David Paterson, former New York Governor Interview

David Paterson speaks with Mendte in the Morning about the situation with Kathy Hochul and Eric Adams. David discusses the options that Hochul has in front of her and the caution she must take if she wants to keep a chance at winning re-election.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Let's talk to David Patterson, former governor of New York. Governor,
thank you so much for your time. I really appreciate
the opportunity to talk to you, especially on a day
like today when the current governor is in New York
City talking with Democratic leaders about possibly removing Mayor Adams

(00:22):
from office. Do you think that will happen? Do you
think that should happen?

Speaker 2 (00:28):
Well? I think what was happening was these comments of
people making where's the governor? The governor's hiding in Albany,
what's the governor doing? And here is a kind of
dramatic way that she invites a number of leaders to
come and talk to her about the situation and to
also familiarize them with what the process would be if

(00:49):
she didn't want to remove Mayor Adams. So I think
she's done herself a real good deed by having this
meeting today.

Speaker 1 (01:00):
It was smart. It gives her some a little bit
of cover. It looks like she's doing something, even though
the last few times she's talked about this she seems
reluctant to do it. So what do you think is
going to happen?

Speaker 2 (01:11):
I think anybody would be reluctant to do it in
this particular situation because with Mayor Adams, you don't really
have a smoking gun. You know, there aren't pictures of
him someplace where he shouldn't have been, or somebody accusing
him of domestic violence, you know, or something where you
have a witness. It's just their hearsay in a way

(01:32):
that they're saying that Mayor Adams has to, in their eyes,
made a deal with the devil. He is going to
work on getting the criminal migrants out of this country,
and he's going to help the homeland securities are. But
when he and Homeland securities are on Fox and Friends,

(01:53):
the guy, you know, was basically insulting and Mayor Adams
sat there and didn't do anything. And I think that
really set a lot of people off that they don't
want to feel that their mayor's got his hands tied, right.
I get that.

Speaker 1 (02:08):
But now if you were governor, and you were governor
and you had a situation like this, what would you do?

Speaker 2 (02:20):
Because the Democratic primary is in three months, and because
it's not like a criminal allegation, you know, it's more
like that people feel he has abandoned their trust, that
he's not the same man that they elected in twenty
twenty one. Because of that, I would just let him

(02:44):
run in the primary and see how it goes. I
don't know that necessarily remove him. And a couple of
times when they were going to remove mayors, the mayors
found a way to get out of it. Mayor William
will dwy in nineteen fifty ath a big police scandal
that involved him. He resigned before they could do anything

(03:08):
about it and went and took a job with the President,
Harry Truman. And then, of course before that was Jimmy Walker,
who left town and moved to London right before the
governor was going to The governor already decided to remove him.
So we've been down these roads before. This isn't necessarily
new territory. But I think what makes this situation a

(03:32):
little more unique is that the accusation in the other
two cases was more about criminality, and here the accusation
is more about an individual who's putting his self and
his own personal interests above those of the city and
the views of let's say, a good amount of Democrats

(03:57):
in New York. So it's a different situation.

Speaker 1 (04:00):
Do you think it's really about that or is it
the fact that he's cozying up to the Trump administration,
and the Trump administration is hated by these Democratic leaders.

Speaker 2 (04:10):
But that's exactly what I'm saying. That he is, to
many Democrats, not the same person they elected in twenty
twenty one. And now he can't even give any back
talk to the Homeland Security person who basically threatened him
if he didn't cooperate. And also the fact that he is,

(04:37):
you know, not acting the way we would have thought
a mayor of New York City would normally act like.
He really hasn't commented on what has actually occurred. And
I think we can trace this entire problem back to
the Justice Department, who dropped the case against him, but

(05:00):
without prejudice, giving them a chance to come back so
that if they felt like it, they could monitor him.
And he's not doing what they want him to do,
then they go go back and invite him. So he
is not a man without problems these days.

Speaker 1 (05:15):
No, I get that. I think that he is politically wounded,
to say the least, But I agree with you. I
don't think that Kathy Hochel is going to make a
move on this, because why would she. David Patterson, former
governor of New York. It was a pleasure to talk
to you, Sarah.

Speaker 2 (05:30):
Thank you, thank you. Ay we'll do it again.

Speaker 1 (05:33):
Yeah, please soon. Governor David Patterson. I agree with him.
It's not going to happen today. She doesn't have the
political will to do this. Why would she. He's running
for office, but so is she, and they could only
hurt her.