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Ex-MSNBC Host Turned Politician Says He's Harnessed His Anger

February 26, 2018

Former MSNBC host Dylan Ratigan on Monday admitted that he has learned to harness his anger after he was asked about his temperament and whether he has changed since his days as a television host.

MSNBC's "The Beat" host Ari Melber, who disclosed at the beginning of the interview that he is personal friends with Ratigan, played three old clips of him shouting at guests on his MSNBC show in 2009 and 2011.

Melber then asked Ratigan, who is running for Congress as a Democrat in New York's 21st congressional district, whether he was still the "guy" in the clips or whether he was going to be a "different kind of guy" if he goes to Congress.

"Everybody learns to harness the anger. When you have the intimacy of the knowledge of how corrupt our political system is, how broken it is, and when you see the pain—again, my mother worked at Essex County mental health—this is the other end of the spectrum," Ratigan said. "When you see the suffering, the real-life consequences that people suffer as a result of the unserious and reckless nature of our government, it can create anger."

"The reality is you have to learn how to channel that anger into productive solutions, which is what I have done in founding Helical with the veterans and what I'm doing right now with the congressional campaign," Ratigan added.

Ratigan, who has hosted shows on CNBC and MSNBC, is joining a crowded field of nine other candidates already vying for the district's Democratic nomination to unseat incumbent Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik, the youngest woman ever elected to Congress.

Ratigan said that his number one issue with Stefanik is that she is a "career politician" and that she "has not done anything to confront that system or create jobs in the district." Stefanik has been in Congress since January 2015.