1: Bruce Blakeman, in Nassau County and Westchester County. And that
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: makes it more difficult if he's standing next to President Trump.
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  Speaker 3: Exactly. Exactly.
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  Speaker 2: I know Kathy Hochul for a long time. She's a
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  Speaker 2: very decent lady. You're right. She was more conservative when
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  Speaker 2: Andrew Cuomo picked her as a lieutenant governor. But I
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: think she's being squeezed by the socialists.
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: I think you're probably right. I got one last question
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  Speaker 1: for you before we say goodbye to you, Governor Patterson.
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: I like to ask this question to you every couple
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: of years. Have you spoke to Elliot Spitzer anytime recently?
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  Speaker 3: No.
• 11:44
  Speaker 2: By the way, no, I know. Not at all. I
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: know Elliot very well.
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: Oh, you speak to him.
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: I speak to him.
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: Oh, I should actually.
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: And I want him to come on. He's the only
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: former governor that hasn't been on WABC yet.
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: Huh.
• 11:56
  Speaker 4: You know, you got to go over to Vian. That's
• 11:58
  Speaker 4: where you'll find him usually having pancakes.
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: Where? Vian.
• 12:02
  Speaker 3: I have spoken to him a few times and, uh,
• 12:05
  Speaker 3: He seems pretty happy doing what he's doing these days.
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: Well, his father left him a zillion dollars.
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: That's always makes it a whole lot easier.
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  Speaker 3: I'm sure that helped.
• 12:14
  Speaker 4: Thanks, dad.
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: And he's doing very well. He's doing very well in
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: the real estate business. And he doesn't want to say
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: anything bad about anybody because he's in the real estate business.
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: You're dependent on zoning and you're dependent on everybody loving you. Yeah.
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: Well, by the way, the last time he might've been
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: one of the last times he was on radio, I,
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: They were trying him out on WABC. This was years ago,
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: and I was playing sidekick to him for like two shows.
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: That was kind of fun.
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: Oh, I remember this.
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: Yes, he might be willing to come back and do
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: it again. It'd be fun to hear what he had
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: to say.
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: I'll call him later.
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: All right. David Patterson, former governor. I hope Elliot picks
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: up your next phone call. Thanks for coming on.
• 12:52
  Speaker 3: Thanks for having me. I had a good time with
• 12:54
  Speaker 3: you guys.
• 12:54
  Speaker 4: Great speaking to you.
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: Thank you, David.
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: Plus, follow WABC on social, on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and X.
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: See you next time for.
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: A new episode so you never have to wonder. What
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: the heck is going on here?