Billionaires vs. The People: Inside the Battle for Manhattan

And how do you see them promoting white men?

“If you look at the demographics of New York City and the state in the area, it is largely”

white men. And for a city to be this diverse as New York City, and to keep putting up that

type of leadership really raises questions in my mind, but it's about powerful connections, power and

privilege, and the money circles. Welcome back to this Harry Polymery Show. We are heading into midterm season, so that means I will be interviewing a number of midterm candidates. And there's one district that seems to be getting outside buzz in the congressional races, and that is New York 12. It is one of the wealthiest districts in America, spanning across most of Manhattan actually. It has seven candidates, and two of them are household names.

One of them I interviewed already, George Conway, you know him, as the ex-husband of Kelly and Conway, and he was at one time a Republican turned independent and most recently in Democrat. And then there's Jack Schlossborg, who is the grandson of JFK Jr. And obviously he has become even more immortalized besides being candidate thanks to the effect show love story. There are seven candidates in this race, and one of them

“is Laura Don, and she really explained to me something that I think I hadn't really seen until after”

the talk that this story is really more about a fight between the establishment power and outside or energy, and she claims that she is the people's candidate and that she is the outside or energy because people like Josh Schlossborg have gotten endorsements from Nancy Pelosi. And obviously,

George Conway is a household name with Namedy. Last time we checked him with him, he was pulling second

in the race, and Jack is continuing to lead the polls. But she's taking aim at all of them. She's taking aim at them for their funding. There are affiliation with party leadership, even their last names. She argues that Democrats are missing the moment on accountability, impeachment, and what she calls a broken political machine. We cover everything from Trump investigations to the Epstein files to pack money, insider trading in Congress, and why she believes that she is the only middle class

candidate in this race. So we're going to talk about all this and more. This is a race where name recognition and big donors loom very large. And so she's trying to say, listen to me, heads up. It's not only the Kennedy and Conway in this race, because whoever wins a democratic primary will win this race. Laura Don, thanks so much for joining the show. Laura is one of the seven candidates running for Congress in New York 12. She's running to take over the seat

long held by Jerry Nadler. It's probably one of the biggest swaths of Manhattan's and arguably one of the wealthiest districts in the world. And Laura, thanks for joining the show. Thanks for having me on and looking forward to it. Thanks, yeah. So it's interesting. I really enjoy your campaign slogan, un-bought, un-bossed, un-fraid. And I was wondering,

“who are you running against that you feel like is bought or bossed?”

Everyone to tell. It's in this race. Have some kind of compromising factor about them. So we have Jack Schlauzberg, the Kennedy Grand Child, who lives off a trust fund, has not worked most of his life. And is highly connected to the democratic establishment. He's been endorsed by Nancy Pelosi and he is beholden to that establishment that is propping him up at a time when there's had a competition. And we have George Conway, the former

Republican, was married to Kellyanne Conway, Trump's mouthpiece in the first

term in office. And we know that he has significantly supported the Republican party before deciding he's anti-Trump. And that's his main platform. He's just opposed to Trump. I don't think he's necessarily a Democrat with democratic values to represent the district.

Bloomberg has given them $5 million. And he is putting that to you.

Everyone's getting flooded in their mailbox right now. But Bloomberg is a serial sexual harassor. We know that there is favors coming along with that money, as well as the endorsement that he's collected. And then, of course, he have Alex Forez, who is being cropped up by AI money. So he started with Palantir, moved over to Antropet.

AI money is funding his campaign. So all of them had some compromising factor. I alone have a people-powered campaign. And that makes me unbought, unbossed. And of course, I'm unafraid of what it takes to run for Congress and stand up to the establishment. So you don't have any PAC money behind you.

We have exactly $1,000 from one group that is a PAC. It's called Leaders in Educational Equity. And that's Teach for America's 501C4. Because that was a teacher and post-cultreated New Orleans. And that money is going to pay for their consulting for the campaign. Okay, so they've been helping you with the campaign.

And so they basically paying themselves for that.

Yes. Yes. And then we'll kind of pack money. Yeah, we'll kind of help with that giving you on the campaign.

“Consultation. So it's, we develop our impetitions season. You know, what are the legal requirements of that?”

What are the path methods and locations and hours for collecting petitions? Because I'm a brand new candidate. I'm not a career politician. So I'm learning and they have that kind of level of information. They're not day-to-day. It's a big picture. How do you structure strategy?

Yeah. And notice a Jack Schlossberger put out a new ad yesterday. I remember one check it out. We can get the producer to put it up on our screen later. But it is of him riding a wave, a new wave for Kong for New York. And he is surfing, which is interesting.

Sure, sure. He's kind of using a bit of the candidate he lure from the past, right? Like, didn't his uncle sort of do that a bit?

“Like, use his sex appeal to try to win the hearts of New Yorkers at one time?”

Yeah, I think his celebrity has gotten him pretty far. So we know that love story is out right now, which is a fictionalized kind of accounting of his parent's relationship. And he obviously has that legacy behind him. So a lot of people are being recognition with him, but I feel very confident every time I'm on the stage with him. He likes to say, well, I've gotten a lot of green at past the bar.

And then I say, and I use my lot of green. I've actually been in the portrooms. I've actually helped pass federal law on policy. I've worked on role-making committees advisory house task forces served on the Senate judiciary. Even founded a non-profit to take on and sue Donald Trump in his first term.

So you can go to a fancy school and get a degree, but if you're not putting that to use, then you don't have any skills or ability when it comes to leading. And I don't know about you, but I don't want someone learning on the fly in this political climate with their first job being congress. So are you planning to do what George Conway said on this show he wants to do, which is to use his prosecutorial skills to impeach President Trump for a third time? Is that something that you aimed to try to make sure happens?

Yeah, so we just heard Eugene Jefferies, the minority speaker of the house say the other day that in teaching Donald Trump is no longer the top priority of Democrats when they take the house and that they're going to focus on accountability. And I think accountability is a byproduct. I'm sorry, affordability is a byproduct of accountability. And so if the King Jeffrey is wants to focus on affordability, as he said, he has to first remove Donald Trump.

We know that Donald Trump, for example, is poised to take up to $10 billion of taxpayer money through what I would call a fairly frivolous lawsuit against the IRS.

He's claiming $10 billion worth of damages or the IRS releasing some records. And I doubt he could ever prove that in court, but he can of course get the IRS to settle with him so that he doesn't need meritorious claims. He doesn't have judicial oversight and can basically rob our country blind. So I'm not willing to leave Donald Trump in office. It is a priority for him to get impeached, but let's be clear.

It's no individual congressman or that can impeach Donald Trump.

“So George Conway may have a bone to pick with Donald Trump, but you need to pick someone who's actually going to lead in NY-12 and be part of this community in George moved up from Maryland to run in this race.”

He is not in New York or he hasn't been here for decades. And when he was here, he lived in Trump Tower and was very tied to the Republican party. So I know NY-12 voters are wise to that and are looking for people who are actually true to a dance like me.

That's what I'm hearing from you.

“How would you think the party is failing its own voters?”

Oh, a numerous ways. The primary way is of course taking money that compromises them. So APAC money is largely influencing the democratic party at a time when most Americans are exhausted by the idea of billions of dollars going to war in the Middle East rather than healthcare rather than affordable housing. And everything is becoming unaffordable and yet we're seeing so much aid go to a country that has been a longstanding ally, but is actively engaging in war crimes in genocide-alax. So I've called for it end to aid to Israel, which distinguishes me significantly from both Jack and George, my opponents, who are standing by Israel at this time in fact, George Conway is called for unconditional aid to Israel.

Writing the mubling check with American money no matter what they want to do with it, and I think that's wrong.

So I am very much challenging the money is in this race and also the direction of this race.

“I think the establishment benefits from having someone as horrible as Donald Trump in Congress.”

They use it for fundraising. They use it for new stories. They use it for swinging voters, but we have to care more about our country than our parties. And our democracy is crumbling. And so as a lawyer who serves the rule of law, I see the dismantling of all the guardrails and protections. And I want to stop it because no matter how you feel about what's happening in current politics, I will say the world has been watching us.

Our dollar is weaker. Our allies are not going to ever assist us. Should we be under attack?

Just mental. Our entire federal system that will respond for natural disasters or other incidents. So we are creating a very dangerous situation for our country. And I care more about safety for our country than any of this political gamesmanship. Well, how do you think democratic democratic respond to the kind of corruption happening within Trump's DOJ? His retribution campaigns as we know this has been reported earlier, but overnight on Monday. Sorry, on Tuesday, excuse me.

April 28th, I believe, or April 29th this morning, James Komi turned himself in. He has been indicted for his seashells. His 84 47 sheet seashells that he posted on Instagram, the administration is saying that that was a threat to the president's life. And as I'm sure you know, as a lawyer, you could indict a ham sandwich with the right jury, right? Yes, yes. Well, we know that Trump has been going after his political opponents and Latisha James here, our attorney general in New York has been one of the many that's been targeted by that.

So we will see how that plays out. Obviously, that happened a long time ago, so for it to only now be prosecuted after a failed previous indictment on other issues shows that this is really about political retribution. I don't think Trump hides that issue particularly well. And I do think the courts have been very good about standing up to him and shooting down an unwarranted crossing tutorial efforts and other kind of bad behavior. Right now, for example, with that IRS story, we have a court questioning if it's even legal for a president to be negotiating a settlement as the executive with an executive agency.

“So I'm hopeful that that line holds, but that's what inspired me to run for office. We have three branches of government. The judiciary is the only functional branch conferences out to lunch.”

The executives grabbing power and they need reinforcement. They need someone in Congress who's actually going to stand up and support the balance of powers, which is what our Constitution relies on and it's out of whack right now. It's just to get back to us like how do the Democrats respond to the prosecution of James Comey or more generally to the threat that dumb Trump has under democracy. The corruption, yeah, the prosecution James Comey all of it. His retribution campaigns. So we obviously need to win back the house. What we're seeing from the Senate is a little more bipartisan action. So we saw them step in when TSA agents needed to be funded and Trump was putting ice agents into airports.

We also saw them out. Stay overnight and fight FISA being extended and authorized in expandable. So I'm seeing a lot of bipartisan success in the Senate holding the line. And it's really the house that's been holding up and serving Donald Trump rather than the American people. So I do think a blue wave is coming in November. Once we had that blue wave contrary to what Jeffery says said, we have to have impeachment be the number on priority. In fact, I would argue that it should effectively be a protest by all Congress members.

But again, we have to remember the world is watching. The world does not believe that they can trust the United States in any sense of that term.

And if we fail to impeach Donald Trump, we are reinforcing everything that will isolate us. So we have to show our moral sentiment. We have to undertake this effort. We have numerous reasons to indict him. There's nothing of the constitution he's respected. Right? Nor several members of his cabinet, including Cash Patel, ahead of the DOJ. So we have a lot to work with. What we need is the courage and conviction to do so. And that maybe I'm popular with some Americans, but let it be so because the long course of history will show that this was the right move.

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“So anything that like party donors or leaders have told you not to say that you're saying anyway?”

Oh, I mean, it's very clear that I'm supposed to be backing King Jefferies for speaker. If I want to get support from the Democratic Party, that's not a question. And the King Jefferies is from the New York City area, and that is part of the lockstep. And I've definitely been told several times on the ground, you know, that other people have been chosen ahead of me. I needed to wait my turn, and maybe there's a different race for me.

So there's a lot of internal Democratic efforts to kind of hands-lect very bluntly, white men, to keep serving at a time when LGBTQ+ and women's rights are under attack. And I'm a queer woman. I'm not going to stand by as a civil rights attorney in watch the dismantling of all the protections so many have worked for over the decades. So there's a lot going on within the Democratic Party.

“I think I have a view like many Americans that maybe it wasn't great, but I could work with it.”

And now that I'm actually campaigning, what I see as a machine that is out of touch with the American people, and wants to just keep a lot that will, for example, continue insider trading. My top platform is accountability, and that's congressional term limits. Ending insider trading, ethical standards to the Supreme Court. I guarantee you none of the other candidates in this race will stop the insider trading by Congress, but I will. Because I'm not here for money, I'm not looking to enrich myself. I want to be a public servant, and I want to restore the standing up Congress.

And after everything that we've been through, Congress should be only about public service and not about private wealth. And how do you see them promoting white men?

“Oh, I mean, our races, I think you mentioned seven candidates. There's only two women, rest are men that fall in that category.”

So we even just had a special election here in District 3 last night in three women ran against one white man and he won. And so it's, if you look at the demographics of New York City and the state in the area, it is largely white men. For a city to be this diverse as New York City, and to keep putting up that type of leadership really raises questions in my mind, but it's about powerful connections, power and privilege and the money circles. Yeah, so you've been an advocate for paid, primarily with the most politically difficult part of pushing universal child care right now.

I think because so few women in Congress are reproductive age and so many men in Congress rely on their partners to do all that work. People don't think it's as important as it is. We really need women who are a reproductive age to be in Congress, and that's pretty hard to achieve because so many of us are dealing with child care are dealing with the home on top of our own careers.

So I think, I think prioritization, I can say from having been in almost all the NY-12 forums that women's issues never come up.

It's always is rural Gaza, it's a keen Jeffries is all these establishment tests.

“So I think there is just a lack of touch that the Democratic Party has at least at the federal level.”

My mayor here in New York who's obviously gotten universal childcare for ages three and four, I believe. And so I'm very proud to see the city knows what the priorities are, but the Democratic Party is a little slow to that.

You know, I noticed that mom Donnie seems to be a bit ambivalent about King Charles visit, you know, he wouldn't even really confirm that he was attending. What do you think about that stance?

I mean, I mean, the irony of what just happened yesterday is not lost on me, right? We had the King of England. So I'm making this historically our country has pushed out of power for our own independence coming into our. So when telling us hey, heavy forgotten your own values, so I both appreciate that there were some nods to reminding us of our history like at the core of our government, because it is Congress, who is failing the people at this time, we can check the executive and the canray in those powers.

But yes, the England has not had the history of the supporting our country and there was obviously some comments made about, you know, England's own attack on the White House. To lead devastation with an analogy to the ballroom and I don't know how in good taste that was, but the point was made and to be honest, I think we do need people who have been historically our allies like great Britain saying, you guys have to break this spell, you have to buck truck, you cannot keep doing this and expect to survive as a democracy.

So I have mixed feelings about it too. Well, it's interesting because President Trump posted yesterday a picture of him and the king and it said two kings of the crown emoji from the White House.

“Yeah, I think we have all known that Trump fancies himself a king and that's why the no kings protest has been an increasingly popular thing.”

So, yes, I mean, he acknowledged himself to Jesus before that he analyzed himself to the Pope. We know he's a narcissist and we'll keep trying to take as much power as Congress allows him to give and so that's why I'm running. We need people of courage. This this reality that we live in does not have to be in a completely be changed, but it requires the right leadership people who are about serving our democracy. And not just getting in line with whatever the party wants. Also, the absence of drivers. I mean, it just feels very incongruent knowing that his brother refused to testify in the case.

The civil suit filed by Virginia Jufrae and that they instead settled and that he's now being charged with public corruption. Yeah, it will be interesting to watch that prosecution and to see the level of merit or or lack of merit that has, you know, fingers crossed that it sets a good example for the rest of the world of how serious to take it. But we know the obscene files are an ongoing tragedy and I was brushing up on your shows and you're pointing out right we have less than one percent of the files like we still have no idea the extent of this.

But anyone who's watching knows a few things one foreign money and ties are all over our government at the highest level. So we know that the abuse of women and girls at such a horrific level was meant to bond them all together. So there is so much that we can deal with this information and I'm a sexual assault survivor. My entire career has been going after perpetrators and enablers of sexual violence and holding them accountable. So I want to be on the hill demanding that change demanding proper investigation pushing for prosecution.

There are a lot of excuses, but the public is smart enough to know that these are just efforts to obstruct justice. We know it's in the files. We just need them released and I'm so excited to see that there are lawsuits and efforts to create some accountability there because Congress has failed.

“Again, that's why the midterms are going to matter so so much so whether you're an independent or you're blue or even if you're read, you know, I hope you're voting for people who actually care about truth and justice and not already in class.”

Because the more you keep closing up to millionaires and billionaires and those candidates never going to see justice because we know the files aren't just about Donald Trump. They have built Clinton. They have other people in them and there is an effort to protect them powerful. We must hold the Epstein class accountable.

Absolutely. Well, there's a lot there. So I came to politics as I said in an unusual way by being a sexual assault survivor myself. I grew up in a politically divided family. Half-dense half Republicans. We also have fairs, half-packers. We're just one of those families that live contradiction.

And I never thought much of politics because of that divide that was always around me until that sexual assault.

“And I realized that state law did not protect me because it did not consider alcohol and intoxicating substance to facilitate sexual violence, which I think we're all mature enough to know is the case,”

but that was not in state law and that's because of a powerful alcohol lobby that intentionally kept that from being in there. So I used my name face and story pre-me too to get that into the law to make justice for future survivors. And it didn't just stop there because I had used my name face and story. I got the attention of President Obama and the White House at that time and they undertook an amazing effort to address campus sexual violence. And that gave me my experience in federal law and policy. I actually helped draft section 304 of the Violence Against Women Act,

and a free authorization that passed in 2013 took us two years. I had a lobby capital hill in a bipartisan Congress sharing my story in Democrat Republican offices alike to get the law passed. And they did that as a law student on top of my studies, unpaid just for a piece of it. And that's that's a life education that none of these other candidates have. And I was also a contributor to what became the 2011 Dear colleague letter on Title IX that took us from maybe 30 Title IX complaints about campus sexual assault over the last 30 years to 300 overnight because we empowered some of these survivors with information on the rights and options and gained the commitment of the president to enforce these laws in a more meaningful way.

I've been literally leading change, not as a politician, but as an advocate. And I've seen how Washington works in how it does it work. And so I can bring that knowledge in and use it for the better. I was lucky enough after that experience passing law to get a clerkship with Senator Leahy was a chairman of the Senate Judiciary. I actually worked on the inside, worked on committees passing reports on pathways to citizenship and in human trafficking, military prosecution. So I know also how it works from the inside, not just as an advocate. And I used all that when I graduated law school, I created a national nonprofit culture justice.

Through that actually sued Donald Trump and his first term, protect against Title IX rollbacks that were happening. So I have learned from that experience exactly what it takes to fight. And what I love about my background is I have democratic establishment credentials. I've worked on Hillary Clinton's campaign, Joe Biden's campaign in policy level positions. I'm not part of the establishment. I don't see all the fold in anyone because I was there for survivors day in and day out. And that was it wasn't for the party. That's the same energy I want to bring into the campaign.

“So as we know, mayoral race in the mayoral race, some candidates had quite controversial bail orders and it's something that New Yorkers take very seriously. What's yours?”

Yes. Well, I know some people have judgment, but don't not get to try it. Pop up bagel has amazing sesame seed pop up bagels.

And I normally get all of my volunteers bagels from there every single time they're out with me on the other side farmers market on Sunday. And that remains my favorite order. And I've tried quite a few orders, but there's just something about the poppy seed bagel that gets me there. I love poppy seed bagel. Is that weird?

“No, I think pop up bagel has it's not one of those classic ones. It's kind of more of a newer up and coming. That's actually given a challenge to more of the establishment bagel places. So some people have feelings about it.”

Will it be exploited to me? Just so I can understand. I've never been before.

Oh, it's, you know, it's, there's no place to sit. You just kind of get in line and they have a little hope and Logan is not famous, but known. And it moves quick. So it's perfect New York kind of stop takes you a few minutes. Once you're through that line, the order comes out within minutes. And you can buy like three bagels and a spread or just four bagels together. But I think it's been putting a lot of the classics like cozars and zuckers up against the ropes as far as like pulling more and more people.

Okay. Well, thanks for this interesting interview. Clearly know your stuff. We'll see what happens. I mean, this is a very crowded field. Obviously whoever wins the primary wins the race.

So we'll see what happens.

“Yes. And for all of those who heard something they liked, we're always looking for volunteers. We got less than two months. The primary is June 23 with early voting starting June 13. And we're always looking for more hands on with donations support.”

And we appreciate you so much for covering this race and giving non-establishment and candidates an opportunity to be heard because it's a race where a lot of power and privileges talking and I want the people to be heard.

Sounds great. Thank you, Laura. That was another episode of the Tarar Paul Mary show. Thanks so much for tuning in. Tell me who you want me to interview in the midterm races that are ahead.

Believe a comment. Send me an email, Tarar Paul Mary [email protected]. Go to TararPaulMerry.com and sign up for my newsletter or the red letter. If you become a paid subscriber, you can support this sort of independent journalism that is also people paid.

“No institutional money, no packs behind it either, no corporate bureaucracy, just media you. I want to thank my producer, Dan Schiffmacher, Abby Baker, who's also booking and doing my production in social media.”

Adam Stewart on the thumbnails and Dan Rosen, my manager, see you all again in the soon.

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