Transcript: Mayor de Blasio Appears Live on CNN's The Situation Room

August 20, 2019

Brianna Keilar: Joining me now is New York City Mayor and Democratic presidential candidate Bill de Blasio. Mayor, thanks for coming on.

Mayor Bill de Blasio: Thank you, Brianna.

Keilar: I want to begin with the Eric Garner case, and today’s firing of the officer involved in his death. You said today, during your public remarks, that justice has been done. But the Garner family is calling for more action, as you know. I want to be – I want to dig in here to specifics, can you be specific? What comes next in New York, and also on the national scale to stop this from happening to someone else?

Mayor: Yeah, Brianna, the whole core point I made today is this needs to be a never again moment. This needs to be the last time we see one of these tragedies. And that can be done because after the tragic loss of Eric Garner, we changed a lot of things in New York, and now every officer on patrol has a body camera. They’ve gone through de-escalation training so that in an exact same situation as that, they would actually try and tone it down, wait for more back up, handle it differently, and on top of that implicit bias training – we’re all humans, we all have bias. It helps to get training to weed it out, to make sure anyone of us public servants makes our decisions for the bigger reasons, the right reasons.

So that’s all changed, and I believe if we do that consistently, all over this country, that we can end this horrible history that’s holding us back and actually start to bring police and community closer together. This was justice today, this was – Brianna, it’s really important to note the United States Department of Justice did nothing. The local District Attorney did nothing. The first time there was a full, public trial in this case, was the New York City Police Department doing its own trial and one after another officials in the Police Department said based on the facts this officer needs to be terminated. That’s – that’s an immense show of impartiality and justice that the Police Department itself said something has to change here. That might not have happened, not so many years ago, but it’s happening today because a lot of reforms have been made, which gives me hope that we can do that all over this country.

Keilar: You – before this decision as announced today, even before that announcement of that internal investigation of the judge’s finding inside the Police Department, you had indicated publically at the debate that you wanted this officer to be terminated. Did that impact Commissioner O’Neill’s decision?

Mayor: No, I said – I want to be very specific Brianna – I said I believe justice would be served because I knew there would be a fair and impartial process. I never opined on what exactly should happen, I tried to be very, very careful to say I believe that there will be justice because the NYPD will do things in a fair and impartial manor, and that there would be a public trial for the first time. One of the most painful things—

Keilar: Was there – you publically made it clear that you wanted justice, I mean it’s not a giant cognitive leap to figure out what that would mean, that something needed to happen, right? That this is – this was the question.

Mayor: No, so I want to be very specific about it. I believe there had to be accountability. Someone died who shouldn’t have died – there had to be accountability. But, what was most important was to have a public and fair trial, and I believe that unto itself would yield [inaudible] justice and it did, so—

Keilar: Was there any – I’m just – was there any private communication between you or someone else in City Hall on your behest, and the Commissioner’s Office about what your preferred outcome was, what you saw as justice. You said this is justice today.

Mayor: No, the idea here, the way the law works in New York – the Police Commissioner’s the only person that can make that decision, we honored that, and in the end – look, I think Commissioner O’Neill was really honest. I thought that statement today was extraordinary in its openness and its honesty. This was not an easy decision, but he looked at the facts that were developed very clearly, and the fact that a chokehold is not allowed, it’s just not allowed in New York City Police Officers, and there it is on video and someone died because of it, and he followed those facts and made that decision.

Keilar: And the judge also found that Pantaleo was untruthful when he was talking to internal affairs, and that was cited as well in this decision. Would you have considered replacing the Police Commissioner if this had not been the decision that was made? 

Mayor: Brianna, look, I had faith in the process. I also have faith in my police commissioner. He’s lead extraordinary reforms and changes in this city. I don’t deal with hypotheticals. I believed all along there would be a fair process and there would be accountability. So, look, I think what people all over this country are seeing is the most revered, renowned police department in this nation just had the strength and had the sense of justice to say, you know what, one of our own did the wrong thing. It was proven, it was factual and there's going to be accountability and action – that actually happened. I think that's important for showing that we can move forward, not just as this city, but as this whole country.

Keilar: And an attorney for Officer Pantaleo said that there was actually an offer on the table, a way that he would've resigned, but he would have kept his pension. His attorneys say that offer was later revoked at the last minute is, is that true? 

Mayor: I don't know which conversations each person had with another person. I just know that any inference that something was agreed to obviously was false. I'm used to hearing a lot of statements that are false from that union –

Keilar: Was It in discussion? Was it possibly in discussion though? Do you know if it was being discussed? 

Mayor: I don't know who talked to who. I don't know what they talked about, but I do know that unfortunately – and you saw today a very divisive negative statement from that union, literally trying to encourage officers not to do their job – unfortunately that union leadership has been divisive for a long time, but New York City police officers are professionals. They've proven time and time again they're going to do their job because they believe in serving the people of this city. And we're going to move forward as a city, Brianna.

Keilar: Would it have been justice if Pantaleo was allowed to resign but keep his pension?

Mayor: You know, again, you’ll forgive me, but as someone who leads the nation's largest city, I don't get into hypothetical situations. I never have. I never will. What happened here for everyone to see was an actual fair and impartial process. And now, we have an opportunity to actually move this city forward and get police and community closure. The job now is to make sure this never happens again. And with this finally behind us, we can get back to work, bonding police and community for the good of all, for the safety of all. That's what I'm focused on. 

Keilar: I do want to talk to you about another important issue. Obviously, you are running for president. And so as you're watching the president – President Trump backing away from calls for universal background checks for gun purchases, do you think if elected, and, of course, you may not have a Democratic congress to work with – it's extremely unlikely the Democrats would have a filibuster proof majority of 60 votes in the Senate – what would be your first executive order to address gun violence?

Mayor: Well, look, I think right now in this country we have a clear majority of Americans and a shockingly high number of NRA members who believe in more extensive background checks, waiting periods, banning assault weapons. This is a majority American view right now. So, I think [inaudible] – I think it's using every executive power of the presidency to move a gun safety agenda, and here in New York – I'm speaking from experience, we’re the safest big city in America and our law enforcement officers are a lot safer because we have tough gun laws. I want to see every executive tool use, but, at the same time, Brianna, we're sitting on top of a situation where a majority wants these changes and a small number of senators on the Republican side, if they flip, we get those changes. And they're sitting on top of states where they're under tremendous pressure from their own citizens, their own constituents to address this issue. I think part of this is for a president to lead. If I were president, I would go to those states. I’d go to those swing states and I would energize the people of those states to demand their senator switch their position. I actually don't think it's impossible to get the 60 votes given how angry people are in this country. And Brianna, now it's people, everyday people worried about their child going to school. This wasn't true a few years ago, but now I hear it from parents here in my city and all over the country. Now, it’s gotten so bad, parents are worried about their kids going off to school in the morning and, God forbid, there's a mass shooting. Something's changing and those senators are going to have to answer that. Remember Florida? In Florida, they said nothing could change, but after Parkland, those young people spoke up and actually the Florida Legislature did make major changes. It can happen in Washington too.

Keilar: All right, Mayor, thank you so much. Mayor Bill de Blasio of New York City, we really appreciate you coming on.