President Trump ‘has been putting his political interests ahead of the safety and health of Americans’: Tom Steyer

Former Democratic Presidential Candidate Tom Steyer joins Yahoo Finance’s Kristin Myers to discuss his thoughts on the 2020 Presidential Election, the coronavirus outbreak, and the latest economic outlook in California as the state continues to combat wildfires.

Video Transcript

KRISTIN MYERS: Now in that last segment, we were chatting about the president's health. And so I want to pick that conversation up here with former Democratic presidential candidate Tom Steyer. Tom, thank you so much for joining us.

Again, I want to start with the moves that we seeing out of the White House, particularly with President Trump. He's insisted on recovering in the White House and then tweeted out that Americans shouldn't be afraid of COVID, nor should they let it dominate our lives. I'm wondering if you think the president-- I had asked the doctor this in the last segment-- I'm wondering if you think right now that the president directly or indirectly is endangering American lives in some of these moves?

TOM STEYER: Well, he obviously is. I mean, he has made it clear that he doesn't respect the use of masks, that he doesn't think that Americans should be taking precautions to protect each other. And I think that that is something which has been true since the very beginning of this pandemic.

And I think that he has made it worse in the United States, and that he has basically failed in his basic function as president, which is to preserve the safety and health of Americans first and foremost. And he has absolutely failed to come up with any concerted plan to deal with this virus and to keep Americans safe. I think it's emblematic of his presidency, to be honest.

KRISTIN MYERS: So on that point of the lack of a plan, what do you think is the cost borne by us all, generally speaking, when we see the politicization of something that shouldn't be political, which is a virus, who does not care who you are or where you are? What do you make of that? And what do you think that the impact is going to be even longer term in the United States, that we see this politicization of our own scientists and of medicine?

TOM STEYER: Well, Kristin, I think it's obvious that he's putting his own political interests ahead of the safety and health of American citizens. And that is just plain wrong. But let me say, this is by no means a unique performance by this president, because he has been putting his political interests ahead of the safety and health of Americans in terms of our climate crisis from the time he was inaugurated.

And so what we're seeing is somebody who has chosen not to do his job for the American people. And it is absolutely dangerous in terms of health. It is absolutely dangerous in terms of prosperity and growth.

I think there is no question in my mind, and I don't think there's any secret about this, I'm four-square behind Joe Biden because he plans to deal effectively with the virus. He plans to deal effectively with our unemployment issues. And he plans to deal effectively in terms of justice and climate. So we couldn't have a bigger chasm in terms of what the different candidates are promising.

KRISTIN MYERS: So speaking about Joe Biden, there is a presidential debate next week in Miami. The president insisting that he wants to be there. For his part, Joe Biden saying that he would see President Trump on that debate stage if it was deemed safe.

I know that you watched the last debate. All of us said how chaotic it was with the interruptions. I'm wondering, given the concerns about coronavirus and perhaps even the president's performance from last week, if you think that Joe Biden, frankly, should skip this debate and wait a little bit longer?

TOM STEYER: Well, Kristin, I believe that every debate is an opportunity, like the first debate, for Joe Biden to absolutely beat the pants off Donald Trump. I think that Americans walked away from that first debate-- and I think you can see this in any polling data or conversation with Americans-- thinking that he is a far superior choice and that he really won that debate, hands down. And I think that you weigh the real opportunity for Joe Biden to build on his lead against the risk of him being infected. That's a risk that I don't think the country should bear.

And so I look at this as we-- Donald Trump probably was infected at the time of the first debate, if you go back and figure out when he showed extreme symptoms. And I think that, therefore, the Biden campaign has to be absolutely convinced that Joe Biden will be safe to make it worth it, because I think any debate is going to be a big opportunity for Joe Biden to show how much better he is than Donald Trump.

KRISTIN MYERS: All right, I want to switch gears here and just ask you about stimulus. We do have some optimism around stimulus talks, but the talks continue to drag on, this three-pronged negotiation between the White House, the Republicans, Democrats. What do you want to see out of the next stimulus package?

And how large should it be? What is that headline figure that you would like to see out of the package? Is it $3 trillion, $2.2 trillion, or somewhere less or in between?

TOM STEYER: Look, I don't have a specific number in mind, Kristin. I think it is absolutely critical that, in fact, we have a stimulus package that comes to the aid of struggling American citizens and also comes to the aid of state and local governments. The one place in our system where you're allowed to do deficit spending is at the federal government level. And we can see that this pandemic has blown a hole in the budgets of state and local governments supplying essential services to their citizens. And I think it's absolutely critical that, in fact, the federal government come and support those state and local governments in doing those jobs.

And I think that it's critical that we have a big stimulus package. And I think what we're hearing from economists, which I think is true, is this is something that is necessary. This is the time to do it. It's overdue because of the wrangling. And they should get it done.

KRISTIN MYERS: All right. Well, speaking about something that is blowing a huge hole in budgets, I want to ask about your state of California right now struggling with wildfires, which continue to grow and spread across the state. Climate change was a huge part of your platform when you were a presidential candidate. I'm wondering what you think California as a state needs to be doing going forward to really combat these wildfires, and also what moves you think we need to see the federal government making to prevent wildfires in not just California, but we're also seeing them in states like Oregon as well.

TOM STEYER: Well, let me put those wildfires in some perspective, Kristin. We've had over 4 million acres burn. That's more than double any year in history. It's bigger than the state of Connecticut. And we're in the middle of a fire season. We're not at all done.

The fires followed the hottest month ever recorded in California, which was August. And it included the highest temperature ever recorded on the planet Earth, which was 130 degrees in Death Valley in August. So what we're seeing is Californians living climate change, just the way we are across the west. But we can also see people on the East Coast living climate change in the record number of hurricanes and storms that we're seeing this year.

So what do we need to see? We need to see a couple of things. We need to see adaptation, which is knowing that we're in the situation we're in, how do we manage the forests in a way to reduce fires?

But that is dealing with a symptom. We have an underlying cause of what's going on, which is the world is getting hotter as a result of greenhouse gas emissions. And that is something where we need a concerted effort between the federal government, governments around the world, but including state governments, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

And let me say the Biden plan, the Build Back Better plan that he put forward about climate is a necessary and aggressive plan. But it also addresses the very high unemployment. It will create millions of good-paying middle class jobs. And it also addresses some of our health issues in the United States, specifically air pollution, water pollution and toxicity, particularly in underserved Black and brown communities.

So when you talk about what do we need to do, we need to address the symptoms. We need to deal with the issues that are affecting American citizens and Californians right now and reduce them going forward and support them when they are burned out or endangered or their homes are burned down. But we also need to address the underlying root cause.

And that's something we need to do at a state level. And you can see Governor Newsom is taking some very strong actions. At a federal level, I think Vice President Biden is proposing something that is very aggressive and important.

But more than that, we need to lead the world again. We need to create the industries that make a green economy possible. We need to act diplomatically around the world and gather the other countries to solve what is a global problem. And it threatens the health and safety of every American.

KRISTIN MYERS: All right, well, unfortunately we will have to leave that there. We just do not have any more time. Tom Steyer, former Democratic presidential candidate, we will have to have you back. I know that there will be many more issues to chat with you about in the coming weeks and months. Thanks so much for joining us.

TOM STEYER: Thank you, Kristin.