So that is health care policy, medicare for all versus the public option. Its the different versions of the Green New Deal and different educational policies. Its policies about gun violence and what people are saying to the American People which is the overwhelming truth is this, we have a broken government in washington, d. C. Until we take back that government from the corporations who have bought it, we are not going to get any of those policies. We are not going to get any of those policies. Step one has got to step one has to restore government for and by the people because until we do that we arent passing any of the things people are talking about, all of which are important and all important to the American People. And secondly, i know after 10 years of working on it that were in a climate crisis. At wen a climate crisis. So i appreciate the Green New Deal for being a broad reaction to an important, critical crisis, but we have to face the fact that this is an emergency. People are talking about proposals and plans that might get past some time in the years to come. No one was saying it is priority one, i will get on it on day one, i will make it happen. I felt like somebody has to start leveling with the American People. I thought if no one else is going to do it, i am going to get into this race. Lets talk about both these issues, first, government. Based on your comments that government is broken, what does President Trump represent on that issue . Mr. Steyer it is funny, steve, because donald trump ran on the idea of drain the swamp. 80 of americans, the overwhelming bulk of republicans, democrats, and , understand that corporations have bought the government. The problem with mr. Trump is that when you see what he has done across the board, he is the biggest swamp rat there is. His tax plan was the biggest giveaway in American History to corporations and the richest americans. War isdemark trade hurting american workers, american businesses, and killing american farmers. He ran claiming he was going to do one thing and has done the exact opposite, but that does not mean that the government was not broken in the first place or that he has done anything good about it. It is broken, but it is time for the American People to take back the power to themselves. Steve you have made a lot of money in the private sector. When you talk to your friends, your peers, your colleagues, especially in the hedge fund market, what do they tell you about this president and the tax cuts you are critical of . Mr. Steyer for the last seven years, fulltime, i have been traveling around the country as a grassroots activist and for 10 years, i have been putting together coalitions of ordinary american citizens to take on unchecked corporate power. When you assume i am hobnobbing with a bunch of rich people, it isnt true. It is true that when i proposed a year ago, i think i was the first person to propose an asset based tax, i got emails from people i knew saying basically, this is the worst idea, what are you thinking . Those texts and emails convinced me i was on the right track, because if that upset people, i knew i was touching a nerve and standing up for what was right. Steve lets talk about the tom steyer story. Born in San Francisco. Mr. Steyer lenox bill hospital in new york city. Steve how did you end up in San Francisco . Mr. Steyer i went to school on the east coast up until grad school, and my brother had gone to college in california. He is a year older than i am and we grew up in a bunk bed together for 21 years. He said when i was applying to grad school, you are coming to california, i think you are going to love it. If you dont, go home, i dont care. I listened and i went to california. Steve your first job, Morgan Stanley in the late 1970s. What did you do and what did you learn . Mr. Steyer i was a financial analyst, so what it meant was i was tearing apart the Financial Statements of public corporations and examining them. I was learning what drives success in the private sector, trying to understand how corporate from extrapolation, how countries win. That is what i did for two years. It was a great way to get into the nittygritty of how an economy succeeds, the kind of question we are going to be faced with starting next year, but certainly in 2021 and beyond. We are watching a weakening economy that mr. Trump has been damaging. The question is going to be, who is going to be able to think this through intelligently, so america can be prosperous, but also share the prosperity . Steve one of your jobs was to take risks. What is a good financial risk and a bad one . As you look at investments, companies, ways to make money, what do you look for . Mr. Steyer what i look for is growth. I have always believed that the way to think about making money, creating value, longterm prosperity, you want to be in a situation which gets better every year. I have never been one of those people who has ever thought you can shrink your way to profitability. The way to do well is take a longterm view and make sure you have something really good and gets better every year. That is the reason Warren Buffett has done so well. That is the way to think about it is not a series of shortterm, quick fixes the way mr. Trump seems to think. You take a view of what creates value, what creates capability, what makes americans successful and prosperous, and you build it over time, and it compounds. Thats how you make a good investment, thats how you build a good company, and thats the way you create a dynamic economy , you invest in things for the longterm that create capability and are fair. Thats how you run an economy. Steve let me take this one step further. As you look at brick and mortar companies, sears, jcpenney, kmart, forever 21, and you see what amazon has been able to do, give us a sense of where we are in our economy. How transformational is this period right now, based on your expertise . Mr. Steyer its funny. I have always felt as if every company and you are talking about the Retail Sector the traditional, bigbox retailers like sears and kmart, and you are talking about an online retailer like amazon coming out of nowhere, originally just selling books. My thesis has always been that whatever industry it is, the company thats going to succeed in the long run, the company that is over time going to gain market share and be profitable, is the one that has more Information Technology. Basically Information Technology is like corporate smarts. So you are able to get information faster, react to it faster, and make better decisions. When you look at a mallbased retailer competing with amazon, amazon had better Information Technology. They could disrupt based on their ability to process and use information. If you think we are just talking about retail, if you think about walmart, walmart for decades had better Information Technology than their competitors. They were getting realtime information about what was selling on their shelves so they could replace it realtime, as opposed to much less dynamic, less realtime information from competitors. And they chewed them up. Steve is there a way you can apply that to the government . Mr. Steyer i think absolutely. We arethink about how dealing with problems, the idea that we are not using Information Technology to its limit, we are the company that has pioneered on this. This is the country that invented the internet, the country that led on silicon chips forever. If you think about the United States government, it is way behind in terms of i. T. We all know that. Lets talk about cybersecurity. Here is something realtime where we know our election in 2016 was hacked. We have a president who is refusing to use the money allocated to protect our electoral system. That is just a symbol of where we are as a country. We have to understand, in the 21st century, dominating and i. T. At every level is critical. Steve you talk about 2016. What other mistakes did Hillary Clinton in her campaign make . How would you apply that to your campaign, or whoever is the democratic nominee in 2020 . Mr. Steyer for the last 10 years, i have been putting together a coalition of ordinary american citizens to take on unchecked power. I started one of the biggest grassroots organizations, next in america. America next general got young people to vote in american institute. If you ask me how i think about works, i, what i think believe what i just said to you about Information Technology being important. The second thing we have gotten away from his grassroots. Im a believer in direct contact with voters. General itnext means other people were not trying to do that. There was a huge hole in terms of american democracy. Young people were voting at less than half the rate of other americans. Less than one in five voted in 2014. That is not a representative democracy. When i look at the election in 2020, the question to me is not, to do you get that swing 2 go democratic . How about the 50 of americans who dont vote . Who believe the system is broken . And talk to them about how we can take back the democracy and what that will mean for them and their families and their communities. Thats what i believe in. I believe in turnout, reinvigorating democracy, putting the power back to the people of the United States. That is what i think will win in 2020. Steve how do you do that . How do you get that 50 of the electorate . What do you do to encourage them . Mr. Steyer its a series of things. I will tell you this. We have asked hundreds of thousands of young people why they dont vote. They always say the same thing. They say, no one tells the truth. No one deals with my issues. Theres no difference between the parties. Why would i participate in a failing system . Opening for us to have a conversation about how their participation can change all that. How do you get people to vote . Part of it is by telling the truth. Im running because i didnt think anyone was leveling with the American People about what is really going on in our country. Part of this is, tell the truth. Need to Impeach Movement two years ago because i felt there was no important truth that people were willing to say. You are going to invigorate republican voters. I said, how about telling the truth and see if it invigorates democratic voters . That is what happened. You tell the truth. With sevensomething National Labor unions, starting in 2015. We knocked on 15 million to have a direct facetoface conversation with voters who dont frequently vote. In 2018, we knocked on 10 million doors. A lot about a lot of this is about direct personal contact. Register, engage, participate. Its also engaging people in social media. Wherever you can have a contact. How do you make sure they are registered . Engage with them on the issues that they care about and try to make it easy for them to show up at the polls. That is grassroots organizing. Steve lets talk about impeachment. It appears the house is headed down that path. What do you think will happen . One republican leader said he would stop it in the senate. Mr. Steyer listen. Years,en saying for two what i want is televised hearings that the American People can get the facts. The court that i care about is the court of public opinion. The decision that i believe will win the day is the decision of the American People. If this president is impeached and tried in the senate, i think every republican senator is going to have to ask themselves the question, what do my constituents want from me on this critical issue . What we have seen when we show the evidence our research over two years, when we show americans the truth about this ,orrupt president , they all say i didnt know that. Hes a liar and a cheat. If i did that, i would be in jail. My attitude on this is simple. Let the American People see the evidence, let us judge for ourselves. We are the people who actually want this. Say, look, let us see the truth. Idea you to support a criminal when hes hurting the American People. Steve when you hear his when you hear them support and defend where this president is, your reaction is what . Haveteyer can we please televised hearings the American People can see . Can we allow the American People to get the direct evidence and let us judge for ourselves . Ive been saying, im a grassroots prison. I believe in the wisdom of the American People combined. I believe in their courage and compassion. I say, leave it up to us. I dont care what the people on fox news say. I dont care what Mitch Mcconnell says. Let the americans see for ourselves and let us make the decision. Lets see if you can stand up to that decision. Thats what im rooting for. Steve you were not on the debate stage in september. You will be on the stage in midoctober and columbus, ohio. What can viewers expect from tom steyer on that stage . Is steyer my goal in this to present a positive vision for the future for americans. I believe it has been missing. I believe we are still working off the failed reagan vision of the United States. I believe we need a vision for the 21st century of what the rights are of american citizens. I believe they have been being trampled on. I believe its time for us to reexamine what it means to be an american, what american itself means. Thats what im interested in. I think thats what the American People are interested in. I should point out, ive qualified for the november debate. I get a chance in october in november to put forward the positive vision. Steve what was your first entry into politics . I read you were involved with the Walter Mondale campaign in 1984. A summerr i did work for the mondale campaign. Me, i also tried to support john kerry in his attempt to get elected president in 2004. The first time as a principle that i was involved politically was in 2010 when i cochaired a proposition in california to beat to Oil Companies who were trying to roll back our Progressive Energy line. That was the first time i felt i was making a lead political stance in contrast to people, the end unchecked power of been talking about. I got the chance because no one thought we could beat the Oil Companies. They were too rich, to wellconnected. Four years before, there had been another time when Oil Companies had taken on what they called environmentalists. They had won handsdown. In 2010, we won. We got 70 of the vote. The Oil Companies left. Steve i mentioned your past campaigns. You transformed from being behind the scenes, working for candidates, and now your name is on the ballot. What has it been like for you . Is,steyer the funny thing ive been doing this work fulltime for seven years. Itof all, organizing means i go to the campuses. I register kids. I talked to them. On election day to make sure that they get to the polls. Halls anddoing town meetings with activists for seven years fulltime. We did over 50 town halls on the need to impeach campaign, all over the United States. What im doing now, running for president , is a more intense version of what ive been doing for the last seven years. The only differences, i have to talk about myself instead of talking about a specific policy or kids about whats on their mind. My job is still at least 50 to listen. When im talking, im talking more about myself. Steve you are a father of four. Whats your kids think about what you are doing right now what do your kids think about what you are doing right now . Mr. Steyer my kids all believe that what im doing is necessary. I dont want to put you guys in a terrible spot. If i do this, is this going to hurt you . They said, you have to do this. My daughter called me. It was 17 days ago. She said, it was the day of the Global Climate strike. My daughter is 27 years old. She said, im worried this is an going to work. Im worried we are going to lose and we know we will not be able to lose this, crisis. I said, we will win it. We will take these people down. We are air out there to do it. Thats my attitude. Steve one of the criticisms of the election of donald trump was that we elected a president who had no military experience and no government experiments experience. You would be in that same category. Why should voters consider you what experience do you bring to the white house . Mr. Steyer ive been doing this fulltime for seven years. Coalitionsoing these and beating corporations for 10 years. If you look over the last 10 years in american politics about who has been taking on the corporations and winning, take a look. Ive taken on the Oil Companies and beat them. Ive taken on the Tobacco Companies and beat them. Ive taken on the Drug Companies, the monopoly utilities. Ive put together one of the biggest grassroots organizations in the United States. Its not like ive decided i would stop business. I stopped business long ago. Ive been doing this work. If you really think that if my thesis is true, we have a broken government, its not effective at any level. The question you ask is, who will take back the power for the people . Is it someone who has been doing that as an outsider for 10 years successfully . Will it be som