Transcript: Mayor de Blasio Appears Live on MSNBC's Morning Joe

December 1, 2021

Joe Scarborough: Let's go to the Mayor right now, Mayor Bill de Blasio. We’d all like to talk to him about – including his freakish Amsterdam plan, that gives junkies needles. We'll get to that in a second.  

Mayor Bill de Blasio: Well, how do you really feel, Joe? 

Scarborough: Let's talk first about in New York City. We talked several weeks ago, open for business. I've said on the show the past couple of days, it was, like, for the first time, excited to be vectored. When I was coming in, they flew us around Washington D.C. for 45 minutes, because it was so hard to get into LaGuardia. Get into LaGuardia, it's packed. Went out to restaurants – now, they're tough for those vaccine cards and you’ve got to show your vaccine card. You go into the restaurants, they’re packed. Man, this city is bustling again. It's very exciting. And now, here comes a variant that's going to make it look like, you know, a Will Smith movie – just wipe everything out again. I'm joking. What have we learned and how are you preparing for Omicron? Because I can tell you this, New York's not shutting down.  

Mayor: No.  

Scarborough: The people are not shutting down. People that have got the vaccines and the booster, they're not going to shut down because there are unvaccinated people that don't mind dying. 

Mayor: Well, first of all, vaccines work. This is the lesson. You said, what have we learned? We've learned vaccines work and we've learned that vaccine mandates are what get people vaccinated. So, the bottom line – you talked about our restaurants. Our restaurants are thriving, because you go there – whether you're an employee or you're a customer, you’ve got to be vaccinated. It's simple. You prove it. You go in, everyone knows the ground rules. 

Scarborough: Zero deaths yesterday in New York City.  

Mayor: Thank you.  

Scarborough: That's incredible. 

Mayor: And it's because of vaccination. So, 89 percent of adults – this is amazing, 89 percent of adults have had at least one dose of the vaccine. So, the bottom line is – and I would say this to every mayor in America, every governor, every CEO – it's time for mandates. It's time to make this across the board, because that's what gets us out of the COVID era once and for all. 

Scarborough: And how about on planes? We were talking about planes. I know that's not your deal, but Canada now is going to have that requirement. This should have been one of the first requirements. You want to fly on a plane? You want to fly in a little tube with like 250 other people for three hours, you can do it, but you have to have a vaccine. 

Mayor: I think it's time for a total vaccine mandate for all air travel, especially in the United States.  

Scarborough: And train travel.  

Mayor: Yes, of course. Because, look, first, we know this motivates people. There's a lot of people still on the fence. This motivates people. This is why we did the initiative with the restaurants, for example. A lot of people say, well, I don't want to be vaccinated until you say, okay, well, there's a lot of good things in life you won't be able to participate in. Suddenly that opens folks' mind. When you have a mandate for employees – when it's a choice between vaccination and your paycheck, vaccination suddenly it looks really good. So, the bottom line is, travel – travel should be only for the vaccinated. That will keep everyone safe who is traveling, but it's also an additional incentive to get folks over the line. Most people who are unvaccinated, it's not a rigid, ideological matter. They need one more push. And it takes some – I'll be blunt, it takes some guts. I'd say to all the CEOs and all the political leaders – yeah, you will get blowback. But people do ultimately follow it and that's what keeps us safe.  

Scarborough: Willie Geist is at bureau [inaudible] she has a question for you. Willie? 

Willie Geist: I only wish Mr. Mayor. I only wish. Let me ask you about schools, Mayor de Blasio. Obviously, there was a lot of consternation over the last year-and-a-half, and rightly so, people wanted to get their kids back into schools. One of the good stories so far this fall has been the schools have been very safe. What does it look like now as we head into the winter months? Are there extra precautions that schools will be taking? And how concerned are you that some of them may have to have closures if there are, of course, Omicron flares. How concerned are you that you could go back to a place like we saw last year? Or does the advent of vaccines for people five – children, five and up, sort of take that off the table? 

Mayor: Well, thank God we have those vaccines for our youngest kids now, but we need a lot more parents go out and get their kids vaccinated. Here in New York City, with the older kids, the 12-to-17, we're at 81 percent. That's great, but, the younger kids, we need to see more. And Omicron should be an incentive for parents to go out right now and get their kids vaccinated. But, overall, schools are incredibly safe. We’ve got every adult vaccinated. We said, if you're an adult, any adult, you've going to go into a school building for anything, you’ve got to be vaccinated. That really created the consistency and the safety we needed. And look, everything we know about Omicron so far, vaccines will have an impact on it. So, the bottom line still is, get more people vaccinated if we want to hold off this threat. 

Jonathan Lemire: Mr. Mayor, the Governor – Governor Hochul declared a State of Emergency with the new variant coming. And, certainly, there's not been a case yet. It's a matter of time. New York City certainly was hit right near the beginning of this pandemic back in March 2020, we also sadly remember. Give us, like, sort of, the early warning system, if you will, in the city if this variant is picked up. What happens next? And give us also update in terms of the workforce in the city, municipal force, particularly on Rikers Island, people being vaccinated, Correction officers being vaccinated who are working there. 

Mayor: Yeah. So, what we know right now, our entire City workforce, because we put a mandate on, 94 percent vaccinated, and that is actually continuing to grow. We've seen a lot more vaccinations of the folks who work in our jail system. We expect that to go up quite a bit. So, we feel good about the fact that mandates consistently work with public employees. My only hope and wishes that more folks in authority would do them, because it helps lead everyone else. When you have those public employee mandates, it helps everyone else in the community to get vaccinated. But in terms of Omicron, and getting ready, we're going to emphasize as much vaccination in as many ways possible over the weeks ahead. And I hope this will motivate the folks who haven't crossed the line now, because it's the one thing – there’s one thing that matters most, it’s vaccination. It's. We did a mask advisory. We said to people it's important to use masks in indoor spaces, crowded outdoor spaces. We're going to keep that message out there. But the number-one point is, vaccination is the thing that has changed the whole reality, but there are still people who aren't there. We have cold weather coming on. Put aside Omicron for a minute – cold weather, people indoors, holidays, gatherings. It's time to get vaccinated. 

Scarborough: Alright. We’re bring up something that makes us very uncomfortable around this table. You get your Amsterdam plan, where you're going to hand out the needles. I don't like it. I don't get it, maybe that's why I don't like it. So, I need you to educate me. Go through this program, because the Rev and I – 

Reverend Al Sharpton: He hit me with it early this morning.  

Scarborough: Come on, man – 

Reverend Sharpton: We were talking about you may run for Governor. We don't know. We were talking about what's going on, and, as soon as I walked in, Joe says, what is this Amsterdam plan, Rev? Before I could sit down, my daughter actually texted me and said are they going to be shooting up drugs in [inaudible] park while I'm trying to get youth huddled together? So, I told them have no fear. De Blasio's coming. He'll convert all of us. 

Scarborough: Well, I don't know about that, but I can tell you this. I lived in upstate New York for many years, I don't know that they're going to like this plan in Big Flats, but let's hear it. 

Mayor: Look, you're right to ask the question, because I asked the questions too when I first heard about it. This is an approach, we call it overdose prevention centers, because that's literally what it is. It's an effort to save lives of folks we're losing right now. 

Scarborough: So, give the set up on the record-breaking number of lives.  

Mayor: Yes. Thank you. I will. And it's horrible, Joe. We've had the opioid crisis for years in this country and it has ravaged urban areas and rural areas alike. Sadly, something you've talked about, something that unites Americans – we have as big an opioid problem in New York City as we do in West Virginia.  

Scarborough: And, by the way, and also down in Florida with fentanyl being one of the biggest reasons why everybody – you know, so many deaths are happening. 

Mayor: And then, COVID – 

[Sneeze] 

Mayor: Bless you.  

Scarborough: Omicron, welcome to New York City. Go ahead.  

[Laughter] 

Mayor: There it is, patient zero. What we've seen with COVID, the crisis it created in people's lives, tragically, a lot more people turn to opioids. Over 2,000 opioid deaths in New York City in 2020, we've never seen a number like that. Nationally, over 90,000 opioid deaths in 2020. This is the all-time high. We cannot allow the status quo to continue. So, for the last 30 years in much of Western Europe, in much of Canada, there have been overdose prevention centers, and it simply says, this – let's be blunt, there are people who are using opioids. We know this. We can't be silent about it. We can't ignore it. It exists in our society. But what happens right now is, a lot of people are shooting up in their bedroom, in the McDonald's bathroom, in a stairwell somewhere, and a lot of them are dying – 

Scarborough: Because fentanyl’s in there. 

Mayor: Especially because of fentanyl. And a lot of them are dying. And these are our brothers and our sisters, our aunts, our uncles. People are dying. The status quo doesn't work. So, we said, okay, a model that's been used successfully – 

Scarborough: So, you say successful. You have studies that show this saves lives? 

Mayor: Unquestionably. 30 years, tens of thousands of people have gone to these overdose prevention centers around the world, and not a single death, because there's medical personnel present. They are medical centers. I want this to be clear. It is a medical facility.  

Scarborough: Not in a park – 

Mayor: So, the opposite of in the park. Because, right now, it is happening in a park. It is happening in a McDonald's. It is happening in someone's room where no one can see them and people are dying. It is saying, you're coming into a medical facility. We’re not happy that you have an addiction problem, but we're going to work with you, first, to make sure if you use drugs, you don't die in the process. Second, we have medical personnel who hopefully can convince you to start the pathway to treatment. And it can be done safely and smartly. These centers in New York City that started yesterday are the same places that do needle exchange. We had the same debate decades ago about needle exchange, and an understandable debate, Joe. Folks said, how on earth are we going to give someone a needle? Because it saved lives on a huge level. And then we do the work of trying to get people off of drugs and move them to a better place. 

Scarborough: So, speaking of Europe, we have a European cosmopolitan with us who has a question for you. Katty? 

Katty Kay: So, Mayor – 

Scarborough: She didn't even flinch at that, by the way.  

[Laughter] 

Kay: I'm so used to it, Joe. Now, it just goes over my head. Mr. Mayor, can I get – just getting back to Omicron at the moment? And you've asked people to put masks back on inside. If we're going to follow the science, the science would suggest – wouldn't it that we ought to have masked mandates back inside? It’s what European countries are doing at the moment in the light of Omicron. Wouldn’t that be the thing to do in New York? To tell people, if you're going to be in a supermarket, if you're going to be in a crowded place, you have to wear a mask until we know more about this variant. A suggestion doesn't quite cut it. 

Mayor: No, I'll tell you, we we've looked at this and there's a consensus among our team that – including our health leadership, that the focus has to be on vaccination. And if you over-focus on masks, you actually take away from the focus on vaccination. You can only do, in my opinion, when it comes to a strategy, you have to have a leading element. The leading element is vaccination. We want to say to people, if you get vaccinated, that's the difference-maker. Masks help. Masks do not do what vaccination does. And the bottom line is, there's still so many people who need to get vaccinated. Right now, the kids in New York City, under 20 percent of that youngest group have gotten vaccinated. It's only been a few weeks. We've had the vaccine. But we need to create urgency among parents, for example. Omicron, we don't know enough about it, but it's coming. Go get your child vaccinated. That's job-one. That's the way to protect us.  

Scarborough: Alright. Mayor Bill de Blasio. Thank you so much. Are you running for Governor? 

Mayor: Joe, I'm going to go all over New York State. You can infer as you wish. I'm going to go all over New York State, starting in January, to promote my education plan that we talked about on this show. So, I look forward to going and engaging the people in this great state. 

Reverend Sharpton: But are you running for Governor? 

Mayor: Well, you can draw your own conclusions. But I'm going to be talking to the voters and the people of New York State. 

Mika Brzezinski: Sounds like a yes. 

Scarborough: When you get up to upstate New York and the Twin Tiers, say hello for me.  

Mayor: I’ll say, Joe says hi. 

Scarborough: I love it up there. 

Mayor: Joe says hi. And get some holiday merchandise for your family.  

[Laughter] 

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