United states of scandal is next for our country that bills itself as the worlds oldest democracy we sure do love a strong man from Teddy Roosevelt all the way up to our reality, and i get it. In an age where Congress Approval rating hovers somewhere around sewer rats, we wanna vote for the politician who can finally just get things done. That was Eliot Spitzer to a t. But when new yorkers sent the sheriff of wall street to the governors mansion, we all learned the hard way that White Knights can have dark secrets. Spitzer was caught breaking his own sex work laws, a level of hypocrisy we could never forget. Eliot spitzer blazed a trail through new york that had him in Spitting Distance of the white house, right up until the moment he set himself on fire. This will sound like a setup for a bad joke, but bear with me. [cheering] the change you seek, the new york you dream of begins tonight. [cheering] so theres this honest politician named Eliot Spitzer, a white knight, new york official with a reputation so pristine, they called him mr. Clean. He rose up the ranks from Attorney General to governor by taking down the mafia as well as wall street banks. These are people who are stealing money. They may not do it with a gun, but the result is just as criminal. He won the hearts of minds of new yorkers as if he were derek jeter made out of thincrust pizza, more trusted than the times, more untouchable than the subway handrails. He was such a hopeful person for the people. Now is our time to build a government that exists not for those who hold an office but for those who pay the bill. He probably could have been a great governor. He could have been president. He tripped on his dick. Governor Eliot Spitzer is under investigation for allegedly meeting with a prostitute at a washington, d. C. , hotel. Cooper Eliot Spitzer, linked to an alleged Prostitution Ring. Reporter the affidavit alleges the Prostitution Ring operated under the name of Emperors Club vip. Reporter 2 one official says that spitzer is referred to as Client Number 9. I can remember the New York Times breaking the story and literally saying, holy shit. The tabs loved it, but all the serious papers loved it, too, because it was Eliot Spitzer, the sheriff of wall street, somebody who was doing good, doing right, and hes a hero. There was just this, like, can this possibly be true . It had so many of the elements of the classic Tabloid Scandal that it almost felt like it was poorly written. I am resigning from the office of governor. Eliot came out, and he made this face that we called the pucker. [camera shutter clicking] that image of him was used over and over and over. It was just the perfect encapsulation of, like, i used to be this, like, highflying king of shit, and now im just, like, eating shit. Thank you very much. Tapper far from being remembered as the man who cleaned up new york, though, spitzer will be forever known for nearly swallowing his own face, as he was outed as one of the biggest hypocrites in modern politics. That is what infuriates people more than anything i mean, the fact that this guy was talking about ethics and morality. Even those who say prostitution is not a big deal point to the hypocrisy in these allegations. The hypocrisy thats present here is going to be his his downfall. And when a politician obsessed with being a dogooder gets caught with his pants down, the Late Night Material is endless. Ive sat next to the guy three times, and i didnt pick up on any of this, and i usually have excellent whoredar. [audience laughter] but spitzers sex scandal is not quite like other sex scandals because with no history of inappropriate behavior with women, his selfrighteousness seemed genuine. Or so we believed. The eyes of new york are on us. New yorkers loved him. He was a crusader for the little guy brave, bold, a great leader who did not have time for distractions. And thats the kind of politician we want, right the guy who cuts through the usual red tape and gets things done . But by the time he got into power, spitzers Noble Crusade had been replaced with something darker. Why do we keep ending up here . Why do we keep placing our hopes in confident men who make big promises, then completely fail to deliver . Come on. I would ask spitzer himself about this, but he stopped returning my texts, so i turned to Eliot Spitzers mentor and friend, lloyd constantine, whos known him longer than almost anyone else in his life. So my thinking about this interview, i feel like your journey with eliot is the publics journey in the sense that people really thought he was gonna be the first jewish president. The muscular democrat. Yeah, and i want you to take us on the journey. Yeah. Youve talked about how you thought the presidency was Eliot Spitzers manifest destiny, that he was going to be a fighter for the people. At what point did you start to think that . Take us back to 1982. Youre working for the Attorney General of new york, bob abrams, and here comes your summer intern, a young guy named Eliot Spitzer. What was your impression . I was a little bit wary to begin with. You know, wealthy kid from wellknown parents. Kids like that usually wanna have a fun summer. But when eliot walks in, it was kind of love at first sight. There was an understanding that we both believed that the law was the most powerful instrument of Social Change and that law could be used to help people. Spitzers crusade for the people began in earnest a few years later, when he charged into the manhattan d. A. s office in 1986. One of eliots early Success Stories was when he was working as a junior prosecutor, and he was tasked with trying to get the mob out of the garment district. The Gambino Crime Family dominated manhattans garment district, where they forced clothing manufacturers to use their Trucking Company to transport goods to retailers. Most prosecutors went after the mob by following a paper trail from behind a desk, but spitzer had a novel idea to start his own factory, hiring 30 workers and an undercover State Trooper to run it and simply waiting for the mafia to come to them. It took several months, but eventually a salesman stopped by, threatening to break bones, literally. A very quick and swift message from the gambinos either use our trucker, or somebody will be injured. [click] [recording playing] [click] spitzer always seemed to go beyond just the rigor of an investigation. He didnt wanna just read transcriptions. He wanted to listen to the wiretaps and hear how the mob guys talked. There was a visceral enjoyment of the subterranean nature of this. I played soccer, and this is a little thats a tough, tough game. Well, were not getting into yeah. No, i was the enforcer. I mean, i was the kid who played left fullback, not because i had real talent, but i took people out. And so it wasnt that i was, you know. Somebody came through with the ball. I couldnt really do things other than just take care of em. And so it was, you play hard, you play rough, and hopefully, you dont get caught. [laughter] spitzer had learned that playing rough paid off, and riding high on his takedown of the mob, he ran for Attorney General a few years later. He lost, but spitzers crusade was not yet over. He was wildly ambitious, wanted desperately, i think, to be president of the united states. Eliot was probably the definition of hubris, like, i am doing the right thing. The world must lie down before me. Remember this point. While the public saw spitzer as fighting for them, he saw himself as an untouchable hero on a righteous quest. So this wont end well. Eliot spitzer lost his first shot at Attorney General of new york in 1994, but he went right back to work, becoming a partner at lloyd constantines firm. Eliot spitzer worked for your law firm, and your relationship continues, and your families become close. Yes. You met his wife silda. Yeah. What did you think of her . Very smart. You know, i knew that they had been at harvard law together. On some level, she was more impressive, but they were equals, you know . They were equals . Absolutely. Thats interesting, because most americans, if they even know of Eliot Spitzers wife silda, they think of her as just the wronged woman at that Press Conference. Yeah. And youre saying theres so much more to her. Yeah. She was really protective of their girls, and to a certain extent had to sacrifice what was a really successful legal career in order for him to sort of be the star. Its not what she had hoped for in her life. That sacrifice was nothing compared to what shed face 10 years later as the wife of a scandalplagued politician. But in 1998, with her full support, Eliot Ran For Ag again and won. Im honored to be here as i declare victory of what has been a long race. We will begin a process of creating in the Attorney Generals Office the preeminent Public Interest law firm in the country. What was different about eliot is that he expanded the jurisdiction of the Attorney Generals Office particularly with respect to issues on wall street. This was something very unique and very unprecedented. Spitzer watched as the internet turned the stock market into a gold mine, and Stock Analysts received kickbacks for overhyping weird internet companies. So while the average investor was convinced to pour his Retirement Funds into pets. Com, Stock Analysts were using their bonuses to recreate scenes from the movie boiler room. Were players now, boys lets celebrate salute [cheering] when the dotcom bubble finally burst, the federal commission that was supposed to be looking out for investors was not doing nearly enough to help. But luckily, new yorks crusader rode in on his white horse to save the day. Ordinary americans who have been asked to invest have been defrauded. Their trust has been violated. Spitzer realized that theres possibly an opportunity here. Theyre in new york, which is Financial Services central, so if bad behaviors happened anywhere in all this, they had jurisdiction. So spitzer set about looking for legal tools to make sure he could do exactly what he wanted. New york Attorneys General had in their arsenal a powerful 1921 law called the martin act, which prohibited selling fraudulent securities to hoodwinked investors, but they only used it against small targets Ponzi Schemes and the like. Spitzer unleashed its full power against wall street, determined to catch Stock Analysts in a lie. The quintessential small investor was paying the price for this, and i believe its my job to protect them. Masters so spitzer goes to Merrill Lynch first, and he brings a case against them, which particularly picks on a single analyst named henry blodget. We still believe in yahoo as a longterm platform thats really capable of competing with aol. Masters there were these instances where he would be on tv saying these stocks are the greatest thing since sliced bread, and then there would be him complaining internally in an email like. Um, which you can figure out what that means. So if youre telling the public one thing, and youre saying something else, that sounds like fraud. Eliot was the basis of real, systemic change. He had exercised more power than massive federal agencies like the sec. Did he have more power, or did he just use it . Well, you know, he exercised it, and the market responded. I represented morgan stanley, one of the targets of one of his investigations, and i talked to, you know, to the chairman and ceo. He wasnt worried about washington. He was worried about Eliot Spitzer. No one thought anybody could put their hands on those companies, and he was able to do that. So he was really the robin hood of that whole effort. By taking on the wild west of wall street, spitzer had earned himself a new nickname. Spitzer has deputized himself as the sheriff of wall street. So even though you were on the other side in at least a case or two of his aggressive regulation of various financial industries, you thought that he was doing exactly what that 23yearold, firstyear Harvard Law Student was meant to do. He is using power effectively to help the people. He was the most powerful, most successful, and i think most effective state Attorney General in the history of the united states. Thats pretty high praise. Yes, absolutely. This all might sound like hyperbole now that were on the other side of his shocking scandal and public downfall, but everyone thought this way at the time, and not just in new york. I myself believed that spitzer was on a path that could end up at the white house, but he had been learning some pretty undemocratic lessons on his way up, that he could push boundaries, seize power, and that the people would love him even more. You have declared. I have. Officially. Officially. That you are running for governor of the great state of new york the empire state. The empire state, absolutely. All right. Im gonna call it right now. [cheers and applause] in a telltale sign of his hubris, spitzer was so confident he would become governor, he started staffing his administration years before the election. One time spitzer said to me, theres someone id like to interview to be Lieutenant Governor, but i wouldnt wanna be rejected. Then i realized hes talking about me. And he was right. I didnt wanna be Lieutenant Governor. And at the time, Hillary Clinton was the Junior Senator from new york, so i said to spitzer, if Hillary Clinton becomes president , you pick the new senator. I would be your guy. And spitzer said something to me at that point. It was very prophetic. And all i could say to that was, physician, heal thyself. [laughs] [cheers and applause] the change you seek, the reform you thirst for, the new york you dream of begins tonight. By the time Eliot Spitzers running for governor in 2006, everyone expected him to win. In 2006, new york had been stuck in a Holding Pattern for years, and Eliot Spitzer, that seemingly upright pillar of moral rectitude, was just the candidate for them. Polls close at 9 p. M. The election was called for spitzer as 9 01 p. M. Man the next governor of new york state Eliot SpitzerEliot Spitzer was elected governor at what percentage of the vote . 6almost 70 . It was 69 1 2. Thats insane. Almost 70 of the vote . By far the greatest plurality in the history of new york, more than franklin roosevelt, more than Teddy Roosevelt, more than mario cuomo, more than anybody. But unlike his illustrious predecessors, Spitzer Would only last one year in office before selfdestructing in a way that absolutely no one had foreseen. So i have a theory of leadership. Oftentimes, people rise to positions of power where they are able to remove anyone from their inner circle who will tell them when theyre being an asshole, and that moment, when they choose to do that, often sets the course for their downfall. That may have been the case. In the fall of 2006, silda asked me not to work for eliot. Why . She said, youre the only sort of senior older man that he listens to, and he needs to have some advice. And if you go to work for him, he will stop listening to you. But lloyd became a Senior Advisor to spitzer anyway, because he still believed that his old friend was on his way up. Did you notice any change in him . I had noticed the change in him prior to the election a kind ofof arrogance which i, you know, had not seen before. He didnt sound like a modest guy to begin with. Well, no, no. This is a kind of, you know, irrationality that culminated on, uh, inauguration day. [applause] tapper how so . In the first 45 seconds, he gets up, he attacks pataki, and he attacks the Senate Majority leader joe bruno, not mentioning their names, but he said. [amplified voice] new york has slept through much of the past decade while the rest of the world has passed us by. [cheers and applause] you know, joe bruno turns to pataki and says, hes talking about us. The things he wanted to do required really significant systemic change. It required money. It required legislation, it required cooperation, and he goes after the people he needs in the first 45 seconds. Thats not hyperbole. So from day one, it was awful. From the first 45 seconds of day one, it was awful. Not everyone will agree with this vision, and some will not support these solutions, but progress we will have. They need this governor to govern. They dont need him to be a steamroller. One year before he was dubbed Client Number 9, spitzer had gone from the exalted sheriff of wall street to a reckless steamroller, and then he opted to use his office to start a private war that got its own Tabloid Nickname troopergate. And what is the troopergate . The Troopergate Thing was a national story, because this was elliot spitzer. Early on, because of this taunt at the inauguration, there was a combative relationship between Senate Majority leader joe bruno and Eliot Spitzer. The state of new york owns a small fleet of planes and helicopters that are meant only for official use, but it was an open secret that bruno treated them like air uber without the surge fees. Upping the ante in the standoff between spitzer and the Republican State Senate leader, spitzers aides instructed State Troopers to surveil bruno and keep records of his air travel. To use the power of the state police to go after a political rival is despicable, possibly illegal, and undermines our democrat form of government. It made you realize, like, oh, wait. This, like, avenging angel, this crusader that were talking about, will do shady stuff. Let me play devils advocate for one second. State senator bruno was abusing state aircraft. Yep. Was there a proper way to stop it . Just say no. The governor controls the aircraft, so the next time, you know, bruno says, i need to go to yonkers. I need to go to buffalo, you say, no. Instead of the easy fix, spitzer had gone into attack mode, which you can do if your own record is spotless. Problem was, the socalled mr. Clean had a lot of dirty laundry. Nobody is appointed to a single thing, nor will they be able to that i personallymisstep, but im taking responsibility. Eliot spitzer has never publicly admitted when he started soliciting sex workers, nor has he said what particular event might have triggered that choice. Some sources put it before his inauguration, which might put his first year in office in a new context. He was not in control, so i get a phone call from silda. She says, lets go out for lunch, and she says, who is this guy . He looks like eliot, but i dont know who this guy is. And, of course, i knew what she was talking about, and i said, its the intoxication of the moment. Hes full of all of this pride at getting this amazing electoral result. The man we know and love will be back soon. Was he . No. I felt great disappointment at seeing this situation distract from the good work of many hardworking people and a productive first year. So it sounds like the first year of the spitzer governorship. The only year. [laughs]. Is a disaster. Yes. Rather than getting his big legislative program with scores of items, we have been limited to around six or seven. And the number one priority of Eliot Spitzer was to have the toughest Sex Trafficking Law in the united states. He said that . Yes. He wanted it . Yes. As unbelievable as it sounds, spitzer decided to prioritize making it a felony to knowingly sell travelrelated services to facilitate prostitution an agenda item only Sigmund Freud could fully appreciate. There, at least he succeeded. New yorks anti Human Trafficking bill of 2007 was signed into law on june 6th. We can only speculate as to how soon afterwards spitzer himself started breaking that law. Spitzer goes from having won a landslide, having been the sheriff of wall street, where people stopped him on the street, to being a governor whos ordinary. And i think that must have been really, really difficult for him. Paterson when Eliot Spitzer was in the governors mansion. He would walk around the mansion and look at the portraits and wonder what the former governors would wanna say to him. He definitely was looking for spiritual endorsement. There was so much acrimony involved. It was rocky. You ready for the grand finale . [laughs] tapper march 9, 2008, Governor Spitzer what does he say . I got an email around 10 30 p. M, saying, please be at my apartment at 7 a. M. Tomorrow. This seems like an unusual request. This isits an amazing i knew something was wrong. So i didnt email him back. I just called him. And he said, as early as tomorrow, the New York Times will reveal that i have been involved with prostitutes. So this guy whos a crusader against Human Sex Trafficking is actually. A customer. Right, a customer, yes. A john. And i immediately become relieved. Why . Because now i understand what the hell happened to my friend. He has been painfully aware that hes gonna go down at any moment, and its hard to do your job while you feel like theres a gun in back of your head. Even if youre the one thats holding the gun. On the morning of march 10th, as lloyd drove down to manhattan to be with his friends, they all knew that they had mere hours to formulate a plan before the whole world knew what spitzer had done. So you drive to his apartment in manhattan. Yep. So i walk in, and he says, welcome to a greek tragedy. We sit down at the Kitchen Table silda, eliot, and myself, and the first thing that she said, did you know that he was doing this . And . I said i didnt know. I had no idea. And at this point, you still think that Governor Spitzer can stay governor. Absolutely. I had already formulated the plan on the way down to keep him in in office. I wrote a speech that i wanted him to give. I contacted shrinks. I contacted a facility which deals with sexual addiction. The spitzer camp was ready to fight, or, at least, the people around him were. Spitzers own feelings on the matter seemed quite different. For the first few hours, im resigning. Im resigning today. And i dissuaded i said, you are you are not competent to make that decision today. While spitzers inner circle was in their war room in manhattan, Lieutenant GovernorDavid Paterson was 150 miles away in the capital, albany, just going about his day. There was an event that morning that the governor could not do. No problem. Paterson had it covered. Then a second event, spitzer was still not around. Paterson started getting suspicious. I felt like the character in a movie where everyone else knows whats going on except the character. But no one had any answers for him, until shortly after 1 p. M. , when the phone finally rang. Finally, spitzers secretary calls me. I hear something about a prostitute, entrapment or something. So i said, well, whats the result of this . He says, well, the governors finished. Hes gonna resign. So i call chuck schumer, who is the senior senator. I call Hillary Clinton, whos the Junior Senator from new york. Hillary clintons the first one to call back, and she says, david, there was something very ominous about your message. Is everything all right . I said, i guess everythings all right, but im gonna be the governor in about 35 minutes. She goes, oh, my god. What happened . Theres just dead air. How do you explain a sex scandal to Hillary Clinton . As paterson had been warned, there was a Press Conference just after 3 p. M. With the shocking news already splashed across the New York Times web site, everyone thought they knew what they were in for. [camera shutters clicking, reporters murmuring] [amplified voice] good afternoon. Ive disappointed and failed to live up to the standard i expected of myself. I must now dedicate some time to regain the trust of my family. Reporter are you resigning . Reporter 2 are you resigning . Reporter 3 are you resigning, governor . In the wake of this completely unexpected news, there was just one question on everyones minds. Was Eliot Spitzer really going to try to stay in office . I must now dedicate some time to regain the trust of my family. I will not be taking questions. Thank you very much. I spoke to a number of sources in new York Democratic politics who said they had been told without a doubt that Governor Spitzer would, in fact, resign, and then, of course, he did not. The new york democrat is said to be weighing his options and bracing for what could happen next. Were waiting for, uh, the governor to do the right thing. As soon as the times broke the story, it was everywhere, and it moved really, really quickly. Reporter government charged four people with operating a highend Prostitution Ring known as the Emperors Club vip. Cooper client 9, mentioned in the criminal complaint, is, in fact, the governor. Reporter 2 the document states Client Number 9 arranged for a prostitute named kristen to travel from new york city to washington, d. C. Client 9 said he would pay for everything. According to a source with knowledge of the investigation, the two met at the Mayflower Hotel in washington. That encounter took about two hours on february 13th, the day before valentines day. There are spitzer supporters who think wall street had something to do with this. These moneyed interests, all these enemies hed made when he was Attorney General they were in on a grand conspiracy. I think thatsthatsthat that may well be the case, but so what . Youve been offered things in your life. Ive been offered things in my life, and i. I have agency to act, and this guy had pretty pretty big damn agency, okay . Masters people like to speculate that this whole case was somehow set up by one of spitzers very wealthy enemies. Certainly, lots of really rich people hated him. I tend to think its ridiculous, because youd have to know that he was interested in prostitution, and he was not a guy who, like, grabbed womens women by the butt or seemed seemed like someone who would be using prostitutes. I mean, so thats what makes the conspiracy a little bit weird, like, you would have had to know that he was vulnerable this way. Tapper and when the details came out, it was clear that this was not just one moment of weakness. Even if someone had set him up that first time, no one forced spitzer to go back for the second or the third or even the eighth time, nor was anyone forcing him to make stupid mistakes that almost certainly helped get him caught. That was all Eliot Spitzer. When spitzer started the whole prostitute thing, he was putting money into a small Regional Bank that was just underneath the Money Laundering rules, and so the bank reports him. Like, the governor they know his name. Hes the governor. I mean, he doesnt just do a transaction that would draw attention. He does it in a place where they would notice, in his own name. And spitzer was sending these shady wire transfers to an obvious shell company, which soon revealed itself to be a front for a Prostitution Ring that the fbi was already investigating. Once those dots got connected, the former sheriff of wall street was done for. He ran the Rackets Bureau at the manhattan d. A. s office, so he knows the way this works, and to the extent that he says, oh, i thought id get away with it either that is simply an outright lie, or it is an indication of such massive selfdeception that that also says something about whats going on and not going on in this guys mind. Right. After the first Press Conference, lloyd and silda spent a furious 61 hours trying to convince spitzer to remain and fight. And for the first time in his life, Eliot Spitzer chickened out. Silda, along with me, is trying to convince him not to resign as governor. He humored us, i think. I dont think he ever seriously considered it. He wants out. He wants out. He doesnt wanna be a hypocrite. He wants out. Because of the Sex Trafficking Laws he pushed for. Yeah. Thats the reason . Part of it. Thats part of it. We made a principled argument here. Youre afraid of being a hypocrite. You shouldnt elevate your sense of self over the interests of the state of new york and the people who elected you in this monumental plurality. Reporter its the wife. Its the wife. Here he comes. [camera shutters clicking] tapper the Press Conference 61 hours later becomes iconic for. Because of silda. Because of Silda Standing by. Her man. Her man. [amplified voice] in the past few days, ive begun to atone for my private failings with my wife silda, my children, and my entire family. The image of Silda Spitzer standing beside her husband at the Press Conference was so powerful, in fact, it inspired an awardwinning tv series the good wife, which lasted seven times longer than the actual spitzer administration. Silda, to give up that much and then watch him blow it up like that on something fundamentally attacking your marriage, that has gotta be the worst ever. Though many eyes were on silda, she, of course, was not the reason everyone had gathered again two days later. Eliot had come to a decision. I am resigning from the office of governor. As i leave public life, i will first do what i need to do to help and heal myself and my family. Reporter this has been one of the hardest, the furthest, and the fastest falls from grace that weve seen in american politics. Reporter 2 a dramatic end to the political career of a man who was once one of the democratic partys rising stars. Tapper spitzer may have resigned to avoid the scrutiny he knew would come, but he could not outrun an American Public that wanted to take in all of the salacious details of his hypocrisy. The sheriff of wall street was dead. Long live Client Number 9. The governor was described as a difficult client. Whatd that mean to you . A difficult client would mean that he didnt feel he needed to wear a condom. It could also mean he had some, uh, unusual sexual proclivities that we havent heard about yet. [laughs] a little tmi there, jason, but thank you. Eliot spitzers sin was hypocrisy. I mean, were all hypocrites. Were, all of us, a mass of contradictions, and we all know it. And yet when someone as outed as having those contradictions, we wanna punish that person, drive them from public life. Rather than saying, There But For The Grace Of God go i, its. Even snl, which had never actually mocked spitzer before, just had to get their jabs in on the newly anointed Client Number 9. And you wanted to have sex with a hooker, but you didnt wanna wear a condom . Really . Hmm. Really . That might not be scary if you were client number 1, but you were Client Number 9. [laughter, cheers and applause] but no detail caught the publics imagination quite like the tidbit that spitzer allegedly kept on his black socks while engaging with sex workers. Even if he did keep black socks on, who cares . Like, if thats a kink, then, lord, help us. For weeks, it was the only thing anyone could talk about. New York Magazine had a great Eliot Spitzer cover by barbara kruger, the artist. I mean, it was everywhere, and ashley dupre afterwards for weeks was in the news. For the first time, we are seeing the face and learning the story of the woman for whose Sexual ServicesGovernor Spitzer allegedly paid thousands of dollars. Reporter she is the escort known as kristen. She goes by the name ashley dupre. She already made music on her myspace page. Like, this was a person who was ready for the spotlight. She ended up becoming a columnist for the new york post. Sirius launched a Radio Channel just devoted to the Eliot Spitzer scandal, just so people could, like, talk all day long on sirius about client 9. Tapper but if you thought that this scandal was the end of Eliot Spitzer, youd be mistaken. When youre a politician or a very famous person who goes through a major scandal, you have two choices afterwards. You can either go away forever, or you can. Not, and Eliot Spitzer decided to not. Business. Its not a ninetofive proposition. Its all day and into the night. Its all the things that keep this world turning. The gotos that keep us going. The places we cheer. And check in. They all choose the advanced Network Solutions and round the Clock Partnership from comcast business. See why Comcast Business Powers more Small Businesses than anyone else. Get started for 49. 99 a month plus ask how to get up to an 800 prepaid card. Dont wait call today. Tapper how did people take it . This was a Turning Point in american government, in politics. How so . Because eliot and what he stood for, all of the people and all of these areas transportation, education, infrastructure, arts and culture, who felt that this was the administration that not only would fix this in the empire state but then go to washington and advance these ideas on a National Level had now gone down. People believed in him, you know . So. And not just people in new york. This was a National Government in formation. Yeah. And all that. All of that. Gone. It was an overwhelming loss of a rare leader, happening the very same day that bear stearns collapsed, Setting Off One of the worst financial crises in u. S. History. But the sheriff of wall street had already turned in his badge. We have just learned that Eliot Spitzerremember him . The former governor of new york will not face any charges in relation to his Prostitution Scandal earlier this year. The u. S. Attorneys office investigated, and ultimately declined to prosecute spitzer. [cheers and applause] spitzer thank you. So resigning from office was the only Punishment Spitzer got for his law breaking and hypocrisy. The American People can forgive a lot when it comes to sex, but hypocrisynot so much, at least if youre a democrat. So when spitzer ran for comptroller after briefly hosting a cnn talk show filled with way too much passiveaggression. Stay with us. cause he hasnt talked enough. It was the hypocrisy of his story that i got hung up on. One of the things that a lot of people take offense to is you never faced charges under your own law. Well, the decision was made based upon the standards that were set by the Department Of Justice and made by the u. S. Attorneys office. They looked at the evidence, and they dealt with me the way they dealt with Everybody Else who was in my situation. I dont know what more i can tell you really think that . Oh, i mean oh, absolutely. What you did was incredibly reckless and perhaps, more importantly, was very illegal, as you know, a class e felony, paying for sex, a law you signed, bumping it up to class e. When was the last time you broke that law . 2008 . Thats correct, andand let me tell you, even though it may seem quixotic and hard to make sense out of, im proud that we did sign that Human Trafficking law. That was the right thing to do. It is important. It is something i believed in then and believe in now, andand even though you violated it . Thats correct. Spitzer ultimately lost the Comptroller Race in 2013, and that was not the only thing he lost. Reporter Eliot Spitzer and his wife silda are divorcing. Though married for 26 years, the couple had been living in separate apartments for months. Tapper but dont shed any tears for Eliot Spitzer, the divorce. In 2016, news breaks that hes being allegedly extorted by a russian woman named svetlana zakharova, who herself claims spitzer paid her for sex work. The exact nature of their relationship remains locked in civil litigation. In the end, were left with yet another politician who sold the people of new york a bill of goods. Governor spitzer he was the Person Fighting for the people. He was stealing from the rich and giving to the poor, and i think people wanted to believe in a hero. So when his downfall came, it wasnt just the falling of Eliot Spitzer. It was the death of a dream. Masters look, i fell under his spell like lots of other people. I wish in many ways that he had been satisfied with doing what he was very good at and had stayed on for another term or two terms as Attorney General. I do think that if he had done that, he might have helped stop some of the worst abuses that led to the financial crisis of 2008. Savage maybe its a case where he was externalizing his internal conflict. Maybe he thought prostitution was wrong, and hookers should be thrown in jail, and that was, you know, side by side in him in conflict with this attraction to prostitutes. If we just throw them all in jail, get them all off the streets, then i wont touch any of them. I interviewed him must have been 2018. And i know he understands he caused a lot of people in his personal and professional life a lot of pain. I know hes sorry for that, but he certainly hasnt allowed it to consume his life. Have you ever asked him why he did this . Oh, he doesnt know. He doesnt know . He has no idea . I mean, theres no introspection, no psychoanalysis about, i did this because i wanted to . He doesnt wanna know. Yeah. Yeah, there are people im not gonna think about why i did this or why i didnt do this. You know, theyre not introspective. Im not saying that that makes them better or worse. Its just, he doesnt wanna know any of that stuff. And the truth is that thats what the people loved about Eliot Spitzer. No secondguessing, no debate, on a crusade, charging ahead to systemic change, steamrolling enemies, cutting red tape in his path. His accomplishments were were tangible and exceedingly rare, which makes it hard not to mourn what we may have lost with the downfall of the sheriff of wall street. But it was his zealous belief in his own righteousness that made Eliot Spitzers selfdestruction inevitable, and that might be why this storys so chilling. Former President Trump was a steamroller in the white house, and it landed an insurrection on the steps of the capitol. If we cant shake our addiction to strongmen, to those utterly convinced of their own greatness, there will be many more like spitzer in positions of power posing even bigger threats to our fragile democracy crusaders wanting their portraits on the walls of history. Every governor of new york has the chance to be immortalized in a painting that hangs in the new york state capitol, a selfdirected monument to his or her own illustrious legacy. All of them are there all but two. The first served in the early 19th century and left no likenesses behind. The second. Is Eliot Spitzer