Latest / DEEP INSIGHT / Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani joins GMA to discuss victory

Transcript

Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani joins GMA to discuss victory · DEEP INSIGHT

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: I am here with the mayor elect of New York City.
• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Is are On Mamdani. Congratulations, thanks for coming in, Thank
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: you very much for you broke a lot of new
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: ground last night, first Muslim mayor of New York, first
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: Democratic Socialist, first mayor to win more than a million votes,
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: and what three decades, youngest mayor in more than a century.
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: So what is the message and the mandate behind that?
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: The message is about transforming the most expensive city in
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: the United States of America into one that's affordable for
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: each and every New Yorker. And what New Yorkers across
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: the five boroughs gave us last night was a mandate
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: to pursue the most ambitious affordability agenda the city has
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: seen since the days of fire El LaGuardia. And it's
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: time that we start to deliver it.
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: Well, let's dig into that, because you're talking about a
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: rent freeze, you're talking about free busses, you're talking about
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: free childcare. Can you do that without raising taxes?
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: I think you can do that, and I think you
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: have to raise taxes on the top one percent of
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: New Yorkers, new Yorkers who make more than a million
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: dollars a year, and you do that by raising taxes
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: by them two percent, and then you also increase the
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: corporate tax of New York State to match that of
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: New Jersey. So that takes us from about seven point
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: twenty five to about eleven point five percent, which is
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: what we see in New Jersey. These things together raise
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: about nine billion dollars, which more than pays for our
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: economic agenda and also starts to trump proof ourself.
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: Are you worried that can drive a lot of job
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: creators out of New York?
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: So what I've heard from a number of business leaders
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: is that the affordability crisis is also affecting their ability
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: to attract and retain talent. The city's inability to provide
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: childcare means that businesses often have to provide stipends for
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: that childcare. Right now, the absence of universal childcare means
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: that a family will pay around twenty two five hundred
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: dollars a year, which is more money than many of
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: them would spend if they sent that same kid to
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: college eighteen years later. And it is time for city
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: government to actually step up to the responsibility.
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: It has not just the city government. That kind of
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: a tax increase is going to require the state as well,
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: including the Governor Kathy Hockle. Is she on board?
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: You know, I'm proud to have Governor Kathy Hockel's endorsement
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: and the endorsement of our agenda, specifically universal childcare. And
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: I've said time and again I think these are the
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: two most direct and straightforward ways to raise this revenue.
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: If there are other ways to raise this funds, the
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: most important thing is that we actually fun this agenda.
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: You said that President Trump was watching the last night.
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: Appears that he was watching you, and it also appears
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: that he and other Republicans are trying to make you
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: the poster boy of the Democratic Party. Mike Johnson, the
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: Speaker of the House, calls you a true extremist and
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: a Marxist, and he says, now every House Democrat, incumbent
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: and candidate will co own Mamdani's disastrous record in the
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: twenty twenty six mid terms. How do you respond to that?
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: Well, I'm looking forward to showing the power of an
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: example here in New York City, an example of what
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: it means to not just diagnose the despair and working
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: people's lives as the cost of living crisis, but to
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: deliver on it. And that's the contrast between myself and
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: President Trump. He's someone who ran an entire presidential campaign
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: on the promise of cheaper groceries and is now as
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: the president, making it harder for Americans to afford those
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: groceries by cutting snap benefits.
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: He worried he's going to crack down on New York City,
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: maybe even do what he's done and tried to do
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: in Portland and other cities, called the National Guardian.
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: You know, I think that his threats are inevitable. I
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: also know that it's time we actually call this for
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: what it is. This has nothing to do with safety,
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: It has to do with intimidation safety. President Trump would
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: be threatening to deploy the National Guard to the top
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: ten states of crime, eight out of which are all
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: Republican led, but because of that party, he won't actually
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: be doing so.
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: So you say you won't be intimidated. How do you
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: stand up to it?
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: I think there's a number of ways. The first thing
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: is you actually utilize the courts. You stop treating things
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: as being law just by virtue of the fact that
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: President Trump is saying them. You can look at the
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: example of California, where you find the Attorney General, the governor,
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: and the mayor of la coming together filing a lawsuit
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: and opposition to the deployment of the National Guard. A
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: federal judge found in their favor, and the Attorney General
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: estimated that for every dollar they spent, they recovered more
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: than thirty thousand dollars in funds that would have otherwise
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: been seized by the federal.
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: How about crime? Have you convinced a Commissioner Tis to
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: stand the police commissioner?
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: You know? I am. I have made my decision to
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: retain Commissioner Tish, and I've done so because Eric Adams
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: had stacked the upper echelons of the NYPD waiving competence
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: and corruption. She came in started to tackle that, deliver
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: accountability and reduce crime across the five boroughs. That is
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: what we would build upon under a Momdani administration, in
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: addition to creating a Department of Community Safety to tackle
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: the mental health and home listen as crisis head on.
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: You've made your decision, she made hers.
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: I am looking forward to continue to having conversations with
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: her and assembling a government of the best and the
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: brightest to deliver on the situation.
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: But you know last night you also said you wanted
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: to reach out to New Yorkers who didn't vote for you.
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: Probably highest on that list is Jewish New Yorkers. It
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: looks like there was about a thirty point gap, according
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: to the expertoles, between you and former Governor Cuomo. How
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: do you convince those voters that your vision of New
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: York includes them and your victory is not a threat
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: to them?
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: You know, I was on the M fifty seven not
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: too long ago. It's the slowest bus in New York City,
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: four point nine miles an hour, and I was seated
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: next to a woman who introduced herself to me as
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: a speech therapist, and she told me that she was Jewish.
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: And she said that her daughter is a huge fan
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: of phone banks from college, and that she wasn't so sure,
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: And I asked her to share, and she shared her
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: thoughts about what it also means to be Jewish in
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: New York City today and the scourge of anti Semitism
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: that often worries her. That she was trying to sell
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: her apartment, a realtor told her to put away, in
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: her words, the Jewish books on her bookshelf, and I
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: told her that this was unacceptable, that we were fighting
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: for a city that didn't just protect wish New Yorkers
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: but celebrated and cherished those same New Yorkers. And I'm
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: looking forward to being the mayor for every single person
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: that calls the city home and showing that my job
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: is not to remake City Hall in my image, but
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: rather in the image of struggling New Yorkers, and that
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: means New Yorkers will find themselves and their struggles in
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: people who have decision making power across my add history.
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: He said a lot of that during the campaign, but
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: it didn't seem to work with this group of voters.
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: What more can you do now?
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: Well, I think there are a lot of voters for
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: whom the trust comes from the actions that you actually take.
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: Many have, like you know, I have understandably been disappointed
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: by politics and the promises that have been made by
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: many before me. Now my opportunity is actually to deliver
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: as the next mayor of this I was.
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: Struck by a tweet that came out last night on
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: Next from Bill Ackman, who was one of your biggest
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: opponents in the campaign. Billionaire spent a lot of money
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: trying to defeat you, but he did congratulate you and
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: say he wants you to call on him to help
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: New York. What are you going to call on him
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: to do well.
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: I appreciated his words, and I think what I find
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: is that there is a needed commitment from Lee of
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: the City to speak and work with anyone who is
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: committed to lowering the cost of living in the city.
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: And that's something that I will fulfill.
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: Thanks for coming in this morning.
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: Thank you so much.