June 9, 2025 • 26 mins
Andrew Cuomo, the front-runner in New York’s Democratic mayoral primary, said raising taxes on the city’s wealthiest residents would cause an exodus to states like Florida and Texas. “You elect a socialist who tries to give everything away free, doubles the taxes on the wealthy, and the wealthy say, ‘That’s it I’m gone,”’ Cuomo, the former governor of New York, said, speaking with Bloomberg's Tom Keene and Paul Sweeney.
With about two weeks remaining until the June 24 Democratic primary, multiple polls show Cuomo as the likely winner, beating a crowded field of at least eight other serious candidates. Winning the New York City mayor’s race would crown a remarkable comeback run for Cuomo, 67, the Queens-born scion of a Democratic political dynasty that now spans two centuries. He served nearly three terms in Albany as governor before resigning in August 2021 amid a string of allegations of sexual harassment. Cuomo denies the allegations.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Good morning, as we speak with Andrew Cormo. He was
a governor of the Empire State. He's running for mayor
here in a contested primary to get to the election
November fourth. As well. Let's look the disclaimer out of
the way. We should say that Michael Bloomberg is a
former mayor of New York and the owner of Bloomberg
LP and our radio and TV enterprises at Bloomberg at
(00:32):
Bloomberg eleventh re zero, and we say again, good morning.
I want to begin with my family. I'm a Kodak
brat from Western New York, and I remember it was
like in Mary Poppins when the weather vane chames there.
I remember this is years ago, and a guy who
was in the Pittsburgh Pirates baseball organization. It was a
fractured New York City, a fractured Empire State, and your
(00:55):
father in the middle eighties pieced it together. Again. I
give the clearest memory of Republicans and Democrats and Wes
Junior coin. Who is this guy? How are you going
to piece together a fractured New York City.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
Yeah, it's a very good question. When my father took over.
At that time, the big fracture was upstate versus downstairs, right,
you lived it, Yes, we lived it. And Upstate, for
non New York is primarily Republican leaning conservative. New York
City at that time very very liberal. So that was
(01:30):
the big divide. Now it's basically within New York City,
and it's really within the Democratic Party. I mean, we
have the Democratic Republican schism obviously in New York City,
but the Republican Party is relatively small in New York City.
But we are working through this. What is the future
of the Democratic Party post Trump? And that is playing
(01:54):
out in New York City and cities across the country.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
I'm going to give you a vignette. My Bellley was
in the garage today. I had to take who work
to come into work. My driver's Dominican republic barely speaks English.
He was so pleased to talk to me about you.
He said, I'm voting for Andrew Cromo, and this was
his exact language. I am a Democrat Conservative. I want
(02:17):
to go back to javits at coach all of them.
How does the Conservative Democratic Party of that Dominican Republican driver,
how does it move forward out of this primary where
the liberals, the progressives have been so dominant in the verbiage.
Speaker 3 (02:34):
Well, this is what's interesting. I was a crazy liberal
all my life, right, My father was the father used
to tell me that, Yeah, I was the son of
a crazy liberal and a crazy liberal. But the progressives
have gone so far. First of all, I disagree with
the word progressive right, like it's a new phrase that
(02:56):
they coined. FDR was a progressive. My father was a
progressive right, so it's not a new term. But they
are so far.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
To the left that they have eclipsed what were traditionally progressive.
Liberal use your word ideology, and it is unrealistic and
it is counterproductive. And that's what people are starting to
find out, especially in this environment. You know, post COVID
(03:27):
cities are going through a crisis. Another had I was
the former HUD Secretary Housing in Urban Development under Clinton,
and cities have gone through transformations over time post COVID.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
This is going to be a major transformation for urban America.
You don't have to be in a city anymore. Right,
the old days you had to be here, The old
days you had to show up, and cities took advantage
of that you didn't have an option. You have options.
It's called ability, it's called remote work. And cities now
(04:04):
have to be more competitive economically. They have to be competitive.
You can move to a better tax climate, a better
weather climate, and cities are just now working through that adjustment.
I believe.
Speaker 4 (04:20):
If you were to be elected governor of a mayor
of this great city, what would be job one on
day one for you?
Speaker 3 (04:26):
Job one? Problem is job one is like three jobs.
It's public safety, because nothing works without public safety. It's
getting the homeless mentally all off the streets, which plays
into public safety, quality of life. People feel the cities
(04:48):
out of control, right. There's a sense of chaos when
you walk down the streets, that is correct. There's a
fear when you descend into the subway. Now that's relatively new, right,
and that has to change. Before you get to the
economics and taxes and are we chasing you out, et cetera.
(05:10):
The first thing that chases you out is you're just
not safe here. You don't feel comfortable here. And I
think that's the first crisis.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
Well, then to follow on from that and talking to
Laura Namius or lead on this Jessica Tish gets high marks.
Can you give Jessica Tish high marks in her early
months of running NYPD?
Speaker 3 (05:31):
Oh, she's done a very good job. She has done
a very good job.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
Can who do you reappoint hers at? Or do you
have someone else? We've got to make some news here.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
We're gonna have to make some news. I am not
in the I don't believe in saying who you're going
to appoint, who you're not going to appoint this kind
of arrogant until you get the job, I can tell
you I think Commissioner Tish is doing a very good
job this stability. We went through a number of police commissioners.
(06:00):
Each one brought their own tumult and their own transformation.
Jessica titious steady, The NYPD feel steady. But the NYPD
alone really is not going to be enough to restore
to people the sense that I feel comfortable in New
York City. It's worth my paying the premium to live here.
(06:26):
I pay a premium to live in New York City. Right,
I'm paying high taxes, but I get X y M.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
We just heard that from Charles cant exactly.
Speaker 4 (06:37):
You mentioned the subway here at the MTA.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
I don't know.
Speaker 4 (06:39):
I've been riding this subway for thirty five years. Every
day I tell people the only thing that's changed in
thirty five years cars are now air conditioned. Everything else
is the same, which is a good thing. That's a compliment.
It gets millions of people around the city every day.
How as governor, you said the city should pay more
for the MTA. As mayor, how would you manage the MTA.
(07:00):
We've got congestion pricing, We've got a big, big shortfall there.
How do we keep this subway riding safely efficiently.
Speaker 3 (07:08):
The first step on the subways is safety, quality of life.
Getting the homeless mentally ill off the subways. That's what
frightens people. Not just homeless people. We've certain urban environments
have homeless people. These are homeless mentally ill people that
threaten individuals or their presence is threatening, and that has
(07:35):
to change. Now, you're right, was it as bad as
it was back in the early nineties. No, But a
lot of people weren't here in the early nineties, right,
And if you were here, really, Bloomberg mayor Bloomberg post,
this city was much safer, much cleaner, felt much different.
(07:59):
And this is a dramatic juxtaposition to that.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
Andrew Cromo with this Sosi, who welcome all of you
on Bloomberg Television and Bloomberg Radio across nation, of course,
out on YouTube Good Morning, and of course on the
Nation Serius X channel one twenty one as well. We're
trying to get him to stay for two three hours.
He's saying, yeah, maybe I can't, but we're going to
have a good conversation here with a former governor. I
want to get this out of the way right now,
(08:24):
and it's on all the allegations of this, that the other,
the COVID stuff, the sex stuff, and that. Let's just
get it out of the way so we can move on.
The fact is it's reported you've gone after, not going
after in a collegiate way. I'm going to say, you
have your own litigation, your own lawsuits. These are all
distractions if you become mayor. In the floating out there
(08:46):
is the idea. Okay, now, Mike told me once mayor's
a twenty eight hour week job. I don't know if
that's sure or not, but let's say it's a full
commitment to be mayor. Will you push aside all of
the different things you're doing in litigation and lawsuits to
focus solely on being mayor, do you postpone them or
just say enough that part is over, that past is over.
Speaker 3 (09:09):
Yeah. Look in these jobs when I was governor, saying
as true for mayor, if you don't get sued five
times a day, you're not doing your job, you know.
So you have to be very good at taking compartmentalizing,
to use a word, but handing off pieces that are
(09:31):
not currently relevant. And that has to be done no
matter what.
Speaker 4 (09:37):
We saw some very disturbing images coming out of the
city of Los Angeles over the weekend. How do you
view kind of I guess, just kind of how we
deal with immigrants, how we deal with the policing of
our cities visa via the federal government sending in troops.
When you look at the images this week of Los Angeles,
how did you project that upon New York City?
Speaker 2 (09:59):
Ha.
Speaker 3 (10:00):
This gets into President Trump's strategy, I believe, and look,
first of all, on the immigration issue, he's very clear
in his campaign he believes it's an issue that works
for him. During the campaign, he said he was going
to deport criminals, dangerous criminals, dangerous criminals, and everybody support
(10:23):
said yes, support dangerous criminals. Of course, now we're deporting
seven year olds and we're disrupting families, and by the way,
we're deporting people who shouldn't be deported. So that's a change.
But this issue works for the president politically. The president
is also very good and I worked with the president
(10:45):
in the first Trump administration, worked with euphemism. We had
a lot of controversy, but this is a different tempo
for him. Wayne Gretzky skate to where the puck is
going to be, not where it was. The Democrats have
to adjust. They are skating to where the pucket was.
(11:10):
This immigration issue, in some ways is a distraction from
what Trump is really doing with cities, which is cutting
the budget in a way that is so dramatic that
you can really cause major difficulties for urban areas.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
Kevin Cromo pro tip. When you're going to talk a
hockey you're in a mayoral race, you pick genre Tell
or someone like that with the New York Rangers. You
don't go with Gretzky Andrew Cromo with us here as
we look at this mayor race, Okay, Robert Kuttner, no,
friend of yours writing an American Prospect. He says to Cuomo,
peak too soon. You've got the tensions of the primary.
(11:51):
If you take the primary, the tensions of a general
election with different independent candidates, and that is the president
mayor in the back pocket of the president the United States.
And if we get LA, as Paul mentions, here, can
you imagine this? I mean, I'll let you pick the geography,
Governor Cromo, but the president mayor of New York, can
(12:14):
he protect the citizens of this city, given the relationship
with the president, after what we've seen in LA.
Speaker 3 (12:24):
Short answer, no, And let's remember how extraordinary these issues.
What's happening in LA. This is the exact reverse of
what normally happens. Normally, it's the local government that makes
the decision on how to handle an emergency and calls
on the federal government. So a mayor or a governor
(12:45):
would call on the federal government say I need help.
Please send a national guard, or please send an additional
federal help. I don't believe there's been a time where
the president has sent in federal troops. You'd have to
go back to like the sixties and President Johnson and
(13:06):
Wallace right, that's how far you have to go back.
So this is Trump being Trump. This is Trump on
this issue of immigration. I'm muscled. It's law and order.
These cities, these Democrats, they're filled with illegals, and I'm
going to come in and I'm going to come in
(13:27):
hot and heavy. He started in La. It will happen
in New York. It will happen. He knows the formula, right,
It happened in New Jersey.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
This is formula to go after you.
Speaker 3 (13:40):
I mean, this is his formula is to create chaos
in the cities. And he is the voice of law
and order. And you know cities, all those Democrats, that's
where all those illegal immigrants are. And he's going to
come in and he's going to clean up. The flip
(14:02):
side is okay, create chaos in LA, create chaos in
New York, create chaos in Chicago. Pretty soon you create
chaos in the nation. And that's bad for the economy.
Speaker 4 (14:14):
So what's the biggest challenge for you in this primary
race here and then potentially in the general election.
Speaker 3 (14:20):
What do you have to get across in a Democratic primary?
And you now have the tension between post Trump, what
directions does the Democratic party go and some people believe
we lost to Trump because we didn't go left enough.
So I have a democratic socialist. Really, there's no such
(14:44):
thing as a democratic socialist. It's just a socialist. They
use democratic as a modifier because socialist is a shocking
But it's a socialist who says, dismantle the police. The
police stay is oppressive. Everything free, free, transportation, free everything.
(15:07):
Tax the rich, so there's class warfare in there. We'll
tax the one percent. The one percent should pay because
they are rich and fat and they made money on
the rest of us and everything else.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
Let's migrate there. The Financial Times dare. That's summary article
this week and Andrew Cromo. Where there's folks, and we
welcome all of you on Bloomberg Television and Bloomberg Radio
worldwide and of course here in the Tristate area. Bloomberg
eleven three to zero across the five Burroughs. The ft
lined up the halves who are supporting you. You're the
guy a choice, and he answers. Some of them really
(15:42):
are behind Andrew Croomo and others are betting this guy
might win, so we better get behind with him. How
do you say, take the landlords and they gave you
X number of million, I would say, that's like almost
normal politics. But then how do you protect tenants and
renters in a city of horrific housing economics.
Speaker 3 (16:04):
Well, first, if you are going to be an elected office,
you cannot be influenced by who gives you money, Right,
that's rule number one. That's not saying to a journalist, well,
look at who's taking advertising in your newspaper and write
favorable things about the advertisers. Then you're not a journalist.
It's unethical. If you and I've been in an elected
(16:27):
office many times have raised hundreds of millions of dollars,
it can't matter who gives you money. Now to the
extent people are supporting me, who are institutional interests because
institutional interests need a city that works, right, they want
a city with the future. What they're afraid of is
(16:49):
you elect a socialist who tries to give everything away free,
doubles the taxes on the wealthy, and the wealthy said,
that's it. I'm gone. By the way, we lost five
hundred thousand people since COVID to begin with, You're now
going to double taxes, and people will say, I'm going
(17:12):
to Florida, I'm going to Texas, etc. It's not worth
the premium, especially since the quality of life has deteriorated
and I'm afraid to get on the subways. So why
would I pay the premium to live here when I'm
not getting the benefit of living here. I'll go to Texas,
I'll go to Florida. I'll come back a few times
(17:34):
a year. I'll see you play. I can hire a
private jet with the tax savings. That's what we have
to worry.
Speaker 4 (17:43):
About, Governor, speaking of Trump's relationship with city mayor's. President,
Trump's Justice Department is investigating you or allegations you lied
to Congress about COVID. You said that that's politically motivated.
But how afraid of you are the possibility of getting indicted,
perhaps even arrested by the trum administration. That's got to
be on the table.
Speaker 3 (18:02):
Yeah, No, this is a joke, But this investigation is
a joke. But there's no doubt that Donald Trump uses
the Department of Justice and the justice system as one
of the tools in the political arsenal. When I was governor,
the governor the first when I was governor and dealt
with Trump in the first administration. He investigated me twice
(18:24):
with the Department of Justice. That sort of like his
left jab. Just keep throwing it out there.
Speaker 2 (18:32):
I want to go back here. I want to get
back to the primary, the election. At Hann lauris saying, Okay,
all this big picture stuff is great. You got to
win the primary. You got to get onto the election.
How about nineteen seventy seven, folks, this is New York
City in the five boroughs. Bella Absick took Manhattan, a
Beam took Brooklyn, but Doo took the Bronx. A guy
(18:55):
named Cuomo took Queens and Staten Island, and Ed Koch won.
That's how nuts New York City is. Which geography right
now is most critical for you in the five boroughs
for you to take this primary.
Speaker 3 (19:09):
Yeah, it's interesting. Back in nineteen seventy seven, the boroughs
were more homogeneous and sort of class oriented. That has
changed over time. The basic division is you have younger,
more activist, more progressive. If you will voters who identify
(19:36):
as socialists, they will say I am socialist, I say
tax the rich, I say everything should be free. Palestine
factors in there, and that's one demographic. And then you
have a second demographic, which is a little bit older,
(20:00):
more mainstream, if you will, and that's the Democrat demographic
that I appeal to.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
You brought up Palestine, Let's go there right now. There's
a unique relationship of this city with Israel. Everyone knows this.
We see nationwide a new form, a new debate over
anti Semitism. I think of Earth eleven. My household happened
to worship his father a million years ago. Explain to
(20:27):
me your relationship with Israel as mayor of New York City.
How will that be distinctive given the horror that we
see in the levant.
Speaker 3 (20:37):
Well, it's a great question, and it is unique to
New York. I believe if you grow up in New
York the way I have, the Jewish community is such
an integral part of New York. Right, New York is
not New York without the Jewish community. Jewish community started
coming to New York in sixteen fifty, one hundred years
(21:01):
before the other immigration groups, and they have been in
major institutions. So you grow up with the Jewish community.
I have two brothers in law who were Jewish, my
son in law is Jewish. It's that close a connection
and I've been one hundred percent supportive of Israel. My
(21:23):
father was before me. I've done numerous trips to Israel.
I was very aggressive supporting Israel. This was the first
state to go against boycott, discriminate, disinvestment in sanctions for Israel.
So it is a very pro Israel state.
Speaker 4 (21:43):
Paul here, please, Governor No One presumably arguably takes the
air out of the room more than President Trump. He
just demands the media attention in a way we've never
seen before. Are you surprised that the Democratic Party no
one has stepped up, no voice has emerged to at
least counter some of the policies and some of the
(22:03):
arguments coming out of the Trump administration. And would you
relish that role at some point?
Speaker 3 (22:08):
Well, I'll go back to the Wayne Gretzky quote that
I wasn't supposed to.
Speaker 2 (22:13):
Use a stranger in New York.
Speaker 3 (22:21):
First, the Democrats have to get the cadence of the game.
They are coming up a day late, right. I don't
believe this. I believe this immigration and Los Angeles and
it's going to get worse, and it's going to be
New York. I believe this works politically for Donald Trump.
(22:42):
I also believe it masks the budget debate, which is
really the consequential debate for urban America short term. And
he's onto a new topic now and the Democrats wind
up a day because if you're arguing about the budget today,
you're missing Los Angeles and New Jersey and the immigration debate.
Speaker 2 (23:06):
We're going to wrap up here in a moment here
for Bloomberg Television, of Bloomberg Radio, Andrewcomo with Politico. There
was a mayor from Chicago who can be a little
spicy name Emmanuel. He's out this weekend and Rams all
wound up about the week in the wooke Democratic Party brand,
and I would say he was basically he is mayor
of Chicago, and potentially you was mayor of New Yorker.
(23:29):
The one's fighting the fight to get the Democratic Party
to get some backbone. Does that lead to a presidential
effort in twenty twenty eight? I mean, is a Democratic
Party going to shift back to that centrist tendency that
we talked about in nineteen eighty five?
Speaker 3 (23:46):
Centrist forget the trying to define political edy ideology. I
worked with Ram and the Clinton administration. It's sort of
practical and common sense, right, the Democrats lost to Trump.
Why did we lose to Trump? I don't believe Trump won.
I believe the Democrats lost. I believe what happened is
(24:07):
the Democrats became disconnected from their people. They became disconnected
from the kitchen table issues. Talk to me about my mortgage,
talk to me about my job, talk to me about
the economy, talk to me about public safety. I don't
want to hear about these esoteric issues right now when
I'm worried about my life today. And do something for me.
(24:30):
You're the Democratic Party. The Democratic Party fundamentally believes in
the functionality of government, and you haven't functioned. Show me
something that you did for me that made a difference
in my life. Joe Biden, you were president. What did
you do that I can see, feel, or touch. That's
where the Democrats blew up, Paul.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
This is so important. I want to get back to
some of the basic stuff Paul was talking about. I mean,
day one, the congestion text, day one, planes, day one,
nobody can afford to live in the city. What's the
day Paul, as this earlier, what's your day one? Mandate
to those kitchen table Democrats, independents and disaffected Republicans.
Speaker 3 (25:14):
What they're saying first is make me safe. I'm afraid
to take the subways, and I haven't felt that way
in fifteen years. Make me safe, and that is public safety,
that's mentally homeless, etc. Blending into quality of life, that's
job one. And then affordability. I need to be able
(25:38):
to pay the rent.
Speaker 2 (25:38):
I got forty five seconds because of all the fancy
stuff here in the Bloomberg News organization. Your father stopped
America with a convention speech? Are you going to be
at a convention running for president in the future.
Speaker 3 (25:52):
I'm running for mayor and that's enough.
Speaker 2 (25:56):
Andrew Cromo, thank you so much, greatly appreciated this morning.
Do we get everything in there? I think we did
Red Sox the Yankees two out of three this weekend.
I thought that was got lucky.
Speaker 3 (26:06):
They got lucky. They got lucky.
Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Good morning, as we speak with Andrew Cormo. He was
a governor of the Empire State. He's running for mayor
here in a contested primary to get to the election
November fourth. As well. Let's look the disclaimer out of
the way. We should say that Michael Bloomberg is a
former mayor of New York and the owner of Bloomberg
LP and our radio and TV enterprises at Bloomberg at
(00:32):
Bloomberg eleventh re zero, and we say again, good morning.
I want to begin with my family. I'm a Kodak
brat from Western New York, and I remember it was
like in Mary Poppins when the weather vane chames there.
I remember this is years ago, and a guy who
was in the Pittsburgh Pirates baseball organization. It was a
fractured New York City, a fractured Empire State, and your
(00:55):
father in the middle eighties pieced it together. Again. I
give the clearest memory of Republicans and Democrats and Wes
Junior coin. Who is this guy? How are you going
to piece together a fractured New York City.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
Yeah, it's a very good question. When my father took over.
At that time, the big fracture was upstate versus downstairs, right,
you lived it, Yes, we lived it. And Upstate, for
non New York is primarily Republican leaning conservative. New York
City at that time very very liberal. So that was
(01:30):
the big divide. Now it's basically within New York City,
and it's really within the Democratic Party. I mean, we
have the Democratic Republican schism obviously in New York City,
but the Republican Party is relatively small in New York City.
But we are working through this. What is the future
of the Democratic Party post Trump? And that is playing
(01:54):
out in New York City and cities across the country.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
I'm going to give you a vignette. My Bellley was
in the garage today. I had to take who work
to come into work. My driver's Dominican republic barely speaks English.
He was so pleased to talk to me about you.
He said, I'm voting for Andrew Cromo, and this was
his exact language. I am a Democrat Conservative. I want
(02:17):
to go back to javits at coach all of them.
How does the Conservative Democratic Party of that Dominican Republican driver,
how does it move forward out of this primary where
the liberals, the progressives have been so dominant in the verbiage.
Speaker 3 (02:34):
Well, this is what's interesting. I was a crazy liberal
all my life, right, My father was the father used
to tell me that, Yeah, I was the son of
a crazy liberal and a crazy liberal. But the progressives
have gone so far. First of all, I disagree with
the word progressive right, like it's a new phrase that
(02:56):
they coined. FDR was a progressive. My father was a
progressive right, so it's not a new term. But they
are so far.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
To the left that they have eclipsed what were traditionally progressive.
Liberal use your word ideology, and it is unrealistic and
it is counterproductive. And that's what people are starting to
find out, especially in this environment. You know, post COVID
(03:27):
cities are going through a crisis. Another had I was
the former HUD Secretary Housing in Urban Development under Clinton,
and cities have gone through transformations over time post COVID.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
This is going to be a major transformation for urban America.
You don't have to be in a city anymore. Right,
the old days you had to be here, The old
days you had to show up, and cities took advantage
of that you didn't have an option. You have options.
It's called ability, it's called remote work. And cities now
(04:04):
have to be more competitive economically. They have to be competitive.
You can move to a better tax climate, a better
weather climate, and cities are just now working through that adjustment.
I believe.
Speaker 4 (04:20):
If you were to be elected governor of a mayor
of this great city, what would be job one on
day one for you?
Speaker 3 (04:26):
Job one? Problem is job one is like three jobs.
It's public safety, because nothing works without public safety. It's
getting the homeless mentally all off the streets, which plays
into public safety, quality of life. People feel the cities
(04:48):
out of control, right. There's a sense of chaos when
you walk down the streets, that is correct. There's a
fear when you descend into the subway. Now that's relatively new, right,
and that has to change. Before you get to the
economics and taxes and are we chasing you out, et cetera.
(05:10):
The first thing that chases you out is you're just
not safe here. You don't feel comfortable here. And I
think that's the first crisis.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
Well, then to follow on from that and talking to
Laura Namius or lead on this Jessica Tish gets high marks.
Can you give Jessica Tish high marks in her early
months of running NYPD?
Speaker 3 (05:31):
Oh, she's done a very good job. She has done
a very good job.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
Can who do you reappoint hers at? Or do you
have someone else? We've got to make some news here.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
We're gonna have to make some news. I am not
in the I don't believe in saying who you're going
to appoint, who you're not going to appoint this kind
of arrogant until you get the job, I can tell
you I think Commissioner Tish is doing a very good
job this stability. We went through a number of police commissioners.
(06:00):
Each one brought their own tumult and their own transformation.
Jessica titious steady, The NYPD feel steady. But the NYPD
alone really is not going to be enough to restore
to people the sense that I feel comfortable in New
York City. It's worth my paying the premium to live here.
(06:26):
I pay a premium to live in New York City. Right,
I'm paying high taxes, but I get X y M.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
We just heard that from Charles cant exactly.
Speaker 4 (06:37):
You mentioned the subway here at the MTA.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
I don't know.
Speaker 4 (06:39):
I've been riding this subway for thirty five years. Every
day I tell people the only thing that's changed in
thirty five years cars are now air conditioned. Everything else
is the same, which is a good thing. That's a compliment.
It gets millions of people around the city every day.
How as governor, you said the city should pay more
for the MTA. As mayor, how would you manage the MTA.
(07:00):
We've got congestion pricing, We've got a big, big shortfall there.
How do we keep this subway riding safely efficiently.
Speaker 3 (07:08):
The first step on the subways is safety, quality of life.
Getting the homeless mentally ill off the subways. That's what
frightens people. Not just homeless people. We've certain urban environments
have homeless people. These are homeless mentally ill people that
threaten individuals or their presence is threatening, and that has
(07:35):
to change. Now, you're right, was it as bad as
it was back in the early nineties. No, But a
lot of people weren't here in the early nineties, right,
And if you were here, really, Bloomberg mayor Bloomberg post,
this city was much safer, much cleaner, felt much different.
(07:59):
And this is a dramatic juxtaposition to that.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
Andrew Cromo with this Sosi, who welcome all of you
on Bloomberg Television and Bloomberg Radio across nation, of course,
out on YouTube Good Morning, and of course on the
Nation Serius X channel one twenty one as well. We're
trying to get him to stay for two three hours.
He's saying, yeah, maybe I can't, but we're going to
have a good conversation here with a former governor. I
want to get this out of the way right now,
(08:24):
and it's on all the allegations of this, that the other,
the COVID stuff, the sex stuff, and that. Let's just
get it out of the way so we can move on.
The fact is it's reported you've gone after, not going
after in a collegiate way. I'm going to say, you
have your own litigation, your own lawsuits. These are all
distractions if you become mayor. In the floating out there
(08:46):
is the idea. Okay, now, Mike told me once mayor's
a twenty eight hour week job. I don't know if
that's sure or not, but let's say it's a full
commitment to be mayor. Will you push aside all of
the different things you're doing in litigation and lawsuits to
focus solely on being mayor, do you postpone them or
just say enough that part is over, that past is over.
Speaker 3 (09:09):
Yeah. Look in these jobs when I was governor, saying
as true for mayor, if you don't get sued five
times a day, you're not doing your job, you know.
So you have to be very good at taking compartmentalizing,
to use a word, but handing off pieces that are
(09:31):
not currently relevant. And that has to be done no
matter what.
Speaker 4 (09:37):
We saw some very disturbing images coming out of the
city of Los Angeles over the weekend. How do you
view kind of I guess, just kind of how we
deal with immigrants, how we deal with the policing of
our cities visa via the federal government sending in troops.
When you look at the images this week of Los Angeles,
how did you project that upon New York City?
Speaker 2 (09:59):
Ha.
Speaker 3 (10:00):
This gets into President Trump's strategy, I believe, and look,
first of all, on the immigration issue, he's very clear
in his campaign he believes it's an issue that works
for him. During the campaign, he said he was going
to deport criminals, dangerous criminals, dangerous criminals, and everybody support
(10:23):
said yes, support dangerous criminals. Of course, now we're deporting
seven year olds and we're disrupting families, and by the way,
we're deporting people who shouldn't be deported. So that's a change.
But this issue works for the president politically. The president
is also very good and I worked with the president
(10:45):
in the first Trump administration, worked with euphemism. We had
a lot of controversy, but this is a different tempo
for him. Wayne Gretzky skate to where the puck is
going to be, not where it was. The Democrats have
to adjust. They are skating to where the pucket was.
(11:10):
This immigration issue, in some ways is a distraction from
what Trump is really doing with cities, which is cutting
the budget in a way that is so dramatic that
you can really cause major difficulties for urban areas.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
Kevin Cromo pro tip. When you're going to talk a
hockey you're in a mayoral race, you pick genre Tell
or someone like that with the New York Rangers. You
don't go with Gretzky Andrew Cromo with us here as
we look at this mayor race, Okay, Robert Kuttner, no,
friend of yours writing an American Prospect. He says to Cuomo,
peak too soon. You've got the tensions of the primary.
(11:51):
If you take the primary, the tensions of a general
election with different independent candidates, and that is the president
mayor in the back pocket of the president the United States.
And if we get LA, as Paul mentions, here, can
you imagine this? I mean, I'll let you pick the geography,
Governor Cromo, but the president mayor of New York, can
(12:14):
he protect the citizens of this city, given the relationship
with the president, after what we've seen in LA.
Speaker 3 (12:24):
Short answer, no, And let's remember how extraordinary these issues.
What's happening in LA. This is the exact reverse of
what normally happens. Normally, it's the local government that makes
the decision on how to handle an emergency and calls
on the federal government. So a mayor or a governor
(12:45):
would call on the federal government say I need help.
Please send a national guard, or please send an additional
federal help. I don't believe there's been a time where
the president has sent in federal troops. You'd have to
go back to like the sixties and President Johnson and
(13:06):
Wallace right, that's how far you have to go back.
So this is Trump being Trump. This is Trump on
this issue of immigration. I'm muscled. It's law and order.
These cities, these Democrats, they're filled with illegals, and I'm
going to come in and I'm going to come in
(13:27):
hot and heavy. He started in La. It will happen
in New York. It will happen. He knows the formula, right,
It happened in New Jersey.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
This is formula to go after you.
Speaker 3 (13:40):
I mean, this is his formula is to create chaos
in the cities. And he is the voice of law
and order. And you know cities, all those Democrats, that's
where all those illegal immigrants are. And he's going to
come in and he's going to clean up. The flip
(14:02):
side is okay, create chaos in LA, create chaos in
New York, create chaos in Chicago. Pretty soon you create
chaos in the nation. And that's bad for the economy.
Speaker 4 (14:14):
So what's the biggest challenge for you in this primary
race here and then potentially in the general election.
Speaker 3 (14:20):
What do you have to get across in a Democratic primary?
And you now have the tension between post Trump, what
directions does the Democratic party go and some people believe
we lost to Trump because we didn't go left enough.
So I have a democratic socialist. Really, there's no such
(14:44):
thing as a democratic socialist. It's just a socialist. They
use democratic as a modifier because socialist is a shocking
But it's a socialist who says, dismantle the police. The
police stay is oppressive. Everything free, free, transportation, free everything.
(15:07):
Tax the rich, so there's class warfare in there. We'll
tax the one percent. The one percent should pay because
they are rich and fat and they made money on
the rest of us and everything else.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
Let's migrate there. The Financial Times dare. That's summary article
this week and Andrew Cromo. Where there's folks, and we
welcome all of you on Bloomberg Television and Bloomberg Radio
worldwide and of course here in the Tristate area. Bloomberg
eleven three to zero across the five Burroughs. The ft
lined up the halves who are supporting you. You're the
guy a choice, and he answers. Some of them really
(15:42):
are behind Andrew Croomo and others are betting this guy
might win, so we better get behind with him. How
do you say, take the landlords and they gave you
X number of million, I would say, that's like almost
normal politics. But then how do you protect tenants and
renters in a city of horrific housing economics.
Speaker 3 (16:04):
Well, first, if you are going to be an elected office,
you cannot be influenced by who gives you money, Right,
that's rule number one. That's not saying to a journalist, well,
look at who's taking advertising in your newspaper and write
favorable things about the advertisers. Then you're not a journalist.
It's unethical. If you and I've been in an elected
(16:27):
office many times have raised hundreds of millions of dollars,
it can't matter who gives you money. Now to the
extent people are supporting me, who are institutional interests because
institutional interests need a city that works, right, they want
a city with the future. What they're afraid of is
(16:49):
you elect a socialist who tries to give everything away free,
doubles the taxes on the wealthy, and the wealthy said,
that's it. I'm gone. By the way, we lost five
hundred thousand people since COVID to begin with, You're now
going to double taxes, and people will say, I'm going
(17:12):
to Florida, I'm going to Texas, etc. It's not worth
the premium, especially since the quality of life has deteriorated
and I'm afraid to get on the subways. So why
would I pay the premium to live here when I'm
not getting the benefit of living here. I'll go to Texas,
I'll go to Florida. I'll come back a few times
(17:34):
a year. I'll see you play. I can hire a
private jet with the tax savings. That's what we have
to worry.
Speaker 4 (17:43):
About, Governor, speaking of Trump's relationship with city mayor's. President,
Trump's Justice Department is investigating you or allegations you lied
to Congress about COVID. You said that that's politically motivated.
But how afraid of you are the possibility of getting indicted,
perhaps even arrested by the trum administration. That's got to
be on the table.
Speaker 3 (18:02):
Yeah, No, this is a joke, But this investigation is
a joke. But there's no doubt that Donald Trump uses
the Department of Justice and the justice system as one
of the tools in the political arsenal. When I was governor,
the governor the first when I was governor and dealt
with Trump in the first administration. He investigated me twice
(18:24):
with the Department of Justice. That sort of like his
left jab. Just keep throwing it out there.
Speaker 2 (18:32):
I want to go back here. I want to get
back to the primary, the election. At Hann lauris saying, Okay,
all this big picture stuff is great. You got to
win the primary. You got to get onto the election.
How about nineteen seventy seven, folks, this is New York
City in the five boroughs. Bella Absick took Manhattan, a
Beam took Brooklyn, but Doo took the Bronx. A guy
(18:55):
named Cuomo took Queens and Staten Island, and Ed Koch won.
That's how nuts New York City is. Which geography right
now is most critical for you in the five boroughs
for you to take this primary.
Speaker 3 (19:09):
Yeah, it's interesting. Back in nineteen seventy seven, the boroughs
were more homogeneous and sort of class oriented. That has
changed over time. The basic division is you have younger,
more activist, more progressive. If you will voters who identify
(19:36):
as socialists, they will say I am socialist, I say
tax the rich, I say everything should be free. Palestine
factors in there, and that's one demographic. And then you
have a second demographic, which is a little bit older,
(20:00):
more mainstream, if you will, and that's the Democrat demographic
that I appeal to.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
You brought up Palestine, Let's go there right now. There's
a unique relationship of this city with Israel. Everyone knows this.
We see nationwide a new form, a new debate over
anti Semitism. I think of Earth eleven. My household happened
to worship his father a million years ago. Explain to
(20:27):
me your relationship with Israel as mayor of New York City.
How will that be distinctive given the horror that we
see in the levant.
Speaker 3 (20:37):
Well, it's a great question, and it is unique to
New York. I believe if you grow up in New
York the way I have, the Jewish community is such
an integral part of New York. Right, New York is
not New York without the Jewish community. Jewish community started
coming to New York in sixteen fifty, one hundred years
(21:01):
before the other immigration groups, and they have been in
major institutions. So you grow up with the Jewish community.
I have two brothers in law who were Jewish, my
son in law is Jewish. It's that close a connection
and I've been one hundred percent supportive of Israel. My
(21:23):
father was before me. I've done numerous trips to Israel.
I was very aggressive supporting Israel. This was the first
state to go against boycott, discriminate, disinvestment in sanctions for Israel.
So it is a very pro Israel state.
Speaker 4 (21:43):
Paul here, please, Governor No One presumably arguably takes the
air out of the room more than President Trump. He
just demands the media attention in a way we've never
seen before. Are you surprised that the Democratic Party no
one has stepped up, no voice has emerged to at
least counter some of the policies and some of the
(22:03):
arguments coming out of the Trump administration. And would you
relish that role at some point?
Speaker 3 (22:08):
Well, I'll go back to the Wayne Gretzky quote that
I wasn't supposed to.
Speaker 2 (22:13):
Use a stranger in New York.
Speaker 3 (22:21):
First, the Democrats have to get the cadence of the game.
They are coming up a day late, right. I don't
believe this. I believe this immigration and Los Angeles and
it's going to get worse, and it's going to be
New York. I believe this works politically for Donald Trump.
(22:42):
I also believe it masks the budget debate, which is
really the consequential debate for urban America short term. And
he's onto a new topic now and the Democrats wind
up a day because if you're arguing about the budget today,
you're missing Los Angeles and New Jersey and the immigration debate.
Speaker 2 (23:06):
We're going to wrap up here in a moment here
for Bloomberg Television, of Bloomberg Radio, Andrewcomo with Politico. There
was a mayor from Chicago who can be a little
spicy name Emmanuel. He's out this weekend and Rams all
wound up about the week in the wooke Democratic Party brand,
and I would say he was basically he is mayor
of Chicago, and potentially you was mayor of New Yorker.
(23:29):
The one's fighting the fight to get the Democratic Party
to get some backbone. Does that lead to a presidential
effort in twenty twenty eight? I mean, is a Democratic
Party going to shift back to that centrist tendency that
we talked about in nineteen eighty five?
Speaker 3 (23:46):
Centrist forget the trying to define political edy ideology. I
worked with Ram and the Clinton administration. It's sort of
practical and common sense, right, the Democrats lost to Trump.
Why did we lose to Trump? I don't believe Trump won.
I believe the Democrats lost. I believe what happened is
(24:07):
the Democrats became disconnected from their people. They became disconnected
from the kitchen table issues. Talk to me about my mortgage,
talk to me about my job, talk to me about
the economy, talk to me about public safety. I don't
want to hear about these esoteric issues right now when
I'm worried about my life today. And do something for me.
(24:30):
You're the Democratic Party. The Democratic Party fundamentally believes in
the functionality of government, and you haven't functioned. Show me
something that you did for me that made a difference
in my life. Joe Biden, you were president. What did
you do that I can see, feel, or touch. That's
where the Democrats blew up, Paul.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
This is so important. I want to get back to
some of the basic stuff Paul was talking about. I mean,
day one, the congestion text, day one, planes, day one,
nobody can afford to live in the city. What's the
day Paul, as this earlier, what's your day one? Mandate
to those kitchen table Democrats, independents and disaffected Republicans.
Speaker 3 (25:14):
What they're saying first is make me safe. I'm afraid
to take the subways, and I haven't felt that way
in fifteen years. Make me safe, and that is public safety,
that's mentally homeless, etc. Blending into quality of life, that's
job one. And then affordability. I need to be able
(25:38):
to pay the rent.
Speaker 2 (25:38):
I got forty five seconds because of all the fancy
stuff here in the Bloomberg News organization. Your father stopped
America with a convention speech? Are you going to be
at a convention running for president in the future.
Speaker 3 (25:52):
I'm running for mayor and that's enough.
Speaker 2 (25:56):
Andrew Cromo, thank you so much, greatly appreciated this morning.
Do we get everything in there? I think we did
Red Sox the Yankees two out of three this weekend.
I thought that was got lucky.
Speaker 3 (26:06):
They got lucky. They got lucky.
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