The quality of life in New York has slipped.

0:00 Speaker 1 With us. His Sunday morning is Governor David Patterson, and he has his ear to the ground. He knows what’s going on in our city, a state, a country, A Governor Patterson. There’s so many things that are a lot of moving pieces. Give us your interpretation of what do you think is happening.

0:23 Speaker 2 Well, one of the pieces that’s not moving, John is the continued discussion about whether or not President Biden should stay in the race, and also how much he’s staying in the race puts the Democratic Party, not just him, but the other people running on the ticket in a lot of trouble. And if you notice this week, you’ve

0:46 heard very little from a former president by the name of Donald Trump. And when Donald Trump makes a lot of noise and aggravates a lot of people, that’s one thing. But I think in this particular case, his silence indicates that why say something when everything’s going my way and the Democrats are all over themselves. I would have handled

1:11 this situation very differently than President Biden’s group, and he had, I would not have come out with all of these excuses about he had a cold, he took a trip to where did he go? He went to California, he went to Italy, and of course he went to the situation where we were celebrating the D Day, and now I.

1:43 Speaker 1 Was in camp. He was in Camp David, though for a week.

1:46 Speaker 2 He was in Camp David, apparently for eleven days after he came back from Normandy. And really, you know, you really can’t start talking about those kinds of things because it’s It’s something I’ve always told people. Some people, we know when you’re in trouble, stop attacking everyone. The best thing that he could have done was to have gotten

2:10 up on Friday and said, you know something that not only was one of the most terrible debates I’ve ever seen, but in this case, I was in it. I will have to tell you that I did have a cold, but there’s no excuse for a performance that did not carry the purpose of the Democratic Party the way I did.

2:32 I’m hoping in the next couple of months people will see that it was an aberration. It was something that just happened, But I take full responsibility for everything that happened. When you do that, the humility, the sacrifice you’re making by doing it, it ignites compassion. It’s hard to attack a person who tells you, you don’t have to tell me.

2:53 I screwed up, I said so, And I think night other side, what do you.

2:59 Speaker 1 Say he said, He’d just say I had a bad night. I’m okay, you.

3:03 Speaker 2 Know, yeah, exactly. But now they every day there’s a different story about something that actually happened. And now when they asked him if he had a cold, had he seen a doctor, the answers no. I mean it’s like every time they think they’re helping the situation, they’re making it worse. And I really don’t have an opinion one

3:26 way or the other as to whether or not he should drop out of the race, but I just think that this handling was really very poor. And I know that the former president’s dying to jump on, but he’s smart enough to know not to.

3:42 Speaker 1 And the other thing is, I mean he doesn’t look physically well. I mean that lasting for four years, I mean, you’re voting for Kamala Harris or president.

3:54 Speaker 2 Well, the vice president’s poll numbers are six points below the president’s, So I know that there are people who just want to install her. If he leaves and go with her, that would be the easiest thing to do.

4:09 But we are talking about winning and his debate performance really has put a hindrance on the belief that he was winning, because remember, he was ahead in some of the battleground states and they were very close. You know.

4:26 Speaker 2 Now you start to see not only the poll numbers but also the contributions going former President Trump’s way, and in order to get out of that, something kind of dramatic has to happen. And remember, President Trump, his access Hollywood’s speech was only three and a half weeks before an election that he wound up winning, But a couple

4:50 of days after that you would have thought he was as dead as a doornail. But what he did is he just continued to campaign and continue to bring his message to the people and didn’t spend too much time on it. And I think that’s part of the problem that you know, I know, people have been accused of things,

5:10 and they attack the people who accuse them, and every time they attack them, they widen the story that’s being told. And I think this is something you want to try to shut down.

5:23 Speaker 1 Yeah, correctly, who is on the bench. Who are Democrats looking to if President Biden steps down? Who are Democrats looking to for leadership?

5:39 Speaker 2 Well? I think that the internal Democratic Party and Congress and Clyburn and the like would want to run Vice President Kamala Harris. I think there are others who feel that you now need a new presidential candidate who picked their own vice presidential candidate, So they’re thinking about people like Gavin Newsom, And you know, I think it’s the

6:11 mayor of Kansas City, who has a great deal of resources, so he could put a campaign together very quickly. I’m blanking on his name. I may have been blanking on the city. But the issue really is that it would be very hard to put somebody in and give them three months to try to win a national election. I mean,

6:31 that would really be an incredible outcome, and it would probably require that President Trump makes some huge mistakes in the next three months that he made back in two thousand, But I doubt it’s going to happen again. Back in two thousand, his debate performance was poor, and then he said he had COVID, and while he had COVID, he

6:56 went to a rally and all these things that were just kind of obtuse, and I think that that gave Biden the opening to swing right past him then. But I don’t think that’s gonna happen the second time you’re gonna beat me, You’re gonna have to go against a Donald Trump who’s playing with the House’s money right now,

7:13 and that would, I think, is going to be a difficult task for President Biden or whomever would come off the bench and take his place.

7:25 Speaker 1 We got about thirty seconds left. What else do you want to tell the American people?

7:30 Speaker 2 Well, I think the great thing about this whole thing is that we have an American democracy. And so you know, Joe Biden was not taken off the ticket immediately because he didn’t perform well. And Donald Trump wasn’t installed and president into the presidency because his opponent had a bad night.

7:47 So while these things are controversial, they’re all part of a plan made on this weekend. You know, of the Declaration of Independence and inevitably the founding of this nation. And we have stuck to the principles that founded us. So, you know, how matter how you feel about this particular race, you should really feel good about being an American governor.

8:11 Speaker 1 David Pattison, have a great Fourth of July weekend, and we’ll catch up with you again real soon.

8:17 Speaker 2 Well, I’m in the last day of it so so far, so good.