Eliot Spitzer on CNBC tells Wall St: ‘It Was Never Personal’ [VIDEO]

Democratic candidate for New York City comptroller, Scott Stringer, discusses his campaign strategy with Bill Griffith and Kelly Evans. He feels it is a great opportunity to talk about issues facing New Yorkers.

Transcript:

now, turning to eliot spitzer, back on the campaign trail again as he runs for new york city comptroller. he is getting his share ofhecklers as you would expect. you look at the record i have as attorney general and governor, assistant district attorney, the private sector, as teacher, how the opportunities reviewed my teaching, and i think people — so how will the man spitzerchallenging handle this? scott stringer is running against someone who had to leave office in disgrace after being caught in a prostitution scandal. let’s face it, eliot spitzer is also a household name around the country. joining us in a cnbc exclusive, we’re pleased to welcome the democratic candidate for new york city comptroller, scott stringer. pleasure to be here. this is either your worst nightmare or you’re licking yourchops having a guy like eliot spitzer come into your campaign at this point. the worst nightmare part is i’m a new father, 7-week-old son — congratulations. — and i have an 18-month-old son, and at my age, that’s a good thing. yeah. so on that level, it’s achallenge. but this is a great opportunity to get politics away from the circus and talk about the issues facing real new yorkers, people who have struggled in this city, people who are trying to pay their rent, get their kids a good education. the comptroller is an important office, because through trust — the worry is this is the opposite, it’s turning into a circus. right. i won’t go to the circus — you don’t have a choice. you’re being drossed, sir. no, no, i have to tell you, as i campaign, i talk to voters, they don’t want the circus. they want to know who will work for them. the comptroller has to have the back of the working people. you have to be responsible. think about it. the comptroller is part of $145 billion pension fund. you have to manage five different funds. you are on four — you’re a fiduciary on four of the five funds, a trustee. this is serious. you have to build consensus. you have to work collaboratively. why do you think he chose that position to go after? i mean, do you think he’s qualified to be new york city comptroller? you know, technically sound. but i think that i bring 20 years of a skill set being a consensus builder, but also someone who’s fiercelyindependent. i’ve taken on mike bloomberg when he’s wrong, but also worked collaboratively when we’ve found common ground. and going on in new york city, we’re in the heart of it now, the center of commerce. i have to tell you, we have people who are really struggling. they want real leadership. they don’t want the circus. they don’t want the drama. they don’t want that.and any emotion attached to this race should be about the people who were victimized after sandy. but between now and election day, all it’s going to be — look at the headlines already.look at the jokes. look what people are focused on. look, we’re showing clips of eliot spitzer almost crying, or crying, on morning joe already. that’s the focus. i’ll be on morning joetomorrow, and i won’t tear — you won’t cry. i do feel emotional about it. let’s talk about new york city and the post-hurricane economy. let’s talk about how we grow the economy. we’re the center for high-tech jobs. but those jobs have to benefiteverybody. the comptroller has to speak to those challenging economic issues. what can the comptroller do? that will be the central question as well. people will look at a guy like spitzer and go, look what he did as a.g. he did use the role, leveragedit, went after a lot of the big banks. what would you do when you’re going up against a guy like that? i’m going to talk about my record. i’m going to talk about my role on the pensionboard, a fiduciary. i have taken that role seriously, accomplished a lot.i’ve issued 50 reports on manhattan waste as boroughpresident. we built a office where we brought the best and brightest to work. the job of comptroller is not to be a day trader or to play

with other people’s money. so i’m going to be a fiduciary for that $145 billion mention fund and take it seriously.okay. i get what you’re doing here. but let’s put our cards on thetable. i get what you’re doing here. you’re going to run against aguy that has made headlines around the world. he got caught in a prostitution scandal. he had to leave in disgrace. but now he’s back. anthony wiener is back and running — he’s leading in the campaign for mayor of new york city. so this was not lost on eliot spitzer. he now wants to run for your — for the position that you’re running for at this point. do you think it’s wise on your part to ignore him completely and merely say what you would bring to the table, or do you have to go after him and show people why you would be a better comptroller than eliot spitzer? i have –you’re killing us here with reciting your statistics. i get what you’re doing. well, i’m talking about my record. is that the best campaign strategy to go after a guy that will make headlines by just showing up? lien, the real issue here, he’s not participating in the campaign refinance program. so he’ll try to buy this office.this office is not for sale. in that regard, we are contrasting. i’m going to talk about my vision for the city. i’m going to talk about my record of integrity, because at the end of the day, everyelection is about how you trust to fight for you. and the fact that i’m on this show — i know you’ve tried to get me on for many years — and now you do come. — and now i’m on, right? we’ll be able to talk about the economic issues facing the city. we’re going to talk about the future of new york. i want to talk about theamount of the pension money going into commodities, but we’ll save that discussion for the next go-around. i’ll come back and have that discussion. when you come back, yes. good luck.thank you. scott stringer, running for new york city comptroller here in new york city. and we’ll hear from governor spitzer tomorrow morning on squk box, 8:30 a.m. eastern time here on cnbc.

Power Rundown: Largest & Fastest Yacht

Former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer is running for New York Comptroller, and the world’s largest yacht at 590 feet is now also the fastest. CNBC’s Robert Frank and John Carney, discuss.

Transcript:

power rundown time and joining us is cnbc.com net senior editor john carney and wealth editor robert frank. two disgraces politicians, the link back to the former wiener mobile, elliot spritzer and former congressman anthony weiner. spitzer is running for new york city comptroller and weiner running for mayor of new york. spitzer joined morning joe earlier today and got a bit choked up reflecting on his past. take a look at this here. how are you different than you were five, six years ago?what has changed personally? a lot of pain, a lot of pain. in who you are. that’s it? yeah. you go through that pain, you ange.weiner/spitzer, do they deserve a second chance, john karn?you’re a brooklyn resident, what do you think? i think anthony weiner clearlspired spitzer to run. new yorkers believe that these politicians do deserve a second chance. i think spitzer saw how well weiner was doing it’s like, hey, apparently all is forgiven. i get back in. do we draw a distinction between weiner and spitzer who was a sitting governor at the time he was patronizing prostitutes? yeah. i mean, some would draw thatdistinction. i don’t care what politicians do in their bedroom, as long as it doesn’t conflict with whatever they are doing in office. i think he would actually be a very good comptroller, understands finance. we need better returns for the pensions in new york. i think he would do that. what i don’t like he didn’t answer the question. how have you changed and tears was all he could do to answer. he didn’t say how he had changed. i do wish he had answer that had question. what spitzer was involved in was very dangerous. to be involved in organized prostitution as the governor sets you up so that you can be black mailed. thatty think is a real public policy issue. i say any — any individual who needs public office that badly i don’t need. that’s my thought.mr. spitzer, by the way, will be on squawk box tomorrowmorning, and you won’t want to miss that interview with mr. spitzer. next, according to the new york times, the billionairedeal-maker ronald perlman is suing his old friend michaelmilken for fraud. not personal, just business here. lawsuit involves one of pearl men’s companies, harlan clark holdings which bought global scholar back in 2011, a company backed by milken. what do we make of this? mr. perlman likes to sue.he sues lots of people. if these guys placed a big value on friendship they might not be billionaires. i’m a billionaire in friends. never sued any of them. rather be my way than their way. perlman sues a lot of people and so does milken. what’s surprising is how lucrative milken has made a career of being banned by the s.e.c. worth $2.3 billion. he was so involved in this deal, it just tells you how active he is under the radar in thebusiness world, after being banned by the s.e.c. band from the securities business, but he’s still done very well in business, and we forget that. and he subsequently paid a fine for getting involved. in 1998. after the official fine of — involved with drexel.the world’s largest yacht, 590 feet is also the fastest. it hits about 37 miles an hour, and that’s not even at top speed. you’ve done some reporting on this yacht. shazam. that’s right. this is an engineering marvel. first of all, 590 feet long so we’re thinking a football field and a half and then it goes 37 miles per hour in the water. take the chrysler building, two-thirds of the chrysler building going in the water. 95% horsepower using jets but this guy paid fantasy to help this in the water. it’s a jetski the size of a city grok block and a great symbol of how the wealthy have done across the past ten years. urate. they are trying — the boats are getting faster and bigger. and they get to consume the oil that they pump. gentlemen, thank you very much.america’s top five states for

Morning Joe: Spitzer Wept

Former New York State Governor and current New York City comptroller candidate Eliot Spitzer struggles to speak during an interview on Morning Joe, when describing the pain he’s gone through since he resigned in disgrace five years ago.