L. A. Mayor antonio via ago says here to explain his full throated endorsement of president ial candidate Mike Bloomberg its all on this edition of. Welcome to politicking on larry king he was elected the 1st latino mayor of los angeles and nearly a century made an unsuccessful bid for the california Governors Office and 2018 remains active within the Democratic Party most recently demonstrated by his the dorsal end of the Mike Bloomberg campaign for the presidency well talk about that and a lot more as Antonio Vieira goes joins me in studio why did you endorse Michael Bloomberg because i know because i worked with him you know the joke i like to tell the press is that. On my inauguration day. He was there al gore and a whole slew of Democratic Leaders my staff told me. Michael bloomberg is here. To why dont you and they said no but hes here so almost immediately started working from one coast to the other to improve our schools both. Maire bloomberg and myself inherited schools that were failing for 50 years in my case one out of 3 schools are failing schools were in too much better than that we Work Together to improve those schools dramatically our Graduation Rate went up by more than 40 d percent in new york and in l. A. And he raised teachers salaries by 40 percent work and theres against gun violence you know crime big issue even though new york has a save big city and the safest big city it was still an issue and as it was here in l. A. And the 2 of us worked to reduce gun violence we started an Organization Called mayors against gun violence worked on Climate Change and a whole other slew of issues what was he like to work with. You know. Hes a character hes a guy who. Not a guy have a lot of words if you will but he puts his money where his mouth is or does he lets his actions speak for is words and is a guy that gets things done anybody who visited new york i was with you in new york in 2014 or something. Then or now i can tell you every time i go there you marvel at what a great city it is a safe city schools are better. And he did things like span did health care to a 1000000 new yorkers during the time he was mayor so those are some of the reasons but its not just what hes done its what hes going to do. Michael bloomberg understands that. Weve got to put america back on track weve got to make sure the economy which is run in well right now is working for everyone and weve got to make sure that were making the kinds of investments in infrastructure in education addressing Climate Change so those are some of the reasons why i came on board a puts his own money and he put his own money you know whats interesting you know everybody talks about the fact that hes a billionaire 60 times over what they dont talk enough about is that he spent more the 9000000000. 00 on philanthropy. Issues to reduce gun violence you know march to get march for our lives organizations like that that sprang out of the park and shooting Health Care EducationClimate Change the list goes on and on and on and. You know i worked with him when i was out of office as well. And so you know we go way back and. I could tell you he is the real deal why would we assume that he supports joe biden or that you would support joe biden but i think. Both Michael Bloomberg and myself have a great deal of respect for joe biden has served our nation as a senator and Vice President under the obama administration. But its clear. That increasingly. Joe biden may not. Be there at the end of the day in terms of getting the nomination and michaels absolutely committed to making sure that we have a candidate that can beat donald trump if you ask democrats across the country whats their number one issue almost everyone says be donald trump now they care about health care and as i said. Michael bloomberg has a record and a plan to expand health care to reduce drug prices they care about Climate Change and they want to present that actually believes in science and thats willing to challenge the nation to get onboard d with the paris accords but at the end of the day they also want somebody worth the wherewithal the track record the plan and the resources to be donald trump and Michael Bloomberg is that guy. What do you think of trump. Not much. But let me let me go on because i think one of the things that Michael Bloomberg and i worked on together i was the chair of the Democratic Convention 2012 but one of the things we worked on together was a group called no labels and basically what we were peroni in is that were not democrats and republicans were not just democrats or republicans were americans and we need to put the country before the party in the label we Work Together on that and i can tell you that Michael Bloomberg a united are at a time when we have a divider in chief who pits jews and christians against muslims says that mexicans are criminals and rapists. That people come from africa come from countries that are from the bathroom you know i dont know another way to say it without saying that word. We need we need somebody that brings us together and i dont see that as a partisan i see that as an american who believes that president s like the shepherd brings the flock in all the flock and donald trump is not a man. Who cares to do that or has done that in the last 3 years former democratic president ial candidate Julian Castro was indorsed Elizabeth Warren says that because of his weaknesses and baggage bloomberg is the closest thing we have to donald trump on the democratic side. Well thats always us unfortunate that. My friend Julian Castro would Say Something like that the fact of the matter is all of the Democratic Candidates are far superior to donald trump again. I know Michael Bloomberg. I worked with him for 15 years. And i can tell you hes got a track record is a guy that believes in. An america that welcomes immigrants hes got a great immigration plan by the way do you see any baggage well everyone of us have bring to the table you know a lifetime of experiences hes already said as an example that hes made mistakes i havent seen some of the other candidates whove been criticized acknowledge their own mistakes hes taken responsibility and hes put forth plans that make it clear. That hes going to move in in another direction did you have to stop him from school no you know you know what we have in common is we both committed to reducing crime they reduced crime Something Like 32 percent homicides by nearly 50 we reduced crime by 49 percent but we were a lot more violent at the time and homicides by 45 percent so very comparable i can tell you. That he acknowledges that on stop and frisk he made a mistake and over time began to reduce it dramatically and actually reduced dramatically you think carcer a shit so yes he did employ stop and frisk hes got a criminal justice plan that addresses the drug the war on drugs that addresses the fact that we put 2. Many young people of color in our prisons for too long without rehabilitation without you know an ability to come back so he said we get rid of check the box you know somebody has committed a crime and served their time and in this country you serve your time usually a long time. Certainly a lot longer than europe and some other countries and you know after youve done that can be able to make a new life and come back in and redeem yourself what. Kind of leader we are know it we know we runs a Great Company we staggered from scratch put all kind of leader will he be you think. I mean he surrounds himself by talent you know both of us when obama became president. Donated contributed for. People that became assistant u. S. Secretaries or above and i can tell you in addition to having great people around him he listens to those people hes decisive hes a guy who believes in science and the facts always evidence based and hes someone. Who really believes that you have to do which is say and so i see someone who will work to put america back on track focus his efforts. To move this country ahead in a way that brings more people in. Is a can do guy is the buying the election. Look. I think michael. Would agree there is way too much money in our political system with our lobbyist with you know. A Supreme Court decision that allows gobs of money without being able to identify who gave him but its a system that we have and you know what hes committed to do is investing in communities that are hard to reach we know that in 2016 whites voted 69 percent blacks voted 67 percent asians voted 49 percent the team has voted to 47 percent the Fastest Growing part of america 54000000 now a big part of the Democratic Party to get them out to vote is hard youve got to work them hes got the resources to do that and hes the only candidate thats committed to keeping all of the battleground states offices open fully staffed whether or not hes the nominee so whoever the nominee is hes going to staff those offices one of the i think the fact that he is a wealthy man is i think important to the extent that he he intends. To spend what it takes to be down drugs and tornadoes stay right there well be back with more politicking right after the break. Aeroflot russian and lights. In a world of big partisan lot and conspiracy its time to wake up to dig deeper to hit the stories that Mainstream Media refuses to tell more than ever we need to be smarter we need to stop slamming the door on the bats and shouting past each other its time for Critical Thinking its time to fight for the middle for the truth the time is now for watching closely for watching the hawks. Aeroflot russian and lights. Join me every thursday on the alex simon show and ill be speaking to guests of the world of politics sports business im show business ill see you then. Well good bye. To politicking im talking with antonio via a ghost of the democrat of california for the 1st mayor of los angeles was national cochair of Hillary Clintons 28 president ial campaign and chaired the 2012 Democratic NationalConvention Early is this month he endorsed former new york mayor Mike Bloomberg for the oval office and hes joining us here in studio kenny when. I have no doubt in my mind that he can win look i started out as a long shot i think in january when i came on board it was Something Like 5 percent nationally hes 18 percent i heard. You know i turned on the t. V. This morning and heard one station after another mentioning the name Michael Bloomberg i can tell you that all the candidates know who he is and i can tell you this hes committed. To working to win this race and doing what ever it takes financially to get there there is a politics why do you think Kamala Harris failed i mean he was a democrat of major proportions in this state what happened. You know i. I know com a lot of work with her over the years and i thought she was a great candidate i think at the end of the day. She got squeezed by the. 2. 2 polars of the Democratic Party. Shes unabashedly a progressive but shes a practical one and i think it was unable to communicate that well enough to a broader crosssection of americans ran out of money. And moneys talk you know the mothers milk of politics has jesse henry used to say and and certainly didnt help but a great candidate and i think youll see the chill be back maybe a Vice President ial maybe a Vice President ial. Do you. How do you deal with the split in your party you definitely have the progressive end and then the standard middle of the world democrat 1st will they all turn out well that the other deal with it if you mention middle of the road democrat you know. When you when you look at the Democratic Party theres no question that theres a continuum it goes from the left to right. But its mostly in the center. Even you know all of the candidates you know kind of. Mostly in the center could be center left or left but you know close you know theres no. There arent its western europe standards you know not where you left here and and i think what happens is sometimes politicians identify in the head of the pin all the things that make us different i dont think there is that chasm between most of the candidates that some people argue yes there are some people that say we need to go to medicare for all all the candidates believe that we ought to expand coverage to nearly every american. You know so what happens i think is sometimes politicians like to make these demarcations that arent as great as people think do you fear the other side stays home. Or do you think we anger a trump is so great the turnout will be volumes well i think were going to have a vigorous debate about who should lead our party and our country but after that i think we need to come together and. That didnt happen after the 2000 during the 2016 race as you know there were many. People democrats that stayed home sanders and thats part of why i believe that Michael Bloomberg so important hes going to make the investments some of what also happened in 2016 is we took you know groups for granted and we thought they were going to come out and vote and. Oftentimes they they need more of a push if you will you need to knock on those doors talk to those voters and. Bring them out to the bring them out to the polls physically in the case of some or doing of l. A. And the homeless. It makes me sad. You know im a native angeleno as you know my grandpa got here a years ago a lot of problems in know in our country but to see the number of homeless think its gone up 16 percent 60 percent why oh well you know look there are a lot of reasons i think. Housing crisis is one of them i think we need to treat this like an emergency and not just an urgency i hear the word urgency we need to treat it like an emergency and do things differently im surprised that they didnt pass legislation to make it easier to build housing particularly along transportation corps doors and create more density in places where it makes sense for too many people what makes l. A. In california a power verty center is that. Wages you know are. Not commensurate to the cost of Housing Housing has gone up dramatically reduce the horrible city in america its the least affordable city and san franciscos so new york are 2 of the most expensive cities and so were going to have to build more housing provide more Services Address the Mental Health crisis you know historically weve used our jails for that purpose you know were going to have to create Mental Health facilities i believe were going to have to make it. Frankly. Were going to have to reduce the difficulty that we have currently to put 2 people in and mental facilities its almost impossible even when theyre a threat to themselves and others and theres a whole panoply of services the city and county have to work even more closely than they do the good news is the people passed a measure age and a change but as i said i think the city the county the state the federal government need to work hand in hand to address this crisis and it as i said makes me very sad. It seems a lot of folks that trump has done just about everything to alienate latino voters however 2016 exit poll analysis by pew 28 percent of latinos support trump i explain that. Well theyve manipulated one every community has a core of conservative. People and the Tina Community is not monolithic and there homogeneous there are cubans or mexicans or salvadorans and want to mallinson the list goes on and on i think theyve used certain social issues like. A womans right to choose for an abortion to divide. Tinos against the Democratic Party filipinos a lot catholic or a catholic or avenge aleko right and and that issue is its probably more significant than some other communities. But i think that what we need to explain to people is they got to both their interest not just one issue some people only vote on one issue and if they do. Obviously theres not much you could do about that but i think we need to share with. The broad range of issues that affect them as a Community Whether its immigration or housing or health care or education and i think on all those points whoever the democratic nominee and i hope its Michael Bloomberg is far better than the republican nominee i mean what donald trump has done is you know. Hes got a stranglehold on the Republican Party theyre no longer the conservative party theyre a party of deficits and debt theyre a party of tax breaks for the wealthy but not for the working folks and the middle class and theyre a part of that kind of lost their moorings and and their way and im hoping that well be able to expl