Politics

Mark Cuban Talks 2020 Run

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Alex Pfeiffer White House Correspondent
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Businessman Mark Cuban thinks there is a ten percent chance he runs for president in 2020.

Cuban, an investor and the owner of the Dallas Mavericks basketball team, has publicly floated the idea of him running against President Donald Trump before, saying that he is “seriously considering” the idea in an October interview.

He told The Jamie Weinstein Show in a podcast aired Thursday that his family is the main obstacle to a presidential run.

“Yeah, just — you’re newly married, but as a parent, in this political climate, what would you say about anybody you knew that was in politics that had children that are 8, 11 and 14 that would put them through the inevitable,” Cuban said. “It’s just — that’s bad parenting. There’s a tradeoff, country versus family. That’s why I’ll take as much time as I possibly can to see if anything changes in the political climate.”

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Cuban talked in the interview on how he would govern.

“I want the smartest, the most capable, the most objective, but I would try to seek balance. So, if the Supreme Court nomination came up and there was a Democratic administration before me, I’d balance it so I’d try to get four and four and somebody in the middle, so that there’d be balance,” the businessman said about judicial appointments.

As for immigration, Cuban said he would keep the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals amnesty, but added, “Our borders need to be strong.”

“Our borders need to be very, very strong. Is the wall the way to do it? That’s probably the least effective way to do it. And trying to stop two-bit drug-dealers shouldn’t be the priority. Where we’re really at risk, from terrorists, eco-terrorists, is more from somebody that is going to mess with our infrastructure, somebody who’s going to be a bio-terrorist and get to our water and food supply. Those are the risks I’m more concerned about,” Cuban told Weinstein.

“And a wall is not going to stop anybody like that. But yeah, we need to protect our borders. Period. End of story. But, I think we need to recognize that we need immigrants.”

And like many politicians, Cuban believes in “American exceptionalism.”

“I think we need to dominate,” the businessman said, adding that the U.S. should focus on cyberwarfare.

“I’m not worried about them coming up with a bigger battleship or a better bomber than us,” Cuban said about China and Russia. “I’m worried about them hacking our bombers and hacking our battleships. We had two incidents where people died in the Navy. Who knows if it’s true, but people said it could’ve been that they were hacked.”

“If we don’t win that battle, and we don’t recognize that the rules of war and the tools of war are going to be dramatically different than they have been in the past, you know, start learning your Chinese or Russian.”

One obstacle to winning over Democratic primary voters for Cuban could be that he has built a relationship with former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon.

“I met with him 20 years ago. I met with him once after the election because I was just curious, and I wanted to get as much insight into Donald to find out if the experiences I had talking to him were the same and comparable with what Steve’s had,” Cuban told Weinstein.

Bannon reportedly wants Cuban to run for president, and the businessman said he doesn’t know why the Breitbart executive would want this.

“I have no idea. I don’t know. You know, Steve likes to be a kingmaker. He revels in the power and he leverages this — Steve is smart. First let me say this. A lot of people think, ‘Well, if you talk to Steve Bannon, he’s going to influence you like he’s some magician or some Geppetto that takes control,'” Cuban said.

He added: “When I met with Steve in New York, I was more me trying to talk him out of some of his nomenclatures, telling him some of his stuff was crazy than him trying — he’s not going to convince me of anything. But, he’s got a good feel for the Trump base, and he’s got a good feel for Donald Trump and what makes him tick. And I learn from that, and it was insightful to me in a lot of respects, but it’s not going to change who I am, what I think about, how I approach things.”

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Alex Pfeiffer