Transcript: Mayor de Blasio Appears Live on CNN New Day

April 19, 2017

Alisyn Camerota: President Trump still refusing to release his tax returns despite growing calls for them to be made public even by some Republican lawmakers. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio took his own position yesterday. He released his taxes online and he's calling for greater transparency from the President. Mayor Bill de Blasio joins us now – great to have you in the studio, Mr. Mayor.

Mayor Bill de Blasio: Good morning, Alisyn. 

Camerota: Why did you make your taxes public? 

Mayor: Because we’re supposed to do that as public servants. It is part of the obligation you have when you go into public life. By the way, Democratic and Republican candidates for president, for decades, have considered this their obligation to the public – 

Camerota: It is not a law. 

Mayor: It is not a law. 

Camerota: It’s your prerogative. 

Mayor: It’s not a law but in today's day-and-age, first of all, it’s really easy to do. That was part of my point to the President yesterday. Look, you can put it online. Everyone can see it. It is easy.

Camerota: You said that. It’s not that hard.

Mayor: Does not hurt. It is not hard. But here's the thing – what’s in those tax returns? When you give them to the public, you’re showing them if you have any business interests that might affect your judgment, if you have any connections to foreign countries that might affect the way you go about your business. With this president, obviously we have a question – did Russia influence our election? Is he beholden to Russian business interests or banks in some way? Does he have business interests that could affect his judgement on issues like the environment, climate change, you know, what happens to sending jobs overseas that Americans need here? 

All of that will get revealed if we see where his money is and where his investments is, who he owes money to, who owes him money. So, it is unconscionable to not allow the American people to understand who you really are if you’re going to be making decisions that affect their lives.

Camerota: President Trump's argument seems to be, “I won. I won. The voters knew this about me and I didn’t release my taxes during the campaign. So, obviously, there is not that much interest in it.”

Mayor: Look, he won with three million fewer votes than Hillary Clinton. So, let’s be careful here. This is the first time in the history of the whole American people and republic that we’ve had a skew in an election of three million votes, and the one with three million fewer took office. Let's put this in perspective. 

Secondly, unlike any other president, every president we had previously, have either been a public servant or a military leader. This president, as a businessman with interests around the country and obviously exceptional interests in Russia – which is a country antagonistic to us in many ways – we need to know, does Russia have something over him? Is there information in those taxes he doesn’t want out because it would lead to controversy for him and would compromise him in some way?  How can he hold that back from the American people?

And then, again, as he’s talked about tax reform. Well, I've said for a long time, his tax reform is going to provide big tax cuts to the wealthy and corporations. But we don't know about his own business interests. We don’t know if some of that benefit him and his family – 

Camerota: Okay, so that’s the party line the Democrats, such as yourself, are now taking – “how can we cooperate with you on tax reform when we don't know what would benefit you?” Is that what Democrats are going to do? They’re going to say – in other words, that is not really thinking of, necessarily, the American people. 

Mayor: No, I think –  

Camerota: If everybody wants tax reform, shouldn't the Democrats get on board to work with Republicans or are they going to stick on this?

Mayor: Listen to what his version of tax reform we already know. “Reform,” we know, he said it out loud in his platform, means tax breaks for corporations, tax breaks for the wealthy. Now, I think that would be bad for the economy and bad for the American people. I think we have an income inequality crisis to begin with in this country – a lack of opportunity for so many people. That was what the election was about. People felt left behind especially in the Rust Belt states. They weren’t getting opportunity for themselves and their children. A tax reform that makes it worse, is actually against our interest.

But there’s a second point here. We don't know what he is thinking, who he is serving. Look who he put in his cabinet. He put in his cabinet millionaires and billionaires. Is that the group that’s going to benefit from this tax reform? And how can he tell the American people he wants to change their tax code without even showing us how it affects him?

Camerota: On the topic of money. Let’s talk about how much it has been costing to protect the President and First Family. The First Lady and Barron, their son, are still living in New York City. Is it true that it costs about $500,000 a day?

Mayor: At the high point, which was between the election and the inauguration, it was costing almost $500,000 a day because the President-elect, at that point, in residence there. Huge staff. Major, major anti-terror concerns we had to take into account –

Camerota: But now it is less on a day-to-day basis?  

Mayor: It’s less now. It’s still a major expense. NYPD has done an amazing job protecting Trump Tower and everyone in it. It is ridiculous, in my view, that a city like New York or even our friends in Florida or New Jersey that are bearing huge expenses anytime the President is there – how can you ask a locality to add all this expense when it’s really a national priority?

Camerota: Well, who is paying for this? 

Mayor: So far, we are paying for it, trying to get the money reimbursed through the Congress. And here’s the bottom line that money is coming out of the NYPD. That money is coming out of the efforts of the NYPD to keep New York City safe and to fight terror because money that would have gone to our work day-to-day is tied up with that security work.

Camerota: Is Congress saying, no they won't reimburse you? 

Mayor: No, to be fair, Congress is going to treat this in the continuing resolution which is coming up in the coming days. We’re very hopeful we can get a good resolution now and a path forward. Again, we have two other states – Florida is feeling it really big now with – 

Camerota: Because of Mar-a-Lago. 

Mayor: In Mar-a-Lago. 

Camerota: Right. So, they have to provide all sorts of extra Secret Service protection there. President Trump is a billionaire –

Mayor: Yes. 

Camerota: Have you asked President Trump to pay for some of that protection? 

Mayor: You know what’s interesting, I – as people said, have you asked him to pay, have you asked him to not come back – I think he has a right to be in his own city. Sometimes I’ve encouraged him to see what the impact of his policies would be on New York City.

I’ve said to him, look, you know, there’s a lot of things you are doing that are actually going to have a negative impact on the people of the city you come from. Come see for yourself, understand how you are actually affecting the people that you should know best.

I don't’ begrudge him the right to come back. And I think the expense is a public expense. I'm not asking him to pay for it personally. I think do think there should be fairness. If you ask any town in the country to pick up the expense for a president, well, that’s by definition that should be a federal responsibility.

Camerota: Last – do you think that President Trump will ever release his taxes? 

Mayor: I think the pressure is mounting. I think it’s very interesting. In the campaign, it did not. There were so many things going on in that campaign. It really wasn't the focus compared to a lot of other controversies. Now, when more and more Republicans are coming out – and I want to express my admiration for those Republicans who have broken with orthodoxy, and said, “Wait a minute, this is common sense.” I think the pressure is mounting. If he wants to really try for a tax reform, he’s going to actually tie one hand behind his back if doesn't release his own taxes. 

Camerota: Mayor de Blasio, thank you. 

Mayor: You’re very welcome.

Camerota: Good to have you here in the studio. 

Mayor: Always.