Transcript: Mayor de Blasio Appears on Hot 97

July 26, 2017

Ebro Darden: Oh, man, we got a doozy today, boys and girls, ladies and gentlemen, children of all sizes, ages, and colors. I’m not supposed to say sizes or colors –

Laura Stylez: No. No. No. Everyone. Everyone.

Darden: Ladies and gentlemen, give it up for Mayor de Blasio on the show right now.

[Applause]

Stylez: Good morning, Mayor.

Mayor Bill de Blasio: Good morning. I thought – I thought Ebro was politically correct. Now, I’m getting concerned, here.

Darden: I screwed up the intro, man. You know, Rosenberg – Rosenberg, you’re not clapping for Mayor de Blasio.

Peter Rosenberg: No, the Mayor does not recognize me, so there’s no need for me to recognize the Mayor.

Darden: What are you talking about?

Rosenberg: He’s never invited me to Gracie Mansion. He doesn’t at me –

Darden: He did invite you to Gracie Mansion –

Rosenberg: One time and I was busy but he hasn’t ever invited me again. You guys are there every week –

Mayor: [Inaudible] one time but I was busy.

Rosenberg: I was out of town, Mayor. Mr. Mayor, I was out of town and then furthermore –

Darden: And wait last week you were out of town when Laura went. So, what are you talking about?

Rosenberg: And what about his last appearance – Mayor, on your last appearance, you said, “Great talking to @oldmanebro @laurastylez,” as if I wasn’t even here.

Darden: He’s the Mayor, he doesn’t run his own twitter.

Mayor: Rosenberg –

Stylez: Do you see how sensitive he is, Mayor?

Mayor: I want you to know, Rosenberg, you’re special –

Rosenberg: I was the first one to ever have you up here –

Mayor: I want you to come to Gracie Mansion sometime when you’re not out of town –

[Laughter]

And I want you to join with us because you’re part of the dynamic trio too –

Rosenberg: No, no, no hold on, Mr. Mayor. That’s the problem though. I’m not part of it too. I was the first person to ever have you up on the air –

Darden: [Inaudible] old stuff [inaudible] –

Rosenberg: Pre-Ebro. Before Ebro was on the show –

Stylez: Alright, let’s focus guys.

Mayor: Pre-Ebro. Is that like an epoch of history [inaudible]?

[Laughter]

Rosenberg: Yes. Pre-bro. It’s P.E.

Mayor: [inaudible]

Rosenberg: Alright, well I’d like to come up there just on a social occasion and watch football together or something.

Mayor: Well, I need you to. I need you to.

Darden: Well, Mayor de Blasio there’s bit of a, dare I say, ish-storm – some doo-doo flying around right now because this MTA situation has heated up. Basically Joe Lhota, who claims he’s working for a dollar – I don’t believe it, there’s always a backdoor, somebody is getting paid somewhere – who is appointed by Cuomo comes with a new tab saying it’s $800 million to fix the MTA, and wants us to pay half of it. And basically wants you to pony up $400 million.

What do you say, Mayor?

Mayor: First, the good news. The good news is I think Joe Lhota is a very capable guy. I don’t always agree with him but I think he’s a very capable guy. And second, I think this plan has a lot of the right stuff in it. But what I said is very clear. A lot of the money he says he needs is already there in their budget.

They can draw on it right now and the new money they need, the State of New York really should cover because first of [inaudible] the MTA and second of all, here’s the amazing thing, the State of New York took from the MTA budget almost half-a-billion dollars [inaudible]. They literally siphoned off money that was meant for the MTA –

Darden: $500 million.

Mayor: And used it for other things. So, I say it’s very simple – put that money back, give it to the MTA where it was supposed to go all along, and that takes care of Lhota’s immediate needs.

Darden: Alright, so now Rosenberg pointed out a good point earlier which is for the people riding the train every day, dealing with the frustration, all this political back and forth is frustrating. And it’s like, yo, just fix it. What do you say to that?

Mayor: I think people have every right to be frustrated. I believe people, right now, in this city who are riding the subways have gotten a horrible constant experience of being late for work or late to a doctor’s appointment or late to pick up their kids.

And it’s painful and it has to be fixed. But part of what I’m trying to make clear is it begins with responsibility. So, the MTA has to take responsibility for its own actions. The State of New York has to take responsibility for the fact it controls the MTA. The State of New York has to take responsibility for the fact it took almost half-a-billion dollars from the MTA.

When you get responsibility and accountability [inaudible] everything else can happen. But the good news is, this crisis has drawn the attention to the subway it deserves, and [inaudible] plan [inaudible] good start.

And I’m going to be out there non-stop in the subways reminding the MTA that they have to fulfill their obligations and fix the problem.

Darden: How – now, Mayor, I have a question because it definitely to me, Ebro, feels like they’re doing this specifically to you because you and Cuomo have issues – and many New York mayors and governors of the State of New York don’t get along – but you guys have issues. You’re running for re-election and they’re trying to make this blow up in your face while on your plate right now is the housing issue which was handed down to you by Bloomberg and all of that nonsense because everybody in the city was greedy and Bloomberg was there making sure everybody was paid. So, everybody kept quiet and let Bloomberg run for a third term and now all this housing stuff is on your plate. You got the MTA stuff on your plate. They’re trying to make you look bad, Mayor. What are we doing?

Mayor: Look, I think you’re right that there’s a lot of history behind this whether it’s the housing crisis that wasn’t addressed, whether it’s landlords or developers who were given the freedom to do whatever they want and affordable housing was not created, whether it’s the MTA crisis that’s been brewing for years – what we’re seeing now is just the tip of the iceberg of something that’s been developing for years and years and wasn’t addressed.

So, you’re right about that point. I don’t know – on the politics, I think it’s simple, Ebro, I think it’s real simple when you are responsible for something to try and distract from your responsibility. I say it all the time, I don’t want to pretend. When I’m responsible, I want to be honest and straightforward. I’m responsible for the schools, for policing, for Sanitation, for public housing, for public hospitals. If you got a problem with any of that come to me.

If you like something, that’s great. It’s about the work me and my team are [inaudible]. The MTA has to take responsible for its own work. The State has to take responsibility for its dominance of the MTA.

When that happens all of the things are possible. So I actually think it’s much more about the inconvenience politically of actually owning up to responsibility, and that’s what we’re seeing in these last weeks – people trying to evade their responsibilities.

Darden: But you do it acknowledge, it sounds like indirectly, that they are purposefully doing this during your re-election to try to hurt you in some way.

Mayor: I think – I honestly don’t think that’s the core, Ebro. I think it’s true that there have been times in the last couple of weeks where we’ve seen with the Governor and the Chair of the MTA that they [inaudible] who’s in charge and who’s responsible.

Maybe that’s got a political [inaudible] but I’ve got to say the core problem is the MTA crisis worsened in the last few months. The endless delays, the track fires, the problems with the signals, all the things that weren’t addressed before. The chicken came home to roost and has turned out to be a full-blown crisis. I think that’s what really running the day here that this became a physical crisis that millions of New Yorkers are experiencing and it’s forced, finally, an honest discussion of accountability and the fact that the State runs the MTA.

I can’t tell you how many people – I go to town hall meetings and I ask people to raise their hands – “Who thinks the City runs the MTA? Who thinks the State runs the MTA?”

It’s usually mixed. The State has run the MTA for decades but has not wanted people to recognize that fact because it becomes [inaudible] inconvenience.  I think the good news here, the accountability and responsibility is finally becoming clear to people.

Darden: Got it –

Rosenberg: Ebro, Ebro – breaking news here.

Darden: Yes.

Rosenberg: Did you see that President Trump tweeted 15 minutes ago that officially the US military will not accept transgender people in any capacity to serve in the military?

Darden: Fifteen minutes ago?

Rosenberg: Fifteen minutes ago that was tweeted by Donald Trump. Have you –

Mayor: You can’t make it up, can you?

Rosenberg: Have you heard anything about that, Mayor?

Mayor: I have not heard it but I can tell you right away, it’s disgusting and I don’t get why Donald Trump still thinks it’s the 1980s because when you look at – look at what he tried to do with the Central Park Five back then.

Darden: Yep.

Mayor: He loves to be divisive and he acts as if this country hasn’t evolved since the time he first became an adult. The people of this country get that – and certainly in this city – that we have to treat everyone with respect. And more and more you’re seeing this all over – people want an atmosphere in this country where we respect everyone’s identity.

And that includes rights for transgender people. And the notion that people who want to serve their country and put their life on the line for their fellow Americans are going to be told you can’t because of your identity, you know – remember we used to have a segregated armed forces [inaudible] –

Darden: Yep.

Mayor: We used to not allow women to serve. This is the same thing. Donald Trump has got to wake up and smell the coffee. America is way far ahead of him and wants an inclusive society.

And I say God bless anyone who is transgender and willing to serve their nation in the military. We should welcome them. Everyone who’s listening right now should think about – do you know someone in your life, a friend, a family member, a colleague who lives in Nevada, Arizona, who lives in a place like Ohio – Pennsylvania is going to be a big part of this going forward [inaudible]. Mobilize the people in your life. This is the time for personal direct action. Reach the people in your life in those key states.

Tell them they need to reach their senator to – if people own this issue, they understand about their health care, their families, the future of their country, we can make an impact by reaching our whole network with social media and get everyone involved in this fight.

Darden: And also understanding how it’s going to affect – I think one of the biggest pieces of this is understanding how it affects the overall taxpayer even if your health care is in a different place than the 1.6 million who need it here in New York City, and you have your own healthcare. Those people needing a solution is going to affect the tax bottom line, which is going to affect other things such as our ability to spend on schools and improving streets etc. etc.

Mayor: Exactly. If you don’t give people health insurance, we know one thing for sure – if you don’t give people the right health insurance, you end up with a lot more money being spent. People don’t get the care they need. They end up in the emergency room, which costs a lot more. They end up getting a lot sicker and needing a lot more care. It’s a very slippery slope, and it always falls to the taxpayer, particularly at the local level. Here’s another thing that going on in this whole health care thing – federal government trying to push responsibility down to local taxpayers because if everyone ends up going to the emergency room at the public hospital, then you and I pay, as New York City taxpayers, for that. And we’re already – we send a lot more money to Washington than we get back, a lot more money to Albany – we’ve got to understand that this attempt by the Republicans, it’s not neutral. It will end up hitting everyday New Yorkers in the pocket book, too.

Darden: Mayor de Blasio, ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your time and your honesty. You know everybody’s watching this thing play out, so I know the heat is on you right now. You can always check in here. How do you feel? You feel under pressure?

Mayor: I feel resolute, Ebro. I feel resolute. I think, look, it’s a moment of change. Even though the Trump election was a tough pill to swallow, and these things that we’re seeing in Washington like trying to take away people’s health insurance are very distressing, I think underneath that a lot is changing – people getting mobilized, people are understanding a lot more about what they’ve got to do. I think this is preluding to a lot of bigger, more positive changes. So I feel very resolute, and my view is let’s get in this fight. You know, remember – I always tell people on January 21st we saw the biggest demonstration for women’s rights and equality, but the biggest demonstration of any kind in the history of the United States. People mobilized in all 50 states simultaneously. It was breathtaking. That kind of energy now needs to be brought to bear to save health care and to stop all these tax cuts for the wealthy and then to win elections in 2018 and 2020.

Darden: There you go, Mayor de Blasio, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you, man, thank you.

Mayor: Alright, take care, guys.