Patrick,ernor deval the question everyone is asking is, why are you running . Ive had a range of professional and Life Experiences solving problems in business, government, in this country and overseas, and the opportunity to have big ideas on the agenda and bring people together in order to address those big ideas is just endlessly appealing to me, and we are at a time i think in this country, where the anxiety, economically, socially, that you see a broad is something that is very familiar to me having grown up on the southside of chicago, where we saw the steel mills u. P and move, and all the calamity and disruption a left of peoples lives, the way that opioids and other unhappy things came in and destructive things came in to fill the void. The over policing, the sense that the attention paid to those issues and to us came at campaign time, if then, and disappeared from the agenda in between. Those are things folks are feeling in a lot more places than the southside of chicago. We have that in common. So the opportunity to have broad, focused, and sustained attention in solving those problems, and bringing all the perspectives we know we need from all of these different in which i have solved problems in the past, i think it is a service i want to be able to offer i want to talk about your chicago roots. First, lets talk about your entry in the race. It has only been a couple of weeks. Goin fact, we were ready to about a year ago and some change. We were within a week and half of announcing when my wife was a diagnosed with uterine cancer. It made sense to her and to me, that is the can of thing that brings your feet back to earth, that we would focus on her and on the family, and i still think that was the right decision to make. We celebrated 35 years of marriage in may. She is cancer free, which is a blessing and a relief. We have continued to look at it and to watch the field, many of whom are my friends. And i still think there is a path and an opening, and frankly, contribution of skills and experience i can bring to this that is unique, and i say that humbly. Humility is one of the things i think it has to come to bear you want to actually, solutions to candidate,se no one know one party has the corner on all the best ideas. Host what was it like for you and your wife to go through that process . Fmr. Gov. Patrick of trying to think through how to run . Host also dealing with cancer . Fmr. Gov. Patrick we are so fortunate that this was found early. It is interesting, the summer before she had begun to have some indications things were wrong she is a pretty tough lady, and she wasnt that word about it, she finally got checked out by her doctor, who said it is probably nothing. Then as she began to tell me more about it, i said, whether you go back and ask some more questions . And as she did, one thing led to another and here came this diagnosis. I do know if you have ever been close, or yourself experienced cancer, the diagnosis it self, the word itself has a weight. I am so, so pleased that was dealt with mainly by surgery and a little bit of radiation. But those days and weeks of understanding what the path forward was going to be were, its just, you know i married up. I know that. And by no means am i ready to let go of the treasure. That was one of the times in my life. Ncluding public you know, i have been asked whether this or that involving my wife was, you know, how i thought about that politically. Wait a she is my life, this is second, my life. And my first responsibility is and remains to her. I would not be stepping out now if she were not fully behind it. Host how did the two of you meet . Fmr. Gov. Patrick [laughter] we met in los angeles in 1982. She was coming out of a first unhappy marriage. Actually a marriage she talked about publicly, in which she was a survivor of domestic abuse. We were introduced at a Halloween Party that was organized so that we would meet. She knew that. I did not. And i was told, i had just gotten out there and was looking to work with a federal judge, and i said i was told to come and meet new people, so forth, i said, well that is great. I have not lived in the west coast before. They said you have to come in costume. I said i will be there, but i will not come in costume. They said you have to come in costume, this is how we do it. Igot up in this kaftan brought back from nigeria and had a spear and painted my face and had no shoes on, i strode into the party. Turns out i was the only one they had invited to come in costume. She was in a black pantsuit. Host you were set up. Fmr. Gov. Patrick i was set up. I feel at one level she may have field may have felt a little bit threatened because i was the only one there that was armed with a spear. We started a very hesitant courtship, and by the end of that year, i was supposed to move to San Francisco to join a firm i had worked in the summer before, and her firm asked her to come to new york and help them open their office in new york. Up in newd grown york, in brooklyn. She wanted to be back and closer to her family. I remember i was studying for the bar in an empty office one weekend at her firm. She came in and said, you wouldnt believe what i was just asked to do. I said, what . She said, to move back and help open a firms office in new york. I said, this is a huge honor. You are an associate and they want you to be one of the anchors and this new firm. Would you go back . What did you say . She said no. I told them no. I said, what do you mean . She gave me all of these patently weak arguments for not going. I said, what is the real reason . She said, well youre going to , San Francisco. Going to new york is too far. Los angeles is far enough. I think, if you want to go to new york, i will go to new york. And that sort of started the what as conversation, you know what i mean . In a couple of days, we had decided i had turned down the offer i had from San Francisco. I followed her jobless to new york. We were going to get married. So we did go to new york, i got my dream job, believe it or not. It is amazing the hand that touches you when you let go. And we found a marvelous house in brooklyn that was kind of a dream for both of us. And we are married there and started our family there. Host so how did you end up in massachusetts . Fmr. Gov. Patrick i grew up on the south side of chicago and i think you know, steve. I lived there with my grandparents, mother, and sister. We spent some of that time on welfare. We had a host what was that like . Fmr. Gov. Patrick well i think , when youre a kid and you are poor, it is not what you focus on, at least not what we focused on all the time. My grandmother would say we are not poor, we are broke, because broke is temporary. We had a very strong sense of community, where i describe it as a time when every child on the block was under the jurisdiction of every adult on the block. If you messed up down the street in front of mrs. Jones, she would go after you and then call home. I think actually, i will just take a minute to say that that experience, of learning early what community is about, that is that you have a stake in your neighbors dreams and they have struggles as well has been an , essential influence for me and my public life and my professional life and in my personal life. We had terrific teachers in those big broken and under , resourced and overcrowded schools. I had a marvelous six grade teacher i will never forget, mrs. Quentin she taught me how , to count and say greetings in german. She brought us out to a brandnew movie at the time the , sound of music, she used it to introduce us to the rise of the nazis, world war ii. Part of our history. She took us to the first opera i had ever seen. I had no idea what they were singing about. I still dont know what they are singing about, but i love it now but i loved it then and i love it now. Im trying to describe what it is like for a kid to be invited to see himself or herself as a student of the world and as a citizen of the world. That is a huge thing for any kid but especially for us. Mrs. Quentin was present when i graduated from college and from law school. At my wedding, she was present she was present when i was sworn in to head the Justice Department here, she would have been present when i was inaugurated the first time for governor, but she had passed away by then. Your question was, how did i end up in massachusetts . There was a program, there is a program called the better chance. At that time based in boston, there was sort of a Talent Search that brought kids the euphemism of the day was nontraditional backgrounds to independent schools. And my seventh grade english teacher, who sent me an email just the other day to tell me how proud she was i jumped in the race knew about the program , and explained it to my mom and me, and we applied. You have three choices, you stayed in the public schools, you could go to the general high school which is where the Junior High School was in fact. You could go to one of two technical schools, which taught things like mechanical drawing, and i was really interested in that because i wanted to be an architect. And i still want to be an architect. There were two in the city one , on the north side. The one on the north side was very wellequipped and had a terrific reputation. Less so on the south side, but in those days, the north side schools would not take any south side students. Then, there were vocational schools scattered around the city that taught skills i now wish i knew, like auto mechanics and tailoring, and such. But they were not college preparatory. No one in my immediate family had gone to college. That was a path i had been encouraged to think about and believe in. To get this opportunity was pretty extraordinary. Off i went to Milton Academy just outside of boston. Host two questions about your parents. First of all, i read your mother had roots to a parent or grandparent, a slave in kentucky. Is that true . Fmr. Gov. Patrick yes. My mothers parents, the grandparents i lived with, were from kentucky, from louisville. And in fact, we used to go with them once a month, drive down to louisville to visit family when we were small kids. And then my grandmother, i think this is what you are thinking we had this incredible experience i had this incredible experience a few years ago on skip gates show finding your roots. Through the research he plotted my family tree back to the 1600s in the u. S. I mean i learned things i didnt , know. I learned one thing i thought i knew differently. I think that is what you are referring to. My mothers mother was very fair. She could as we used to say pass and often did. When the family would go on driving trips around the south she would go in the south and , order the food, then my mother and her brother and my grandfather because as she used to say, it was just uncomfortable for the proprietors to send them to eat in the kitchen if food was on the table and everybody was at the dining room table, or rather at the she told us she was the product white irish landowner and his black charm woman. That is what she told us. That is what you accept. Generally, most of us except the history that our forbearers tell us. On that show, i learned, and they traced my fathers family back a long way, out to colorado and back. They traced my mothers fathers family back to virginia and maryland in the in fact, back to england at the time of shakespeare. And they traced and they back thango further my grandmother in kentucky. They said, do you know why that is . You know the story have told, and i said yes. They said that cant be. I said, what do you mean . He explained there are chromosomes that only flow from the father and only from others that only come from the mother. And in fact, she was not the product of a white man and a black woman, but a black man and a white woman. She was probably put up for adoption. But if you just think about when she was born, that was a very dangerous thing to be. Do you understand . And so, the presumption was that she was either, you know, adopted or abandoned or something. You think you know yourself. But you are constantly discovering. Host what about your dad . Was he in the picture when you were growing up . Fmr. Gov. Patrick not much. My parents split when i was four. I have a very vivid memory of believe it or not of that day. I didnt know him very well growing up. He was a jazz musician. Helped found an avantgarde club called the sun ra orchestra, which had quite a following in europe. He toured a lot with them. When they split up, he moved to new york with the band. And my mother encouraged us to be in touch with him as much as possible. We would see him when he would come through town for concert tours. I remember once being taken by her on the first airplane ride we had ever been on. We flew there and took the train back to visit him in new york at the time of the new york world fair, because he had a gig at the african pavilion. So, we hung out with him for a couple of weeks that summer. We learned the dance routines in the shows and got to know the dancers. My sister, who was just about year older, i think kept closer contact with him. And as she entered adolescence and adulthood, had a closer relationship with him. He and i got to know each other as particularly when i started living on the east coast, at Milton Academy. I spent one summer in College Living with him when i was working in new york. That was a pretty tumultuous summer. But he really came into our lives when diane and i were engaged and living in new york and about to be married. He was enamored of her. And they had a very strong bond. So i would say i got to know him more as a grownup than i did as a kid. Host you are a parent. Fmr. Gov. Patrick and my grandfather grandparents on that side are from the quad cities on the mississippi river. Host a lot has been written about your friendship with barack obama. Did he give you any advice before you entered this race . Fmr. Gov. Patrick [laughter] none of them i am going to repeat here, but yes. Host you talked to him. Fmr. Gov. Patrick sure. I mean, i knew barack obama before he was in any public office. I knew him when he was back practicing civil rights law excuse me in chicago. ,i was in the Civil Rights Division here in washington. Your member you remember ab . A marvelous solicitor. He was white House Counsel at the time when i was working in the clinton administration. And i remember he said to me, have you ever met barack obama . I said he reminds me of you and , you remind me of him, you guys should know each other. I had heard this name. You commonlyame hear. We had a chance to get together and spend some time together. I liked him from the beginning. I remember he called me gosh, i think i was working at cocacola when he called to say he was running for office the first time, i think for state senate. He said deval i am running , for office, i want your help. I was excited at that time, i said i am all in. I will give it the max. He said, deval, brother, there is no max in illinois. [laughter] i said, brother, there has got to be one. He was, and then you know, his run for the presidency, i helped when i could. It was just a thing to behold, not just for him, but for the nation. Marvelously uplifting, positive, encouraging time for all of us. I will never forget how inauguration how people were total strangers were just hugging and shaking hands, the sense that we had taken a the understanding we had taken a historic step. And you know what that administration was like, with huge highs and lows, i suppose like any administration. But it also exposed rifts that had a kind of a smelly underbelly. Let me put it that way. And so, he was very, and has been, very clear that, very clear about both the wonder and opportunity of being a chief executive of the United States and the sense of sometimes being confined and not being able to i remember he said, i just would just like to take a walk to the bookstore. But it was an event. We were i think on their first visit to marthas vineyard, i remember him saying, he sat with the girls at breakfast and said, what would you like to do today . And they said, maybe go for a bike ride. I think that was it. Maybe go for a bike ride. And by the time they got the bikes out, the whole road had been closed down. There were helicopters above. That was the road to the end of the road and back and then he says to the girls, want to go again . That was it. It was just a very that bubble can be pretty confining but the opportunity to do a lot of good for a lot of people is pretty powerful, too. We talked about all of that how , hard campaigning is. He was famous when he started to run. I am not. He was very clear and always has been. Host so what is your path . You look at a crowded field and you look at Barack ObamasVice President , joe biden, in the field, senators, representatives, the mayor of south bend, indiana. So what is Deval Patricks path . Fmr. Gov. Patrick some of the longtime friends like Vice President biden and mayor pete, they are really good and talented people. I think i sensed that the electorate, the primary electorate was not settled. I think that has been more than confirmed in the visits i have had since announcing in new hampshire, and california, and nevada, and iowa, and south carolina. I think there is a lot of room for folks who want both an ambitious agenda and a record of delivering against ambitious agenda. Because i think folks do understand, if you really want changes that last, you have to bring other people in. That is not about compromising on the ambition of the goal. It is about acknowledging that there may be more than one path to that goal. And that others have contributions to make to strengthening your thinking and your success. Know, aside and apart from the very important reform agenda that we have all been talking about, this Economic Growth agenda has to be a part of our thinking. You know we have to have an , economy that is not so much growing up to the wellconnected as it is out to the middle and the marginalized. And we can do that and i have had some experience with that as well in the strategies we used to climb out of recession in massachusetts. Host kennedy, kerry, mitt romney, all massachusetts politicians. Could not fmr. Gov. Patrick dont talk about it like the red sox as if there was some sort of curse. John kennedy won. [laughter] look, i have no illusions. You know if i had started years , ago, it would be hard. We have made it harder, i think, in america, because we have we, all of us. This is not the fault of one party or one sector of the community. We have, we keep trying to cram people into the tiniest possible box so that we can flip them to the side or pull them in. You know, if youre spending time with people, and you scratch just a little bit under the surface, they start to reveal themselves. There are marvelous ways in which you can find ways to agree , but we move so fast. We trivialize, we feel like we have to turn someone into an enemy in order to successfully differ or win the argument, not you know turn them into evil, because they disagree. And it just doesnt serve the longterm interests, and i am going to see whether there is still the appetite i think there is, not just within the party, but within the american citizenry. For politics that say you dont have to agree on everything before we Work Together on anything. Host how would you identify your politics . How would you describe Deval Patrick . Fmr. Gov. Patrick you know, i brought that notion of community that i described earlier, we have to understand we have a businessour neighbors as well as our own, as well as what i call generational spots ability. I think everyone learns from our grandparents, we are supposed to do everything we can in our time to make things better for those who come behind us. That is what i mean when i say i have never taken a job where i have left my conscience at the door. I have never taken a job where i have to. Whether it was trying to advance the agenda in civil rights, including into some new areas and on behalf of some newly covered constituencies, if you will, or the work we did to make Employment Practices work in Big Companies like texaco and cocacola or move away from certain products into healthier products the work we did on a , whole host of fronts while in government, or the work im doing now, or i did before jumping into the race at baincapital where we launched a fund to exempt companies that delivered social and environmental impact, and show ed as we do if you take what you value, you are not trading anything in terms of financial return. So that whole notion that we have to be about not just the here and now but tomorrow, our responsibility right now is also to think about and plan for and be stewards of tomorrow. It is, as i say, it is not a new behavior. It is not a new approach. Approacht is a scarce in both business and government and a model i am trying to offer. Host eight years as governor. Did you have a learning curve as governor . Fmr. Gov. Patrick yes. Host how would you apply that if elected president . Fmr. Gov. Patrick first of all, people talk about being ready from election day forward. I dont think theres anything quite like being president. I cantthere is remember. You know, governors have meetings with the president once or twice a year. At least once a year. It is off the record. Is supposed to be, and it is just the president and a member or two of his cabinet and all of the governors. I remember at one of them, and i cant remember whether it was president bush or president obama. Sounded like it might have been president bush. He said something like, i realize im in a room with 50 people who think they can do this job better than me. And i am sure there is that sense that some of what president s have to do, including lessg hard decisions of than perfect or complete information, and sometimes having to confront on confront uncomfortable truths is very much what it is like to be president. For me as governor, its the i thinkfor me as governor, its that youn, i think, are always leading, whether you think this is a leadership moment or not. You are always being watched and evaluated, you understand. The only thing i have ever run for is governor. That first race was my first race, my first race for governor, my First Successful race was my first race. Host and when you won, what did you think an Election Night . Fmr. Gov. Patrick i thought, this is an affirmation of what grassroots organizing is about. And more to the point, this is what it means when you invite tople who have checked out check back in and take responsibility for their own civic and political lives. Host how does Deval Patrick make a decision . How would you structure your white house . Fmr. Gov. Patrick this is on your point to about the learning curve how important it is to , have a strong and highly trusted chief of staff. Turning as about much of that over to a talented it tohow to accomplish make sure folks are consistent at asking questions, lots and lots of questions from lots and lots of sources. People whose interest you think you already know, and people whose interest you think you want to go get. Well, i push myself and i push my team pretty hard. Because it turns out, you know four years is not a long time. , eight years is not a long time when you consider you want to do as much good as possible for as many people as possible. I think the other thing i would say, i would say, steve in the , business of trying to think about the longterm, there are going to be hard decisions facing the next president that will be politically unpopular. You know, we do need fundamental and comprehensive immigration reform. We need a tax system that is simple and functional. And eliminates or at least limits all of the loopholes in it. We have to have a conversation i believe before that about what it is we want government to do and not do. And what the fairest and most efficient ways are to pay for that. We have to keep in mind what it is we are investing in today. It may not be for us. We may not see benefits in time for the next election. But governing i think has got to be about the next generation. Host finish this sentence. The presidency of donald j. Trump has meant what for the country . Fmr. Gov. Patrick division. In fairness to the president , the division didnt start when he was elected. Weve had division. Weve had it for a long time. And divisions around race and ethnicity, divisions around socioeconomic status, all of those, the divisions around region, you know, the way people in the midwest or in the southwest feel for example folks on the coasts do not look down their noses at them all of these and other divisions have been with us for some time. I think its been a long time since weve had a leader who seems to wake up every day thinking about how to trivialize the difference rather than unite us. I think there is so much power in asking people to turn to each other rather than on each other. There is so much power in that. And giving them a reason to turn to each other. Reasons i are think we are an exceptional nation. But not because of our military might or our wealth. You and i both know there have been countries of great armies and treasure that have come and gone with the passage of time. We are a great country because we are the only one ever organized around a handful of civic ideals. You think about that. Countries are usually organized around geography or religion or monarchies or what have you. Race. But not us. It is just ideas. And weve defined those ideas over time as equality, opportunity, fair play. Thats why we are magnets to people to aspiring souls over , from all over the world. Thats why this notion of the american dream, which i have lived, you can imagine a different destination for yourself and your family and actually reach for it, that is why it is so central to who we are. And why i think the question right now is so much the character of the candidate, but it is the character of the country. Host a couple of final points. Do you have a role model, a mentor, somebody who has influenced you the most . Fmr. Gov. Patrick ive had the blessing of many, many men who stood in as father figures for me. Some of them have passed away. There are historic figures i look to like Winston Churchill or fdr who i think were remarkable political leaders. And this will it may not i dont know if this quite fits the question, but what i have found is that if you are listening, sometimes total strangers will offer you life lessons. I remember once, i wrote about being ibook, think i was 15 or 16 years old. And i was home on School Vacation in chicago. I was late to meet someone. I went running down the street to catch a bus to get to to meet my friend. I got to the bus station just as know, public bus came wheezing up to a stop i jumped , on. Doors closed. I was standing there at the coin box which we used to have. I reached into my pocket and realized i didnt have enough money for the fare. I was just like, what am i doing . I started to explain. And this great old i say old you know, he is probably he was probably then the age i am now. This guy with a saltandpepper guy, sort of looked at me certainly and pointed at the seat closest to the door and said, sitdown, son. I said, im going to get it. He is going to burn rate going to berate me for trying to beat the cta out of their fair. Fare. I started to explain. Im really sorry, im in a hurry. I didnt bring enough money. He turned and looked at me and he sized me up the way people who work for the public can do in an instant. Back and withrned his eye on the road and his expression softened. He said, just pass it on, son. Just pass it on. Just a tiny act of grace. But it made me want to be a better man. And it touched this notion of generational responsibility. You know, when you think its about you, when you are just likeed on yourself, i feel there have been these moments like that that reminded me, there is a higher purpose in your life not Higher Office , necessarily. Thats not what im talking about. But that there are expectations you are supposed to bring to your life because you are touching others all the time, whether you know it or not. If thats the case, why not give them a reason to hope . Host well let me conclude on , that note. If your children were here, how would they describe their dad . And what did they think about you running for president . Fmr. Gov. Patrick wow. Well, if they were here, and i wasnt, they would probably say pretty nice things. If they were here in my presence, they would probably give me the side i to make sure the side eye to make sure i didnt get too big for my britches. I have two remarkable adult daughters. They take after their mom in terms of their strength, their astuteness, their how engaged they are in helping other people in the ways they do. I think they are worried about my running. They are proud of me, but they are worried about it. The sad truth about running these days is that you sign up, but you drag all the people you love along with you. They are private people like their mom. So they are rooting for me, to be sure. They are hopeful. They send their friends our way to help out. But you know, one has just started a career. The other has a relatively new is, has moved home and raising an absolutely Perfect Little boy. I think thats where they want to make sure they keep most of their time. Host governor Deval Patrick, thank you for your time. Fmr. Gov. Patrick it is good to be here. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2019] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] announcer 1 Elizabeth Warren holds a town hall in iowa city monday. Watch on monday, online or listen live with the free cspan radio app. Cspan recently sat down with colorado senator and democratic president ial candidate Michael Bennet to discuss his background, his decision to run and the Campaign Issues hes focused on in the 2020s race. Host senator Michael Bennet, what led to your decision for running . Sen. Bennet what led to it was the fear our democracy is in peril and if we continue to engage in politics the way we have the last 10 years, i think my generation will be the first of americans to leave less opportunity and not more to the people coming after us. That is about as unamerican as we could be facing. Host when you talk to your wife and family about you were thinking about this, what was their reaction . It. Bennet my wife was for i have had a checkered career in business and