Mark Cuban: I don't know who I will vote for at this time
Dallas Mavericks owner says Donald Trump has a real chance if he can get people to the polls
This is a rush transcript from "Your World," May 4, 2016. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
NEIL CAVUTO, HOST: Wait a minute. Did the shark just jump the tank, Mark Cuban talking politics with me on FBN?
Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARK CUBAN, CO-FOUNDER, HDNET: I think it's great.
I mean, I was an anybody-but-Cruz guy. I like Donald. I think it just shows how tribal the United States has become. I don't even think we are partisan anymore. I think we are tribal. And Donald has got that whole what about me tribe running behind him, and he's excited them to come out and vote for him.
And it's going to make for an interesting election.
CAVUTO: Everyone seems to be saying, at least on the left, Mark, that he's going to be dead meat, that he's going to get annihilated. Even Republicans are saying they fear not only will he go down to a blazing defeat, the Senate will go down as well, that big.
What do you say?
CUBAN: No, not at all. I think he's got a shot.
Now, I'm not here to handicap it and say it's a sure thing by a long shot. But I think what has happened is, for a while, people got turned on to the Tea Party. And they were asking, OK, what about me? What can you do for me? And the Tea Party stood up, the conservatives that stood up and they said, we think we can take care of you.
That fell apart. And so Donald recognized early on that, look, it's not about issues at all. A lot of people could care less. All they care about is, what are you going to do for me? And Donald addressed immigration. He addressed trade. He addressed all these things.
No substance whatsoever, but he said to people who were concerned about themselves, I can fix it. I can fix it.
(CROSSTALK)
CAVUTO: But is that good enough, Mark? Eventually, you have to spell out your plan, right?
(CROSSTALK)
CUBAN: No. I don't think you do. Uh-uh.
CAVUTO: OK. That's interesting.
CUBAN: This is going to be the -- Donald Trump is going to run the Seinfeld campaign. It's going to be the campaign about nothing. And I think...
CAVUTO: And you're OK with that?
CUBAN: It is what it is. It's not a question of whether or not I'm OK with it.
CAVUTO: All right. Will you support him?
CUBAN: I don't know who I'm going to vote for yet at this point in time. I want to see it play out. There's no reason to make a decision now.
There's things I like about...
CAVUTO: Well, you have been very frank in the beginning. You have had your tussles with Trump.
And I...
CUBAN: Sure.
CAVUTO: But when is the last time you talked to him?
CUBAN: Probably about three weeks ago.
CAVUTO: Really? And what...
CUBAN: Yes.
CAVUTO: Do you mind? What was -- what were you talking about?
CUBAN: Yes, we just -- various things. Donald is a sports fan. And he will -- when the Mavs have a big win or whatever -- actually, it was two weeks ago.
CAVUTO: OK.
CUBAN: When the Mavs have a big week, a big win, or something, he will call and congratulate me. And we will talk about some things.
And I tell him, I don't support a lot of his policies, but I like the way he's energized people. And I really think he tapped into the fact that this is not about issues anymore. There are people out there that want to know, what are you going to do for them? They don't trust government.
And if they already know the government is not going to do what they need to help them get jobs or to help protect them, then let's turn to somebody who may not get into any detail whatsoever, but at least they will -- it sounds like he's going to try to answer the what about me question.
(CROSSTALK)
CAVUTO: Go ahead.
CUBAN: And, like I said, it's going to be a Seinfeld campaign, the campaign about nothing, because the more Donald talks about the issues, the more it plays right into the hands of Hillary and the more the eyes of his what about me tribe glasses -- glazes over.
They don't pay attention to it. And I think he picked up on that early on. And that was brilliant by him.
CAVUTO: You know, you're a maverick in your own -- no pun intended with your team -- but you have to get deals done, right? You have to keep moving...
CUBAN: Yes.
CAVUTO: I can't believe I'm saying all these cliches -- the ball forward.
Now, the rap against Donald Trump is successful businessman, but they are going to throw that back in his face, saying, wait a minute, you're not that successful. First of all, we don't buy how rich you are. Secondly, we're not quite sure, given your bankruptcy filing, that everything you say is what you say.
Now, he's weathered that within the Republican primaries and taken out 16 of the most incredible set of candidates we have ever seen.
CUBAN: That's so easy to overcome.
CAVUTO: Is that a big deal?
CUBAN: No.
CAVUTO: Is he going to have to address that?
CUBAN: No.
The American dream is not about how many times you fail. You don't even know how many times I have failed, Neil. Every great entrepreneur has failed. Thomas Edison talks about all the 50,000 times he has failed led to the time he succeeded.
We accept entrepreneurial failure, because it just shows he got back up and ended up getting it done and being successful. Now, you can argue on the margin how much, but does it really matter? It really doesn't.
CAVUTO: No, I actually agree with that. I think it's safe to say the guy is rich.
CUBAN: Yes.
CAVUTO: We will leave it at that.
But, Mark, are you surprised, as a fairly wealthy guy in your own right, that Donald Trump has tapped a nerve with what Democrats have disparagingly flannel flyover country with the common man, with the coal miners...
CUBAN: No.
(CROSSTALK)
CAVUTO: ... with regular workers?
Explain that.
CUBAN: OK.
Like I was saying earlier, we are in a what about me time. If you look at Bernie Sanders, the what about me are the millennials sticking together. They are very tribal. I keep on going back to that word as well.
CAVUTO: Right.
CUBAN: The millennials didn't care about Bernie Sanders. They cared about the fact that all the other millennials supported him and they were part of the crew and they could identify. It's like supporting a basketball team.
Mavericks fans hates fans of so-and-so. Just look at Twitter to see how tribal and how bad it is out there. So, when Donald -- what Donald realized early on, look, he looked -- I think he looked at how the Republicans treated Hillary, she's a criminal, she's a liar, whatever you want to call her, every name in the book.
So, that said, you know, it wasn't about issues. We can -- I can call anybody anything and not deal with issues as long as I can get people excited. And that's exactly what he did.
He got people who are saying, you know what? I'm tired of government as usual. I'm tired of politicians as -- business as usual. I have trusted them, I have voted for them, and it makes no difference. They did nothing for me. I'm struggling for a job. I haven't really had wage increases.
They are not -- that Middle America is not going to look at Donald Trump and say, wow, what about his policies, any more than I care what type of play the Dallas Cowboys run or what the play we ran to get Dirk a shot. We just want to know, did we win or lose and will we win or lose?
And so Middle America like that is saying, you know what? I would rather trust him, because everything that's happened with traditional politics, traditional government has been a failure when it comes to, what is in it for me? And so let's go with Donald.
As far as opposing Hillary, it is going to come down to who turns out the vote. If he can continue to say, look, I'm going to make your life better, I'm going to stop trade, I'm going to build a wall, I'm going to impact immigration, so people don't take your jobs, then he's got -- if he can get people out, he's got a real chance. And none of that has to -- has to do anything at all with actual issues or supporting information.
CAVUTO: But would he have to change his demeanor? You always hear he curses at people. He's trying to get the people he beat to join him now.
CUBAN: Yes.
CAVUTO: But it is hard if you call the guy little Marco or lyin' Ted Cruz or all this stuff. And he has to get them back. Now, he's been very presidential since.
CUBAN: No, it doesn't matter.
(CROSSTALK)
CAVUTO: It doesn't matter.
(CROSSTALK)
CUBAN: No.
(CROSSTALK)
CAVUTO: What do you after you vanquish someone, or you conquer someone and take their business and we will bring it to the next level or outcompete them? I mean, how do you either bring them into the fold or calm frayed nerves or...
CUBAN: You just do. You just do.
Look, Donald and I have had our battles. People talk about Donald being sexist. There's nothing he has said about a woman that he hasn't said to me. He's called me ugly. He's called short off the tee. He's called me all these ridiculous things, right?
(LAUGHTER)
CAVUTO: Right.
CUBAN: And that is just how he combats it.
And I think what a lot of people fail to realize is, look at every condemnation of Hillary Clinton to date, right? It's she's lying, she's a criminal. It's all about name-calling.
(CROSSTALK)
CAVUTO: So do you think the debates will be reduced to that?
CUBAN: I think it depends on Hillary's strategy. if Hillary tries to force him into policy issues, then it won't work, right? He will just talk about that.
CAVUTO: Because he will go another way.
CUBAN: He will go another way. Right.
CAVUTO: Right.
CUBAN: He's got to have the Seinfeld campaign to campaign about nothing, because...
CAVUTO: That's interesting.
(CROSSTALK)
CAVUTO: What about the environment? Does it make a difference with the economy, Mark? There are a lot of people -- you're closer to this than I will ever be -- who say the economy could be hiccupping. We could be looking at global slowdown. Would that -- how would a Donald Trump handle that?
I would imagine, given his business credentials, he might say, I'm the guy to deal with a bubble bursting or an economy in a recovery.
(CROSSTALK)
CUBAN: He's just going to blame -- he's just going to blame Obama.
Whatever it is, it's Obama's fault, right? He will not touch -- my guess is, he will not touch on the details whatsoever, because there's no upside for him, because there's so much -- they have done such a great job on the right just putting down Hillary so that it is anybody but Hillary.
I mean, look, Cruz was anybody but Hillary. I can beat Hillary. Kasich, I can beat Hillary.
CAVUTO: You didn't like Cruz. Why not?
CUBAN: Because he was a -- he was dogmatic. He was full of crap on his programs.
I will give you one perfect example on details. He wanted to change to a value-added tax, but more importantly, he want to eliminate the IRS day one. Right? That was one of his pillars.
CAVUTO: Right.
CUBAN: That would be -- that is 90,000 people. That would be the largest layoff in the history of the world on day one.
Yet, on the flip side, he says, we're going to go out, and because we're cutting taxes, every job -- every graduate is going to have not two, not three, three, four or five job offers. It was just as crazy as you can imagine.
CAVUTO: So, you were not a big fan of his.
Do you think it's important -- does a guy like you pay attention to who a candidate picks as his or her running mate?
CUBAN: Yes, it depends if there's balance, right?
CAVUTO: So, for Donald Trump, to Mark Cuban, who would that balance be?
CUBAN: For me, I would tell him to pick a politician, that Paul Ryan is not going to do it. John Boehner would be great, but I don't know enough of the details and I don't know enough about the intricacies...
(CROSSTALK)
CAVUTO: I assume you would not like to see Ted Cruz.
CUBAN: No.
(LAUGHTER)
CUBAN: And I know Donald wouldn't either.
I don't think Donald really...
CAVUTO: So if you had your choice now, Mark, between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, where would you go?
CUBAN: I don't know yet.
CAVUTO: Really?
CUBAN: That's the honest answer. Yes, I really don't know yet.
I think there's things that are positive about Donald. I think there's things that are positive about Hillary, and the same with the negative side.
CAVUTO: Interesting.
CUBAN: Yes, I think there's a lot of basketball to be played yet.
And it's going to be really interesting how Hillary responds to Donald.
CAVUTO: Interesting.
CUBAN: If Hillary stays Hillary, I think it really hurts her and really helps Donald.
CAVUTO: Interesting.
CUBAN: If Hillary can really make it tough on Donald to just do the Seinfeld campaign, then I think she's got a better chance.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CAVUTO: A campaign about nothing. Think about that. It's been a weird year, right?
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