Transcript of the WABC spot is below. See original post here
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Announcer
Listen, all you New Yorkers.
Announcer
You mean taxi?
Announcer
Okay, they were looking around. This is the 77 WABC Minicast.
John Catsimatidis
Sunday morning. With us is Governor David Patterson like he is every Sunday morning. Governor, what makes us this Sunday different? Do we have more problems or less problems this Sunday?
Gov. David Paterson
I think we have more problems, John, because it’s Sunday morning, but the shockwaves from the press conference held by the United States Director of National Intelligence, Kelsi Gabbard, last Monday, is still the talk of the nation and also the talk of all of the organizations and agencies that are designed to protect this country. In her press conference, she lambasted former President Obama and would not come out and say that he should be tried for treason, but she described some of what went on in 2016 during the campaign between President Trump and former Senator Hillary Clinton. She said there was treasonous activity to prevent Trump from winning the election by associating him with Vladimir Putin, who he has always had a good relationship with. But what the Obama administration’s report that that also involves a bipartisan activity on the part of the House and Senate in 2017, they were basically saying that Putin was trying to help Trump win the election. The reality is that now a lot of that report has basically been debunked by new information, and this is why the director felt she should speak at this particular time. The response from the Democrats, predictably, was that none of our allies will ever be able to trust any intelligence information since we’re leaking it in press conferences.
Gov. David Paterson
I thought that was a weak response. The response I would like to have heard was to reaffirm whatever it was that they believed in the first place. For once, let’s have some facts behind it rather than accusations.
John Catsimatidis
The truth is, I’m not sure. I know what the truth I don’t know how we get down to the bottom of it. I mean, intelligence agencies, I think they all lie once in a while.
Gov. David Paterson
Well, to protect their secrecy, they lie a lot.
John Catsimatidis
Well, the old joke was you sneak in one lie in between two truths.
Gov. David Paterson
Yeah, it’s that thing. What’s interesting about this particular situation was that the committee that looked into the campaign in 2016, that was the Bipartisan Committee in the House, basically came to the conclusion that there were some highly questionable activities that went on. But that committee, Basically, he’s never really said anything since that time. Now this information about what may have been going on, and Gabbard tied it directly to President Obama. She even said at one point, I heard this press conference, John, that President Obama lied. Now, that’s a pretty damning thing to say about the next president. Well, I know of an incident- Is it more damning than breaking into a a former president’s home in Mar-a-Lago and have the agents go through his wife’s underwear? Yeah, that’s pretty bad. Certainly, when it came to President Obama, I could cite you three or four concrete situations where he misrepresented the truth and then tried to come back and say, Oh, I’m I’m sorry about this, that, and the other thing, my people were misinformed. This is when he became President in the beginning of 2009, and I was governor at the same time.
John Catsimatidis
Understood. I’m worried about our country, governor?
Gov. David Paterson
Well, you have a very strong right to feel that way, and a lot of it is backed up by some of the evidence that’s coming out in some of these reports. Listen, I am sure that if we dug deep enough, there’s fault on the part of both parties. But in this particular case, that can’t be the answer to this situation. There clearly was some report or investigation that concluded that President Trump had extra help in 2016 when he was running for President from the Russians. Until you could make that accusation stick, it’s hard to criticize some of the reports that have come up in the last few years that basically contradict what was found in 2016. Other than saying, Oh, we’re just letting intelligence out and foreigners are going to know it, I think what we should be doing is cleaning house and making sure that we bring in people who really are not partisan at all to investigate what’s going on or it’s going to continue.
John Catsimatidis
Well, governor, I pray for the truth. I think the American people deserve the truth. I think the American people, no matter how good or bad it is, can take the truth. Let’s keep talking and let’s pray that we know the truth.
Gov. David Paterson
Glad to join you Thank you so much.
John Catsimatidis
And we’ll catch up real soon.