Transcript: Mayor de Blasio Appears Live on CNN

July 23, 2020

President Donald Trump: Well, I'm going to do something, that I can tell you, because we're not going to let New York and Chicago and Philadelphia, Detroit, and Baltimore, and all of these – Oakland is a mess – we're not going to let this happen in our country. All run by liberal Democrats.

Alisyn Camerota: That was President Trump, once again, threatening to send in federal agents to quell a rise in gun violence in major American cities, including New York City. I'm now joined by New York City's Mayor, Bill de Blasio. Good morning, Mayor.  

Mayor Bill de Blasio: Good morning, Alisyn. How you doing?

Camerota: I'm doing well. You say that you won't allow President Trump to send in federal agents to New York, but I guess I wonder how you'll stop it. I mean, Portland, Oregon's mayor didn't want it either, but then it happened.

Mayor: Yeah. And it's been a total mess. The presence of those federal troops made things worse. And, in fact, what the president is talking about is unconstitutional. It is not the place of the federal government to send in agents. They're supposed to be doing entirely different things. What is he using them for? He's using it for crowd control, for repressing the right of people to protest, for a political stunt, obviously, for his own reelection. But what's happening, Alisyn, is it's literally making things worse. We're not going to allow that in New York City, we have the biggest police force in the country. When we ask for federal help, that's one thing. But when the President of the United States starts to use federal officers like his own personal police force, that's very dangerous for our democracy.

Camerota: Let me just put up on the screen for our viewers, where we are in New York, in terms of violent crime – shootings, the weekend of July 18th, there were 22 of them versus a year ago, there were five. The victims of those shootings, there were 44, whereas a year ago there were five victims. Then in terms of the crime stats being up, shootings are up 130 percent over last year, murders are up 30 percent, burglaries up 118 percent, auto thefts up 51 percent. But then this next graph is really interesting. The NYPD arrests, down 62 percent. So, just explain this paradox, Mayor, how violent crime are – these are other various crimes as well – are up, but arrests are down.

Mayor: Sure. Alisyn, there's been a pandemic going on. I don't mean that to be flip. Honestly, we've seen an absolute dislocation. For months, we had a lot fewer officers because they were out sick. For months, we have not had a functioning court system. The NYPD has a lot of people they are ready, right now, to see prosecuted. But our DAs can't prosecute because there's no court system functioning yet. It's been a massive dislocation and we don't accept it. We're fighting it back. We're sending cops out to some of the neighborhoods we're having particular problems and we're fighting back that crime and those shootings. But let's face it, the entire society has been through just an epic dislocation. People don't have work. People don't go to school, they don't have anything. And we're going to fix it, we're going to deal with it. Remember, Alisyn, this is a city, 25 years ago, going through hell with crime, and we fought our way back and we'll fight our way through this, but we have to do it the way that works for New York City. It can't be about someone else sending in folks, not trained the right way to be here, who only, unfortunately, would make things worse and could lead to more violence. That's the great irony. You send in folks who are not meant for this work and even worse things happen.

Camerota: But do you think that this is also, in addition to everything you've just listed, a reaction from the police who are demoralized. The fact that there is a slowdown in 9-1-1 response times, do you think that that is some form of protest? The fact that there are more retirements being taken than usual, a form of protest somehow?

Mayor: Alisyn, look, it's been a really tough time for our police officers. They’ve gone through a lot. Everyone's gone through a lot. But what you see is the NYPD now regrouping and fighting back. Commissioner Dermot Shea and I had a press conference Friday, and we outlined the strategy to go into the neighborhoods. And it's a pretty few places where we're seeing the uptick, a relatively few people causing the violent crime. We're going after them. We need them prosecuted again. That's the big missing link here because we can't get them off the street if there's not prosecution and the court system functioning. But no, the NYPD is fighting back unquestionably. And in the end, look, this city – again, you know, the resilience of this place. Look what we went through in March and April with the coronavirus, we fought back locally. We went through for decades, dealing with really profound challenges of crime we fought back. New York City always fights back and our police are devoted to that mission. There's no question.

Camerota: Do you think that the president's pivot away from coronavirus, where his poll numbers tanked, but he's pivot to being so-called law-and-order president, will help his reelection bid? I mean, as someone who wanted to run against him for president, do you think that this is something that resonates with those suburban voters?

Mayor: Not the way he's doing it. I think people all want safety and everyone wants to see harmony in our society as well. I think there's a lot of pain in this country after the killing of George Floyd, it came out in the cities and suburbs all over the country. People want to see a lot more fairness, a lot more justice, but we all want safety too. What Donald Trump is doing is just exacerbating the tensions and the divisions. I actually think it's going to backfire on him. I think there's a lot of voters – I think he has a stereotype of suburban voters, that they're folks who don't care about the other issues in our society. And I think he's misunderstanding suburbia today in America. These, overwhelmingly, are folks who would like to see a more harmonious society and a more decent society.

They're not voting for Donald Trump. They're voting for Joe Biden. There's no question about it. And, in fact, by doubling down, he's making it worse because he's making himself look like an extremist who is willing to take away our democratic norms. I mean, think about it. He's literally trying to create the equivalent of a national police. Something that's never existed. Our founding fathers didn't want it. No Americans have wanted it. Trump's trying to do that, de facto, by ordering federal troops into cities that don't even want them. That will backfire in every way and it has to be stopped. And if those federal troops show up on the streets in New York City, we'll be in court and we will stop him because it's brazenly unconstitutional.

Camerota: New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, thank you very much. We appreciate your time.

Mayor: Thank you, Alisyn.