Douglas Schoen is a political analyst – pollster – author – and commentator. He is a political analyst for Fox News and a columnist for Newsmax. Founding partner and principal strategist for Penn – Schoen and Berland. Schoen has worked for leading candidates including Hillary Clinton Schoen is the author of many books the latest just out – new Book: Collapse
Transcript
John C.: Good Morning, America. This is the CATS Round Table. John Catsimatidis here. Washington, that’s what we’re all talking about. With us this morning is Doug Schoen. Doug Schoen represented President Bill Clinton, Mayor Mike Bloomberg. You represented many foreign leaders. He represented British Prime Minister Tony Blair and four Israeli Prime Ministers. So he knows a little bit about politics and he has a new book. The book is called Collapse: A World in Crisis and the Urgency of American Leadership. Good Morning Doug, how are you?
Doug Schoen: John, good morning to you. I’m doing fine. I wish the country was doing as well as you and I appear to be.
John C.: Well, the good news is our economy’s doing better than ever before, but politics-wise, boy, everybody’s at each other’s throat. I mean, you’ve known Washington for a long time. Tell me how you feel.
Doug Schoen: I feel that we are, as I said in one of my earlier books, we’re hopelessly divided. We are literally fighting among ourselves and we lack a consensus so that, in that new book you reference, Collapse: The urgency of American leadership, I say, if we’re fighting among ourselves, how can we focus as a nation on our problems, whether it be with the Russians, the Chinese, or rogue nations like Venezuela, Iran, North Korea. And you know, the other thing that I see, John, is that we used to believe that politics ended at the national borders and we were all Americans. Now we’re Democrats and Republicans and we are divided in fighting, which hurts our country and hurts the values I know you, and I’d like to think myself, hold dear.
John C.: Yes, we do. This new book that you have, A World in Crisis and Urgency of the American Leadership, is America leading right now? I mean, President Trump and, like we’ve both talked about, he’s got his own peculiarities, but none of the dictators out there would ever challenge him because, I guess, they know you’ll come back at them double coupons, don’t you think?
Doug Schoen: Well, I do like to think that. I’m a little worried that he’s been a little too close to the Russian Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin. I’m sorry, President Vladimir Putin. But that being said, I believe that my party, the Democrats are really standing for nothing. I mean, I don’t see any leadership from the Democrats. All I see are apology tours to atone for alleged sins in the past. But you know, in the Middle East where obviously, you said kindly, I’ve worked for four Israeli prime ministers, the stance with Israel that the Administration has taken has got to be something that all American Jews and Americans who love freedom, have to applaud.
John C.: A President that both me and you admired, Bill Clinton, moderate middle road, true leader. The Democratic National Committee has told him to stay home, which outraged me and I’m sure it outraged you. Why does he listen? Why doesn’t he just go out and say, you know, I’m taking leadership.
Doug Schoen: Well, I think, unfortunately, the party has passed him by, both for political reasons, as we were discussing, and you know, some personal issues that unfortunately remain unresolved. And to my way of thinking, you can embrace his ideas and his policies, without embracing the man. But candidly, this is not the Democratic Party that I grew up in or you grew up in, it is a party that is veering really towards socialism in ways I don’t think we ever would have believed even five, ten years ago.
John C.: Well, it goes beyond socialism or even, you know, you have a AOC who, single handedly, along with a few other Democrats in the borough of Queens, lost that Amazon, a $27 billion contract. New York City lost out on that, and it’s horrifying that a few crazy individuals can lose out that much to the rest of the public.
Doug Schoen: John, I couldn’t agree more. Amazon represented the Renaissance of part of Northern Queens. It represented an economic engine, job creator, and the fact that people like AOC ran them out is a tragedy for this city we both love. I know that. And I just find that everything that the left does is illogical and frequently irrational.
John C.: Now around Washington, what’s happening now is the new Attorney General, and there’s word that the Inspector General, et cetera, et cetera, are going after some of the people that created the so called false reports. What do you hear from your end?
Doug Schoen: Well, when I hear from my end is that the Horowitz Report is going to be devastating. That, you know, it didn’t make sense to me that Secretary Clinton would get a complete pass over the Steele Dossier, how it was used in the [inaudible 00:06:00] of court, et cetera. It was a political document, after all, the Steele Dossier. We still don’t know where the emails, where the 35,000 emails that disappeared. She destroyed devices, [leaks in 00:06:14] her system. And again, I’m not saying prosecute her, I’m just saying Donald Trump was subject to two years of investigation, an exhaustive report. Democrats now for their own reasons, are planning more investigations. Don’t you think we ought to know what the other side was doing, just to be fair, if nothing else?
John C.: I, Doug Schoen, I agree with you 110% and I think the American people are saying that let’s get the truth from both sides and let the pebbles fall where they may.
Doug Schoen: I couldn’t agree more. I think we got to be fair in this country, and let’s put it this way, the whole deal with Loretta Lynch going on Bill Clinton’s plane, Jim Comey doing something unprecedented with his press conference in July of 2016 and reopening the investigation at the end of the year. None of this makes any sense. We still don’t have adequate explanation and, as I think you would agree, and I certainly feel, let’s get to the bottom of it. Let’s be fast and let’s know what really happened in campaign 2016 and make sure it never happens again.
John C.: Oh, we agree 120%. And let’s just tell the American people where to buy your book again, the book is called, Collapse: A World in Crisis, Urgency of American Leadership, by Doug Schoen. So I guess you can look it up on Amazon by your name.
Doug Schoen: Absolutely.
John C.: And well, Doug Schoen, thank you for coming onto our show this Sunday morning and-
Doug Schoen: John, it is always a pleasure to speak with someone who is wise, sagacious, and most importantly to me, agrees with me on most things. So, consider it a great pleasure and an honor. Thank you.
John C.: This is the CATS, this is the CATS Round Table. We’ll be right back.
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