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Part One:
We speak with David Levinthal, federal politics editor for the Center for Public Integrity, about Tom Steyer’s entry into the Democratic presidential race, and the tremendous advantage this billionaire has in being able to fund his entire campaign with his own money. We also discuss the opposite to Steyer’s approach to financing a presidential campaign: Elizabeth Warren reported that she raised $19 million in the last quarter, averaging only $27 per donor. She is showing that she focuses primarily on ordinary people and is not beholden to the 1% with their enormous wealth.
Part Two:
We talk with Bill Curry, two-time Democratic nominee for Governor of Connecticut and a White House advisor in Bill Clinton’s administration. How can any of the Democratic candidates effectively handle Pres. Trump’s constant lies when one of them runs against him in the general election? We agree that it’s important to call out every single lie for what it is, and to demonstrate the true facts backed up by actual documentation. E.g., show the President that it was his own DHS’s Inspector General — not the “fake news New York Times” — that reported all the human rights violations committed by our country against migrant families.
We also note that it is counter-productive for one Democratic candidate to use race as a wedge issue against another Democratic candidate. While that tactic might have short-time benefits for the individual candidate, in the long run, it only benefits Donald Trump. Nor is it helpful for former VP Biden to refer incessantly to his close relationship with “Barack.” It has historically been a sign of disrespect for a white person to call an African-American adult by his first name.
