David Paterson, Former Governor of New York Interview

David Paterson talks to Mendte in the Morning about his decision to endorse Andrew Cuomo for Mayor of NYC.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, Andrew Cuomo is still out in front in the polls,
and now he is racking up some endorsements. First it
was Mayor Bloomberg who endorsed him, former New York City
mayor and now former Governor David Patterson is endorsing him.

(00:20):
It seems strange because David Patterson was so critical of
Andrew Cuomo in the past, but now he's willing to
put that criticism behind and make the endorsement. And David
Patterson is on the phone with us right now. Thank
you for joining us.

Speaker 2 (00:35):
Governor Larry, nice to talk to you.

Speaker 1 (00:38):
It's really good to tell me.

Speaker 2 (00:40):
Sorry, go ahead, I'm gonna say yes.

Speaker 3 (00:42):
I haven't critical of the government past, and that's how
it is in politics, you know. Right now the issue
is bigger than my criticism.

Speaker 2 (00:53):
It's the fact that.

Speaker 3 (00:56):
There seems to be some movement in the Democratic Party
toward left, like the far left. I really don't want
to see that happen. And so that's why the New
York County leader Keith Right yesterday endorsed Governor Crolmore. And
we've all known each other since we were in the twenties.

Speaker 2 (01:16):
So things get worked out.

Speaker 1 (01:19):
I understand that but the way you just phrase that
makes me believe that you think he is the better
of two evils, that you wouldn't have endorsed him except
for the threat of zorin mom Donnie. Is any of
that true?

Speaker 2 (01:36):
Well, not necessarily.

Speaker 3 (01:37):
He already governed the state for eleven years. He was
attorney general for four years. He was very active in
his father's administration as father as the state from nineteen
eighty two to nineteen ninety four, so he has a
lot of experience in those particular areas. And really I

(01:59):
would say about him is he is the most organized
public official that I've met since I went into public service.
I mean, everything he does, the three or four staff
members around and they make sure thing's happened. So his
ability to run the city is really, I think better
than any of the candidates. Where you know, he's had

(02:22):
some problems from time to time. So for instance, they
asked that I think he should have resigned in twenty
twenty after the allegations of abuse of women and misconducts,
And what I said is that at that particular time,
the true movement was roaring. So if he had stayed

(02:44):
there and not resigned, I think he'd have been skewed
by that process. But he resigns, he comes back five
years later. You know, we don't have to measure how
long one person has carried across. And he's running now.
So I think the city, just in turn of the
management of the city, will be fine with him.

Speaker 1 (03:03):
And you were criticism. You were critical at first of
his handling of nursing home patients during COVID, but you
took that back quickly, so I assume that is not
an issue to you now.

Speaker 2 (03:19):
Now. I was critical of.

Speaker 3 (03:23):
The handling of the nursing homes and I even said
to him directly, look, if you really didn't you know,
if you really didn't make some mistakes, this is a
situation that's so flammable that I think you've got to
go back and take a look at how this was managed.
To find something where you can say, I really recond've

(03:45):
done this over again. We all have our difficulties in politics,
and his is that he never says that he's wrong.
He just never says it, and it you know. So
it wasn't that I changed my position on what he did.
It was that I didn't think that he handled the

(04:07):
media well at all at that particular time, and that's
why it's dagged him for five years now. I don't
know if you remember this, hilarry, but when I got
when I became governor of the state, there are a
number of allegations against me in the first few days,
and I just got up in the things I didn't do.
I explained how I didn't do them. The things I
did do, I explained, yeah, I shouldn't have done that.

(04:30):
And I basically got rid of that kind of problem
in a couple of weeks just by being straightforward. You know,
sometimes you just have to be honest. It actually works.

Speaker 1 (04:41):
What an amazing concept because that's rarely that is rarely done. Now,
I think.

Speaker 3 (04:54):
It can be in the right place, a good political tool,
you know, you can think of you know, there were
a couple of presidents who had to get up and
say things and that they moved on and the public
supported the fact that they took responsibility.

Speaker 1 (05:11):
Yeah, no, I do wish more people would do that.
Talk about zorin Mam Donnie, because it seems like he
played into your endorsement of Cuomo. Should we be afraid
of him?

Speaker 2 (05:24):
Well, he is a young person.

Speaker 3 (05:29):
He's gotten a lot of young people involved in this campaign.
He's gotten so many young people involved that I'm a
little worried about.

Speaker 2 (05:37):
Who's going to vote in these campaigns.

Speaker 3 (05:39):
You know, the older voters tend to vote in the
general elections all the time and in the primary some
of the time. It seems to me like he's got
a pretty good army out there working for him. And
you know, he has some progressive viewpoints that I might
not agree with, but I guess I could live with
if he was mayor. But again, here's a man who

(06:00):
goes to the last debate and doesn't think about the
fact that they're going to ask him does he support
the fact that Israel is a Jewish state? When they
ask him the question, he said something like it was
an equal rights state. I thought it was in a
constitutional law class when he said that, And then they
asked him the question the second time and he still

(06:21):
couldn't answer it. So what it kind of shows is
that even for the points of view that he avows
so much, he's kind of like a mile wide and
an inch deep because he doesn't seem to be able
to sustain his arguments when they're challenged.

Speaker 1 (06:39):
Yeah, maybe he just needs some more experience. But thank
you so much for spending some time with this, Governor.
I do appreciate it, and it's wonderful. I'm still stunned
that we had a politician that actually admits when they
make mistakes. Where is that God that's not around anymore?

Speaker 3 (06:56):
David, Yeah, it was so it was so profound. David
Letterman did a skit on it.

Speaker 2 (07:04):
Yeah, this was my fault. That was my fault.

Speaker 3 (07:06):
And then they said, and what about the assassination of
John F. Kennedy? And I said, and they showed me
for real things. Yes, I have to admit I had.

Speaker 1 (07:15):
Oh no, no.

Speaker 2 (07:17):
It was the greatest TV skit I've ever seen. It
was about me.

Speaker 1 (07:22):
Thanks so much, Governor. I hope to talk to you
again soon. David Patterson, former governor of New York