Transcript: Tom Steyer Says That He’s A Good Billionaire

California gubernatorial candidate Tom Steyer understands frustration with billionaires like himself, but says that he’s different.

This is a lightly edited transcript of the March 9 edition of Right Now With Perry Bacon. You can watch the video here or by following this show on YouTube or Substack.

Perry Bacon: This is the New Republic show Right Now. I’m honored to be joined by Tom Steyer, who is running for governor in the great and very large state of California. Tom, welcome.

Tom Steyer: Good morning, Perry.

Bacon: I’m going to start with—I’m going to ask this bluntly. Billionaires are right now destroying America in some ways—Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, I can go through a long list. I’ve liked a lot of what you’ve said on the trail, but convince me that I should trust anybody who is a billionaire to do the right thing.

Steyer: So let me say this. I started a business a long time ago. I ran it for 27 years. It did better than I could have expected. I walked away from it 14 years ago. I’ve spent the last 14 years being an advocate for economic and environmental justice. My wife and I have taken a pledge to give away the bulk of our money while we’re alive, and I can assure you I will not die a billionaire. That in fact, I have put in the work and spent the time.

We have a 20-person policy group in Sacramento. We’ve been involved over the last 10 years with virtually every policy decision in the state of California, and I’ve taken on moneyed interests repeatedly when no one else was willing to. I’ve beaten the oil companies and the tobacco companies and out-of-state companies who were messing with our state income tax and made them pay their fair share.

It’s not like I quit my job yesterday and started running today. For 14 years I’ve been doing this—and actually, for longer than that, I’ve been working on progressive causes. From my standpoint, I’ve put in my time. I know this state, I’ve been working on it for a long time, and my behavior has been consistent in every one of those. I have always been representing working people. I have always been working for fairness and justice.

I agree—I understand why people are angry at the high-profile, arrogant billionaires who seem to think they should run everything, that they are perfect and [you should] just shut up and put them in control. Everybody’s offended by that, and I’m offended by that too.

Bacon: Talk about—I think it’s good that politics has moved to affordability. That can be a buzzword, but I actually think that’s what people are hoping from politicians, that they make their lives better. Particularly in California. I’m in Kentucky—housing prices are not the way they are in California—and I have some friends who live there. Talk about what you can do—not just housing—to reduce prices and make things more affordable in California.

Steyer: What you’re saying, Perry, is really........

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