Latest / Mic Drop Comedy / Mayor Aftab Pureval - Leading Cincinnati with a Politics of Understanding _ The Daily Show

Transcript

Mayor Aftab Pureval - Leading Cincinnati with a Politics of Understanding _ The Daily Show · Mic Drop Comedy

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Thanks for coming on the show.
• 0:01
  Speaker 2: Oh, it's my pleasure. My pleasure. This is very exciting.
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Thank you. I'm sorry it couldn't be Jon Stewart.
• 0:05
  Speaker 2: No, no, this is even better. A couple of Asians
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: on national television. Let's go.
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: I don't know if you know this, but you are
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: not white.
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: That's a newsflash. Thank you.
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: Newsflash, you're not a white guy. Yeah. And you are
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: mayor in a city that's extremely red.
• 0:27
  Speaker 3: The state is red. My city is bright blue. We
• 0:31
  Speaker 3: are very much a democratic city.
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: Right, but how did you do that? is a very
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: important question. No, seriously, how did you do that?
• 0:46
  Speaker 3: Well, look, it is really the honor of my life
• 0:50
  Speaker 3: to be mayor of Cincinnati. And the fact that Cincinnati
• 0:53
  Speaker 3: voters gave me a chance, I think, really reflects the
• 0:56
  Speaker 3: values and priorities of my beloved city.
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: Ronny, I know that you're a coastal Asian, but.
• 1:05
  Speaker 3: But we are very proud to be Cincinnati's proud to
• 1:08
  Speaker 3: be the destination for the Underground Railroad the same city
• 1:11
  Speaker 3: of Harriet Beecher Stowe the same city of Reforming our
• 1:17
  Speaker 3: problem-solving oriented policing.
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: Okay We get it, Cincinnati's awesome, blah blah blah. It
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: is awesome. Okay, yeah, great.
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: Have you been to Cincinnati?
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: I've been there many times, we talk about it, I
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: do shows all the time. You have. I'm not even
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: saying this, surprisingly great city.
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: Thank you. Surprisingly, I can expect it.
• 1:34
  Speaker 3: I'm gonna ignore the surprisingly and I'm just gonna focus.
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: On great city. Sure, focus on the positive. I went there,
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: I was at low expectations, I was like, this is
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: gonna be bullshit, and then I went there, and it
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: was beautiful, it was clean, people were super friendly, it
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: was clean. I was like, what's going on here? Who's
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: in charge of this?
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: And then I find out it's this guy.
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: And I'm like, nah.
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: How did you do it?
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: Can you answer the question? We get it.
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: It's good.
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: How did you, a non-white guy, despite your best efforts,
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: you're not white, how did you convince these white people
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: to let you run this city.
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: Yeah, look, there's no secret. Just hard work.
• 2:17
  Speaker 3: Going to voters, knocking on their door, asking what the
• 2:20
  Speaker 3: mayor or the city can do to improve their lives.
• 2:22
  Speaker 3: And over and over again, we heard issues around public safety,
• 2:26
  Speaker 3: around housing, around affording grocery and health care costs. And
• 2:31
  Speaker 3: our first term, we're really focused on that. We invested
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: a million dollars to wipe out medical debt for over 100,000 people.
• 2:39
  Speaker 3: A third of the city, Ronnie, has now been relieved
• 2:42
  Speaker 3: of their medical debt. We tripled affordable housing.
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: Yeah, but that's... Half of Ohio issue for some reason. Look,
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: that's after you got into office. How did you... First
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: of all, what kind of non-white are you, specifically?
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah, thank you. I am half Tibetan and half Indian.
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: Okay. Yeah.
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: Okay, so... So first and foremost, how.
• 3:11
  Speaker 3: I won is being in this country, which I put
• 3:15
  Speaker 3: entirely the courage, the risk to move to this country
• 3:20
  Speaker 3: at my parents. And I'm very proud of the fact
• 3:23
  Speaker 3: that I'm the son of a refugee. My mom is from.
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: My mom.
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: Ronnie, my mom's in the audience, so let's keep it.
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: Where's your mom?
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: Let's keep it PG.
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: Stop. Stop with this unearned love fest. I don't know
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: what the this guy has done yet, okay? Hello, auntie, amitofo.
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: But look, look, look, look.
• 4:02
  Speaker 3: The reason that we were able to be successful is
• 4:06
  Speaker 3: part of the reason why my parents came here. As
• 4:08
  Speaker 3: I mentioned, my mom grew up in a refugee camp
• 4:11
  Speaker 3: in southern India. She met my Punjabi father, because against
• 4:14
  Speaker 3: all odds, she got an education.
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: They got married.
• 4:16
  Speaker 3: And of all places, in 1980, they moved to Beaver Creek, Ohio.
• 4:22
  Speaker 3: And so what I learned as an American, particularly in
• 4:26
  Speaker 3: a place like Beaver Creek, Ohio, where I'm half Tibetan
• 4:29
  Speaker 3: and half Indian, was empathy, being able to connect with
• 4:33
  Speaker 3: people and put myself in their shoes, yes, to make
• 4:35
  Speaker 3: them comfortable with me, but also for me to get
• 4:38
  Speaker 3: comfortable with them and understand their issues. I really do
• 4:41
  Speaker 3: think that that has been part of the secret to
• 4:43
  Speaker 3: our success of actually listening to folks and really providing
• 4:48
  Speaker 3: results for their challenges.
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: I understand. Listening to folks, OK, blah, blah, blah. We
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: get it. OK. I'm just saying that, yes, you are
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: incredibly good looking. So you listen to people, blah, blah, blah.
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: I'm just saying that this is a very divisive time.
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: And you're running as a, you're not a white person,
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: and you are presumably a little bit progressive, which I'm
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: stereotyping based on your political affiliation, in this time when
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: the Democratic brand is very toxic.
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah.
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: Kind of this progressive stuff is very toxic in the
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: middle of the country. So how did you get elected?
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: How did you convince these white people to get you
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: in charge? And don't tell me about.
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: Your mom, okay?
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: Your mom... I get your mom's... Your parents are awesome, blah, blah, blah.
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: They are awesome.
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: Okay, they are awesome. For the record, they are awesome. Hello, auntie. Amitofo.
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: Thank you. She's... I know. Give me... I think it's
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: important because you are, again, how did you convince these
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: people to get on board with what you're trying to do?
• 5:57
  Speaker 3: Yeah, again, the only answer I have for you is
• 6:01
  Speaker 3: politics is about empathy, particularly at the local level. You
• 6:04
  Speaker 3: probably have 30 seconds or a minute in front of someone,
• 6:08
  Speaker 3: and you're probably never going to see them again. You
• 6:10
  Speaker 3: probably don't have the resources to get on TV and
• 6:12
  Speaker 3: have a big campaign, and so this time in front
• 6:15
  Speaker 3: of that person is critically important. And in order to
• 6:18
  Speaker 3: earn that person's vote, in a very short amount of time,
• 6:20
  Speaker 3: you have to convince them that you understand their issues,
• 6:24
  Speaker 3: that you're passionate about their issues, and that you're going
• 6:26
  Speaker 3: to fight like hell to fight for the things that
• 6:29
  Speaker 3: they care about.
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: We have been successful in doing that. Not just.
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: Not just through rhetoric, but also through actually delivering results.
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: And that's the difference.
• 6:41
  Speaker 3: I know that you guys are more focused on the
• 6:42
  Speaker 3: federal level, but that's the difference between federal politics and
• 6:46
  Speaker 3: local politics. That federal nonsense doesn't work at the local level.
• 6:49
  Speaker 3: You can't just run for office and blame other people
• 6:52
  Speaker 3: for the issues. You can't just spin and obfuscate your
• 6:55
  Speaker 3: way out of these problems. When you're mayor, if there's
• 6:57
  Speaker 3: a mass shooting in my city, if I hold a
• 7:01
  Speaker 3: press conference or give a speech or hold a hearing,
• 7:04
  Speaker 3: people are gonna think, what is wrong with you? They
• 7:06
  Speaker 3: expect their mayor to go after the bad guys, put
• 7:09
  Speaker 3: them in jail, hold them accountable, and make sure that
• 7:11
  Speaker 3: that doesn't happen again. This nonsense at the federal level
• 7:14
  Speaker 3: doesn't work locally, and we understand that in Cincinnati and
• 7:17
  Speaker 3: are delivering for our citizens.
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: Okay, that's cool. So, for the idiots at home, I
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: know the answer to this, but just so you could
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: educate the people at home, what exactly does a mayor do?
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: What does a mayor do? We all think we know,
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: but nobody actually could tell me what the f *
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: * * a mayor actually is supposed to do. So
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: if you could just explain what the mayor of Cincinnati.
• 7:44
  Speaker 3: Yeah, first it's important to understand that it's a real job.
• 7:47
  Speaker 3: The mayor is responsible for running the city, right?
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: Nobody believes that! Nobody believes that!
• 7:53
  Speaker 3: But people believe that if you turn on the water
• 7:56
  Speaker 3: and it's too dirty to drink.
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: Mm-hmm.
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: People believe that if you call 911 and no one
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: shows up.
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: So that's you.
• 8:01
  Speaker 3: People believe that if you don't plow the snow or
• 8:04
  Speaker 3: if you don't pick up the trash, all of that
• 8:06
  Speaker 3: gets done because of city services, the 6,000 public servants
• 8:10
  Speaker 3: that work for the city that make sure that it
• 8:12
  Speaker 3: runs on a very elemental level. So, of course, the
• 8:15
  Speaker 3: mayor is leading that, but there's also an important aspect
• 8:19
  Speaker 3: of the job where you're the moral voice for your city.
• 8:22
  Speaker 3: When things are going well for your city... It's your
• 8:25
  Speaker 3: job to.
• 8:25
  Speaker 2: Encourage and build a coalition to make sure that that
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: continues and to share credit.
• 8:30
  Speaker 3: When things are going poorly, it's on you. You're the
• 8:33
  Speaker 3: one that takes responsibility. You own it to try and
• 8:36
  Speaker 3: fix it. That is the difference, in my view, between
• 8:40
  Speaker 3: mayoral leadership and what's happening at the federal level. Mayors
• 8:43
  Speaker 3: don't have the luxury to avoid hard issues. We have
• 8:46
  Speaker 3: to deal with the difficult issues in front of us
• 8:49
  Speaker 3: and deliver results for our citizens.
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: Okay, so let's talk about dealing with real issues. He
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: said nothing. He said nothing. You guys are so gullible.
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: You guys are so gullible. Let me ask. Let's be nice.
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: It's important to be nice and do good stuff. That's
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: all he said. Let's talk about real stuff. You talked
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: about solutions. Let's talk about housing. Housing in Cincinnati.
• 9:15
  Speaker 3: When we got into office, we unfortunately didn't have a
• 9:18
  Speaker 3: housing strategy in Cincinnati. As a result, our home prices
• 9:22
  Speaker 3: and housing costs have gone through the roof. In fact,
• 9:25
  Speaker 3: Redfin does a national survey almost every year, and Cincinnati
• 9:28
  Speaker 3: is often at the top of that list for percentage
• 9:31
  Speaker 3: of rent increases year over year.
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: The good news is we're.
• 9:34
  Speaker 3: Growing as a city, so more people are coming to Cincinnati.
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: So indication that the city is getting better when the
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: rent increases?
• 9:40
  Speaker 3: So the good news is because the population is growing,
• 9:44
  Speaker 3: that means we have the resources to do the big
• 9:46
  Speaker 3: things that we want to do. But the challenge is
• 9:48
  Speaker 3: our housing stock, at the same time as that population increase,
• 9:52
  Speaker 3: you'd expect it to go up proportionally It's the worst
• 9:55
  Speaker 3: case scenario where we've actually lost housing stock at that time.
• 9:58
  Speaker 3: So there are more people living in my city and
• 10:00
  Speaker 3: fewer houses for them to live in. So we have
• 10:02
  Speaker 3: to do hard things like preserve the housing that we
• 10:05
  Speaker 3: have and build new housing.
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so what are you doing about it?
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: We're building new housing.
• 10:10
  Speaker 3: So we have rezoned our city, the first city in
• 10:14
  Speaker 3: the state of Ohio to comprehensively rezone our city to
• 10:17
  Speaker 3: legalize housing, to legalize duplexes and triplexes and quads, row
• 10:22
  Speaker 3: homes and townhomes, which are naturally more affordable. In addition
• 10:26
  Speaker 3: to that, we put over $ 100 million into our affordable
• 10:29
  Speaker 3: housing trust fund and have tripled the rate of affordable
• 10:31
  Speaker 3: housing construction in our time in office.
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: So is this as simple as just deregulating? Because this
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: is kind of the abundance Ezra Klein theory right now. Yeah.
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: Democrats are too, there's too much regulation, well-intentioned or not,
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: and we can't get stuff done on the ground because
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: of all this stuff that's happening. So is this part
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: of that, or?
• 10:49
  Speaker 3: This is absolutely part of it, and that's why mayors
• 10:52
  Speaker 3: are the one leading the charge, because in American politics,
• 10:55
  Speaker 3: there really are three parties, Republicans, Democrats, and mayors. Mayors
• 10:58
  Speaker 3: don't care if your idea is conservative or liberal as
• 11:02
  Speaker 3: long as it's effective. And what we do have is
• 11:05
  Speaker 3: over-regulation of housing construction, particularly with zoning.
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: Look, zoning is incredibly exclusionary in a lot of the country.
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: It's also incredibly boring. It's so boring.
• 11:16
  Speaker 3: Look, you were asking earlier how we get elected and
• 11:20
  Speaker 3: how we actually deliver results, and now.
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: I'm explaining it to you, and you're still yelling at me.
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: No, I'm not. No, no, no. No, I'm empathizing with you.
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: You know, I'm saying that it's a boring subject, so
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: to get people to care about it is tough. I'm
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: empathizing with you. I'm not yelling.
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: This is how I talk normally. That's how you talk?
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: Fair enough.
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: Thank you for letting me know.
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: I didn't know that.
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: So how the are you going to fix it?
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: But here's the thing. But here's the thing. It's not boring.
• 11:49
  Speaker 3: Zoning is incredibly controversial in communities because people have this
• 11:53
  Speaker 3: idea that you want to build like a skyscraper on
• 11:55
  Speaker 3: their residential cul-de-sac.
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: And that's why zoning is so exclusionary.
• 12:00
  Speaker 3: A majority of Cincinnati neighborhoods were zoned single family exclusive,
• 12:04
  Speaker 3: detached single family exclusive. which, in another way to put it,
• 12:07
  Speaker 3: were zoned for the most expensive type of housing.
• 12:10
  Speaker 2: You could not.
• 12:10
  Speaker 3: Live in most of these neighborhoods unless you could afford
• 12:13
  Speaker 3: a detached single-family house. And 50 years of that has
• 12:16
  Speaker 3: led to a city that has concentrations of poverty and
• 12:20
  Speaker 3: is far too segregated. This is not just a housing
• 12:23
  Speaker 3: problem that we're trying to fix. This is a problem
• 12:26
  Speaker 3: of how we grow as a city, how we design
• 12:29
  Speaker 3: our cities in order to be diverse, be multi-ethnic, be
• 12:32
  Speaker 3: dense and walkable.
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: So I know there's no one-sentence answer to this, but
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: essentially you're deregulating it so it's easier to rezone things.
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: Is that what you're doing?
• 12:40
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yes, that is part of it. Is it working? Yes,
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: we are.
• 12:44
  Speaker 3: We've tripled affordable housing construction in the time we've been
• 12:47
  Speaker 3: in office. But it's not just... I mean, if you
• 12:49
  Speaker 3: really want to talk about it, zoning is part of it.
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: But that's not going to.
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: I really don't want to talk about it. That's not
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: going to.
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: I want to talk about it.
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: I know you do, but I think the other point
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: I want to get to is you clearly have solutions
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: and they're working with the zoning. The other thing with
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: these problems is that... I mean, what I read in
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: your fake briefing notes that you gave me, I don't even... No,
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: I'm joking, you didn't give me, in my own research,
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: it's that this zoning issue that you essentially got started
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: with in your first term, and it led into your
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: second term, and you kind of saw results in your
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: second term. So I want to bring this to a
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: more broader issue in politics in general, in democracies, is
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: that sometimes, the solutions take more than a term. And
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: you have to be comfortable with either someone else getting
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: the credit for it or running for reelection before the
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: solutions kick in that people can feel it. So how
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: do you square that circle?
• 13:43
  Speaker 3: You've put your finger on a really interesting challenge for
• 13:46
  Speaker 3: modern politics because people really want solutions right now. They
• 13:49
  Speaker 3: want their rent stabilized. They want their health care costs
• 13:53
  Speaker 3: pushed down and made more affordable immediately. And at the
• 13:56
  Speaker 3: local level in particular, it's not that easy. There's no
• 13:59
  Speaker 3: secret button to push to fix all of these things.
• 14:01
  Speaker 3: It takes dedicated public servants, particularly at the local level,
• 14:05
  Speaker 3: to have those hard conversations and iteratively work to reform systems,
• 14:11
  Speaker 3: which over time will deliver big results. But at the
• 14:13
  Speaker 3: same time, you've gotta be focused on the quick wins
• 14:17
  Speaker 3: that you can do, like relieving a third of the
• 14:19
  Speaker 3: city of medical debt, or the baby bonds program that
• 14:23
  Speaker 3: we've started to send more kids to higher education or
• 14:26
  Speaker 3: to a trade school.
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: Okay, so if the solutions are so easy, why didn't
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: the other guy do it?
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: Which guy?
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: I don't know. Whoever the guy before you was.
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: Oh, gotcha. You know, he tried.
• 14:40
  Speaker 3: Look, generational challenges with poverty and gun violence take time.
• 14:45
  Speaker 3: They take courage, and it's important to lean into innovative
• 14:49
  Speaker 3: solutions like zoning reform that have that have been ignored
• 14:53
  Speaker 3: for too long because they were too hard and controversial.
• 14:56
  Speaker 3: But look, what I love about being mayor is I'm
• 14:58
  Speaker 3: the one person in our government that's not focused on
• 15:01
  Speaker 3: two or four years or reelection, but what are the
• 15:03
  Speaker 3: decisions I'm making right now as mayor that's gonna impact
• 15:07
  Speaker 3: the city for the next two generations? That's what we're
• 15:10
  Speaker 3: focused on and that's why we're changing at the systems
• 15:12
  Speaker 3: level to unlock some of this abundance and growth.
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: Like what do you mean systems level?
• 15:16
  Speaker 2: So rezoning is a systems level.
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: Okay, okay, let's not talk about that. But I guess
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: I'm very interested in like, I'm such a political history nerd.
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: And we admire these statesmen in politics. And I'm always
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: interested in that dynamic between the fight between being a
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: statesman and being a politician. And the way it was
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: defined to me was a statesman is someone who thinks
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: in generations as a leader. And a politician is someone
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: who thinks in election cycles. And so in America, You're
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: trying to be a good leader, but you gotta get
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: elected to do your next thing for the next term,
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: to continue the plan. So how do you square that circle?
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: But I think that's good, right?
• 15:58
  Speaker 3: Because we can't have just high-minded people thinking about 100
• 16:02
  Speaker 3: years from now when people can't afford their rent and
• 16:04
  Speaker 3: are getting evicted, or when we have just massive wealth
• 16:07
  Speaker 3: disparities in our country. We also need to be focusing
• 16:11
  Speaker 3: on acute challenges on the ground level. And that's why mayors,
• 16:15
  Speaker 3: I think, are uniquely positioned to do that, particularly when
• 16:18
  Speaker 3: we see the toxicity at the federal level Mayors don't
• 16:22
  Speaker 3: have the luxury of being in silos and only talking
• 16:24
  Speaker 3: to people who they agree with. I have to build
• 16:28
  Speaker 3: broad coalitions across the city in order to get things done,
• 16:31
  Speaker 3: not just at the statesman level, that's generational thinking, which
• 16:35
  Speaker 3: is important, but also to drive results for the people
• 16:38
  Speaker 3: living in my city who need help.
• 16:40
  Speaker 2: Right now, that's the fundamental balance. It's not an either or.
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: Sure, you're talking about practical bipartisanship in a lot of situations.
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: So you're the man on the ground in Ohio right now.
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: You are seeing the elections play out, local elections, hyper-local elections.
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: What is the vibe on the ground as an actual
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: human on the internet and not in the comments section.
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: So what are the people like there? What's the vibe?
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: Is there like a sense of there's conservatives and then
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: there's MAGA people? Are they the same? Are the MAGA
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: people disillusioned? What is your vibe of the middle of
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: the country?
• 17:18
  Speaker 3: I think regardless of your political affiliation, people are angry.
• 17:21
  Speaker 3: They're angry with the political establishment. They're angry that these
• 17:26
  Speaker 3: same challenges continue to face their families? I mean, look,
• 17:29
  Speaker 3: if you're in organized labor and your grandfather was in
• 17:33
  Speaker 3: a union, it's three generations later and you're still on
• 17:37
  Speaker 3: the edges of our economy, you would be pissed off
• 17:39
  Speaker 3: too and looking for something to change. I think a
• 17:42
  Speaker 3: lot of what we're seeing in our politics right now
• 17:45
  Speaker 3: are people who are fed up with the same old
• 17:48
  Speaker 3: politicians and the same faces going to DC every year
• 17:52
  Speaker 3: with the same solutions. And so people are fed up,
• 17:55
  Speaker 3: which is why I'm so excited about the state of
• 17:57
  Speaker 3: Ohio this year, because we have two extraordinary candidates running
• 18:01
  Speaker 3: for both U.S. Senate and the governor. Sherrod Brown for
• 18:04
  Speaker 3: Senate and Dr. Acton will be our next governor in
• 18:07
  Speaker 3: the state of Ohio. And that's.
• 18:14
  Speaker 2: A huge, huge opportunity.
• 18:15
  Speaker 3: How are you so popular when you disdain your audience
• 18:19
  Speaker 3: so much?
• 18:19
  Speaker 2: You could never be mayor. That doesn't work.
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: Good. Thank you. Yeah. I'll have you know the audience
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: finds my disdain for them surprisingly charming. Yeah, they do.
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: They do. Have these people... Dude, have these people... Have
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: these people come from a cruise ship round the corner.
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: They're not even American. Really? Yeah. They're here for the
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: World Cup, there's no game today, they came to this.
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: They don't even know what Cincinnati is and they're wondering
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: why two Asians are talking on camera. So you're talking
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: about there's anger on the ground, okay? No shit, I
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: think that's pretty obvious.
• 18:56
  Speaker 2: You asked the question.
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: I know. I'm just saying it's a pretty obvious point. OK,
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: so you're confirming the vibe. The vibe is that there's
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: anger on the ground. We're not imagining it in our
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: coastal elite cities, the greatest city in the world, New
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: York City. We're not imagining the anger that's happening. So
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: how do you bridge that gap, I guess?
• 19:13
  Speaker 2: By meeting them where they are.
• 19:15
  Speaker 3: I mean, you know, I'm as frustrated with the Democratic
• 19:19
  Speaker 3: establishment as anybody else.
• 19:20
  Speaker 2: I mean, you know, 2024 better be a wake-up call
• 19:23
  Speaker 2: to us.
• 19:24
  Speaker 3: We lost to Donald Trump again, and we did it
• 19:27
  Speaker 3: because the Democratic Party establishment failed the American people by
• 19:31
  Speaker 3: running the same kinds of candidates over and over again
• 19:34
  Speaker 3: and focusing on the wrong things, like wealthy donors, rather
• 19:37
  Speaker 3: than everyday American citizens like the ones in my city.
• 19:42
  Speaker 3: And look, your previous your previous segment did uh i
• 19:50
  Speaker 3: think a really good job of talking about one of
• 19:52
  Speaker 3: the fundamental problems in our institutions and that is there
• 19:56
  Speaker 3: are way too many old people at these.
• 19:58
  Speaker 2: Top levels that's true that's true good.
• 20:03
  Speaker 3: And look, it's because, substantively, they are so far removed
• 20:07
  Speaker 3: from what's happening on the ground in cities like mine.
• 20:10
  Speaker 2: Look, 50 years ago, median.
• 20:12
  Speaker 3: Home prices in Cincinnati was $ 40, 000, and it constituted a
• 20:16
  Speaker 3: fraction of your income. Now it's $ 400, 000. And it's a
• 20:20
  Speaker 3: huge portion of your income. So it's no wonder that
• 20:23
  Speaker 3: young people and vulnerable communities no longer believe that the
• 20:27
  Speaker 3: American dream applies to them.
• 20:28
  Speaker 2: They don't think they're going to be able to afford
• 20:30
  Speaker 2: a home or a car. And we need elected officials
• 20:33
  Speaker 2: who are a new generation of leadership, who are closer
• 20:36
  Speaker 2: to these issues.
• 20:38
  Speaker 3: When you're that old, you're just so far removed from it.
• 20:44
  Speaker 3: And so I think we need age limits for both
• 20:46
  Speaker 3: Congress and the Supreme Court.
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: I'm late to this game. I've been shitting on old
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: people for almost 15 years now, okay? I was way
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: ahead of these old people shitting on me. I'm with
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: you completely. Well, anyway. Yeah, well, thanks for coming on
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: the show.
• 21:07
  Speaker 2: Thank you for running a great city.
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: Thank you for representing in a local level and national level.
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: I really appreciate it. Everybody, it's Cincinnati Mayor Aftab Hiromu.