Transcript: Mayor Bill de Blasio Appears Live on MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews

January 29, 2016

Chris Matthews: It’s the final countdown to Monday’s caucuses and it could all end in a photo finish in the Hawkeye State but whoever wins, wins. New York Mayor Bill de Blasio is heading out to Iowa himself to campaign for Hillary Clinton this weekend. De Blasio, the mayor, was Clinton’s campaign manager for her successful 2000 campaign for the United States Senate back in New York. [Inaudible].

So, have you got your speech ready? Can you give it to us? What is the case for Secretary Hillary Clinton to be the next president of the United States?

Mayor Bill de Blasio: Simple Chris – we have to restore the American middle class. Working people are hurting. We need a very different approach in Washington – higher wages, better benefits, paid sick leave, paid family leave – the kinds of things that will change the lives of people – taxes on the wealthy that will allow us to some of the things we have to do in this nation. Hillary Clinton’s got the right platform and she knows how to get those things done – and right now working people in this country want a champion who’s going to go to Washington and achieve those kind of progressive changes – and she’s proven she knows how to do it.

Matthews: You won in the left for a lot of reasons. I think your family helped, Dante helped at the end. [Inaudible] saw something that looked like harmony to them in a city that could be combustive and of course, Jim – Jim Kennedy just won in my city of Philadelphia. There seems – if you talk to the pollsters, there’s this sort of a left-wind direction right now. How does Hillary meet that as a woman of the center-left? I call her center-left, I don’t – what do you call her? How does she meet that wind direction?

Mayor: I think there is a real progressive trend going on in this country. You’ve seen it in the last year – the discussion of income inequality alone has changed fundamentally over the course of a year. People want to see a real change and they certainly are increasingly troubled by the concentration of wealth and power in this country. I think she can speak to that very, very powerfully because of her history. She took on the big health insurance companies during the health reform fight of 1993 and 1994 – one of the most dramatic struggles we’ve seen with anyone who was in the White House – she was a first lady at the time. She led that effort. What she’s done throughout her life on behalf of children and families long before those issues were bluntly in vogue – what she and her husband did on family and medical leave – she has a history of getting to these core economic issues and making change. This is a perfect moment for a progressive who knows how to do that because the country is clearly looking for progressive economic change.

Matthews: From the male side of things – both of – you and I are on the male side of things, why do you think the chance, the historic opportunity to elect a woman president after we’ve elected an African-American president – why doesn’t that grab young people as much you and I probably thought it would have and has seemed to do in the past? Your thoughts?

Mayor: One, it’s definitely the right moment in our history. People are more ready than ever. Two, maybe it doesn’t feel like it’s grabbing people but when the real moment is there, when there’s a democratic nominee, and Hillary’s that nominee versus a Republican – and we’re actually looking at that historical change, I think it’s going to energize people quite a bit but I think, bluntly, much more important than demographics will be the values, the vision because I think – you remember 1992, “It’s the economy stupid?” – I think that message, that reality is stronger than ever right now. This is going to be an election about economic reality and the fact that she’s a woman and understands what working women go through, what women struggle with all the time, is only going to add to her ability to be a compelling leader and spokesperson on those issues.

Matthews: Yes, I always thought women are better at a lot of those issues because – they’re in many families – I don’t know about yours, if you’ve got a strong wife, obviously, but I do too. I got to tell you, they usually do – if not the checkbook, they know the health costs, they know what’s covered by which policies, they know the kid’s schoolmates, they know the teacher’s names, they know all this stuff about – we know to lock the door at night and a few other things but they know so much more.

Anyway, thank you. I hope you can do our show when you’re out west with us in Iowa, Mayor Bill de Blasio.

Mayor: I would love to, Chris. Thank you.