NY Attorney General Eric Schneiderman Talks Suing Donald Trump

-Now, Donald Trump does not like either of us,
but he might dislike you more
because I tell jokes about him, but you sue him.
-Well... -And sometimes --
Sometimes, you sue him to the point
that he has to give up money, and he likes that a lot.
-No, but you mocked him and humiliated him and his hair
on national TV. I don't know, Seth.
-Yeah. A little of both. -It's a close call.
-Uh, now, you have sued him in the past.
You sued Trump University for fraud.
He swore he would never settle that.
He was elected president. He did settle it.
Originally, you guys were looking into Trump University
because you just wanted him
to take away the name "university," right?
-Well, we were looking at for-profit colleges generally,
and there were problems with for-profit colleges
ripping people off.
Actually, we've sued the Federal Department of Education
for trying to remove rules that would protect students
from being ripped off by for-profit colleges a couple of weeks ago.
And we were looking at for-profit colleges,
and there was Trump University hanging out there,
like, with a neon sign on it saying "Fraud Here."
And we attempted to negotiate a settlement. That failed.
And so, in the summer of 2013, we sued him.
And that's when our relationship took a turn for the worst.
-Yeah.
He has mentioned you on Twitter a couple of times...
not very kindly.
Here's one. "Lightweight A.G. Eric Schneiderman
is perhaps the most incompetent
and least respected A.G. in the U.S.
He's a total joke."
[ Laughter ]
"Lightweight @AGSchneiderman..."
He used your Twitter handle that time.
That's very -- He wanted to make sure you saw it.
"Just got his ass kicked by Trump."
And, then, "It's Thursday."
I like, by the way, when he tells you what day it is.
"It's Thursday.
What brand of eyeliner
is the nation's worst A.G. wearing today?"
-Yes. -Now, do you take it as a...
point of pride when someone like this attacks you on Twitter?
-Well, look, it was very unusual.
I mean, we sue a lot of people for fraud.
I'd never seen the sort of scorched-earth approach
he brought to it.
He set up a website to attack me,
sued me for $100 million,
filed phony ethics complaints against me.
The full front page
of his son-in-law's newspaper, The Observer, was --
-Oh, yes. -Here you go.
This is Jared Kushner's -- Jared Kushner's newspaper.
And that's you right there.
-That's me with the eyeliner
as the Malcolm McDowell character
in "A Clockwork Orange." -"Clockwork Eric."
-So, in retrospect -- I didn't realize this in 2013 --
I got a preview of the scorched earth
he brought to the campaign last year,
'cause before there was Lyin' Ted and Little Marco,
there was Clockwork Eric.
But this is the approach he brings to litigation
and the approach he brings to politics.
-Now, no matter what happened on election night,
you were gonna have Donald Trump in your life
because all his businesses --
He has so much stuff in New York.
You're still looking into his foundation.
You were looking into his university.
But now you're actually having to sue Donald Trump
as a person who's representing the federal government.
Tell me some of the things that you have had to do
to defend against Donald Trump's actions already.
-Oh, sure. Well, in terms of public policy,
we have sued them over their refusal
to keep toxic pesticides out of kids' food.
We have sued them for their efforts
to dismantle the cost-sharing subsidies
under the Affordable Care Act, Obamacare,
which is still, as we sit here tonight, the law of the land.
-Yeah. We'll see how -- We'll see how long.
-Yeah. [ Cheers and applause ]
And I think will remain so.
But the Trump administration
won't defend any of the Obama-era policies.
So, I have intervened and sued,
and other A.G.'s have intervened and sued.
We are taking up the cause where --
They won't defend any of the Obama era's policies
on climate change.
You mentioned the EPA at the top of the show.
They got a bunch of climate-change deniers
in charge of the EPA.
So we are now defending the Clean Power Plan,
other Obama-era initiatives,
and we're suing them for their failure
to provide protection for students
who get ripped off by still existing for-profit colleges.
So we're going after them. But it's all policy.
It's not about him personally.
It's all on the merits,
but there are a lot of merits these days, yeah.
-You talk about, you know,
one of the things you're doing is defending.
You're defending policies
and the legal basis of those policies.
It seems like what people want of you,
what a certain amount of people want of you,
is that your legal investigation,
your legal work will lead to some grand impeachment,
that this is one of the things that people like you need to do.
Is it sort of wishful thinking?
And do Democrats in general need to step back from this idea
that impeachment is something that's going to happen
and that impeachment is something
that's going to come about by legal means?
-Well, no. I think you have to separate it out.
Our first job is to protect the people we represent
from these horrendous public policies
that pour out of Washington like a bad-idea toxic volcano.
I mean, every day, there's some new bad public policy
that would hurt people. We're going to protect them.
As to misconduct by the Trump campaign
colluding with Russia or, you know,
allegations of money laundering by people around the president,
those are separate investigations.
Those are going forth.
But I do think it is important
for Democrats to recognize the there is no substitute
for the hard work at the end of the day of electing good people.
And we have to go back and elect good people
from the grassroots up in order to get this country back on track.
[ Cheers and applause ]
-I'm...
Let it never be said
that attorney generals can't have some fun.
I want -- If you could, real quick, explain to us.
You had an Operation Wrecking Ball?
-Uh, we did. -And can you tell us
how you came to the title Operation Wrecking Ball,
how you came to name it that?
-Yeah, this was an Organized Crime Task Force investigation
of a gang that was dealing guns and drugs in upstate New York.
And they apparently were Miley Cyrus fans.
And their -- The code word for cocaine was "Miley Cyrus."
So we took a Miley Cyrus song,
called it Operation Wrecking Ball,
and busted all of them.
-Well, congratulations on that. -Thank you.
-And thank you for all your hard work.
Keep it up. And thank you so much for being here.
-Thank you, Seth.
-Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, everybody.

NY Attorney General Eric Schneiderman Talks Suing Donald Trump

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