Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2: Brad Lead are great to see you and definitely want
Speaker 2: to talk about your campaign and your platform. But I
Speaker 2: have to start with the news of the day, and
Speaker 2: that is this memo that came to light. I think
Speaker 2: the Times first reported last night from the Justice Department
Speaker 2: to the US Attorney's Office in New York instructing that
Speaker 2: office to drop the charges against the current mayor, Eric Adams.
Speaker 3: I wonder what you make of that directive.
Speaker 2: Obviously you have an acting US Attorney now he's in
Speaker 2: a very difficult position whether to take that advice and
Speaker 2: alienate probably the entire staff within that office, or go
Speaker 2: along with it. I guess under the expectation that whoever
Speaker 2: succeeds her, be that Jay Clayton or someone else, is
Speaker 2: likely to put a rubber stamp on it. What do
Speaker 2: you make of the news? What does it tell you
Speaker 2: about the case that this office is built against the mayor?
Speaker 4: Then?
Speaker 3: What an outrageous miscarriage of justice.
Speaker 1: The Southern District has a tremendous history for doing corruption
Speaker 1: prosecution and this says, no, we want you to do
Speaker 1: corruption instead. They had a strong case. They're not even
Speaker 1: saying the evidence and the case isn't strong. You know,
Speaker 1: they know he took illegal campaign contributions, corrupted the building's department,
Speaker 1: but they just want to wreck the justice system, and
Speaker 1: unfortunately New Yorkers are going to pay the consequences.
Speaker 2: Do you think that the mayor should resign? There's this
Speaker 2: swirl now about should he be partnered he and not
Speaker 2: have these charges part against him. Should he step down
Speaker 2: given what's happened here, Yes, he should resign.
Speaker 1: He's effectively being extorted by the Justice Department. He's only
Speaker 1: looking out for the interests of one New Yorker and
Speaker 1: that's himself, not even speaking up when they come to
Speaker 1: take our lunch money.
Speaker 2: There are many layers to this. It's a two two
Speaker 2: page memo. I should say the acting Deputy Attorney General
Speaker 2: is an alumnus of this office of the sd and
Speaker 2: I which may STNY, which makes us even more astonishing.
Speaker 2: But there's a line, a footnote buried in it, which
Speaker 2: I flagged on Twitter and all the other platforms last night,
Speaker 2: and it's just find it to be like an astonishing footnote.
Speaker 2: Quote your office correctly noted in a February third, twenty
Speaker 2: twenty five memborandum quote, as mister bouve Amil Bouv, the
Speaker 2: acting Deputy Turny General, clearly stated to Defense Council during
Speaker 2: our meeting on Jail thirty first, twenty twenty five, the
Speaker 2: government is not offering to exchange dismissal of a criminal
Speaker 2: case for Adams's assistance on immigration enforcement. A lot of
Speaker 2: absurdity baked in there and just the way that that's constructed.
Speaker 2: But this is something that you've you've homed in on
Speaker 2: in recent days. That is, was there some sort of
Speaker 2: deal broker between the mayor and the president in mar
Speaker 2: Lago or elsewhere?
Speaker 1: It sure looks like it elsewhere in the memo it
Speaker 1: says we're doing this so that the mayor can get
Speaker 1: back to the business of fighting quote unquote illegal immigration.
Speaker 1: His job is to protect New Yorkers, not to do
Speaker 1: the president's bidding.
Speaker 5: Do you agree?
Speaker 4: Is David Gurrows more up to speed on this than
Speaker 4: I am and a Christmaster Landers? So are you that
Speaker 4: the way the language is formed, there's a threat to
Speaker 4: the mayor if you don't guess what we say.
Speaker 5: We're gonna bring those charges.
Speaker 1: Back dismissed without prejudice, means we will be watching every
Speaker 1: step of the way, and if we're dissatisfied with your
Speaker 1: fealty to the Trump White House, see we'll bring the charge.
Speaker 4: The difference is Landers studied this Chicago. I got it
Speaker 4: from Perry Mason, and that's the difference.
Speaker 2: I can't help but draw a line to what now
Speaker 2: former President Biden did in the final days of his administration,
Speaker 2: making these preemptive pardons to his son and others. Look,
Speaker 2: President Trump could have done the same thing. But there
Speaker 2: is a flex a power move here.
Speaker 3: In doing this.
Speaker 2: You talked about the long standing independence and proud independence
Speaker 2: of the SDN Y. He's testing them effectively by doing this,
Speaker 2: I mean move fast and break things. He's breaking the
Speaker 2: Justice Department and the tradition of independent prosecution that the
Speaker 2: Southern District of New York has long had, and that'll
Speaker 2: mean more corruption. You say he should resign. There is
Speaker 2: another means of recourse here. If he doesn't do that,
Speaker 2: you other Democrats could go to the governor of the
Speaker 2: State of New York or to Cathy Hokland say, look,
Speaker 2: you have the power to get him to step aside,
Speaker 2: perhaps force and to step aside. Is that something that
Speaker 2: you and your fellow Democrats are thinking about and indeed
Speaker 2: would consider it this moment because of all of this.
Speaker 1: I mean, the form of removal I'm focused on right
Speaker 1: now is the ballot box New York can get rid
Speaker 1: of Eric Adams and restore integrity and effective government to
Speaker 1: city Hall. I mean people are fed up not just
Speaker 1: with his corruption, but with his failure to deliver. People
Speaker 1: are fed up with democratic mayors of big blue cities
Speaker 1: who can't govern.
Speaker 3: And that's what we can elect this year. I want
Speaker 3: to get to your platform.
Speaker 2: One last question on this, based on what you just
Speaker 2: said there in that memo, is this criticism of this
Speaker 2: case being brought close to an election. I guess nine
Speaker 2: months out now from an election is too close for
Speaker 2: comfort for this Justice Department. As you look at this campaign,
Speaker 2: how do you see this story being a through line?
Speaker 2: Perhaps the through line is you campaign and your fellow
Speaker 2: Democrats campaign against him.
Speaker 1: I mean, New Yorkers know that Eric Adams has run
Speaker 1: a corrupt administration. I think it's twenty six members of
Speaker 1: his administration have either been indicted or under investigation, including him.
Speaker 1: But he also has been failing to deliver on affordable housing,
Speaker 1: on public safety, on childcare, on just making the government
Speaker 1: run well, so those will go together. What New Yorkers
Speaker 1: want is a safer, more affordable, and better run city, and.
Speaker 3: That I think will be the through line of this campaign.
Speaker 3: That's why I'm running.
Speaker 5: For all your nationwide.
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Speaker 4: with Grad Lander.
Speaker 5: He counts the beans in New York.
Speaker 4: He's a controller, but far far more of that is
Speaker 4: David goes to your campaign. I want to frame this,
Speaker 4: I said to a family member. Finally, whether you're a
Speaker 4: Republican or Democrat. The former mayor of Chicago Ram wrote
Speaker 4: an essay in the Washington Post. Democrats have become the
Speaker 4: party of permissiveness. That's ballot box poison. You have a
Speaker 4: history of progressivism. How does the left in the Democratic
Speaker 4: Party migrate to the center to compete?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean I want to give you some straight talk.
Speaker 1: I think progressives, including myself, we're slow to respond to
Speaker 1: rising disorder and crime coming out of the pandemic, and
Speaker 1: we need to be real clear about it. So the
Speaker 1: number one commitment of my campaign is to end street
Speaker 1: homelessness for people with serious mental illness in New York
Speaker 1: City who are on the streets and subways. That is
Speaker 1: something a mayor could do. I've laid out a really detailed,
Speaker 1: ready on day one plan. Some of that is involuntary hospitalization,
Speaker 1: a lot of that is connecting people to housing and
Speaker 1: services so they're not on the subways or on our
Speaker 1: stoops a danger to themselves and to others.
Speaker 2: You know, Tom and I travel, we go to Washington,
Speaker 2: go elsewhere, and I think a lot of people like
Speaker 2: to rag on New York, like to bring up the
Speaker 2: fact that they think that the subways are unsafe, that
Speaker 2: there is a sense of a lack of good public
Speaker 2: safety in the city right now.
Speaker 3: And you can bring up.
Speaker 2: Statistics to push against that, But how do you deal
Speaker 2: with that feeling? What's in the zeitgeist here that if
Speaker 2: you're riding the subway there is a danger that something could.
Speaker 3: Happen to you. And both things are true.
Speaker 1: I mean, we have more private sector jobs, more office
Speaker 1: using jobs than ever in the city's history. People do
Speaker 1: want to be here. But if you're on the subway
Speaker 1: and you just heard the story that an unwell person
Speaker 1: a mentally ill person push someone onto the tracks, and
Speaker 1: then you see a homeless person who's mentally ill in
Speaker 1: your car. Of course you're anxious. I have a friend
Speaker 1: whose eight year old daughter was pushed to the ground
Speaker 1: last week. So it's a real issue and a perception issue.
Speaker 1: But what we do is get those people connected to
Speaker 1: housing and services so they're not riding the subways where
Speaker 1: it's not good for them and it's not good for
Speaker 1: writers in New York City. That ends street homelessness for
Speaker 1: people with serious mental illness will be a proud New
Speaker 1: York and one that could show all those critics look
Speaker 1: at how well we're doing. But that takes a new mayor,
Speaker 1: and that's what I'm running Fortant.
Speaker 2: How do you look at the relationship when it comes
Speaker 2: to transportation between New York City and the state government,
Speaker 2: and of course the governor has weighed in on what
Speaker 2: needs to happen on subways to make them more safe.
Speaker 3: How important is that relationship?
Speaker 2: What would you do to improve that to sort of
Speaker 2: harness that effective way to make things safer for them?
Speaker 1: I mean the city state relationship to make the subways
Speaker 1: around well as critical. This is why I was a
Speaker 1: big proponent of congestion pricing, and when the governor put
Speaker 1: it on pause, I help bring the lawsuits that sued
Speaker 1: to get it implemented. But of course now we're working
Speaker 1: closely together to make sure it's implemented well. The numbers
Speaker 1: are great so far. Travel times are down, traffic is down,
Speaker 1: money is more people are on the subway. Now the
Speaker 1: city and state have to work together to deliver platform barriers,
Speaker 1: new station gates, new subway elevators, modern signal system, all
Speaker 1: the things that we have to work together to make
Speaker 1: sure it works.
Speaker 4: I'm going to cut to the chase. It's real simple.
Speaker 4: I live in a fancy part in New York where
Speaker 4: I enjoyed a cigar in the street and one day
Speaker 4: there's seven police officers around me all of a sudden.
Speaker 4: And again it's crime that you mentioned. It's the issue.
Speaker 4: It's almost like Nixon sixty eight to seventy whatever. Brad Lander,
Speaker 4: how are you going to have a relationship with the NYPD?
Speaker 4: How do you form that is mayor versus being counter
Speaker 4: going after contracts.
Speaker 3: I mean, this is an important moment. I have to say.
Speaker 1: Jesse Tish, who's now and there as police commissioner, is
Speaker 1: doing a great jobs so far, both doing reform, holding
Speaker 1: people accountable, and providing support and that.
Speaker 3: Look survivor of this administration.
Speaker 1: I mean honestly, the fact that the mayor's corruption has
Speaker 1: opened up an.
Speaker 3: Opportunity for reform is great.
Speaker 1: But I would love to keep Jesse Tish as commissioner.
Speaker 1: I think she's got the right tone of accountability and
Speaker 1: rebuilding and reform.
Speaker 4: And I need you to go out to Stanton Island,
Speaker 4: next to where Mandolin Brothers was years ago. I need
Speaker 4: you to go to Staten Island and bond with people
Speaker 4: that look at progressives and go, you gotta be kidnaped.
Speaker 5: So how do you do.
Speaker 3: That when I go?
Speaker 1: So this is a connection from being being counter. I
Speaker 1: work with the Police Pension Fund to manage their pension.
Speaker 1: So there was an officer, Officer Fayaz, who the mayor
Speaker 1: wouldn't allow to get line of benefit due to line
Speaker 1: of duty benefits, and my office did. I worked with
Speaker 1: the Police Pension Fund to make sure those officers who
Speaker 1: had long COVID could actually get their disability benefits. So
Speaker 1: I've got a track record of working with the union reps.
Speaker 1: I hope you know I'll bring them out with me
Speaker 1: to Staten Island and when I go to have that meeting,
Speaker 1: and I hope to do it, you know, in a
Speaker 1: way that shows, of course, we want.
Speaker 3: To support our officers.
Speaker 1: Everyone wants accountability from people who do the wrong thing,
Speaker 1: from cops and from elected officials.
Speaker 3: I've got three kids in public school in this city.
Speaker 2: As much as there's been a rotating cast of police commissioners,
Speaker 2: you've had a rotating cast of chancellors as well.
Speaker 3: What are your top.
Speaker 2: Line plans for the hugest school system in the country
Speaker 2: here to stabilize it? You know, one of the reasons,
Speaker 2: candidly why we moved to New York was the prospect
Speaker 2: of having universal pre K funding has been an issue
Speaker 2: here in recent years. Your perspective, your platform when it
Speaker 2: comes to the schools.
Speaker 1: Yeah, my kids also went from pre K to twelfth
Speaker 1: grade in the New York City public schools, and they
Speaker 1: were lucky to have good schools.
Speaker 3: But boy, not everybody does.
Speaker 1: So Look, you need a schools chancellor who recruits principles
Speaker 1: and superintendents who support their teachers but also hold them accountable.
Speaker 1: The state has increased the money we're getting. That's an
Speaker 1: opportunity to reduce class size, which is something that promised
Speaker 1: to do but really hasn't done yet. It's going to
Speaker 1: be on the next mayor to reduce class size with
Speaker 1: the money the state is giving us and.
Speaker 5: For our audience.
Speaker 4: Afterthought, when she was in elementary school here on the
Speaker 4: Island of Manhattan, there were eleven languages.
Speaker 5: In her first grade class.
Speaker 4: I think you have to, as David says, did you
Speaker 4: say three offspring?
Speaker 3: I have no idea. I mean, that's what's remarkable about
Speaker 3: this city. What other place has that?
Speaker 4: Well, we're working at it. Okay, Kmox. She grew up
Speaker 4: with the Cardinals. It's just like I used to listen
Speaker 4: from Western New York bouncing off the imsphere. If somebody
Speaker 4: said to me my ten great moments. One of them
Speaker 4: was a guy named Mario Cuomo talking to the former governor,
Speaker 4: and we said good morning to him and his family
Speaker 4: about his time with the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Speaker 5: It was magical.
Speaker 4: Dear Mario Cuomo talk about the Pittsburgh Pirates. One of
Speaker 4: his offspring may enter the race or is in it.
Speaker 4: I'm not sure the details. Is it crowded a field?
Speaker 4: I mean, how away from Mayor Adams upset how do
Speaker 4: you frame September in October to be I mean, how
Speaker 4: do you frame into.
Speaker 3: It elections in June?
Speaker 1: So Juankuner, I don't think New Yorkers will want to
Speaker 1: replace one corrupt chaos agent with another. This is someone
Speaker 1: who resigned in disgrace just ahead of impeachment after a
Speaker 1: dozen women who worked for him accused him of sexual harassment.
Speaker 1: Who sent thousands of seniors to their deaths and nursing
Speaker 1: homes and then lied to their families about it to
Speaker 1: protect his five million dollar book deal. Who cut the subways,
Speaker 1: who cut a thousand in patient psychiatric beds, who doesn't
Speaker 1: care about New York City, where he hasn't lived in
Speaker 1: twenty five years. We're getting rid of one corrupt chaos agent.
Speaker 1: Let's not bring another in.
Speaker 2: When you look at this field of challengers to the mayor,
Speaker 2: Democratic challengers, what are we going to sort out here?
Speaker 2: This is going to be a robust debate, I imagine, about
Speaker 2: the future of the Democratic Party here here in New York.
Speaker 2: It's to be part of this broader conversation about it
Speaker 2: here in the US. How important is it, how vital
Speaker 2: is it to have that conversation right now? What are
Speaker 2: we going to learn from from this, this this primary campaign. Yeah,
Speaker 2: it's critical.
Speaker 1: Part of the reason in New York people shifted to
Speaker 1: voting for Trump is they haven't seen government working for
Speaker 1: them and there is doubt about whether Democrats can govern
Speaker 1: big blue cities. Well, folks like Michelle Woo are doing
Speaker 1: it in Boston. We have to do it in New
Speaker 1: York City. Get the cost of living under control, confront
Speaker 1: and build affordable housing, deliver on that childcare and universal
Speaker 1: pre K and three K and make the city safer.
Speaker 5: Are we going to have a Gilded age campaign?
Speaker 4: Miche Wu in Boston's running against the craft offspring.
Speaker 5: You know, you know there's the fair amount of money
Speaker 5: rolling around here. How do you frame out this path
Speaker 5: to June?
Speaker 1: And you know, I assume how many people are in
Speaker 1: the race yet right now? Yeah, eight or SOE about
Speaker 1: SloMo getting in.
Speaker 3: What do you perceive may to be Like, I mean,
Speaker 3: it's going to be busy for me.
Speaker 1: It's going to be a question about who people think
Speaker 1: can actually run the city well, and that's the track
Speaker 1: record have as the city's chief financial officer, with a
Speaker 1: history of actually delivering. We managed two hundred and eighty
Speaker 1: five billion dollar pension fund. Our audits have saved hundreds
Speaker 1: of millions of dollars. I can make government work, and
Speaker 1: I think that's what New Yorkers want.
Speaker 3: I mean, come full circle. Brought that memo at the top.
Speaker 2: I read that footnote which had that innuendo about immigration policy,
Speaker 2: and let's end there. And you know, a few weeks back,
Speaker 2: I was out at Floyd Bennett Field and saw the
Speaker 2: shelter that had been built there. I gather it's being
Speaker 2: emptied out or has been emptied out of migrants moved
Speaker 2: to New York City. How do you approach this issue,
Speaker 2: which is one that I think is flum mixing a
Speaker 2: lot of people.
Speaker 3: Here.
Speaker 2: We are in a city that has historically welcomed so many.
Speaker 2: Now we have a federal administration that is wanting to
Speaker 2: constrict that. What is the duty of the mayor of
Speaker 2: this city here at this moment where we've had this
Speaker 2: influx of people here and a lot of people who
Speaker 2: are have left their home countries in great pain. Yes,
Speaker 2: many without documents have come here to New York. What's
Speaker 2: the mayor to do?
Speaker 1: I mean, New York City obviously doesn't control border policy.
Speaker 1: That's you know, federal What New York City can do
Speaker 1: is help those folks get to work. I mean, we
Speaker 1: need people working in construction, in our restaurants, in a
Speaker 1: home care, in healthcare. So helping folks who have work
Speaker 1: authorization get to work. Helping folks get work authorization critical,
Speaker 1: and then we can't allow ice to come into our schools,
Speaker 1: into our public hospitals. The Brooklyn District Attorney told this
Speaker 1: amazing story about how when his brother was murdered, which
Speaker 1: is why he became a prosecutor, it was somebody undocumented
Speaker 1: who was a witness, and the defense got that guy
Speaker 1: deported and there was no justice. And you know, that's
Speaker 1: what we need is a city that's keeping at the
Speaker 1: place where your daughter has eleven languages in her preschool class,
Speaker 1: but we also make it work for a thriving economy
Speaker 1: in a safe, successful city.
Speaker 4: It was unbelievable the first time I walked into that classroom.
Speaker 4: Five twenty nine eleven languages is just just yeah.
Speaker 5: It was.
Speaker 4: You know, forget about Ellis Island and all the emotion
Speaker 4: of a city. You know, you think of Italy and
Speaker 4: the Jewish community decades ago, to witness in real time
Speaker 4: eleven languages in a perfect five twenty nine school up
Speaker 4: on the East Side. It was absolutely unbelievable. One of
Speaker 4: the great moments. Two kids from Bangladesh not a word
Speaker 4: of English, and those teachers went into it every day.
Speaker 5: Would you say goodbye to mister Landers.
Speaker 2: Coptro for New York City candidate from mayor here and
Speaker 2: you're great to see you. Jack Buck is smiling on us.
Speaker 3: Okay, oh there you got.
Speaker 5: Jack Buck is smiling at us. Bred.
Speaker 3: There's a pothole.
Speaker 5: How many times a week do you get a lot?
Speaker 3: A lot?
Speaker 5: Yeah, thank you so much.