The next is the transcript of an interview with former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick that aired Sunday, Sept. 4, 2022, on "Face the Nation."
MAJOR GARRETT: Welcome again to Face The Nation, we flip now to Deval Patrick, former governor of Massachusetts, who earlier than that led the Justice Division's Civil Rights Division through the Clinton administration. He joins us this morning from Richmond, Massachusetts. Governor, thanks for making time. Good to see you.
FMR MASSACHUSETTS GOVERNOR DEVAL PATRICK: It is a pleasure. Good morning.
MAJOR GARRETT: So that you're out of politics now, your focus on the Kennedy College at Harvard is on management. How comfy have been you with President Biden's speech final week, and likewise a speech that Republicans will do not forget that the President gave earlier this 12 months when he in contrast modifications that Republicans made in voting legal guidelines in Georgia, to Jim Crow and violent, enforced segregation of one other period? Are you comfy with that type of rhetoric?
FMR GOV PATRICK: what, a good friend of mine says that we have been treating our democracy for a very long time on this nation as if it will tolerate limitless abuse with out breaking. And whenever you add up the 19 states and their vote suppression legal guidelines not too long ago, and also you have a look at that, alongside the sum of money, a lot of a darkish, which has been permitted into our politics and our coverage making the unconventional purging guidelines, the methods by which we now have distorted the democratic course of as a way to realize higher lives for residents, it's deeply worrisome. And it is gotten worse due to election deniers. So I have a good time the President's speech, you understand, any one in all us would select completely different phrases. However I feel it's nice that the President to begin with calls issues what they're, and- and likewise reminds us that the aim of democracy is a way to guarantee liberty and justice for all, and we now have to care about that course of and that function, for these causes.
MAJOR GARRETT: Governor, in our focus group that our viewers will see in just a few moments of Trump supporters, one identified that Democrats raised objections in 2000, they usually would not allow them to go. They raised objections in 2004, some would not allow them to go, and in 2016, raised objections and would not allow them to go. They usually take into account Democrat criticism of Republican objections to what they noticed in 2020 hypocritical. Reply to that.
FMR GOV PATRICK: Properly, I feel it is essential for us to listen to that to begin with, and to actually attempt to course of that, I feel I skilled that otherwise. I feel when-when Donald Trump- if what you imply is objections to Donald Trump profitable the presidency, I do not assume there was any Democrat calling the-the election itself illegitimate, as a result of the end result was stunning or disappointing to Democrats. I feel it is vital, although, to acknowledge that there's frustration that runs fairly deep all through the political spectrum about democracy as a path to a greater future. And that's as a result of I feel we have been treating it in this- in these type of careless methods for a protracted, very long time. It is an entire different order of magnitude. And that's critical sufficient, however an entire order-other order of magnitude to say that democracy is illegitimate, until the end result is the one you need, or the one you voted-voted for. I do not assume that is what Democrats have been objecting to, within the coverage selections of Donald Trump and people who have supported him. That is a really, very completely different factor.
MAJOR GARRETT: Governor, as you effectively know, democracy is sustained on a generational foundation, you deal rather a lot, I collect, with management and the query of their of, with youthful American college students, what's their orientation to democracy? Do they need direct democracy, and you must clarify to them, we do not have direct democracy in our nation, we now have representational democracy, and do you're employed them by that? And what's their degree of optimism or pessimism?
FMR GOV PATRICK: What-what nice questions to begin with, I feel the scholars on the Kennedy College, the younger folks I meet throughout the nation give me super quantity of encouragement. They usually- and I feel they're, they need to encourage all of us. I feel their sense of patriotism runs deep. I feel their sense of urgency is, can also be pure, and the factor to not be tamped down. As a result of there are unmet wants, a lot of which, you understand, cross all types of variations, attain folks in each a part of the- of the nation, and have been plain, within the expertise all of us shared going by the COVID 19 pandemic. I feel that the notion of being engaged, of- of taking duty for- for this era and generations to come back is enormously essential and inspiring. And one of many issues I attempt to encourage in them is that they search for and take into consideration and reject the false selections that so a lot of our could be leaders inform us. , you do not have to hate the members of one other occasion to be a member in good standing of your individual and the identical means you do not have to hate enterprise to-to advocate for social and financial justice or to hate the police to imagine black lives matter. However we're bought so many of those sorts of false selections in our present political discourse, and I hold encouraging the younger individuals who need to be concerned and who're making an attempt to encourage others of all generations to be engaged to be alert to these false selections and reject them. As a result of the very fact is, most individuals aren't-aren't shopping for 100% of what both occasion is promoting, you understand, that, MAJOR.
MAJOR GARRETT: Governor, we now have lower than a minute left. Do you assume the enterprise and company neighborhood in America must be extra concerned within the democracy debate? And if that's the case, how?
FMR GOV PATRICK: I feel the enterprise neighborhood is changing into extra concerned in enterprise leaders within the democracy debate. The query of the place they stand as a-as an entity on any given concern. Any given coverage is one other story. And that is extra delicate, I feel, for companies, however the query about whether or not participatory democracy is a factor to have a good time and encourage, and the place it's suppressed or pissed off or encumbered to be referred to as out and condemned, I feel that is one thing that enterprise leaders have to indicate management on as a result of that includes all of us. And the reality is–
MAJOR GARRETT: Governor–
FMR GOV PATRICK: capitalism is determined by democracy.
MAJOR GARRETT: Former governor of Massachusetts, Deval Patrick, thanks a lot to your time. We might be proper again.