Transcripts For BLOOMBERG Bloomberg Technology 20161216 : vi

How was paris . I cant lie, i loved it. It the uniqueness of paris or something even more . Things that may sound superficial that are very important to me like food. The food was great. Alienist alieness of it. I like how when i want to down the street and people talked, i had to struggle with what was going on. Like that you may want to understand one person at one point and then someone at another moment. Of the language and the culture, i felt like i was learning every day. Did you see from a distance america any differently. I did. I am hesitant to talk about it because i dont know how much is personal and how much is true based on a real knowledge on the culture. Hadlie people who have not your experience will talk about your experience and give you insight into it. The one thing i am sure about is the relative absence of handguns shape of the culture. I am pretty core im pretty clear on that. When my son would get on the subway every day to go to school, the idea that he would get shot, it just wasnt part of anything. , and to be clear, there is a minority population, but there is no notion, or considerably lesser notion that the people they interact with are going to have handguns. We talk about violence between the police and black communities and violence in general, you have no idea whether this person is armed or not. They did not exist in the same way. Charlie when did you come back . June and i went away again. I live here in new york and i wanted to ease my way back into new york. Charlie how did this come about . . Atlantic; i had written about the president from afar and then i was invited to briefings of conversation. That,ays had in our mind if the journal that started out as a journal of abolition, that we could take some consideration of our president. Charlie you think he is been a been aresident he has great president . I do. That is not mean i am without criticism or everything he did was a great. Past eight years, i have been radicalized. I had to when i wrote this piece. This is hard for me to even say. I had to judge him against other president. I cannot i had to judge him against other president s. I had to take consideration of what president s have done throughout history. Charlie were you surprised when you did that . Lincoln is considered one of our greatest president s. When i think about lincoln i go i think about going from a log cabin and having to become an intellectual embracing the abolitionist point. As late as 1863 or so, lincoln is still embracing this idea that black people can be shipped out and immigrate to somewhere else. He is a great president. You can go through this with anybody that you think is great. It is the same for obama. Charlie we will talk about how you think he is unique as well because he sees white people differently than you do . I do. I think he does. White peoplees different than most black people. Charlie that is your point . Wounds ofds of the racism for the president are individual. He has instances that he can talk about, but when you are born in an African Community Africanamerican Community on the mainland and you are part of a deeply segregated group, the the wound is not just individual, it is collective. You carry those rings with you and barack obama didnt really have that. Carry you carry those things with you. Brought obama didnt really have that. And he waswas white living in hawaii. You can be biracial living in chicago or baltimore and she can still carry the wounds. He lived so far away that it was a distant experience for him and he did not have that trauma at an early age. Child, ever by a white person called the nword. The first time it happened to me was when i was in paris. Some crazy person addressed me in that way. It did not wound me at all. It was an individual thing. Of wayot feel any sort about it. If i had been a blind person who grew up in paris if id been a black person who grew up in paris, i would have been offended. But it didnt really shaken me. Eight years of president obama coming to an end, how do you assess that and he talked most about the dignity of the man and his family. No scandal. You can have policy differences but he said what rose above that was his sense of a man of dignity. There is part of me that would like about to not be important. I think even getting into that discussion, there was a double standard there. Himlie they said it about because they might have expected him not to be . Not the speaker. I think of the obamas were aware there would be a double standard. They were rising to a certain level. Part of it is who they are but they also understood, as the first black family to be in the white house, he had to adhere. Same with the jackie robinson, he couldnt just the a great baseball player. Charlie and you think that president obama and Michelle Obama understood that themselves . Yes. And im holding on for a day that will not be true. Expressed thee idea of how he came from a different place and therefore had a different attitude. Assess his legacy beyond that . I think it is significant. There is a place in the piece and againabout this is the tension between assessing him as a president. Will useut saying we the power of the federal government to roll back on the war on drugs. They mentioned there were thousands of people in our prison system that were supposed to be granted clemency. By that time they got to maybe 1000. That was only 10 of the people they said they should be able to get out. When u. S. Assets it seems like a failure, right . But then when u. S. Assets compared to every president this era before in the modern he commuted the sentences of more people than the last 11 president s combined. You wish you done more, but when you compare it to what the actual reality of president ial power, i think it looks pretty good. Charlie you open the article with a quote from Scott Fitzgerald the great gatsby. You are worth the whole dam bunch put together. I love the great gatsby. It alludes to this notion of good, which is this notion obama has put out for young africanamerican. History will agree with that fitzgerald quote. I think people will really begin to see it doesnt mean the flaw will go away, but i think we had a good man. Charlie will it make it easier for another black man or black women to become president black woman to become president . Yes. Like you said, if this had been a scandal plagued administration, it would have made it significantly harder. I will be straight about this. I think if barack obama had composed himself like the current president elect had composed himself, first of all, i dont think he wouldve been president at all, if you been in office, it would have made it significantly hard. Charlie lets talk about the title of the essay. I like that you are asking me about the title. Original idea was to pull from music all the way through but i couldnt come up with enough. That should be, and they and i wanted there to be a mournful quality to the piece. I was looking for things that alluded to that. Al green is saying rightove will make you do. Wrong. E will make you do i wanted to conjure certain emotion. Not just make factual statements all the way through, i wanted people to feel something and music is a big part of that. On hehe worked walked on ice and never fell. Dmc. Hats from run insanely difficult to be an africanamerican and to be the titular head of america itself. In all its mixed up policy and hastage and the way he tried to remain to that sense of yourself and be loyal to the American People and be a representative of the entirety of the American People. It is a deeply understated how difficult that must be. That is the walking on ice piece of it. Charlie i decided to become part of the world. That is pulled from the president on own autobiography. There is a point where he goes to see the university of huayi team. Aiis basketball he goes to the university of hawaii and it is starting five africanamerican players. He is not just watching basketball. He talks about the Little Things that they do, so when he starts playing basketball in the local area with the africanamerican population that is they are, he is learning culture as much as he is learning basketball. One of my deep questions was why the president , who at that point waslived around the world, biracial, had a white mother, why he moved towards black identity. In some respects, you dont get to choose about race. In other respects, if there was anyone who had a way out charlie he had a choice . When i asked him about that, he didnt think he had a choice. With the quote he actually used was, i never wanted to look in the mirror and not like to i was. I have, throughout history, known people who have tried to get away. And that ise passed part of the africanamerican experience. People trying to get away. He did not do that. Culturalmerican identity is really strong. In a positive way. Of pull on youd that most folks feel. Charlie you still have to go back to the hood. I went down to North Carolina with the president and he said with a group of young africanamerican and latino boys. That is part of the mentoring he does. Each one went through their own story of how they had grown up in the hood and they had done something bad and come back out of it. At the is the president said, is there anything i should take back to washington . Spoke up and said, we go through this and we can do all this, but we still have to go and we have tod deal with all the problems are there that are there. It was interesting to talk about how you can change the dynamic of what folks are going back to. Charlie and how t and how he changed it . Into how he had helped with reparations and rings like that. Things likeand that. Charlie he rode the tiger. I spoke to David Axelrod and he thought the campaign that donald trump is running will ultimately come back to bite him. He said they have wrote the tiger and it will come back to him. It didnt quite work out like that. How disappointed, the ,rgument was made at the time my guess is he believed he could have one. Won. He couldnt believe this campaign was taking place . I think he definitely leaved he could have he definitely coulded believed he have won. When i talked to him after, i got optimism. Barack obama trademark optimism. He said we are going to be ok. Charlie he said some of that publicly. It was hard to square with some of the Campaign Rhetoric he had offered up in the months before. Thats held that this was not just another republican candidate, this is a unique threat to this very institutions. Write i have music of that i played. While i was writing, i played a ton of marvin gaye. I want to write and make people feel things in a way that make people feel this way. Aen i started this, there was ourningor maybe private m happening in the Africanamerican Community with the idea that this moment is coming to an end. Charlie what happens to barack obama now . Hopefully get some peace, man. Hopefully he will do some of that. Charlie he is a writer at heart . Memoirs. L write his i expect that to be a fascinating book. Imagine that he will be made politically active. Charlie i think the defeat of Hillary Clinton make that makes that even more imperative. Whatdont think he will do president bush did. To texasi will go back and live a different life and paint. I respect that, but dont think he will do that. Charlie essentially that is what he has always wanted to do. Now . Y stop charlie can you explain one of the central issues having to do with his presidency, which is the idea that many people that there isof disbelief that somehow, if he outgoing, somehow more, i dont want they, if yes spent more time if he had spent more time trying to seduce the republicans, he wouldve gotten more done. Is it something in his character or because, as he said to me, he didnt think it paid off . Early on he thought there would be some kind of compromise and the lesson he drew early on was that there wouldnt be. I think health care was a deeply instructive. I think going for a while with the debt ceiling was deeply instructive. He makes the statement that the fever has broken. Then it clearly doesnt. He drew the conclusion that he didnt have a working partner. The Republican Party being held hostage by a small group was a big problem. Think there are people who say president clinton , they really like interacting with. Interacting with people. I dont think president obama is like that. Charlie after watching him speaking and he knew how to do it well, but he was almost floating above it. It like he was seeing he was caught up in the moment to the extent that he knew how to do it. It was a skill. Charlie it was a skill, but not a skill that sucked him in. Heemployed the skill, but was not of that. There was Something Else i was told repeatedly and it wasnt that he was trying to be president for his daughters. S. For his daughter charlie whats next for you . I dont know. I honestly dont know. I dont want another eight years like this. This is a huge journey for me. I was raised in this is deeply politically conscious home. I have been asking questions about africanamerican identity and interaction with the broader country all my life. Then suddenly there is an africanamerican president and i just so happened to be at the atlantic. I brought all those questions to bear in this political in this particular moment. Im so grateful to have been here. Quite aike i figured bit out over the past eight years. Charlie about what . Slavery . Legacy of that was a huge question. It was also basic stuff, like why does my neighborhood looked like my neighborhood . Why do i feel safe here, but when i go over here i am constantly looking over my shoulder. Yrk is the world the way it is for africanamericans in this country . And be largely because of obama i was able to write a series of stories, mine the reporting, the academy and bring to bear all that to answer my own questions about the world mple it was a tremendous, tremendous privilege. Charlie is that what its all about, answering your own questions . It should be but i think as the prophecy, standing up on high and differing delivering it for other people 78 charlie my president was black, on the making and unmaking of the white house. Pleasure to be here. Thank you. Charlie backing in a moment. Stay with us. Charlie jim and tom steyer are here. Jim is the founder of common sense media, the nations largest nonprofit dedicated to childrens issues. Rother tom is retired from a billiondollar hedge fund he started in 1986, to focus on climate issues. For their dedication to democratic causes they have been dibbed the liberal answer to the koch brothers. Im pleased to have jim and tom at this taken. We were wondering where you were because your brother was leer. And i said where are you . Standy standing by the phone waiteding for an invitation, charlie [laughter] secretary clinton what do you think of 2016 . I think there were two overwhelming issues in the campaign that are obvious in retrospect. One is that the majority of americans just feel as if their Economic Opportunity hasnt improved for as long as they can remember and theyre worried about it and they dont think their kids are going to do better and they think thats not the american way, weve got to shake that up. Thats the number one thing. Number two thing, they think that the political insiders dont care about them, that theres a reason why they havent done better for as long as they can remember and the reason is that the game is rigged against them. The rules are set up for the insiders. Charlie this is the American Public you believe believes that . Africanamericans . Latino americans . All americans believe what you just articulated . I think that its different in different parts of the population. T that overall, the economic insecurity part is something that i think people feel really strongly and i think if you look across society there is a sense that the insiders are not paying attention to everybody. That, you know, if you think of government for the people, that thats not what were having. We do not have nearly a just enough society and i think people are angry as hell. Charlie that explains some voters. How was this influence election flunsdz by the two candidates . Simply that those people you just described defined donald trump or all the controversy about him as a change agent . I think there is in quite that the people were aware i think the American People are spart and that theyre aware of all the issues about donald trump, about his history, his attitudes, the things he says, his lack of policy and they decide, at least enough people decide hes going to shake things up to give him a majority in the Electoral College. I mean we have to remember that Hillary Clinton got over two and a half million more votes than donald trump, so the majority of americans did not buy that but in the Electoral College, he was able to get by as just, however untrustworthy, however much you dont agree with him, he is going to come in and be Something Different and we need Something Different now because were not being listened to. Charlie so if it was joe biden it wouldnt have made any difference . Hes been part of the system, in Congress Since he was 29 years old . You can never tell. Its impossible but the two things i said, that americans havent had a raise, the bulk of americans havent had a raise for 35 years is true. Deborah charlie but youre a liberal democrat. Why didnt you recognize that and use that influence with the candidate . Well, what we were doing in 2016 was going directly to voters to try and talk about vishes, to register voters, we registered over a million and to try and get as many involved in the process as possible. When you do that, you dont talk to the candidate. You act independently. We did our own thing. Went directly to voters to try and inspire citizen to citizen conversation. Charlie but a person who has influence in the Democratic Party has influence. Whether a pac does anything, you have influence because of how you have defined your life as a leberal democrat. Well, let me say this. You know us as being climate activists but actually the mission of our organization is to prevent climate disaster and to promote prosperity for every american. So weve known from the very first day that the only way that we will have a more just society, including dealing with environmental issues, is if every americans economic interest is considered in every decision. Charlie do you agree with what he said . I think my brother is pretty smart charlie you are an activist in your own way . I am. And weve done many things together. For children and the stuff that next gen does. I think what happened is you had two very unpopular candidates and for reasons that are fair or not fair and tom is right, ultimately there was a certain number in the Electoral College that wanted to throw a hand grenade into the system espite all the eag negatives. I think Hillary Clinton, fairly or unfairly, was not a popular candidate and lost because of that. I think the voters who really made the Electoral College thing happen didnt like Hillary Clinton and at the end of the day said were voting for change. Charlie did jim comey have anything to do with that . Definitely. Im a former prosecutor. A couple of our good friends are prosecutors in the Southern District with comey. Think what happened, hillary had strong momentum at that point after the three debates, which by most if not all the debates she won, then the email issue, which was this inside he beltway stuff, got raised 10 days before the election and when you look at how tiny the margin was in many states, i think it was a factor. Remember, we live in california where Hillary Clinton won two to one. We live in a different parted of the country where people are just should be aing their heads, saying how could this possibly happen . I think comey changed the momentum at a critical time and reinforced all the negatives for the people that didnt like Hillary Clinton in the first place the charlie do you think bar ab barack obama will have to play a more dominant role in the Democratic Party . I think hes going to have a prominent role. He would have a very different role if she were president , for darn sure. I think there is going to be a different question, to be honest, charlie. Charlie which is . Which is, where is the passion going to come from in the Democratic Party . Because i think when you look at this election, there are a lot of reasons why this election turned out out the way it did and you guys have turned on touched on a few of them. Whats also important ask the conclusions about why this election happened. Thats almost as important as why the election happened. There is going to be a fight for the soul of the American People, for the soul of working people in the United States of america and some of that is going to take place in the context of the Democratic Party and so i think that thats going to be something thats going to be played out over the next two years as people talk about what are our deepest values . You know, what are the things that we absolutely stand for that we need to stand up for and are being attacked . Charlie i thought one thing Michelle Obama did so well, better than anybody ive ever seen was to make the case for children and what an election means for children. I thought she did it beautifully. Phenomenal, and became this moving figure to so many people across party lines. Ive own Hillary Clinton for 27 years. Shes a phenomenal child advocate. The Hillary Clinton we know is deeply passionate and knowledgeable about kids. Shes given her life to that. By the way, that is what i think will happen with Hillary Clinton right now, she will go back and be the extraordinary child advocate. But that didnt happen with michelle, it was real and ive done events with Hillary Clinton for 25 years and that did not come across. The other thing i always mention, he she was my student and Teaching Research assistant, chelsea. Thats how we really got to know the clintons. Shes a remarkable young woman. My heart goes out to them at this moment because thats such a brutal loss and painful thing but theyre a remarkable family. As my brother said, theyve done great things but as visionary and thoughtful as Michelle Obama was around child issues during the campaign, and i love that, Hillary Clinton is the real deal on those issues too. Clinton used to say, i feel your pain, that was his mantra. People used to joke about it but the fact is he did convince corking working people in america that he did care about them, that his heart was with them and he understood charlie i think that came directly from having to run for governor in arkansas. Yeah. But my point is in 2016 people dont understand that hillary actually does care. It didnt come across. She was portrayed as very much an insider, a policy wonk, not somebody who has a heart that, you know, you were asking about joe biden who obviously is somebody who emotz and i think that charlie especially with workingclass people. Yes. Charlie were you surprised to see al gore . Go to trump tower . Whats that about . You know, its, i i know that al is incredibly sincere on climate and i think that he will good to the ends of the earth to try and make a difference and id think he went to the ends of the earth to try and make a difference. [laughter] charlie and do you think it might help . Look, i think what were seeing, you know, from the Trump Administration, the, you know, the president elect, is a lot of conversations and i lot of tweets, but there are some facts out there. He is appointing people. He is, you know, relying on people on the e. P. A. Transition, theres talk that he is going to, who hes going to appoint now for e. P. A. Today so there are some facts out there and if you believe that personnel is policy, were seeing personnel with history, with specific beliefs about energy and climate and, you know, that is in no way reassuring. So do i, am i happy that after two years of hearing that Climate Change is bunk that he had a conversation with a leading advocate of clean energy and taking care of Climate Change . You know, i absolutely think the proof is in the pudding and what were seeing in the pudding is terrible. Charlie, just to add on to that, we each have four children. You cannot blow the Climate Change issue for the next four years and have the same future. The fact that he met with al gore is fine but the question is who does he appoint and does he roll back that stuff . There are certain things right now that if we get wrong as a country, climate, rebuilding the economic infrastructure for the middle and working class who as my brother said correctly have felt left out and third, investing in kids anged education, we are going to punish this country and pus put us in a very bad position. It is our job to speak out. Were sitding in a building with mike bloomberg, a business leader, an extraordinary climate advocate along with my brother. To me, donald trump needs to listen to the Business Community about climate because they understand the economics of it and the future of the countrys leadership on it. Its a very big issue right now. We were at this dinner last night. We just issued a business, a group called risky business, issued a report answering the question, can wea ford to move to clean snerg we issued a port two years ago showing how incredibly expensive it will be to deal with climate. And we studied four different ways to move to clean energy between now and 2050 and in every case what we see is better employment, lower costs for American Consumers and greater growth. So the whole idea that we cant afford to do it is completely false. The fact is we have the ability right now with existing technology to reduce our Greenhouse Gas emissions by 80 . All we have to do is decide to do it and invest in charlie i just returned fro from rome. I had a chance to meet the pope and a lot of what the pope is talking about is the connection between climate and poverty in terms of the encyclical he wrote. Yes. What the pope says and what we deeply believe is that we have a responsibility to hand on a planet to take care of the planet that god gave us and to take care of each other, including the most vulnerable citizens. And what he, what the pope says which is absolutely true is if we dont deal with this issue we will do neither of those things. What were saying is those are absolutely responsibilities for our generation and we can do it and be richer for doing it. We can put more people to work at higher wages. Charlie how would you character rirse the resistance . Is it simply hanging on the basis of whether crime Climate Change is produced by the actions of men and women . Or is it Something Else . Whats the reason for oh, i think at this Point Charlie people who are so resistant. I think at this point its not the American People. The American People, including most republicans know the truth, which is that its caused by people and that its a threat to the United States of america and safety and prosperity and everything else. But the fact of the matter is we have a system that is rigged where were making decisions based on special corporate interests who make a ton of money the way things are and absolutely dont want us to move to a Clean Energy Economy and they are calling the tune. Charlie what would be the primary thing, your legislative goal if you had some influence with the congress . Would it be a tax on car gon carbon . I think the very broadbasedsumption from people on both sides of the aisle who are openminded is you put some form of Carbon Pricing out there and you use government money in the Research Side of clean energy. That basically Government Investment in research has pushed incredible changes including the internet, which really was founded at the department of defense, but you can go back to world war ii and see all the things that have come out of government research. I just charlie i just saw a story today that i think google has said that its data centers, in some year coming up next year charlie 2017. Next year. They will be totally fueled by alternative sources, sun and wind. Is that right . Did i get that right . It is. The business in the United States of america, with the exception of fossil fuel businesses and a few utilities, have moved on. Theyre in favor of clean energy, are pushing clean energy, they know thats the future. When is the last time that the United States policy was to go back to a tech analogy that technology that was, you know, dominant in the 1950s . How could that possibly be a Growth Strategy for the United States . That just seems laughable. Charlie just one more question on that. Do you think that what happened in paris is vulnerable to, that this administration will refuse to accept that understanding . I dont know what theyll do but i know this. More countries agreed to that Paris Climate Accord than have agreed to anything in the history of the world. So if the United States wants to be the leader of the world, which we have been for 100 years, i would not walk away from every other country and tell them youre on your own, we only think about ourselves, because they will look for leadership. They are looking for leadership and it will be china, maybe germany, but well be saying to the rest of much the world, were just gork for ourselves now and that is a tragic mistake. Charlie you were going to say . Im impressed with my younger brother leer i think hes pretty brother here. I think hes pretty smart. But when you look at the business side of it, the misunderstandings in the way this election was carried out, the hole focus on coal miners. How many are there in the United States . 55,000 . 60,000. There are 400,000 Clean Energy Jobs in cleafl california alone. So the idea that we were running an election around antiquated technologists and structures by the way that esnt mean we dont care about the coal miners and so on did you but its a Smart Business strategy. Im glad my brther articulates it pretty well. I am, im proud of him. Seriously, charlie if you were at aur our dinner table you would never get a word in edgewise charlie i can tell you need me to ask the questions. Certainly our parents were in there talking and our older brother too where we are in california we had some big victories in 2016. I thought my brother might mention that. Its really investing in birth to 5. Every child in america, no matter their socioeconomic background or status or what color they are needs good health, nutrition and Early Childhood education birth to 5. This is a nobrainer. Ost industrialized industries, even many nonindustrialized countries provide it. We do not. So with all the political rhetoric about rolling back the a. C. A. And obama care, what is going to happen to kids . The losers always when you cut important Government Programs are children. Theyre always the biggest losers because theyre the poorest americans. I think you have to look at Early Childhood, quality stuff like e steyer kids had, we gave our children. And then really investing in the education system. We argue we didnt do this when we were sharing a bedroom but we argue about what is more important, climate or kids . And education. Those are the two issues we spend or lives working on and both are incredibly important but you cannot have a prosperous america any time in the longer term if we do not invest in Early Childhood, health care, education for kids and then final limb the work force economy that middle and lower econoamericans deserve because kids lose had their parents are really poor and the other stark fact we havent mentioned is the growing inequality in this country and the fact that kids are the poorest americans. Close to one out of four americans in this country still lives below the official poverty line and many below the extreme poverty line, which is 12,000 a year for a family of four. So these are just fro nobrainers and we hope a Trump Administration will do that with you also statebased were working in cleafl to do that. Traditionally the United States of america has been an Optimistic Society where we have a vision of how were going to have a just and growing society for everybody. Somehow if you look at 2016, at that president ial ray, 82 of americans said im dispirited by this. I did not hear that. And what im saying here and what jim is talking about and im talking about and what people back home in california believe is that is not off the table. Thats what were for. For a just society where its growing and people are saying its going to be better and thats absolutely within our roach reach. So to take that off the table and assumele no, were going to go backwards, its a zero sum game with people pipted against each other, i dont believe that for a single second. The sfact america has the ability to grorks for peoples incomes to grow and for people to do a lot better. Welcome to the best of berg markets middle east. Im tracy. The major headlines from the middle east driving headlines this week, turkey changed the d. P. , and culates g. It shows its economy expanding faster than indias, despite terror attacks in major urban areas and more. 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