Politics Media Industrial Complex! Lanhee Chen talks to A&G

treated that way. So this guy Ron Kim in New York, a Democrat who had come forward and you know, and and criticized the Andrew Cuomo's office for clearly lying about how many people they killed with their bad policy, says that Cuomo called him up and threatened to ruin him, and so he went, you know, on the record with that to the press. Cuomo came out and said I never said anything the same. And then a whole bunch

of politicians came out yesterday, including that guy there. You just heard the freaking mayor of New York, build A Blasio, saying, oh, yeah, we've all been on the end of that kind of bullying from Andrew Cuomo. I know I have, So I absolutely believe um. Mr Kim to me, I found that just stunning. So this guy and his family was able to run rough shot over New York for all these years treating people like this and keep it a secret moral less? How does it Scott been just a little

bit of the feel of the mob? How does how do you? How does that stay secret all these years? Let's talk to Lan hit Chen. David and Diane Stephy, fellow in American Public Policy Studies at the Hoover Institution, hosted the fabulous podcast Crossing Lines with Lan hit Chen. He joined us, now here are you, sir? I'm doing well, Good morning, gentlemen. I just wonder, in general the way politics works, what's the leverage the Cuomo family had over people to where they could treat people that way and

have such enemies but still succeed. How does that even work? Well? You know, there's all saying power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely, and I think when you have a regime that's been a big part of state politics and a

big part particularly the Democratic Party machinery. You know that the interesting part of this is that Cuomo is not beating up on Republicans, right, I mean, he does, he doesn't fair share that, but he's beating up on people in his own party, and he uses the leverage that he and his family have. He uses the fact that they have a tremendous amount of influence and state politics.

And this goes to the problem with dynastic politics in our country, these dynasties that think they're entitled to stay in power. And it goes beyond that. It goes from dynastic power to the problem with one party rule when you have one party that's been in charge of a state for as long as Democrats have been in charge of New York. And by the way, it's not just a New York thing, it's an Illinois problem. And yeah,

it's a California problem. When you have one party that's been in charge for as long as it has this is what you get. You get bullies, you get thugs, you get people like Andrew Cuomo. Andrew Cuomo's dad, Mario Cuomo, was governor, mayor governor back. Yeah, and and of course you know Cuomo's brothers on CNN every night. So it's it's not just politics, it's the politics media industrial complex in the state of New York that has perfected that has continued to to allow uh Andrew Cuomo to perpetrate

the things he's been perpetrating. And you know the fact that these stories are just coming to light now. Really, no one should be surprised at his behavior. Well, I appreciate Jack being repulsed by that sort of politics, because it is repulsive. But as a guy who grew up right next to Mayor Daly's Chicago, the idea of brutal bullying and machine politics is pretty familiar. Hey, I understand there there are a lot of factions within New York politics.

I'm not really hip to New York state of politics. Long, he do you know much about that? Yeah, I don't follow it as closely, but I've heard that much from from from folks who I know out there to follow it. There's a you know, there's a Cuomo line. And and you'll remember, actually back in when Bill Clinton ran for president, a lot of people thought Cuomo was going to be the nominee of the Democratic Party that year, and it wasn't going to be this you know, Arkansas, no name

governor who nobody had ever heard of before. And it turns out, I mean, some of the stories go that Cuomo was brought down by some elements of the Democratic machine in his own state because there were elements of Cuomo who who weren't part of that Cuomo line who didn't like him and decided that they wanted to help take him out. So yeah, it gets pretty nasty out there. But you know, that's the thing these one party politics in states like New York in California. It can get

pretty nasty within the Democratic Party in these states. That's interesting. Well, it's got to be about faction and personality because it's not about policy generally speaking, if you have one party rule. And obviously, and obviously they think are like de Blasio and others think Governor Cuomo has damaged enough that they can be honest. All of a sudden, the Blasio saying, oh, yeah, I've been on the other end of those phone calls many times. Everybody has well, and bear in mind, the

Blasio and Cuomo hate each other. They they have had a difficult relationship for many years, and the Blasio and Cuomo have had a number of really awkward news conferences where they basically set each other lias sit next to each other like, you know, too passive aggressive, uh, you know, former spouses, and it's it's very, very, very awkward interaction between the two of them. A Lani channel, the Hoover

Institution is on the line. Meanwhile, on the other coast you have lunkhead governor of California, Gavin Newsom, who it's looking like is going to be recalled. What do you make of that? Well, people are are upset with him, and you know, the funniest thing that I hear is when Newsom and his defenders argue that this is some

Republican plot something. I know a lot of people who live in in my part of California is very progressive part of California otherwise, are very supportive of Democratic politicians and democratic politics who are just fed up with Gavin Newsom because of his incompetence. And it has to do with not being able to get done the basic blocking and tackling, you know, things like can you run a system that gets people who need unemployment compensation that compensation

without giving money to a bunch of crooks? You know, can you actually administer a vaccine program that's not worse than the vaccine program that exists in you know, at least half of the other shape and you get the schools open, you know, instead of instead of bowing continuously to pressure from special interests, can you actually do what it takes you know, to grow up, actually lead and get the schools open so we can stop denying a generation of kids the education that they need and deserve.

That's the kind of stuff that really picks people off. And it's not a Republican thing. It's not a Republican thing at all. I think his incompetent stems from the fact that he's incompetent. Is that really what happens? Well, well, yeah, the Eastern media elite just say he was damaged by dining at the French laundry during his own show down. Well,

that absolutely was kind of a pivotal moment. But the the administration has done enough right for those of you who are listening in the rest of the country, the the Newsome administration has fumbled everything. Their list of victories is empty. They're still waiting for number one. Their dryer race board has the number one on it, nothing else.

I was wondering, since since you've worked with you know, pretty successful candidates, you know, working on Marco Rubio's campaign and Ramy's campaign and stuff like that, how we identify these these these politicians early on and think that guy could be presidents someday and then we're so wrong. Like like Rick Perry was so not ready for the national stage, and Gavin Newsom was so not ready for the state stage,

let alone the national stage. What goes on there with this the not recognizing what's underneath, the veneer of of looking presidential. Well, I don't think Gavin Newson was ready to be on the stage for a fourth grade class play, being on the stage to be considered a presid central candidate. I mean, look, you're right. What happens is media hype develops.

You know, you you've got a guy who's something that Yeah, I mean people people think, oh, here's a guy who's reasonably good looking, he can string together a sentence and a coherent saw it every once in a while. Uh yeah, let's make this guy president. And by the way, you know, Newsom has a tremendous amount of personal wealth, and I

think that contributes to the conversation as well. Anytime you've got someone who gets into politics, who's reasonably successful at some level and also has a lot of cash, they think, oh, here's someone who could be president. And and really what it goes to is we need to do a much better job of evaluating what our leaders are and are not doing if if, if, if Newsom had not been confronted with crisis, he could have skated right through and who knows, he may have been a leading candidate for

the president. What what what crisis does is it forces us to test our leaders, and it forces us to see who can lead and who can't. And Newsom has failed miserably at that task. And he's not the only one, by the way, Andrew Cuomo, We've talked about a few of the other governors who've done a horrible job. Uh. We really are able to see those who succeed and those who fail in a very real way. And it's an awful thing because people have suffered through this crisis.

But it does allow us to see who who can lead and who can't. And I think that's a very very important part of this whole episode. We need to take from it. Well, now I'm gonna have to fist fight Jack during the commercials for bringing this up, but I'm ready to do it. I've been reading about Rhonda Santis in Florida. He's done a really good job speaking of governors, and people are starting to buzz about him. In any early take. You know him, deal know his act is is he one of those golden boys who

is about to turn rusty or what? Do you think? I don't know him. Well, I've followed what he's done in Florida and and the answer is he's he's tried to follow what the scientists told him, but also his his instincts about what the state needs, what the state's kids needs, and what the state's businesses need. And they've tried to balance between, you know, trying being safe, keeping people safe, but also trying to get Florida reopened. And I think by and large he's done a pretty good job.

You know, there's been some hiccups, but you know, that's one of those things where I'm sure Governor Desantus would say, look look at my record. Look at my record to determine if I'm ready to lead or not. And that's something I wish more politicians would say, is take a look at my record, not just the good parts, but but all of it, and make a decision based on everything I've done, do you think I'm worthy of leading or not? And you know what, not everything is gonna

be good. But I'll bet you if you look at Ron de santiss record and you compare it to what Gavin Newsom r Andrew Cuomo have done. Rohn de Santus comes out pretty favorably, you know, so I'll take I'll take that bet any day of the week. It's faint praise, but that might be the appropriate phrases we look for future leaders. Lani Chen David and Diane Stephie fellow in American Public Policy Studies at the Hoover Institution, host of

the podcast Crossing Lines with Lanchlan. He thanks a Milian, Always great to talk, great to do with you guys. Thank ye. I'm glad I brought any of that stuff up that there's some really interesting takes on that. Oh yeah, Lon, He's always just a terrific Are we maturing as a society to a point where maybe we can look past the well they look good on TV and have a clever line, So maybe they should be the most powerful

person in the world based on that. Avery voters, Uh maybe a two thirds WI not a half whis He's absolutely right if there hadn't been a crisis, everything cruises along economies decent blah blah blah. Normal stories are in the news. Gavin easily cruises to top tier discussion among Democratic candidates, right, just based on BET's hole like adoration from the media. Didn't have to do anything, just just stood there and looked pretty or creepy, depending on who

he has. And now he's going to get recalled as governor and his political career is over. Yeah, yeah, you know what it would be interesting, Well, it will be interesting to follow is California is so utterly corrupt and ungovernable and mobbed up in one party and the rest of it. I don't know if if God Almighty himself could be the successful governor of California, it may just be too big and messy and corrupt. I'm I'm still amazed. I know you grew up with corrupt politics, so you're

you're not surprised by it. But that Andrew Cuomo could, in the modern era where people leak phone calls and texts and all kinds of stuff like that, still call up people and threaten them, just flat out threatened them and get away with it. I will lend your career. That's wild. Yeah, it's time's up to good. Thank God. In the whole Cuomo family, it would sound like, yeah, they don't teach you this as a kid, but the government is every bit as much forget about it. It

is as it is, and I'm only Bill. You know, it's both forget about it.