-Welcome to the show.
-Thank you so much. It's great to be here.
-You are very busy right now.
Running for governor takes a lot of time and effort.
-I am. I was in six different cities just this weekend.
-That is a crazy thing to do.
-Yes. -Yeah.
-It's a big state.
-Yeah, I would say if you ever told anybody
you were in six cities in one weekend,
they would just assume you were running for governor.
There's really no other reason to do that.
-Or a stand-up comedian.
-Or a stand-up -- that's true. -One or the other.
-So, one of things you and your opponent, Governor Cuomo,
are trying to frame yourself as
is the person who will most take on Donald Trump.
-Right.
-He obviously has history of Donald Trump
being a New Yorker like he is.
You have a little history with Donald Trump as well.
When you won an Emmy, Donald Trump gave you your Emmy.
[ Laughter ]
-I look very pained, don't I?
-Yeah. It does. You seem very --
-I look so happy to be receiving an Emmy
but just wish it was from someone else.
-Yeah.
And your other option was Simon Cowell. You know?
-But you see how Donald
actually doesn't want to let go of the Emmy?
-Yeah.
-Because, you know, he was nominated so many times.
And he never had one of his own, and in retrospect,
I think that maybe if I had just let him have mine,
we wouldn't be in the situation that we're in.
[ Laughter and applause ]
-Yes. We can all look back.
We can all look back.
-But hindsight is always 20/20.
-It does look like he is saying to you like,
"So I think this is something we share.
I'll get it on weekends."
You know?
So, one of the things you've been talking a lot about
in your campaign so far is the influence of money in politics.
-Yes.
-Obviously, this is something that happens nationally.
This is something that happens locally.
This is something that happens at the state level.
How do you go about getting money out of politics?
How do you go about getting this message across to voters?
-Right.
So, I think that obviously the influence of big money,
the influence of corporations in politics is nothing new,
but I think we've arrived at a moment
where corporations have so much power and so much money,
and they're spending it so plentifully on our electeds
that there is almost no daylight between the corporate agenda
and New York state policy at the moment.
And it's, you know, it's no coincidence
that Andrew Cuomo's -- one of the industries
that donates the most to him is real estate,
and we're having a tremendous housing affordability crisis
across the state.
I think these two facts are very, very linked,
and I think it's really important that, for example,
in my campaign I'm not accepting a single dime
of corporate contributions. Right?
-And have you found -- [ Cheers and applause ]
-So that -- so that when I -- when I get to Albany,
I won't be beholden to my corporate donors
because I won't have any.
-That's a very easy solution to the problem
of how to not be beholden.
-It is. It is.
-You -- A lot of people are giving you credit for,
even before the election, pulling the governor
to the left on certain issues.
You have brought up issues, things like single payer.
You mention affordable housing.
You talk about --
-Whole host of environmental issues
we've got him to move to the left on.
-You got him to the left.
"The New York Times" just wrote an endorsement, and obviously,
they had to pick a candidate.
They gave you a lot of credit in this piece for the issues
that you were pulling the governor to the left on.
They also said that he had brought
a degree of corruption to Albany,
and yet in the end they endorsed him
despite making all these points because he would be more likely
to be able to implement things due to his experience.
What was it like reading that?
-Well, they effectively said, right, we have a governor
whose administration has been rife with corruption,
and if anything, the last four years,
his administration has outdone itself.
They listed all the things that he hasn't accomplished,
and they effectively said,
"We have an incredibly dysfunctional, corrupt
Cuomo administration.
But he's our Andrew Cuomo and we think the next four years
are gonna be entirely different.
Let's endorse him."
-That might -- I mean, because as you read it, it seemed like
they were gonna definitely endorse you,
and then at the end they didn't.
Were you like, "Wow, that was a real twist at the end there"?
[ Laughter ]
-You know, this is -- this is an insurgent campaign.
This is a people-powered campaign,
and I think that so many people in the establishment
are not grasping the moment that we're in and are not grasping --
with Donald Trump in the White House,
it's a really terrible moment for our country.
But I think what voters are trying to say
to the Democratic establishment and are saying it in volumes
when you look at the victory --
Ayanna Pressley last night in Massachusetts.
If you look at Andrew Gillum last week in Florida,
these are -- Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
These are people who were not predicted to win,
who were down by 30 points in some cases,
and have marched on to victory because voters understand
something the Democratic Party leadership doesn't seem to,
which is that with Donald Trump in the White House,
we actually have not only a possibility
but we have an obligation to elect leaders
who will bring real progressive change,
whether you're talking about single payer healthcare,
whether you're talking about universal rent regulation,
whether you're talking about
New York becoming a leader in renewable energy.
We have to elect more Democrats this year,
but we also have to elect better Democrats.