Steyer spoke with POLITICO reporters and editors this week as part of a series of interviews with Democratic 2020 hopefuls. He touched on a range of topics from impeachment and climate change to the criticism from the left that he’s wasting his millions on a vanity campaign. Here are some highlights, edited for clarity.

Why he jumped in the race so late

“I wasn't dissatisfied with the field, I was dissatisfied with the conversation," Steyer said. "I felt like the two things that I absolutely thought were essential [weren’t being] adequately addressed and called out. One, was what I describe as a corporate stranglehold on our government.

"I think what they're addressing, to a large extent, is which health care plan is the best? Which Green New Deal is the best? Which education plan is the best? Which gun violence plan is the best? I can talk about those things and I do care about them and I think they're really important. But I think the real question is how we getting any of that?"

Steyer also said that no other candidate is planning to deal with climate change with the urgency he says is necessary.

"Secondly, I've been a climate hawk for well over a decade," Steyer continued "But I felt like there was no one who was actually going to address the climate problem on a timely basis that I believe the situation demands.”

What would another eventual Democratic nominee have to do to satisfy him as a climate change advocate?

“You'd have to say it's my number one priority," Steyer said. "They'd have to say they declare a state of emergency and use the emergency powers of the presidency. They'd have to say it’d be their lead question in foreign policy, because that's the only way this is actually getting addressed. Having a plan that can't get passed is not addressing a problem."

On criticism for spending so much personal money on his campaign

Steyer has faced questions, especially from the left, for injecting so much of his fortune into the Democratic primary, and some Democrats have grumbled that the funds would be better spent on projects boosting the entire Democratic Party. But Steyer essentially said that he is wealthy enough to do both of those things.

"I started and built one of the biggest grassroots organizations in the United States, which I'm still supporting and funding, which did the largest youth voter mobilization in American history in 2018," Steyer said. "There are a bunch of other grassroots organizations, including the Need to Impeach campaign, which I started, are still going and I'm still supporting. So it's not a question of either or. In fact, all the things that they think I should be doing, I've been doing for years. I don't see it as a tradeoff.”

On how his view of capitalism differs from Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren

“I'm not hostile to capitalism, I'm hostile to corporations writing the laws for themselves against the interests of the American people," Steyer said. "I'm not hostile to the way capital gets allocated.I don't view myself as the same as either those two senators on this question.

"I believe in a dynamic, innovative, competitive private sector. I also believe that the people running those companies are focused overwhelmingly, if not entirely, on their bottom lines. And therefore, I do not believe that they are fit to be writing the laws for the people of the United States."

But Steyer said that the government should not be "running capitalism" either.

"I think what happens is the government supposed to set the rules and the private sector is supposed to act within the rules," Steyer continued. "So I see that as very different but I don't see it as at all contradictory.”

On seeking guidance from the Clintons about running for president

“I just talked to them on the phone," Steyer said. "He said that he thought it would come down to the economy, he was saying the same things he said in 1992. She was talking about all the different influences that come into an election and I felt like what she was talking about was more about the general election.

"Those are both people who've been committed to Democratic politics for well over 30 years, who've been through general elections themselves, who are super smart and well-intentioned. So I think of them as being people who have really relevant experiences and huge brains.”

Whether or not he would ever launch an independent campaign

“If I had any success as an independent candidate, all it would do is take votes away from the Democrat and increase the likelihood that Mr. Trump or some other Republican got elected," Steyer said. "I honestly felt like that would be a horrible thing to do.”

After advocating to impeach Trump for several years, does he feel vindicated that the House has begun an impeachment inquiry?

“I've been very impatient on this," Steyer said. "I've thought that the cost of keeping this man as president was high. I don't think there's any doubt what I think. I've said it consistently for two years that I thought it was a question of right and wrong and that the American people deserve to be the arbiters and will end up inevitably being the arbiters. The nature of a public hearing where we get to decide right and wrong is what I thought was appropriate and inevitable.”

Why voters should trust him on climate change when he’s invested in the fossil fuel industry in the past

“We invested in everything, including fossil fuels," Steyer said. "When I became aware about climate and started to realize how much it meant, I divested from fossil fuels, which is what I'm asking people to do 12 or 14 years later.”

In a climate change forum in September, Steyer said there still might be “dregs” of investment left in the oil, gas and coal industries; his FEC filing also showed he still had holdings in those types of companies.

When pressed on this, Steyer said, “I don't control all of my portfolio. If I ever get a dollar from a fossil fuel investment that we haven't been able to get out of because it's held through an intermediary, I will then give that money to charity. I have no conflict here.”

How he would fight corruption in government

“What we proposed was term limits in Congress, a national referendum — which is, if Congress won't act, to put it on the ballot and let people actually pass a law," Steyer said. "Ending voter suppression, making it easy to vote, but specifically attacking aggressively all the concerted, organized attempts to prevent people from voting. And going after ‘corporations are people.’ I'm also in favor of the public financing of elections, and I'm in favor of using the Federal Election Commission in a much more aggressive way to try and go directly to transparency.”