WEBVTT

1
00:00:06.679 --> 00:00:09.640
Joe Cunningham, the great American.
Of course. John Cranley, who's spent

2
00:00:09.720 --> 00:00:12.919
eight years as the mayor of the
City of Cincinnati, in about twenty five

3
00:00:13.000 --> 00:00:17.000
years in total service, came out
about a week or two ago as a

4
00:00:17.039 --> 00:00:21.920
loyal Democrat to say that Joe Biden
should complete his term in office but should

5
00:00:21.960 --> 00:00:25.879
not stand for re election. As
the nominee of the Democrat Party, whoever

6
00:00:25.960 --> 00:00:31.559
is elected this November is going to
serve until January of twenty twenty nine.

7
00:00:32.600 --> 00:00:37.240
I don't think anybody believes that Joe
Biden has the mental acuity to serve until

8
00:00:37.240 --> 00:00:41.000
twenty twenty nine. But nonetheless,
plus we want to get into what happens

9
00:00:41.000 --> 00:00:45.159
Saturday night at TQL and John Cranley, welcome again into Bill Cunningham Show.

10
00:00:45.200 --> 00:00:48.679
And first of all, John,
can you tell the American people what is

11
00:00:48.759 --> 00:00:53.439
Cranleigh doing these days in July of
twenty twenty four. What is the Cranley

12
00:00:53.520 --> 00:00:58.560
life like now compared to what it
was before. It's wonderful. Bill,

13
00:00:58.600 --> 00:01:00.520
I'm very blessed and it's great to
be back with you. It's always fun.

14
00:01:00.719 --> 00:01:03.599
It was great to see you and
Penny at the game on Saturday night

15
00:01:03.599 --> 00:01:08.159
at the FCC massive win over Miami, and obviously as mayor, I was

16
00:01:08.200 --> 00:01:12.680
proud to help the lenders and burning
usher that team into this great city.

17
00:01:14.400 --> 00:01:17.239
But life is good for me,
Bill. I'm at the CaMK Law firm.

18
00:01:17.439 --> 00:01:21.200
I'm happily married with our son who's
just finished his freshman year at Saint

19
00:01:21.280 --> 00:01:25.439
David High School, and we have
more blessings than we deserve, and so

20
00:01:25.519 --> 00:01:27.239
we try to give back in any
way we can do. You see a

21
00:01:27.239 --> 00:01:33.640
way of you getting back into politics, you know, someday, but not

22
00:01:33.879 --> 00:01:37.319
in the short term. You know, I think, as it turns out,

23
00:01:37.719 --> 00:01:40.799
for me, it was the right
thing that it just so happens that

24
00:01:40.879 --> 00:01:45.719
my time out of politics is with
my son being going through high school.

25
00:01:45.719 --> 00:01:49.200
I think that's a good time for
me not to be a distraction from him

26
00:01:49.239 --> 00:01:52.640
and get him into college, and
then I'll reevaluate at that time. Let's

27
00:01:52.640 --> 00:01:55.319
talk about what happened on Saturday night. You want to talk about Biden,

28
00:01:55.359 --> 00:01:57.280
of course, but you and I
were there with some other a lot of

29
00:01:57.280 --> 00:02:01.200
the muckety MUCKs, the shakers and
movers, plus that Bailey was going nuts.

30
00:02:01.439 --> 00:02:05.439
Let's go back four or five years. You're the mayor and as I

31
00:02:05.519 --> 00:02:12.520
recall there was issues involved about certain
utilities that may have scuttled the entire deal,

32
00:02:13.000 --> 00:02:16.360
and if that did not happen,
when it occurred, Sacramento, the

33
00:02:16.439 --> 00:02:21.639
capital of the state of California,
was ready to step up and take the

34
00:02:21.719 --> 00:02:27.879
FC club. FC Sacramento describe how
uncertain it was as to whether Cincinnati would

35
00:02:27.879 --> 00:02:32.639
even have FC five or six years
ago. Oh, it was very close.

36
00:02:32.759 --> 00:02:35.759
I mean, first of all,
Bill, let's start with the good

37
00:02:35.800 --> 00:02:39.360
news. We are now again a
three big league city with the Reds,

38
00:02:39.360 --> 00:02:44.680
the Bengals, and FCC Soccer obviously
not as big as baseball and football,

39
00:02:44.680 --> 00:02:47.159
but is the fastest going sport in
America and is the largest sport in the

40
00:02:47.199 --> 00:02:52.439
world. And when the likes of
Messi come to America, you know that

41
00:02:52.560 --> 00:02:54.199
ten years from now, it's only
going to be bigger. And we got

42
00:02:54.240 --> 00:02:59.120
on the front end of this train
which is going to set Cincinnati up for

43
00:02:59.240 --> 00:03:02.479
a great success for generations to come. And Jeff Birding and Carl Linder and

44
00:03:02.520 --> 00:03:07.599
all the other owners, Scott Farmer
deserved such enormous credit. But to answer

45
00:03:07.680 --> 00:03:14.080
your question, when I was Mayor, you know that I knew that it

46
00:03:14.199 --> 00:03:16.639
was going to be a game changer
for Cincinnati because we saw the success at

47
00:03:16.719 --> 00:03:23.479
Nippert and I also knew that the
leadership, the lenders and the farmers were

48
00:03:23.520 --> 00:03:28.680
willing to invest in the other owners
hundreds of millions of dollars to build a

49
00:03:28.680 --> 00:03:34.000
stadium in the city at private expense, and I think that's very important.

50
00:03:34.039 --> 00:03:37.840
I think your listeners are very familiar
with the fact that the stadium deal for

51
00:03:37.879 --> 00:03:43.520
the Bengals was way too generous with
taxpayer money back in the late nineties,

52
00:03:44.319 --> 00:03:47.759
and we didn't want to repeat that. And we are lucky to live in

53
00:03:47.800 --> 00:03:53.280
a community where the lenders and the
farmers put up literally over three hundred million

54
00:03:53.280 --> 00:03:55.680
dollars to build that stadium. What
the city needed to do and what I

55
00:03:55.879 --> 00:04:02.400
happily championed as mayor, was putting
about twenty five million dollars in the infrastructure

56
00:04:02.439 --> 00:04:09.039
public infrastructure around the stadium, including
building a garage that the city owns to

57
00:04:09.080 --> 00:04:14.879
this day to accommodate additional traffic at
and near the statement, by which the

58
00:04:14.919 --> 00:04:18.800
city still makes money from that investment. But the parking was needed. And

59
00:04:19.800 --> 00:04:27.120
considering that we paid for every single
thing in Paul Brown Stadium and not one

60
00:04:27.199 --> 00:04:30.839
thing in TQL, it seemed like
a no brainer to me. But at

61
00:04:30.839 --> 00:04:34.120
the time, as you know,
council was very divided and it was only

62
00:04:34.120 --> 00:04:40.600
a five to four vote that originally
originally passed to get that through. And

63
00:04:40.639 --> 00:04:43.399
I'm very proud that I led that
effort, and I'm glad that we got

64
00:04:43.399 --> 00:04:46.720
the votes. But it is amazing
when you look back on it, how

65
00:04:46.800 --> 00:04:49.639
narrow the majority was for such a
great success for us. And wasn't your

66
00:04:49.720 --> 00:04:53.920
Vet Simpson. I'm not sure what's
happened to her. I don't know where

67
00:04:53.920 --> 00:04:57.199
she is now. I wish her
well, But nonetheless, she was one

68
00:04:57.199 --> 00:05:00.839
of the ones kind of whipping the
council in the voting no. Because the

69
00:05:00.879 --> 00:05:05.800
city spent twenty five million, I
would think Saturday night's game probably produced twenty

70
00:05:05.839 --> 00:05:11.240
five million dollars by itself. I've
never been in a more exciting soccer facility.

71
00:05:11.279 --> 00:05:13.879
I'm looking around here. I've been
to two games in my life.

72
00:05:13.920 --> 00:05:16.279
I said, this is unbelievable.
And if Bailey's going nuts, they're marching

73
00:05:16.279 --> 00:05:20.879
in from from Findlay Market. That
was packed the excitement of twenty five million.

74
00:05:21.279 --> 00:05:26.000
Are those who voted no? Remember
their names? Was that your Vett

75
00:05:26.079 --> 00:05:31.120
Simpson? And who else can you
recall, well, let's start with the

76
00:05:31.319 --> 00:05:38.879
the yes votes were were Smitherman,
David Mann, Kevin Flynn was still on

77
00:05:38.959 --> 00:05:46.040
a council at that time, and
God, I'm blaked. Amy Murray was

78
00:05:46.079 --> 00:05:47.959
she there? Oh yeah, Amy
Murray? Of course yes, he was

79
00:05:48.040 --> 00:05:54.879
strong supporter. And the opposition at
the time was the Vet Simpson. Uh,

80
00:05:55.040 --> 00:06:00.959
it was PG. It was who
was the other two? And they

81
00:06:00.720 --> 00:06:04.000
day, how about Wendell Young?
Is he there? Oh? Yeah,

82
00:06:04.040 --> 00:06:09.160
Wendell Young voted no, that's correct, and so it was five to four

83
00:06:09.240 --> 00:06:12.360
vote in December of twenty seventeen.
Now that was the reason I'm kind of

84
00:06:12.360 --> 00:06:15.560
slipping on some of the names because
it was a transition between one council to

85
00:06:15.600 --> 00:06:18.519
the next city council, so there
were changes in the makeup of the council.

86
00:06:19.920 --> 00:06:24.560
But luckily we were able to get
that barely through. And that vote

87
00:06:24.600 --> 00:06:30.160
happened right before I flew to New
York City with mister Lindner and mister Birding

88
00:06:30.439 --> 00:06:34.600
and Farmer to do our final interview
with Major League Soccer to win the franchise

89
00:06:35.199 --> 00:06:40.920
expansion, which was a game changer
for the history of Cincinnati. Twenty five

90
00:06:40.959 --> 00:06:45.680
million investment, billions of dollars rewards
that worked in the West End right now

91
00:06:45.759 --> 00:06:47.720
is a vibrant, alive community.
I like to go back in time and

92
00:06:47.800 --> 00:06:50.839
say, Okay, these are the
persons that are posted, and these are

93
00:06:50.879 --> 00:06:55.560
the persons that went out and got
it done. Now. Secondly, you

94
00:06:55.680 --> 00:06:59.720
came out about a week ago and
said time for Joe Biden to step aside

95
00:07:00.120 --> 00:07:03.160
his recent appearance on Morning Joe,
he's dug in his heels deep. I

96
00:07:03.240 --> 00:07:08.480
look at the list of the Democrats
saying Biden's got to step down. The

97
00:07:08.720 --> 00:07:13.279
long list not as long. And
he made the comment that I received eighty

98
00:07:13.360 --> 00:07:15.839
seven percent of the primary vote.
I'm a Democrat. I got eighty seven

99
00:07:15.839 --> 00:07:19.439
percent of the primary vote. And
for a party that stands for democracy,

100
00:07:19.480 --> 00:07:25.399
how do you have someone in office
who got eighty seven percent of the vote

101
00:07:25.519 --> 00:07:30.160
and the party chieftains overrule that eighty
seven percent and put someone else in charge.

102
00:07:30.279 --> 00:07:35.680
Do you buy that argument? Well, look, I believe that based

103
00:07:35.680 --> 00:07:41.040
on what we saw in the debate, that he is not likely to win,

104
00:07:41.399 --> 00:07:46.160
and I want to win. And
as to your last point about he

105
00:07:46.240 --> 00:07:49.439
won the primaries, he sure did. And so only as a legal matter,

106
00:07:49.560 --> 00:07:55.680
only he can make the decision to
release his delegates and allow us to

107
00:07:55.720 --> 00:07:59.040
have an open convention. And that's
what I'm urging him to do, which

108
00:07:59.120 --> 00:08:03.199
is to end if camp, open
up the convention, and give us a

109
00:08:03.240 --> 00:08:05.759
fighting chance of winning in November,
which I think is very important to the

110
00:08:05.759 --> 00:08:09.000
future of our country. And right
now, you know, he's losing in

111
00:08:09.040 --> 00:08:13.399
all the battleground states. He was
losing before the primary, before the debate,

112
00:08:13.759 --> 00:08:18.160
he's losing by even more now.
And I want to see a Democrat

113
00:08:18.199 --> 00:08:20.800
win, and I don't believe he
can win, even though I think he's

114
00:08:20.800 --> 00:08:22.680
done a good job as president.
He says, I've been a good president.

115
00:08:22.759 --> 00:08:26.680
I got all the votes there my
delegates. I can do the job.

116
00:08:26.920 --> 00:08:30.639
Do you think he can be?
Is he mentally alert now? In

117
00:08:30.680 --> 00:08:35.320
your opinion? I don't know.
But what I do know is that he

118
00:08:35.360 --> 00:08:39.960
can't effectively communicate anymore. And that
is the job of being president, that's

119
00:08:39.000 --> 00:08:43.200
the job of winning a campaign.
And certainly his you know, age is

120
00:08:43.200 --> 00:08:46.200
a one way street for all of
us. It's not his fault, but

121
00:08:46.600 --> 00:08:50.639
it is what it is. And
the idea that is a communication abilities are

122
00:08:50.679 --> 00:08:54.919
going to get better when he's eighty
six is fanciful, and so I believe

123
00:08:56.080 --> 00:09:00.919
that our party can and should take
the opportunity to find a better candidate to

124
00:09:01.039 --> 00:09:05.600
give us a chance of winning in
November. And who is that Well,

125
00:09:05.639 --> 00:09:07.039
if it was up to me,
it would be the governor of Michigan,

126
00:09:07.159 --> 00:09:11.559
Gretchen Widmer, the governor of Kentucky, Andy Basher, Passification Sect, Karay

127
00:09:11.600 --> 00:09:16.120
Pete, didj Edge, and just
the name a few, Josh Shapiro from

128
00:09:16.159 --> 00:09:20.879
Pennsylvania, Jared Poulos from Colorado.
I like governors. I like Midwestern people

129
00:09:22.080 --> 00:09:26.000
like Whitmer or Bashier, you know, Kentucky, Michigan. These are you

130
00:09:26.080 --> 00:09:28.480
know, these are pragmatic, moderate
Democrats, which are more of my ilk.

131
00:09:30.120 --> 00:09:31.679
Those would be those would be my
choices. Well, there's one name

132
00:09:31.759 --> 00:09:39.000
missing from that list, Vice President
Kamala Harris. What about her? Oh,

133
00:09:39.559 --> 00:09:41.279
look, at this point, she
would not be my top choice,

134
00:09:41.360 --> 00:09:45.159
but I think she's a better choice
than Joe Biden. I mean, the

135
00:09:45.279 --> 00:09:50.720
fact is that she was a tough
on crime prosecutor in San Francisco, attorney

136
00:09:50.840 --> 00:09:54.240
general. I think, you know, she hasn't always gotten the best rapt

137
00:09:54.279 --> 00:09:58.159
as vice president, but at this
point in time, I think she would

138
00:09:58.320 --> 00:10:03.039
she would be a better candidate Joe
Biden not my first pick, but I

139
00:10:03.080 --> 00:10:05.480
would still rather have her than Joe
Biden lead our ticket at this time.

140
00:10:05.559 --> 00:10:09.080
Wouldn't that be a problem if you
overwhelmed and went over the top of an

141
00:10:09.080 --> 00:10:15.799
African American female in office with Joe
Biden and to have somebody of a different

142
00:10:15.879 --> 00:10:18.919
skin tone take over the nomination when
she's standing there ready to go. Wouldn't

143
00:10:18.960 --> 00:10:24.200
that be a problem among Democrats?
Well, I'm against identity politics, so

144
00:10:24.480 --> 00:10:28.399
I don't think that I think the
Democratic Party is going to unite around anyone

145
00:10:28.480 --> 00:10:33.120
to be Donald Trump. Obviously,
our party did nominate and elect Barack Obama

146
00:10:33.240 --> 00:10:37.240
twice, so we have you know, we have a long standing commitment to

147
00:10:37.320 --> 00:10:41.519
diversity, and I'm confident that our
party will be united regardless of who our

148
00:10:41.759 --> 00:10:46.120
top candidate is. But let me
state again, I believe Kamala Harris can

149
00:10:46.159 --> 00:10:50.759
win. I think Gretchen Widmer has
a better chance of winning, but I

150
00:10:50.799 --> 00:10:54.600
think Kamala Harris could win as well. Are you looking forward to a debate

151
00:10:54.720 --> 00:11:00.399
again between Joe Biden and Donald Trump. I guess one has scheduled around September

152
00:11:00.480 --> 00:11:03.480
tenth or eleventh, and I can't
imagine. Well, it was a pretty

153
00:11:03.519 --> 00:11:09.679
disastrous you know, it was a
pretty disastrous debate, you know, nine

154
00:11:09.759 --> 00:11:13.000
days ago, and I'm hoping by
then we have a different candidate debating Donald

155
00:11:13.039 --> 00:11:16.840
Trump. Well, he's not going
to get better in the passage of time.

156
00:11:16.879 --> 00:11:18.679
And let's face it, he's walking
a path all of us one day

157
00:11:18.759 --> 00:11:22.679
may walk, which is losing your
mind when you get old. Well,

158
00:11:22.720 --> 00:11:28.600
really think about this, Think about
this. The biggest issue in America right

159
00:11:28.639 --> 00:11:35.240
now is inflation. And Donald Trump's
policy is to put ten percent tariffs on

160
00:11:35.360 --> 00:11:41.840
everything that comes into our country.
His message seems to be, you think

161
00:11:41.879 --> 00:11:46.600
inflation's high, hold my beer,
I can do better. And what bothers

162
00:11:46.679 --> 00:11:50.159
me is that we have the greatest
economy in the world. We've come back

163
00:11:50.159 --> 00:11:52.879
from COVID fast than any country in
the world. Prices are too high,

164
00:11:54.519 --> 00:11:58.399
But whose policies are going to be
better to bring down inflation in the next

165
00:11:58.440 --> 00:12:03.799
several years? And I believe that
Trump's policies will make inflation worse. And

166
00:12:03.879 --> 00:12:09.559
what bothers me is that our candidate
for president isn't even making this case.

167
00:12:09.440 --> 00:12:13.639
And I think it's about the economy. It usually is, and it should

168
00:12:13.679 --> 00:12:18.120
be and let's have that debate.
But right now we have a candidate who

169
00:12:18.200 --> 00:12:22.159
is not effectively communicating, and that
is a critical problem that, given his

170
00:12:22.279 --> 00:12:24.080
age, will only get worse.
And by the way, I think it

171
00:12:24.120 --> 00:12:26.519
will get much worse for Trump to
who loses a train of thought and is

172
00:12:26.639 --> 00:12:30.879
not a young man either. But
it's clear based on the debate, that

173
00:12:30.960 --> 00:12:33.600
the Democrats can do better with a
better candidate. Well, I may disagree

174
00:12:33.639 --> 00:12:37.159
on the politics. I'm a Trump
kind of a guy, but I understand

175
00:12:37.159 --> 00:12:39.600
as a Democrat where you come from, I think it'd be much easier for

176
00:12:39.720 --> 00:12:45.120
the Donald to defeat Joe Biden than
defeat Kamala Harris anyone else. When the

177
00:12:45.200 --> 00:12:50.200
Democratic Party unites, it is a
terrible monster to be a monolithic between the

178
00:12:50.320 --> 00:12:56.519
talk shows and the newspapers and the
big city mayors and college towns and labor

179
00:12:56.639 --> 00:13:01.480
unions and all the opinion makers,
we all go in one direction. That's

180
00:13:01.559 --> 00:13:05.759
a tough thing to beat for a
Republican. However, if the Democratic Party

181
00:13:05.840 --> 00:13:09.840
is split by one or two,
three or four different ways, guess what,

182
00:13:09.320 --> 00:13:13.200
it becomes a whole lot easier for
the Republican to win. And so

183
00:13:13.600 --> 00:13:16.159
we'll see what happens. But John
Cranley, give my best, your mom

184
00:13:16.240 --> 00:13:20.440
and dad, and uh, thank
you. I'm sorry. I'm sorry your

185
00:13:20.480 --> 00:13:24.080
son didn't go to Deer Park High
School. I guess the admission results tests

186
00:13:24.120 --> 00:13:26.799
were a little bit high, but
he was able to get into sant X,

187
00:13:26.879 --> 00:13:31.120
which is a good second choice.
Hey, thank you all right,

188
00:13:31.200 --> 00:13:33.799
John Cranley, former mayor, thank
you for coming on. Good luck to

189
00:13:33.799 --> 00:13:37.919
you, John. Thank you.
Let's continue, thank you, Let's continue

190
00:13:37.960 --> 00:13:39.480
with more. If a line becomes
available five to one, three, seven,

191
00:13:39.519 --> 00:13:41.960
four, nine, seven thousand.
There it is from one of the

192
00:13:43.039 --> 00:13:46.559
most prominent Democrats in this part of
the country, Bill Cunning and the Great

193
00:13:46.600 --> 00:13:50.440
American with you every day, your
Home of the Reds playing tonight hosting the

194
00:13:50.519 --> 00:13:54.120
Colorado Rocks on news radio seven hundred
wu oldowet