IMAGE DESCRIPTION: Selfie of Bill Weld.

BILL WELD: Hi Ben- text son! Bill

BEN SMITH: Thanks Governor - you got ahead of me. When you’re free can you begin with where you are today and what you’re up to?

BW: I’m in Texas right now on my way to New York, Mass. and New Hampshire. Writing speeches today, meetings and media next, then back to New Hampshire.

BS: We first met in 2006 when you ran for governor of New York. Then you were on the Libertarian ticket in 2016, and now you’re running for president. Why do you keep doing it?

BW: I’m a happy warrior!

BS: This stuff must get you down a bit:

IMAGE DESCRIPTION: Screenshot of a Star Tribune headline reading, “Minnesota Republican Party leaves Trump challengers off presidential primary ballot”

BS:: Do you worry there won’t even be primaries to fight?

BW: New Hampshire, Vermont, Mass., California, Wisconsin and the other Super Tuesday states, plus New York and all mid-Atlantic states, plus Oregon, Washington, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Michigan for openers- there are now twenty “crossover” states (open primaries). My strategy is to enlarge the electorate everywhere.

BS: Over to impeachment: You worked in the Justice Department in the 1980s with many of the key figures in impeachment. I read that Rudy Giuliani recommended you to Reagan to serve as a US Attorney back in the 1980s. Was he always like this?

BW: Rudy was without question the sharpest guy in the Reagan Justice Department. He and I were close allies both in the Department and later, when he became Mayor and I became Governor.

BS: What do you make of his current role, and his evolution?

BW: He was always aggressive in handling cases, so that’s not new.

BS: Bill Barr was an ally of yours then too, I think? How do you think these lawyers become so loyal to Trump?

BW: I’m more worried about Bill Barr than about Rudy, because ever since the unsolicited memo Bill sent to DOJ in June of 2018, he seems to have totally bought into the idea that the role of the Justice Department is to serve and protect the President, rather than the people or the Constitution.

BS: What would you say to Senate Republicans right now?

BW: I’d say the President is ordering them to walk the plank and abandon their duty under the Constitution in order to save his bacon. If they do, most of them will lose their seats, and we’ll be back to 100 per cent Democratic rule in Washington.

BS: You’re a student of history. What historical figure would you compare Trump to?

BW: Caligula, Tiberius, Nero, and Domitan.

BS: And to finally move off Trump, I wonder what you think of the rising tide of activism - and civil disobedience- among young people around climate. Do you think it’s moving the needle?

BW: I hope so! Climate change needs to be our number one issue in Washington. We have to put a price on carbon to keep the atmosphere’s temperature from rising more than 1.5 degrees Centigrade, or the polar ice cap will melt, causing truly catastrophic flooding and storms. Today’s young people will bear the brunt of that.

BS: Last question. I think this may have been the most controversial moment of your campaign.

IMAGE DESCRIPTION: Interview excerpt with Bill Weld about the best and worst Halloween candy reading, “The best: The best Halloween candy is candy corn, as a few bags of it make my wife happy for weeks. The worst: The worst Halloween candies are Reese’s Pieces, as I cannot resist them; they don’t require much chewing, so they slide right down; they leave a delicious aftertaste of peanut butter on the roof of my mouth; and they are quite bad for both one’s complexion and one’s waistline.”

BS: Are you saying you don’t chew them? Just swallow them like Advil?

BW: I try to just swallow them, to get the most dramatic experience, but they do get stuck sometimes so then you have to chew in self-defense, so you’ll live to savor them again another day.

BS: Yikes. Thanks for doing this Governor.

BW: Now that I’ve absorbed the genre- any time! BW