Former Attorney General Eric Schneiderman

to his record in support of women's rights. Looking back on our preparations with his office, there were signs maybe something was amiss. His communications director requested surprisingly to us that we not mention the Harvey Weinstein case or hashtag me to, or the Attorney General's past relationships. It is a complicated thing listening to a man I respect and who has in fact done much to support progressive causes

over his twenty five years in public service. But we thought it was important to post this now so the public has access to what turns out to be Eric Schneiderman's last long form interview as Attorney General. I want to just read from among the top elements in your bio, we roll marveling on the production staff here. The only child grew up in the Upper West Side, father was born in tenements. Became big shot corporate defense lawyer, chairman

of City Opera. You graduated from Trinity and seventy three and Amerston seventy seven. Studied abroad in Hong Kong, double major in English and Asian studies. Eventually you graduated from Harvard Law School in eighty two. When it is here that you were the deputy sheriff of Pittsfield, Massachusetts, from nineteen seventy seven nineteen seventy nine, is that a fact? It is? I was a deputy sheriff in Berkshire County.

I dropped in and out of school a lot. When I was seventeen, I graduated from high school and it was a year before Roe V. Wade. Instead of going to college, I went I got a job in an abortion clinic in Washington, d C. Abortion was legal in DC, illegal in the whole Southeast United States. No one thought role was coming, and so at seventeen I was going out to National Airport meeting women flying in from states where they couldn't. What do you think motivated you to

do that at that age? Why you know, I mean I was seventeen. It wasn't really that carefully thought through. I you know, I had some sort of office job initially, and it was really boring. And what did your parents say, you're their only child. I was just gone. I mean I left Toma, never went back, and I just had adventures.

There were people setting up clinics because they believed Washington would be the only outpost for decades, that women would have to come there from Georgia and South Carolina and Tennessee, um because no one thought role was coming, so people were setting up clinics. I thought it sounded really interesting and the people who were doing it were really amazing people, and so, you know, I just had never really occurred to me that it was as controversial as I later

learned it was. And it had a big impact on me. I mean, it was seeing women essentially fleeing oppression in their states, coming in secret, arguing with the doctors that had to go home before this medical staff thought they were ready because they snuck out on their families, their employers a lot of the times, their husbands they don't

want them to find out. So it's just an amazing But when you when you add that, it only puts a finer point on what I'm saying, which is you have a very eclectic path to running for your first office. You you, you when you, when you, when you go, you study abroad in Hong Kong. This was under Amherst. I took a year outside of Hong Kong while I was in college, so abortion clinic, gopher semester, drop out again,

go back for a semester. Meet Bob Thurman, who was my Tibetan Buddhism professor, and he inspired me to study Chinese. This gravitation towards Asian studies was that something in your home or not really, I mean I just was there like a leaf in the wind here it was now was it was a time of big ideas. I mean, this is the era of the Ana Vietnam War movement, the civil rights movement. I was in demonstrations when I was fourteen, fifteen years old then in Washington, and there

was just a sense of tremendous possibility. It's a time it's hard to explain to people now and what I feel from the young people rising up today, this is the first time I felt that level of energy since then, that this is this reminds me of the late sixties and early seventies what we're seeing now. And look, it was also a time of you know, rebellion. We were all we grew our hairs along. We were you know, we were not really that interested in what our parents thought.

We thought they were squares and we were going to change the world. Your first job in law enforcement is as a deputy sheriff in Pittsfield. This is many years before you become the Attorney General of the many years and what was that experience life was it? Was it kind of lighthearted and not that serious or was being a sheriff in Pittsfield that have some It was dangers,

not much. I mean it was really you know, most of the folks in the jail were low level offenders, it was, but it was a huge lesson for me in you know, how the people at the bottom of the system function because these were mostly poor, uneducated people

who were in and out of the system. So yeah, and rural poor because back then there was we had moonshine runners in the jail from South South Berkshire County And was one guy who had been born in jail when his mother was doing time, and he and his brother were there, and so it was really it was a great lesson for me to see how the system operates for the poor and the uneducated. And before going to a place like Harvard Law School, I think it's

good to have a little dose to that. You know, your father, it was a big lawyer, corporate lawyer, and he defended a lot of corporations, whether they do good or bad, to influence the you have now. Yeah, But then you know, time went on and I got older and got you know, I got more appreciation for the older generation and what they had done. And he had the sense to step out of the shark lawyer scene

with still a lot of years to live. And the last twenty years of his life are really the best because he just did the public interests work he wanted w n y c. And was on the board of Nayral Opera. And so for him to have, having grown up the way he did, to live to see his son become the Attorney General in New York State, it was quite a leap in life. So when you ran for the state Senate, uh, that was your first race.

And I remember you reading or you had described me when I first ran into you back in those days, um, and you were in office, that it was it was a strangely Jerrymander district. Correct, Well, it got stranger after I was elected after one term in the Senate. Uh. I think I was regarded as such a pain in the neck that the leaders of the Senate redrew me into a sixty per Latino district anchored in Washington Heights, knowing that I had studied Chinese and college not Spanish.

So I've learned how to speak Spanish and had just a tremendously rich experience with the do you do good at Bloomber Bloomberg Spanish? I don't have. I don't have. He Spanish is not bad. His accent is challenging, but Mike does be pretty good Spanish. Um. But you know, I learned Dominican Spanish, and I bonded with a lot of the people in that community. Started going to the

Dominican Republic. Had all sorts of interesting collateral consequences. I discovered this lost Jewish community and found the archives of it. We're sitting in some storeroom down in the northern part of the Dominican Republic. Because and I learned this history that I had never known that. In seven um at the Big Avian Conference when they were talking about Jews trying to get out of Europe, the one country that said we'll take all of the ones, all the Jews

can get here was the Dominican Republican. That was a history that really had been lost. So we raised the money to bring send the archives from the Museum of Jewish Heritage down there and had a great exhibition. And then someone wrote a musical Cults Suo, which is the name of the community, with half Jewish kids and half Dominican kids performing. So a lot of great experiences in my due district and with that community to this day.

You know, I consider myself at Dominicano Autotivo. You know, you're a New Yorker who lived several different places during the course of your college years, but you're a New Yorker born and bred, and I'm wondering what it was like for you to go when you arrived at Albany to go to work. Well, I had, I had. After I got out of law school, I I clerked, and then I went into private practice and was an associate

and a partner in and a big law firm. So I had, you know, I went up there with that experience, and Albany was not a place that ran by any normal rules of business, and it was always rated by the Brennan Center and other uh, others who studied it in good government groups. Uh, you know, terrible in terms of transparency, terrible letters of democracy. Really, it was a fundament issure. It was a fundamentally anti democratic place when

I first got there. It has, it has improved quite a bit, but it's still got a long way to go in my my view. But it was what holds it back from really growing in the right direction. I think that, you know, I think that there has been a a long term attachment to the status quo. People resist change, and I think this year's election presents an opportunity for some really fundamental change. We've already had the whole series of senior senators, State senators announcing they're going

to retire. I think you're going to see new leadership there in a lot of quite a few new people elected, and I think that's going to provide the impetus for change. When I got there, it was remarkable because the leaders controlled everything. I mean, it was really this the majority leader of the State Senate. UH controlled whether you had a big suite of offices in the top floor of the legislative office building or you were in a basement.

And what they controlled at dictatorial control over what bills come to the floor. So groups would come up and say, will you support this bill, will you know, check the boxes on our checklist for environmental concerns or healthcare concerns or gun control. And it didn't really make that. I

realized after a while, didn't make any difference. I was debating bills, trying to change people's minds, and then I realized after a few months, no bill ever comes to the floor and loses it was all It was all staged in the back room. Yeah, it felt like, you know, I was in one of those phony governments in the Eastern European Block where you pretend you're the parliament, but the polit bureau is making the decisions behind the scenes. That's what all many was like when I got there.

The State Senate term is how long is it four years? Two years? The State Senate term is two years, and the Assembly term as two years too. I thought it was too sorry, I thought it was two and four, uh not two and six like the federal So it's a two year term for the and you served how many terms? I was there from night and then I ran we got elected ninety so from uh my last term, and then I ran for a G. You were you were? You were in the state Senate when you're refrag what's

the political chess board looked like them? When you're going to run for a G? Who was a G and was leaving? And why Cuomo was the a G? And he was leaving because of the bizarre circumstances of Elliot Spitzer becoming governor with overwhelming popularity and not lasting very long, and then David Patterson lasting a little bit longer. But I had certainly not expected the Attorney General's office to be open in but it opened up, and uh, well, what did you say to yourself? Well, I had I

had a seat in the Senate. The Democrats were in the majority of that term and would end being in the Senate, and the majority is a nice secure gig. But I at that point I really had. You know, I've been through everything in the Senate. I'd run the Senate Campaign Committee. I've been the floor leader for the Democrats, which was fun. Because we never got the bills till like an hour before session, so it was like doing improv. Was just you know, debating bills with while I was

learning about the laws. More so than any other bodies, legislative bodies are very much about seniority and about people developing relationships. A system. It's a system. It is a system and a lot and people get Uh. Most people want to fit in in the environment where you know they are at work. And people wanted to fit in, and you got a lot of I gotta When I was, I said, come from you know, the private sector, and I it was less patient with the old ways than

a lot of people. A lot of folks said, no, you gotta try and get along. You gotta gotta get along and settled down and that kind of thing. And it just wasn't me. So uh, I was ready to try something different and it was given up a very nice safe gig to take a shot at something. And they were and my first campaign was in retrospect, a terrific campaign. And people, how does that process begin? Meaning

like who do you call on the phone? Who do you contact and say I want to run for a g Well, how do you launch that process you contact who. There wasn't a very strong sense of the state party managing things at that point in history. There were a bunch of people who stepped up to run open seat, surprise, open seat, and it was it was it was really a primary and the primary was a good campaign. We had smart lawyers. Uh we had lots of debates. So not somebody you call because New York State is so

insular that way. Now there really there really wasn't as a boss at that point in time. Well, I would talk to people, and you know, I had relationships with folks who influence you to make that decision. Well, a lot of the different progressive groups that I had worked with over the years. UM I had been on the board of Citizen Action in New York and Citizen Action

and there that whole network constituency influence. Sure and I had and I had strong relationships with folks in the pro choice movement, LGBT equality movement, and uh I talked to people about the potential for the Attorney General's office and what I could do. I had done a lot of legal work. I had when uh I was back in private practice. Sometimes like to say, the money making face of my career ended when they made me the pro bono partner of the law firm and I started.

I realized how much more I like public interest work. So I've been the lawyer for niperg Straphangers campaign I had done. Uh, you know, I've been around in this sort of network of progressive activists and I had a basic support there. Yeah, and and I got a lot of encouragement and my colleagues and some of my colleagues in the Senate stepped up and really were very supportive, and that gave me the ability to make connections in other parts of the state. So it's uh. The campaign

was launched and it was wild. But I must say, who was your competitor? Uh, well, Kathleen Rice, who's now in Congress with the district attorney in Nasa County at the time, Richard Brodsky, an assembly member run ran a couple of good lawyers in private practice, And compared to every other campaign I've been in, it was certainly the most stimulating and challenging. The debates were great. People would remember say, you know, and the last time we debated,

you said this about the Securities Fraud Act. And then people would continue the conversations. So it was terrific that I won. I won the primary, and then the general election reverted to more typical American politics, which we didn't have much in the way of debates, and the Republican Republican opponent and who was the most Dan Donovan now congressman sort of attorney general. Did you want to be

compared to your predecessors? Yeah, The New York City Train General's Office is and has been for years before I even got there. You know, one of the most extraordinary public law firms in the country, and really going back to Louis Leftwitz and Bob Abrams it it really emerged as a pre eminent advocate for consumers, for protecting the most vulnerable among us, and an impressive tradition up through Spitzer and Cuomo and and you know, making law and

showing leadership. So I took over an office that had a good tradition. And but what was someone doing that you wanted that you didn't think they should be doing it? What were they not doing they should be doing? What were the sins of oe and comission? How did you want to change the office? Well, I mean, I having spent more time than my predecessors in private practice. I really wanted to use the lessons I had from the private sector. I wanted to have the best public law

firm in the country. I wanted to make sure that we had we improved training, that we tore down the silos between different bureaus and established a really productive, aggressive,

but collegial atmosphere. And it's just been an amazing experience building it up because you know, this great funny conversation with with Andrew, who's going to become governor, and said, well, I'm not gonna take everybody from here, because you know, I Elliott brought all these prosecutors and thought prosecutors could run everything. And then he got to Albany and realized there was nobody there and a lot of the agency. So he came back and took a lot more people.

And at first that was a problem because we, you know, we had to staff up quickly. It's really remarkable in the government the United States. You get elected in November, then you have six weeks including Thanksgiving and Christmas, to hire all these people you've never met, and then you entrust your career to them. Former New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman. Coming up, we talk about hashtag me too and New York state politics. With his resignation, new York

loses a Democratic Party leader. Schneiderman understood before most members of his party the importance of state politics and its relationship to federal politics. This is Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the thing now. More from my conversation last Thursday with former New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman. Do you think that the friction between Cuomo and do Blasio is hurting either the state government or particularly the

city government. I don't know how much it's it's hurting. I think that, you know, I try to work with everybody, and you know, I think it's more productive to try and get along and find common ground, and uh so, you know, I encourage I encourage everyone to do that. You don't think it's hurt in the city, you know it, It maybe in some let's put it. Let's put it

this way. I think it would probably be better for everyone to try and work together and find whatever common ground we can, because quite honestly, we're in a moment of history where the biggest challenge we face from the federal government and so um, you know, it's a good time to be putting aside other more parochial issues. And

there are people banding together remarkably. Uh, some folks who might disagree on a lot of things, but understand the level of threat we're under to our constitutional structure and the rule of law. And we have I'm very proud of the work that we've done assembling a coalition to really form the core of the legal resistance to bad

public policies that spew out of Washington. Once the update on the estate on the writing off your state income taxes, what's the update on Well, we've we've they've passed some laws in all many to create some workarounds. They will be challenged and we'll we'll see where they will be will or they'll be challenged by some you know, taxpayer

group or something, and I'll defend defending them in court. Uh. Look, that's the The tax bill was a dagger in the back of New York State and other states, states and other states, and we have to deal with it. Yeah. Look, it's it's it's an important thing to understand the context we're in. We're in a historical moment where their efforts underway to undermine a lot of the basic components in my view of our constitutional structure, and this is a

test of our the federalist constitutional fabric we have. State and local governments have tremendous power reserved to them under our constitutional system. And this is a time when you're seeing it's an ear of what I call progressive federalism, where you're seeing states eyes up. And in my view, the coalition of state attorneys general that I'm a part of is more of more of an effective check on

access as the administration than the Democrats in Congress. They try to do what they can, but they're in the minority. I hope they'll be in the majority. But over the last year and a half, my office and other attorneys general's office is really emerged as a bulwark of our constitutional structure against bad public policies that spew out of

Washington like to breede from some toxic volcano. Is it time in your mind having lived in New York and you're in New York, but you worked in Albany for the state to give back control of the city to the city. By and large, the city runs itself. But it's important to understand, and this is really important to understanding the Trump era for everyone to get the basic unit of the United States of America is and has always been the state. The states created the federal government,

States create local governments. Every state in the Union has ultimate power over local governments and that is something that can of it has figured out a long time ago and invested a tremendous amount in taking over state governments. As of the election, Republicans control thirty four of the fifty governorships, sixty nine and the nine nine state legislative chambers, and that gave them a huge advantage, which I think was a factor that people do not paid enough attention

to in the loss in the Trump Clinton election. States control who votes. A dozen states passed voter suppression laws between fourteen that cost Hillary Clinton many more votes. And I think that there were in a period now districting, they control reapportionment, they and so, and state legislatures are the bench for Congress, so it's there's a tremendous advantage there. Now, I feel that there is a transformation going on in among the electorate. People are getting more active and people

are focusing in more on state issues. I mean, we had a special election in a swing state Senate seat April four in Westchester, and they had thousands of volunteers us to run santy campaigns we never had. We didn't have hundreds of volunteers, much less thousands of volunteers. So I feel that we're in a time where there's a political movement rising up. And this is the first time

since I was a kid. As I said that, I felt the level of energy we had in the late sixties and early seventies, and I think it's a great thing for the country. But the fight is going to really be much more at the state level. Um that we will fight to control Congress, but the real battle is taking back state governments of the governor has given this mayor of the autonomy that he wants, not always, but but you know, if you look at it, there

really are not that many major points of contention. I think it gets it gets a lot of attention because of the press. Sense is the sort of personal animosity, But in terms of public policy, people work together as day to day people work together a lot more than

than many things. Yeah, you, in my lifetime, one of the things that was always among the headline grabbing activities of the States Attorney Attorney General was fighting organized crime, and I'm wondering, is organized crime pretty much dead in New York now? Is the mafia gone? Well, no, there's still organized crime, and we have an organized crime task Force that works with mostly with smaller jurisdictions where they

don't have the resources to deal with it. There are a lot of different It's much more diffuse than it was. You don't have the old style five families controlling everything going on anymore. But you have a lot of gangs and a lot of multi ethnic gangs, different different you know. The issues that we deal with now are things like drug trafficking and gun trafficking. We have done more work on issues related to guns in the office has ever done in the past. But yeah, they're still gang activity.

It's not like the old the old Godfather. Yeah, and that that I understand. I mean, an obvious subject to talk about in a city like New York. But I was told there's a kind of kind of an embargo on this for you about talking about the me too. You've had for enough to talk about that subject, correct. We have an investigation into the Weinstein companies that are involved with a variety of matters related to that, so you can't touch on that. I mean, look, the movement

is extraordinary. I think it's changing the conversation. It is a part of what I see is this moment of social transformation and of the emergence of a new political movement. But it's, uh, you know, that's a whole other podcast. Do you think that the an noown's been by Cynthia Nixon that she's going to run? I mean, many many people feel that a lot of women are coming to the fork because this is at the time that there's always been a relatively low percentage of people running for

office who are women. I mean, comparatively speaking, it's it's it's improved over the years, but people really feel that now as a uniquely special time. I mean, I know Cynthia, I've worked with Cynthia. If you work in this business, you worship Cynthia as one of the most talented actress is alive. I mean, she really is this phenomen the talented woman to such integrity and honesty just as an actress. I just have to say that she's just so remarkable.

But most people agree in the Money Talks realm, he's so loaded with money. Uh does that alone? You know, this is a very quixotic thing for her. Why do you think she would do that? I don't know. I do think that we're seeing a lot more new people running for office than we have seen before. I think that it's on traditional people, nontraditional people who haven't worked their way up through the political system. I mean, in

some places we have some congressional districts where we haven't. Honestly, it seems like we have too many candidates Democrats who all want to run from some extraordinary backgrounds. But I think it's a part of this change. I have look, I worked for years to try and get people involved in politics. When I was in the State Senate with overwhelmingly democratic state Republicans still held the majority, I tried to get major national Democratic donors to help us out.

No one was interested in the state Senate, and that has transfer formed since Trump got elected. I feel that this was what it took to get people awake off the sidelines, energized the proliferation of all these hundreds of indivisible groups all over New York State. I meet with them and other organizations, and the all of this new infrastructure that has risen up in the last year and a half is phenomenal, and it is we are starting to get to the point where we can actually compete

with the Conservatives. And there amazing infrastructure they built over thirty years. They invest first in infrastructure. They will make sure the American political infrastructure that Harry's Foundation, the American no political infrastructure, that's right, the American Enterprise Institute, Competitive Enterprise Institute. They've created this great infrastructure. We now see in a very different way because it's much more decentralized.

The emergence of a political infrastructure that can counterbalance that. And people are interested in running for office, people in supporting candidates for office again. State Senate special election April. Democrats didn't used to even show up for special elections. Thousands of volunteers and and I wipe out victory. So I think, who's the head of the state party now, Well, the governors are ahead of the state party. There were a chairman of there's no persons, yes Byron Brown. The

micro buffalo is a chair of Judy Hope. I worked with Judy Hope and she was running when she was when she was the chair to get Chuck elected to get Hillo reelected, and and look, it's it's a fascinating time. And increasingly, you know, I'm doing work for candidates from other states and helping speaking at fundraisers in New York for candidates from other states. A lot more interest in

state races than there ever was. We got terrific people running for attorney general and states around the country, and special initiative as you just relating to what you just said, Um of the Democratic Attorney General's Association to recruit more women to run. So I think that there is there's a lot of energy out there, a lot of desire to have non traditional candidates run for office, and it's a good thing. I want to just do a couple of quick ones and try to get a quick answer

to these. Is there anything you think can be done? Is is there something you guys are working on now that can affect the homeless issue here in the city, Because you do well public policy that way, don't you.

We do because we have a Tenant Protection Task Force and one of the things we are working on, and this is in conjunction with both the city and state agency all working together to try and ensure that housing is supposed to be affordable, rent regulated is maintained and that there there are not unscrupulous landlords trying to gain the system force people out of their homes so they

can take take apartments out of rent regulated status. So preserving affordable housing is an ongoing struggle because the upside is so huge, the difference now between a rent regulated apartment and if you can get it out into the free market. It creates a strong incentive for an unscrupulous landlord to do that. But I think you can see a lot of different federal and state actors, including our office,

engaged in the project. One of the challenges we face now like is that with the federal government in the hands of people who are committed to a very radical form of conservatism, you're not going to see big housing programs or big transportation programs coming out of the federal government. So the challenge again falls to those of us at the state level more and more to fill that gap.

We say in my office often that our three tasks in the Trump era are to fill in where the federal government falls back if they won't enforce not sitting around waiting for Jeff Sessions to start enforcing civil rights laws, we enforce civil rights right, we fill in where they

fall back. We fight back when the federal government is attacking the people we represent, whether it's sanctuary cities or withdrawing protections from LGBT students, failure to enforce environmental laws, and tided efforts by Pruitt and a company to dial back environmentalism. We sued them. The Times did the story in December, marking my one legal action against the administration,

and we're way past that by now. And we are joined by other attorneys general, lawyers for local governments, public interest lawyers, lawyal firms doing pro bona work. Law schools are sending us their students. The legal resistance that is developed over last year and a half is something I'm very proud of. What what with that? The third one you were saying and the third the third one fill in fight back, and the third one is we have

to show the way to move ahead. We can't just be against something and smart progressive governance is going to be modeled at the state level, So models for reforming the criminal justice system are going to happen at the state Level's mass incarceration an issue for you, It's a huge issue. For me, since I worked in the prison

between college and law school, I've been and I watched. Uh. You know, let's go from a country with maybe three or four hundred thousand people in jails and prisons all over the America to have two point five million a decade or so ago. And now the tide is turning very dramatically, and in New York we are bringing our prison population down while the crime rate goes down. That's the future. This is a failed act, is a failed

national experiment in mass incarceration. It doesn't make us safer, and I think that people are waking up to that. Most Americans think there are too many people in prison. Now. Whatever the Conservatives push on this issue, I think they're losing that war. Three quick bullet points. One is now that I have the Attorney General of the State of New York here explained. Does Trump have a pardon power over people convicted of state crimes and state courts? Uh? No,

the president can pardon for federal offenses. Uh. You can't pardon for state crimes. But because New York has a the most restrictive double jeopardy statute in the country, that means that if someone gets to the eve of trial and the President pardons them. Under New York's statute, we would not be able to go after them for a state.

We have proposed to uh modify the double jeopardy statute has been modified quite a few times in the past to enable us to pursue people who we don't want to interfere with the regular presidential clemency importance that come usually after someone has served a lot of time in prison. But were we are concerned that we should change the statu you to prevent essentially preemptive partons, partons where someone

doesn't ever serve a day in jail. So it doesn't serve a day in jail, but it gets often because of the way that our statute operates. It functionally gives Trump the ability to block state prosecutions as well as federal prosecutions, and that's something that we're out to change. So we've got legislation in the Assembly and the Senate, we've got sponsors, and we're moving aggressively to try and get that past the session. You've got a myriad of responsibility.

You've got such a complex job. What are there ever time that material comes across your desk, A case and issue something that really moves you, that really is important to you. And I called it the moment where you turn to your office, close the door and you like sit there with a file and to start reading and reading and just immerse yourself in something is deeply personal to you. What would be an example of that, you

would site, Oh yeah, what issue? There are cases that that come our way that where the facts are really devastating. And you know, look some of these UH cases that we take on and my capacity as a special prosecutor when UH un armed civilians die in contact with police officers. A lot of these cases are tragedies. Whether the cops did anything wrong or not. There are people who didn't it didn't deserve to die. And and most of the

circumstances reflect poverty, often drug and alcohol abuse. Just again reminding me of my days back in the jail. But there are a lot of people living in really tragic circumstances. Cases that relate to UH children UH move me deeply when we get cases where you have UH child abuse, we have trafficking cases. I have to say that the our our inquiry into what happened at the Weinstein companies was like taking a taking a swim in a sewer,

and we still that's still an ongoing matter. So there are cases that get to me personally and affect me. I think the the nice thing about this work is very often we have a lot of creative lawyers working for me and incredibly proud of our team. We can think of ways to address issues that sometimes allude to others. We try and be as creative as possible. That means sometimes like we take on cases that are hard to win. But I'm not someone who is a prosecutor looks to

have a batting average. We're willing to try some things that are that are harder in order to do justice. But we're the oversight board or whatever it is. The oversight group here in New York with the police Department announced that they want to try to have more transparency and hass been this back and forth with them. Uh, what influence does the State Attorney General operation have on

the Police Department of the City of New York. There's is no way you can affect that the city agents get in there with everything that in terms of contracts and everything has worked out to a fairly well with the police in terms of what they're what they're expected to do and not do in terms of transparency. Yeah, I mean that's not really something that's in our wheelhouse. We have to leave that to the city. Yeah, we do,

and we work with the NYPD a lot. We deal with them in our Organized Crime Task Force and others. We're working with them on gun issues and other things. And it's and as as law enforcement agencies go in the United States, it's an incredible agency. But you know, they're always struggles about, uh, the need for transparency. And I think we've made a lot of tremendous progress. I'm keeping in mind we cut stops in first by in

New York City and crime continues to go down. I mean this is this is the safest big city in America. And that reflects a lot of good work by a lot of people for many years. I'm told that there's steam coming out of the ears of your staff, your chief of staff here. But I'm assuming that in order for you to move elsewhere to the next place, to have your public service destiny, something has to happen to somebody else. There's only three statewide jobs and make sense

for you, Is it's safe to say that? And no, look, I think people happy to stay where you are for the time being. Yeah, I mean, I'm running for re election now and after that spect to run a great campaign, moving around the state and helping down ballot races. And then look, I'm I'm very much committed to continuing to build and lead the legal resistance to what's going on in Washington. I'm very inspired to be a state actor in the seri of progressive and for the next couple

of years and then, uh, we'll see what happens. I'm I want to get us through this four years of Trump and Pence and then uh, and then at that point, I'm really playing with house money. We've got to get through this period of national trauma and I can play a role. It's beyond anything I ever would have expected, and h I'm pleased to be doing it. We will never know what kind of impact Eric Schneiderman could have

had on the elections. His resignation from his post as New York Attorney General is effective as of five pm today, Tuesday May eight. This is Alec Baldwin, and you're listening to Here's the thing