Laura Coates interviews former governor David A. Paterson on CNN regarding President Biden’s position on continuing to run. July 11, 2024. Original story here.
LC Let’s continue this conversation right now with former democratic governor of new York, David Paterson. He is skeptical that president Biden will in fact be the victor come this November, Governor Paterson, Thank you so much for joining me this evening. I wonder, Governor, did President Biden dispel any of your concerns or doubts about his political viability in November?
DP: Well, I think that he demonstrated a lot of contrition this evening, even referring to some of his gaffes and the debate as stupid mistakes. I think that the sacrifice that he made ignited a passion for him from the audience, they wound up rooting for him because he was really trying to be honest about it. But what is an interesting aspect of this is that it has been two weeks since the debate ended and yet Donald Trump was leading in the polls by one percentage point at that time. He’s now leading by two percentage points. So that tells me that most democrats are so afraid of what President Trump would do to the country that they would probably rather vote for Joe Biden in any form, rather than risk the consequences.
LC: Well, that in some ways echoes the sentiment of George Clooney op-ed yesterday about this thought that he saying that leadership should stop health type of delaying people. They did not see what they saw. And yet he’s been out almost 20 times now without similar moments of concern as the debate raised. Now, different ones have happened, but governor, you know, firsthand what it’s like to face public and private calls from your own party to step aside and you chose to end your own reelection campaign because of a distraction and potentially posed for your administration. What are the lessons that you think President Joe Biden ought to take from your political experience?
DP: I think that you have to put—in my case it was the state in his case It’s the country—ahead of your own thoughts. It was disappointing to see that when he was on Morning Joe three days ago, they said that they were powerful house democrats and senate democrats who were worried about his ability to win and he said he didn’t care what they thought. That’s when I realized that he had over personalized the situation. In other words, that it was getting to him and the worst thing also is that the people who are supporting him, the people in his inner circle are just making one mistake after the other between whether or not he saw a doctor, whether or not he got any rest, how he had jet-lag even though last time then on a plane was 11 days before, and then the worst one of all, he had a bad night. I’ve heard that so much I don’t even know what it means. 150 years ago general Custer had a bad night and that’s a bad night. But I just don’t think that President Biden is really focusing on what the best end would be to this for the country. If he believes that Trump is so dangerous he’s got to reconsider what he’s doing right now.
LC: So, do you think that reconsideration should result in him stepping aside?
DP: Well, once again, even when he talks about stepping aside, he says, only the almighty God could make him step aside. I didn’t know that he was so much better than the rest of us. These are the kinds of statements that demonstrate that the person is not actually in touch with themselves and it makes it harder for them to be honest with other people. That’s why I really was pleasantly surprised. That he was hard on himself in his remarks tonight and answering the questions from the media.
LC: Former governor David Paterson, thank you so much for joining me this evening. Just to think, a man like President Biden, who has said, judge me not against the almighty but by the alternative, your take is really quite astute. Thank you so much.
DP: Thank you.