Mayoral candidates for
New York City Mayor leave much to
be desired especially when it
comes to important issues like
affordable housing.
In fact, recently
during a New York Times interview,
several of the candidates were
asked about the cost, the median
cost of housing in Brooklyn.
And two of them appeared to be so
out of touch that it'll make your
head explode especially when you
consider the fact that one of them
was employed within
the Obama administration in HUD.
Person tasked with dealing with
housing so that person is
Shaun Donovan who served as
the Housing and Urban Development
secretary and budget director under
former President Obama.
And as housing Commissioner under
former New York Mayor Michael
Bloomberg, guess the median sale
price for a home or apartment in
Brooklyn is around $100,000.
>> Look, I give credit to
the reporter here.
I think it was New York Times
right? >> New York Times did
this interview.
[CROSSTALK] She asked what is
the average price for medium price?
So they said real number right here
now, I would have been like if I
didn't know the answer,
I would have said like, wait,
are we talking about two bedroom,
four bedroom?
What are we talking about? Right?
And some of them did kind of ask
for clarification, the median price
for a home in Brooklyn.
He gets a hundred thousand
in Brooklyn.
A hundred thousand, you think you
can buy a home in Brooklyn for
$100,000 and you were the head of
Housing and Urban Development?
Now look, this betray,
this is not about housing.
It is and it isn't, but
it's more about how clueless
the people in power are, >> Yes.
>> And how little they care.
>> Yeah, because look, when it
comes to the topic of housing,
as we've talked about on multiple
occasions on the show,
it's a problem that has many
different factors at play.
You have private investment firms,
private equity firms, I should say,
basically buying up residential
property and
converting it into rentals.
You have foreign oligarchs looking
for places to park their money so
they'll park it in US real estate
which prices, average Americans out
of the market.
You have developers getting rid of
rent controlled buildings and
constructing insanely expensive
condominiums and apartment and
apartments in its place.
Like there's so many different
things happening simultaneously.
And I've always wondered like,
are they looking at solutions for
these individual problems?
And we're talking about someone who
served as the Secretary for
Housing and Urban Development under
the Obama administration.
Which is probably why under
the Obama administration housing
prices began to explode to
the point where ordinary people
couldn't afford them.
But Donovan's press secretary tried
to clean up this mess and
said quote, he had
been volunteering on a complex
housing assessment lawsuit.
>> Sure >> And
just got the numbers mixed up,
Jack?
>> Of course, of course he did.
>> Sean says he's a housing nerd.
[LAUGH].
>> He's a housing nerd everybody.
>> And a public servant.
[LAUGH] >> Who was
dedicated 30 years to not
knowing anything about housing.
[LAUGH] Okay, right.
>> Unbelievable.
>> If you're listening rather than
watching, that's the rest of
the quote is that because he
doesn't know anything about housing
of course he said public servants
30 years of serving people about
housing blah, blah, blah, no look,
hey, I was close it was 120,000 and
I said 100,000 I
got the numbers mixed up.
Or I said,
10,000 it's obviously not 10,000 I
meant another number, right?
>> Yeah >> Okay.
No, don't come at us with a gut,
all right.
>> It's worse.
>> Well, when he said 100,000,
what did he mean?
You said he got the numbers mixed
up, which number did he mean?
Nope, you're not going to give that
number because he didn't know.
>> He was working on a complex
lawsuits.
So we had all these the housing
nerd had a bunch of numbers like
floating around in his head.
>> He's such a housing nerd.
>> But hold on by the way he's not
even the worst offender like that's
already bad enough.
By the way median price of a home
$900,000 in Brooklyn.
$900,000 not even close.
He wasn't even close, but he's not
the only one who had a bad answer.
Then you have Ray McGuire,
an investment banker, I'm sure he's
very in touch investment banker
and former city group executive
estimated the median sales price is
somewhere in between $80,000 to
$90,000.
>> He did $90,000,
$80,000 you're going to find a home
in Brooklyn for $80,000.
>> No, it's insane.
>> No, that.
>> Its median price,
which means like you take all of
the housing prices right and
you pick what's the middle price.
Which means that he's under
the impression that there's
housing that costs
far less than 80 to $90,000.
>> Now guys, so
let's get to the main point here.
These what are their bankers who
usually just legally bribe our
politicians through their packs and
stuff and then are considered
demigods by people like Obama.
They say well I'll just fill my
cabinet full of bankers and
by the way, Trump also filled this
cabinet full of bankers because
they really know what's going on.
Does it sound like he knows
what's going on?
>> Finger on the pulse Jack,
finger on the pulse?
>> Yeah.
[LAUGH]. >> No, they just it's
the powerful doing,
I can't say circle what you
know what right playing paddy play
with each other, okay, dudukla.
>> Why couldn't you afford a house?
Why are you unhoused?
Don't you have the 80 to $90,000 to
buy a home in Brooklyn?
>> [LAUGH] Dudukla,
I dropped on one I didn't pick.
>> because I don't know why they're
not on bet, they're being lazy.
That's what they are.
They're lazy.
That's why they can't afford to
$80,000, which is what I spent on
lunch yesterday, ho ho ho ho.
[LAUGH].
>> Okay, these people that those
who are running for mayor of
New York, they don't want to have
a clue about what's happening in
New York to real people, right?
What is a banking executive that
who's I'm sure if he had his
ass kissed by democrats and
republicans his whole life and
was told that he's a genius, right?
He's master of the universe.
And so he hasn't met a real person
in decades probably all he ever
meets is people like him unbearable
snobs who all have more money.
They probably don't even know what
they paid for their own house.
[LAUGH] Okay,
that's probably an exaggeration,
but he figured out,
hey, I paid four or
510 million right in the Hampton's.
I don't know what regular people
pay I guess they pay a lot less.
I don't want to they pay 80,000
What do the people do?
Right? But to me
Donovan's way worse.
>> Yes. >> If you noticed,
before he worked for Obama,
he worked for Bloomberg.
But Obama hired him.
Because what difference does
it make.
>> Right. >> Like, out of touch,
right wing, Bloomberg.
Obama thinks that's my boy.
That's my guy.
If you work for Bloomberg,
you must be so smart.
I'll hire you.
You must be a real housing nerd.
[CROSSTALK].
>> Yeah. >> Guys,
I can't describe to you what, like
if you don't know anything about
housing, right.
How absurd that answer is,
because that says it like, and
by the way,
give me further context.
I'm the guy who defends politicians
on both sides that I don't
even agree with when they do gotcha
questions like what's how much is
a gallon of milk costs?
Right? Well the deuce enjoyed
the the famous example is George H.
W. Bush.
We all know he's out of touch.
He's been a politician his
whole life.
We know he doesn't
buy his own milk.
I got it.
We it's, cutesy right?
But not knowing how much housing
prices are killing everybody,
especially in New York when you're
running for mayor of New York and
you used to be the head of Housing
and Urban Development.
For the entire country, that means
you never even paid attention when
you were doing Housing and
Urban Development.
>> Right. >> You never even cared.
You never even bothered they
don't know the life that we're
living at all.
That's why Joe Biden once in
a while will say,
millennials they think they have
a tough give me a break.
That's a bunch of malarkey.
Okay, we are a tough man.
I bought my house for
35 bucks back in the day, right?
I know the millennial thing is
student debt $52 of student debt.
[CROSSTALK] >> My favorite is when
people are like student loan debt.
Why don't you just work while you
go to school?
Why don't you work your minimum
wage job and pay for your $50,000 a
year tuition what's wrong with you?
No, but the other thing that's
really highlighted in the story and
I agree with you this isn't
necessarily about housing but
it's about what these out
of touch answers represent.
>> And to me it represents the fact
that many people who are lured into
politics who want to run for
office aren't actually doing it
because they see that position as
a public service.
They don't see themselves as
potential public servants.
They see it as an opportunity for
themselves and aspiration for
themselves furthering their
political careers.
It's about them.
It's not about the constituents,
that they purport to want
to represent.
They don't actually care about
wanting to represent them.
They don't even understand
the issues that these constituents
are dealing with.
Yeah, so.
>> I just >> Is it about ego?
Of course.
It's about ego.
So I remember when I ran for
office, I studied everything about
the district.
Okay.
I already knew national politics.
I remember I went to talk to
the LA Times editorial board for
endorsement, they'd ask me
questions on any topic, and
I'd have.
A 20 minute conversation about it.
They were like, whoa, man,
they were like shocked that if
someone who's running for
office actually knows something,
and I begged him to ask my
opponents the same questions,
there's no way they can answer it.
We go to debates, and
the guy who wound up eventually
winning Mike Garcia, Republican.
They asked a question about
housing, and he'd be like, I love
the firefighters than veterans.
They're just jokes.
The democrat that was running in
the race.
Her lifelong dream was to be
a Congresswoman.
My lifelong dream is
to get money out of politics, and
end the corruption.
Okay.
You see the difference?
>> Yeah.
>> One's about ego,
the other one isn't.
Okay, and for politicians, for
a long time in my life,
I was naïve.
I projected onto them and
I thought they actually want to
fix some things.
They're running because they
see the problem,
they really want to address it.
[LAUGH] Well,
that was ridiculously naïve.
That was totally absurd.
All they care about is me, me, me,
me, me, me, me.
And so finally,
I do want to give credit to
the people who got it right.
Believe it or
not three of the candidates got it
really right one said 800,000 and
other ones said 1,000,000 and
one said 900,000 exactly.
Andrew Yang.
And so we did a story critical of
Andrew earlier in the show.
>> Yeah. >> But we're fair credit
where credit is due and man,
maybe it's because
they were house shopping.
[LAUGH] I don't know.
But he nailed it.
So they're not all out of touch
apparently.
>> Yeah on that issue.
Andrew, just brush up on your
foreign policy.