Transcripts For BLOOMBERG Charlie Rose 20170620

Sessions testified before the Senate Intelligence committee. He called suggestions that he colluded an appalling and detestable lie. He engaged in a Heated Exchange with senator ron wyden. Senator sessions, you are not answering the question. What is the question . Mr. Comey said they were matters with respect to the recruit so recusal that were problematic and he couldnt talk about them. What are they . Why dont you tell me . They are none, senator wyden. There are none, i can tell you that first absolute certainty. This is a secret innuendo being leaked out there about me, and i and i triediate it, to give my best and truthful answers to any committee i have appeared before. People are suggesting through innuendo that i have been not honest about matters, and i have honest. Be david senator wyden joins me from washington. Russia, which is a little different. Russia sent worries some signals about the war in syria, that it was now treating american planes as aerial targets after the u. S. Shot down a syrian plane over the weekend. How worried should we be about escalation between the u. S. And russia . Have had a david, i hard rule that i would only talk about russia after we have talked about health care first. I gather that you are willing to to having a good time on health care if i get into russia first. With that, let me tackle your question. I think this is a troubling set of events that has been unfolding, and i continue to be concerned about the prospect of an escalating american role in syria. The reality is that on the Intelligence Committee, we have not had a briefing yet with respect to this weekends activities, but i think the weekend developments are cause for real concern. Read the statements from the military and the Trump Administrations today to mean that the u. S. Doesnt take russias statements literally, and they think for all the tough talk from moscow today, that this may be a relatively modest bump in the road. Do you share what seems to be that optimism . Feel aden its good to little bit of skepticism in the Trump Administration when the russians speak. Remember, this is the president after thexample, Senate Passes a tough sanctions package against russia, we are going to have difficulty keeping the Trump Administration from watering it down in the house. If they are showing skepticism, thats better than what weve got. David now lets turn to the investigation. So much of the discussion is about the potential coverup, the whole discussion around the firing of james comey. I want to take us back to First Principles here. Can you tell us what your central concerns are about the relationship between the Trump Campaign and the Trump Administration and russia . What are the basic questions that you were hoping this investigation is going to answer . Sen. Wyden first of all, i that we need to understand this speaks to the legitimacy of the Trump Administration and the executive branch. For example, late last year, the intelligence leadership said that the russians had hacked our institutions, our democratic system. The Trump Administration has consistently claimed that down. Umber one number two, he shifted american policies that his predecessors, both democrat and republican, like the russians and crimea, we have seen this president will that way. We have seen his son say that in 2008 when it was hard to get money, a substantial part of their portfolio involved russian investments. This is the first president in four decades who has been unwilling to release his tax returns. I have had to introduce legislation requiring this. This speaks to the legitimacy of this administration, and every daypractically or so there are new issues we have. The bizarre situation over the last couple days when the president said he was being investigated by the government, and then his lawyer said he wasnt. , im beingords investigated, heard around the world. David one of the questions is whether there is collusion between the campaign and russia. I should say there is as yet no evidence there was collusion, correct me if you disagree. But theres also a second set of questions you are interested in, which is are there financial ties separate from the campaign between the president and his family members and associates, and people close to russian president vladimir putin. Am i right that is a concern of yours . Sen. Wyden yes. I have led the effort in the Intelligence Committee on the follow the money issues, that intersect with my responsibilities as ranking democrat on the finance committee. We are looking at possible shell corporations or Money Laundering transfers. We have a lot of work to do. We are in talks with the treasury about getting access to key documents. We have a lot of digging ahead. David what have you seen that makes you want to ask those questions . Why are you worried about those potential ties . Sen. Wyden we have a stack full of reports from your colleagues thate present press have certainly offered a fair amount of documentation suggesting a whole host of Financial Connections between the russians and those in the Trump Campaign. So what i believe you do is you go where the facts lead. That is where i staked out this ground. Man,e way, a veteran fbi when i asked, he said, senator, you are right to follow the money. You should also follow the trail of dead bodies. David what do you mean . Sen. Wyden im telling you, thats what he said. I will not get into anything else, but if you ask a veteran fbi man if you think youre on the right trail, and he makes that remark, that wakes you up. David and i assume hes talking about the number of russian citizens who had shown up dead. Sen. Wyden lets put it this way. Your press colleagues had a lot to say in connection with the dossier. David lets turn to the attorney general. You are a senator. The body user is famous for its collegiality. Yet, you and attorney general colleagues for years, but you engaged in Heated Exchange in the testimony. You seem to most concerns although he had officially recused himself from overseeing the russia investigation, that really he has effectively gone back on that. Is that a fair description . Sen. Wyden i have certainly been concerned he walks back his recusal, but what i was especially concerned about is james comey, at our open hearing, said in response to my question that he couldnt get into aspects of the recusal by Jeff Sessions because it was problematic, and he couldnt talk about it in a public way. I made it very clear after the hearing that i was going to ask about that when the attorney general actually came. He obviously got very angry with me, but he still didnt answer the question. David what was tricky for outsiders following that exchanges that the attorney general seem to suggest that something happened in closed session that you were trying to bring into the open. What exactly is he referring to . Can you talk about what he was referring to their . There . I canten know, and get into matters that are brought up in closed session. I will tell your viewers that i think the American People have a right to have a public answer to what james comey said was problematic. One of the things that concerned me when we saw the tweets from the president , clearly directed at rod thisstein, is that investigation is such a threat to him and his presidency that he could wipe it out by firing moller or rosenstein or any number of things. Are you concerned about that, and is there anything that could stop him . Nobody has done the damage to the Trump Presidency more than donald trump. We fact is, i never thought would have a president say, im being investigated, and then tweet it around the world. This is breaking new ground. My sense is that the president is calling the shots here, and very often i think that the president , instead of being somebody who thinks he has been vindicated in hiring layers, but i gather his lawyers are telling him to knock it off. David i want to ask one more thing about foreign affairs. We got sad news today that otto warmbier, the virginia student who was in north korea, had died. Can you talk about your reaction to that and what the u. S. Can do in response to what certainly seems to be a Foreign Government killing an american citizen . Sen. Wyden it is horrible, horrible news to see this young man died his way. Young man die this way. We are going to get to the bottom of what happened, but we have to send a very clear message to the north koreans. Went Something Like this is done, we do not look the other way. David i promise you we would talk about health care, and you begin by saying you had a personal rule, meaning you will not talk about rush unless you about rush unless you can talk about health care first. It seems you have frustration aboutpeople not talking health care. Sen. Wyden first of all, it is the sheer volume of extraordinary news that is being made every day that makes it a challenge. Just today, already we have dealt with several accounts. There seem to be new terrorist matters. We have to get to the bottom of those. And you have the Senate Republicans doing something that is absolutely unprecedented. I dont know of a single situation where you are talking about a major piece of legislation thats being written in the dark. Theres no bill. Theres no effort to try to describe the cost either to taxpayers or two americans. To americans. The signs point to huge new expenses. For example, there is an aged tax for those americans premedicare. A pay five times as much as younger people. That means for people in rural oregon and rural america, they get hammered, but there arent any details. David i realize you oppose this bill. Buthavent even seen it, you almost certainly will oppose it. Why do you think your republican colleagues are pushing so hard . Conservative policy experts dont like the plan, liberal experts dont like it, the doctors lobby, the nurses lobby, the aarp, nobody likes it. Can you try to get into the minds of the republican colleagues and explain what is it they are trying to accomplish here . Sen. Wyden interestingly enough, a number of them have been asked what they are trying to accomplish, and they cant answer. I think particularly the group to watch are the conservatives and the moderates. The conservatives, as incredible as it sounds, want to produce something that is worth worse than what the president called meeting. The moderate but the president called mean. The moderates, i have worked a lot with them over the years, and im hoping they have not changed. David for those moderates, do you think it is that they made a promise to repeal obamacare, and they kind of got locked into it . The wyden certainly, republicans for years and years now have made this principle refrain went respect to domestic politics. They were going to throw the Affordable Care act in the trashcan, and they had something would bebetter and more affordable for americans, and they just never spend the time dealing with these issues. You and i talked about the healthy americans act i produced with colleagues in 2007 and 2008, seven democrats and seven republicans. We got some of what we worked for into the Affordable Care act, particularly the airtight loophole free protection for people from discrimination with a preexisting condition. But when you are writing a Health Care Bill, it takes a lot of work. David interesting, you were working on that with senator bob that it senator bennett from utah. I was approached close to a universal approach. Sen. Wyden both parties had a valid point. Democrats are right that we have to have universal coverage. Without universal coverage, there is too much Cost Shifting and not enough prevention. Republicans tell there ought to be a role for the private sector. We have a pretty good model. Its the kind of coverage members of congress have. President obama used always laugh a little bit and said, your ideals are going to prevail someday. But the point is, we cant go back now. We can go back to the days when health care was for the healthy and wealthy. Sen. Wyden let me ask you to play media critic for a minute. Are we in the media making a mistake . I we not paying enough attention to this bill, giving given the odds of passing, and the enormous effect it could have on American Society . Sen. Wyden the reality is you are talking about something that affects over 300 million americans, 1 6 of the american economy. Ever since i was director of the great panthers, i felt health care was the most important issue. If you and your loved ones dont have health, Everything Else goes by the board. That sometimesls have people say, its complicated, we have to move on to the headlines. Russia and terrorism are extraordinarily important. I dont dispute that for a second. But we cant let this health care debate, particularly the prospect that Senate Republicans will do so much damage, get lost in the daily blur of news. David what about your democratic colleagues . Do you think the Democratic Caucus is doing enough to call this . Ion to senators famously have all kinds of ways to slow down the business of the senate to call attention to something. So far, we havent seen democrats take extraordinary measures to call attention to what republicans are doing here. Sen. Wyden democrats in the u. S. Senate understand this is go time. We are all in. Floor. Going to be on the we will be accepting invitations like this one to talk to journalists who want to talk about health care. It will be all health care all the time for the next two weeks. David senator wyden, thank you for having being with us. We will be right back. David we continue this evening with a further look at health care. Politico reported today that Senate Majority leader Mitch Mcconnell plans to put the revamped bill on the floor for a vote next week, before the july 4 holiday. Republicans have drawn criticism for their closeddoor negotiations on revisions to the American Health care act, which was passed by the house in may. Joining me from washington are sarah kliff of vox and Peter Suderman from reason magazine. Sara collins of the Commonwealth Fund is here as well. Sarah kliff, can you walk us through the politics and policy of where we are in the senate . Both are challenging percent republicans, but they are pretty committed to moving forward. What we know right now is that they definitely want to have a vote. The majority leader mcconnell has been very clear he wants to have the vote and have it soon. It is a challenging moment for them. It has beency wise, difficult to get the entire Republican Caucus on one page when you have people like Lisa Murkowski from alaska who is concerned about medicaid cuts, and someone like senator ted cruz from texas who wants a significant cut. There are challenges to getting everyone on board with the same policy, and there is certainly a concern about how the policy will be received. One of the reasons it seems like the republicans are keeping this secret it is they saw what the house went through, and saw the bill that would cost millions of people to lose coverage would not be popular. The politics and policy of it, it is challenging percent republicans. That being said, House Republicans are in a difficult spot when they were working on their bill, but they were able to pass it. Now we will see if the senate is able to accomplish that. David when the house passed the bill, the conventional wisdom is the senate would not pass anything like it. That has shifted. Most people think there are better than even odds that the senate actually does pass this. Is that your sense . Nobody wants to be left as the one standing in the way of health care appeal. This is a goal repealed. This is a goal republicans have been committed to for several years. Theres a lot of concern about the bill and coverage numbers, but at the end of the day, one of the things i was really instructive for me watching the fight in the house, is that when someone is in the hot seat, the one group or one legislator standing in the way, they ultimately cut some sort of deal get on something to board. The incentives are strong. I dont want to say it is locked up. It seems unclear if it will pass, but i think there are a lot of senators who do not want to have the finger pointed at them as the one person who stood in the way of this crucial republican goal. Peter, you have spent a lot of time thinking about what a conservative Health Policy would look like. You recently wrote that republicans believe a combination of speed and secrecy is the only way the bill will pass. They have so little confidence in their bill that they dont want anyone to see it. Can you explain to us why it is that virtually the entire Republican Caucus may vote for this bill, given all of the reaction to it . I think that big problems for republicans is that when it comes to Health Policy, they really dont know what they want. Terms. Bout in these democrats, its clear what they want from health care policy. They want coverage. They want coverage to be affordable and financed generally by taxes on high on wealthy people. But you cant really say what the Republican Party wants from the health care system, except that they dont like obamacare. That is the one thing they have rallied around for the last seven or eight years. What they want is to be able to say they passed something. I think part of the problem is since they dont know what else they want, they basically created a bill that replicates obamacares individual market structure, but in a way that assnt really work as well obamacare, so its even more dysfunctional. The other thing they want is to set up tax reform. This is a big motivator for republicans, which is that it is much easier to get to a tax reform that lowers top tax rates if you have passed obamacare first. Excuse me, if you have passed the ahca first. David why is that . There are two ways to get your permanent tax reform. One is to get to 60 votes. They will not yield to get there. They have to do it through reconciliation. One of the rules is that you have to balance the budget, that you have to have the revenue neutral after the 10 year budget window. What the hca allows them to do is lower the tax baseline in advance of doing tax reform, have aat allows them to tax code that raises less revenue overall, meaning it easier to reduce tax breaks. David that is how they have backed into this. So far we have talked about reconciliation, process, and washington. Can you talk to us about what are the real world effects of be . Ibill likely to understand we havent seen it, but we have a good understanding of where it can go. How will this affect people . We have seen the house passed ahca bill, and if it has any relation to the senate, i have been studying Health Policy for the better part of my career, and i have focused on the effect of Health Policy on people. This bill would cause considerable pain to millions across the country. David how so . It would repeal the coveragee care acts expansions, which has improved coverage, enable 20 Million People to get coverage who were uninsured, improved peoples access to health care, and would replace those expansions with nedger subsidies, weake consumer protections, and much higher outofpocket costs. I think what people have not focused on because of the way in which the discussion is unfolding, is the fact that it would go beyond the Affordable Care act, beyond the repeal of the Affordable Care act, and reach into the Medicaid Program which covers 70 Million People. It provides nursing home care, care for people with disabilities. It would make the deepest cuts in federal spending in the Medicaid Program since its inception in 1965. David the historian of health care said to me, this isnt just undoing obamacare, it is undoing Lyndon Johnsons Health Care Bill in part from the 1960s. Sarah kliff, do you think thats a fair description . I think it is certainly the biggest rollback we would have seen in modern political history of health care benefits. One thing that has been surprising about the debate, one of the reasons it has been such a struggle for republicans, is that you dont typically see benefit programs taken away once enacted. It is easier to talk about hypothetical benefits and not pass a law than it is to pass a law that takes something away. Its Something Like the ahca were to pass, it would be a somewhat unprecedented piece of legislation. You would have an estimated fortune mode people 14 Million People losing coverage, ending Medicaid Expansion, and changing medicaid financing. That would be pretty big and would really transform the program. Right now the way medicaid works is that the federal government essentially has an openended commitment to funding the program, that they would pay a certain percentage of every enrollees bills. Under the house passed bills, everyone would get a lump sum, this is your amount, we hope you can stay within the budget, but we are not giving you more money if you cant. That would be a huge change. It would change the way medicaid works. A lot of experts expect states couldnt violence the budget with more efficiency. They would really have to cut back on benefits. Its fair to describe this as a very fundamental change to the Medicaid Program. David the most intellectually serious critiques of obamacare, have said that the benefits of Health Insurance are often exaggerated. When you look in the literature, it has clear initial benefits, but it doesnt necessarily have huge benefits in peoples outcomes. It is hard to find a link between we gave that person Health Insurance and they were better off. Critique . Fair is that a reason why it Health Insurance gets taken away from lots of people, the effects wont be as catastrophic as we are worried about now . We have seen over the last seven years of the rollout of the Affordable Care act huge improvements in peoples ability to get health care that they could not have gotten before. We are seeing that both in the individual market, but also the Medicaid Program. People have much improved access to health care, reduced rates of going to the emergency room, and improved reports of health status. This is widespread across the coverage expansions of the Affordable Care act. Medicaid provides access to care and protection from medical bills that is equal to or better than private insurance coverage, so it is simply not true that medicaid is in and gear is an of coverage. Ce peter, how do you think about the benefits of Health Insurance and how you think about how peoples lives would be affected of Something Like the house bill became law . Said,hink that as you its unclear exactly what the link is between Health Insurance healthual, physical improvements. The best study that was ever done on this found that over two years, people who got you randomly were given medicaid did not have any measurable is a goal health improvements. However, they felt better about themselves and never real benefits in terms of protecting them from finance shock. I think this Health Care Bill that the republicans are pushing through is a real missed opportunity to reform the system along those lines and create a system that is designed to make insurance act like insurance, and to give people access rather than just a kind of create this this bill theyve created is obamacare, but in Donald Trumps words, mean. Its a dysfunctional version of obamacare that basically says we dont have a theory of our own, we just dont like this, so were going to do less of it. David political analyst say passing this bill would be terrible for americans. Americans have been blaming republicans for every little problem in health care system, regardless of whether it was even connected with this bill. Have a sense that republicans in washington have a fundamentally different theory and they think all of the experts are wrong and that passing this will actually be good for them . Or are they sort of flying blind here and just hoping it works out . Its a great question. A few things are at play there. I spent some time in southeastern kentucky where i been doing some reporting. This area of the country heavily supported donald trump and benefited from obamacare, some of the biggest in roman numbers in the country. I was out there a few weeks ago talking about this exact question. A lot of people theyre like theyre covered, even if they voted for donald trump, they think medicaid is working pretty well. It seems like partisanship will do a lot to be protective of a lot of members. Where peoplermula lose benefits, they get angry, and they vote differently in the next election. I talked to a lot of republicans who said our congressmen voted for this, but hes a good guy, he has done good stuff for this area. They did not think the house passed bill was a good one, but where this could really blowback at republicans is in areas of the country not necessarily ones with high obamacare enrollment, but ones that are little more moderate and contentious districts, you could see some angry democrats who either didnt vote for voted differently last year coming back and making a different decision when they vote in 2018. Its a really interesting dynamic. I dont think its a case that republicans have convinced themselves that this is a good deal, if they can just get it out there, that people will actually like it. Weve beenrecy talking about speaks to how unpopular republicans know that this bill is, but i think theyre expecting that people who have voted with them before will do it again, and they will see what happens in the next election. David sarah, do you think this pushes the country closer to more singlepayer coverage . Passedblicans actually this bill, it seems democrats will not want to run on simply recreating obamacare, which basically takes the Current System and tries to build on it. But democrats will be hungry for something bolder. How democrats react if republicans actually do this . Ofit basically an expansion medicare and something to the left of where the Democratic Party used to be . Decided as a nation in 2010 that we would pass a bill that would cover people, many more people covered under the Affordable Care act. We wanted to do this in a way that was consistent with american values. The centerpiece of the Affordable Care act is building on the private insurance market. So we have seen over the last seven years as those reforms have gone into effect in people have gotten coverage that if we want to build our Health Insurance system on the basis of private insurance markets, this is probably the best way to do it, with subsidies that protect people from high premium on preexisting condition exclusions, requiring everybody to have Health Insurance coverage. Weve seen a major improvement in peoples ability to buy a health plan on their own since the law when into of tax compared to what it was prior to the Affordable Care act. If we make a decision that this is not our preferred approach, then there are certainly other options to moving forward. The Medicaid Expansion has also been very effective. Do we go more along the lines of public programs, but if we want to build on the private insurance market, this is probably the best way to go. Certainly problems and weaknesses in the marketplace right now they need to be addressed. This can be done in a bipartisan way if we are committed to this isroach, but this truly probably the best way we constructor private insurance markets, if that is the centerpiece of the effort toward universal coverage. Sarah, letsand close on the politics. The republicans seem highly unlikely to get any democratic votes on the bill that takes insurance away from millions of people. They have 52 republicans and they can afford to lose only two of them. Who are the republicans who seem wobbly in supporting this bill . Sara you can look at more moderate senators like Lisa Murkowski or susan collins, who have voiced concern about Medicaid Expansion and what it would mean for people in their state, and just the medicaid cuts we were talking about earlier. Then you look at the other end the party, rand paul or ted cruz, these are people who want to see significant rollbacks, who think obamacare is not being dismantled enough. You might see give from either of those ends of the party where you might expect to lose someone. Thatt is a delicate math Mitch Mcconnell is working with, that he can only afford to lose two votes and hes trying to satisfy the interest of 52 senators. David clearly we are looking at an very important next couple of weeks in terms of health care coverage. Hank you for joining me. Charlie jane jacobs championed the diverse and diversity and vibrancy of city life. 1969 book captor the ballet of the good city sidewalks. She famously faced off with robert moses over conflicting visions for the future design of new york city. The New York Times once noted that they made almost perfect antagonists. The new film, citizen jane, tells the story, and here is the trailer. At think it is wicked, in a way, to be a. To be a victim. Absolute power corrupts absolutely, and robert moses was absolutely correct. I would say you have a cancerous growth that has to be carved out. I first began looking at city planning and housing. It was unbelievably awful. We didnt understand how high the price was until jane jacobs came along. Jane jacobs has written a book that advances with the power of the bulldozer against modern city planning and rebuilding. Isshe is the antenna that picking up something here that no one else is seeing. People. Ity is about she was questioning orthodoxy at a time when women were not welcomed in those environments. She was like a housewife, thats how they treated her. Try to mess with a bunch of mothers. Here were out raged about road going through Washington Square and we were going to say it. You have to bully through, youve got to do it. It will destroy the neighborhood. It is not right. Next jane jacobs was the most articulate voice of a movement. We have to move a lot of people out of the way of a big housing project. What are they going to do, throw me in the street after 51 years . Wears this going to end where is this going to end . People have to insist on government trying things their way. Charlie join me as robert hammond. Welcome. Great to see you again. Lets start from the beginning, how did you decide this is a film that i really want to make . Is ane jacobs intellectual and great author who had never had a documentary made about her. Her book from 1961 has never been out of print. Moreover, she is a great citizen activists. Really this is a movie or our times, in an era where we have a government that is like none weve ever had before. People taking to the streets, people needing ways to speak truth to power. Jane jacobs is a great example. Saylie did you instantly this is something i want to do . I did, because i had seen his first film, valentino. I cannot think of two people further apart than valentino and jane jacobs. But matt had this passion for jane. Seeing aacted me was lot of places repeating the same mistakes we made in the 1960s and 1970s, that we had not really learned our lesson. Charlie and you see it in cities across our country. This is the urban renewal period, where we ended up doing our best to destroy our own cities by building freeways, towers, housing, what was called urban renewal at the time. It was seen as a positive thing, but this was one of jane jacob huge contributions. She was actually a whistleblower, saying you are actually killing your cities in the name of saving them. It reminds me of mcnamara in vietnam, we had to destroy the village to save it. That horrible irony, thats what urban renewal was doing. Jane jacobs was a first person to bring it to the four. So much of the urban model is happening in china and india and places that are building. Charlie it seems to me that the essence of great documentary, you have to have interesting characters, and certainly at least one. Here you have two who are protagonists, and they are by definition amazingly different. I wanted to make a movie for general audience. You are such an architecture person, you know that architecture and urban planning are very sideload. Feeleneral public doesnt like they have access to it. In order to make a film thats not preaching to graduate students in urban planning, i thought, lets make it character driven. Jane is a time when interfaces with someone who had manifested into sort of dr. Evil, and this is robert moses. There is a 1400 page book published in 1974, 1 of the great biographies in english. Robert moses was the most powerful unelected official in american history, charlie because . Had organized power around himself in a way that made him unaccountable to the public, creating things called authorities. He was a law writer. He was else miss secretary of state went out smith was governor. He drafted the laws that put him in the chairmanship of these things called authorities. He became unaccountable. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. After world war ii, he is highways, tearing down probably 50 of used harlem. Today of those buildings still stood, it would be a place as vital as the west village of new york. He is really destroying the city, and jacobs is the whistleblower. She said this is vandalism, not the saving of cities. Charlie she came from where . Journalist who came from provincial origins, scranton, pennsylvania. One thing that is remarkable about her is that she is in autodidact. She has no college degree. She was writing about architectural digest in the field that is still maledominated. People were not listening to women in architecture and urban planning in the 1950s. And jacobs got herself heard out of sheer brilliance, extraordinary observational skills and great literary skills. Charlie and also she was persistent and determined. Beyond. She writes a book about urban 1961 thatnd cities in is a bombshell, that absolutely levels an entire profession, basic. Tothe same time, she pivots activism and begins practicing what she preaches. The west village was being threatened with urban numeral projects and several highways that were going to decimate it. So she takes all of her conclusions from this great book and brings them to the street and mobilizes the west village and all of lower manhattan, and they start to win. They start to defeat moses, who had never been defeated before. Charlie is this kind of conflict still with us . You developed a high line, and there were some developers who were opposed to it, thought it was going to be terrible. Originally, we had to fight developers, we had to fight mayor giuliani. We really had a partnership. It would not have gotten built without a partnership with the bloomberg administration. New york is so radically different when we started this project in 1999 and really from when jane was writing this and living in new york. People were leaving new york. The tax base was crumbling. , i can debate it either way think robert moses really was trying to save the city, but now we have a completely different context. So many people are moving to the city. Its almost an issue of over success. Thats what im finding interesting, the neighborhood the high line runs through is a michael cause and for whats happening all over the city and all over the country. People who dont know across the country and around the world, what is the high line . It was built in the 1930s, abandon in 1980, and it was set for demolition. They wanted to tear it down to build more buildings. I met another guy at a Community Board meeting and we decided someone should think about another use or it, and started the highp, friends of line, in 1999. A lot of battles, a lot of andunity support, ultimately open the first stage in 1999. Now it is almost completed. Aboutught we would get 300,000 visitors secure, and last year we had almost 8 million. This is one reason i wanted robert to produce the movie with me. He and his cofounder are examples of two guys who had an idea and had a huge impact on their city. You referenced can station, that was the beginning of the great awakening about activism in this city, and thats the preservation movement. There are pictures of jane jacobs front and center protesting the demolition of penn station. This was a way to get attention. Reservation was not on the map then preservation was not on the map then. Jacqueline kenny comes forward to try to save pin station. Jane jacobs, philip johnson, all those great figures of the period. But the preservation is only one part of it, really. The other part of citizens coalescing to save their cities in ways that are beyond preservation. When the World Trade Center was built, something called washington market, that had been there since the 19th century, was demolished to build the world trade towers. Jane jacobs at the time was like, why are you destroying this vital thing that is as much an organ of the city as the fulton fish market. Radio row was where it where was built. These things that we take for seen aswere insignificant. The flower district, which is a wonderful part of the city that was not glamorous, but was a real economic engine. Jacobs is really about preserving what the everyday city is. This grand things like train too, but they matter, jane jacobs is telling us the subtle things matter, and it all works together. Charlie was moses a bad guy, or just a bad idea . Was very complex. There is a prewar moses, who built jones beach and countless parks and playgrounds. He wants to make the city, which is very troubled in the postindustrial revolution era, a a better place. After the war, when there is enormous federal funding available and so much can be done quickly, and he is so powerful and unassailable, he becomes corrupt. Personally corrupt. He doesnt die a rich man, he dies broke, but power corrupt. Ands abusing his Power Building in ways that are extremely misguided. In that way, moses was kind of an evil guy. You went to robert and said give us some advice, what did he say . Is one of mybroker favorite books, a very lengthy book. Him, there are legends about this, really. Charlie tell me what the speculation is. , when heobert caro turned in the book, it was almost double the length. Its already a 1400 page book, bound. The editor who was working on , the greatest of his generation, made the decision to cut it drastically. It is said that one of the things that got cut was the material about jane jacobs. Charlie and that was one of the epic battles of robert moses life. If you were writing that book today, you would never cut the chapter about a woman who was powerful and speaking truth to power. And 1970s,960s editorial processes and considerations were very different than they are now. Moses point of view, even questions of race and poverty, the greater good was in play here . We are making a giant step for modernization . Thehen i said he wanted city to succeed, his view of the city was separated from the suburbs where people live, mainly middleclass white people, where he wanted them to live, and then the city where people came to work. Race is an interesting issue. A lot of people bring up race and jane jacobs. I think you have a really interesting point. James baldwin had an incredible adage from the 1950s and 1960s, which was, urban gro removal. E this was quite enlightening, because the people affected largely in the inner cities by urban renewal were blacks at the time, were africanamericans. There is a sociologist who is in our movie talks about something shock. Root the africanamerican populations that had their homes basically taken away and demolished, when at the time, it was said for the greater good. So we would actually cut out the cancer of these slums and build housing projects in re house the poor, who were frequently africanamerican. This did not work out very well, and this is what baldwin is citi ng at the time. Jacobs herself writes extensively about this, because east harlem was really robert moses sort of laboratory in new york city. So many africanamerican communities were decimated. That thelizes early on rebuild housing was actually worse for them than what had been socalled slaloms socalled slums. Abouts is her speaking new york in its great creative day. It was a place where all kinds of people can find opportunity. A place where you dont have to be big and important and rich or have a great plot of land or a Great Development scheme or Something Like that. To do something, and maybe even do something new, something interesting. Charlie thank you for joining us. See you next time. Going global, chinese stocks joining mscis benchmark indexes, bringing in a 6. 9 trillion market to the world. Yvonne a bright spot in the markets to oil slides into a bear market. Betty the bank of england governor repeats his worries about brexit. He says there is no reason to raise rates. Rush rates