Michael Barbaro (host)

And I want to get to the heart of that, where you think the distinction lies between the problems you're identifying and want to solve, the vision for solving it, and what the existing Democratic Party's view of those things are.

Because you don't mince words about old ways, old formulas.

and a kind of sclerotic Democratic Party that you see your movement as not just changing, but maybe fully replacing.

Because I think there are plenty of New Yorkers who see an Andrew Cuomo putting aside, which for many is impossible, the allegations of sexual misconduct.

A governor who used his platform to remake LaGuardia Airport, to build Moynihan Station, we just went through it, to pass gay marriage, who used the Democratic Party and its values to create pretty substantial change.

Democrats like Cuomo make big progressive promises.

When the rubber meets the road, in your mind, they will cave to the other side, to the elites, to the donor class.

They ultimately disappoint on questions like affordability.

And you're saying you will not.

You will not do that.

You will not disappoint.

Yes.

That's the idea.

Yes.

Why do you think that they make compromises that you...

not yet mayor, not governor, and not having to work with the other side are so certain you will never make.

We're talking a little bit inside baseball here, but in New York, Andrew Cuomo almost needed, wanted, benefited from –

A diffusion of power.

That kept the Democratic, and frankly, the progressives in New York in check.

I want to go back for just a moment to a timeline when you're kind of working your way from progressive causes into politics.