Welcome to Off Message. I'm Isaac DeVare. Well, and there are more people who are doing what you're doing, you think?

You're not the only life-leaning person with money to give. My strong impression is there are lots of people who are quite happy with the way things are. And there are lots of people who are Democrats and

liberal leaning who love to have their taxes reduced. They're both interested in the common

good and self-interested. When you say there's no return on my investment, of course,

I think that's wrong because obviously I think there's a fantastic return on my investment, but it's not

a monetary return. Today's guest, Tom Steyer, who's turned the huge money he made in finance

into becoming one of the Democratic Party's biggest donors, a climate activist, now a leader of the

push to impeach President Trump, and maybe a presidential candidate himself in 2020. He's certainly not saying no.

He's built up a pretty big organization. He's traveling the country. He's got commercials on the air.

We caught up on one of his frequent visits to Washington, sat down early in the morning at the hotel bar at the

Jefferson, a couple blocks up 16th Street from the White House. He started by taking a ballpoint pen and drawing four

crosses and a cross pattern on his hand. A sign of humility, he said. It says he does it at the

beginning of every interview or the beginning of every day. So when he talks about impeachment, he says

this isn't about him. It's about forcing voters and his party to get real about what the country is

facing and what the Democrats are going to do about it.

Talk to most Democratic operatives and politicians and they think he's wrong. He's hurting the cause.

Talk to most Republicans and they're excited to have this boogeyman to hold out there as a reason not to give Democrats the majority.

The thing about having as much money as Steyer has

and about the religious awakening of sorts

he says he had about 15 years ago

that drove him into politics

is that it's hard to get someone like this to stop.

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