Transcript: Mayor de Blasio Appears Live on CNN Tonight with Michael Smerconish

December 21, 2021

Michael Smerconish: In the face of surging cases among the unvaccinated and vaccinated alike, New York City's Mayor is turning to a new tactic to get people as protected as possible, offering $100 to anyone who gets boosted at a City-run site before the new year. Here's where the numbers stand now. With just over 71 percent vaccinated in New York State, of those only 21 percent are boosted. Will the incentive work and how likely is it to turn things around? Let's bring in the Mayor himself, Bill de Blasio. Welcome back, Mr. Mayor. You've tried incentives in the past, right? With what result?

Mayor Bill de Blasio: A great result, Michael. I mean, it helped a lot. Look, the combination of incentives and mandates, that's what worked. In the middle of August, we were at 60 percent of adults who had had at least one dose. Now we're over 90 percent of adults in the city with at least one dose of the vaccine. Because we put strong mandates in place, we did those $100 incentives. Now we're doing it again and say, get boosted right now, ahead of the holidays, right now, when Omicron is surging. Fight it back with that booster. And I find that people really do respond to it. But you got to do it with the mandates too. We have a very tough private sector mandate coming into place. That's coming Monday. And I really want to tell you, Michael, if we want – if we really want to fight Omicron, every mayor, every governor, every CEO in America should put these kinds of mandates in place.

Smerconish: You told me last week that you hear privately from many employers who say, please impose a mandate, do my dirty work for me. I can't help but note the fact that yesterday Fox News said that they will be following your order, your edict, tried to lay it off on you like they had no choice. Are they one of the employers that you were making reference to, who really want you to do it, but they want you to take the hit for it?

Mayor: I can't speak to them specifically, but I can say I find it very entertaining that they're joining the bandwagon of pointing the finger at me. Look, whatever of works, Michael. I do think it's tough for private sector employers to explain to their employees, if it seems to be something just within their own company. I still urge CEOs to just do it, because it's the right thing to do. It'll help protect everyone. But you know, when the government steps in, it becomes universal. And then the management of the company can say, Hey guys, everyone has to do it. Not just this company, every company. And if you want to, you know, continue to have your job, have your paycheck, this is something we have to do for each other. And overwhelmingly, we found in New York City, people abide by the mandate. They're not going to risk a paycheck over it. And it helps move everyone forward.

Smerconish: We've been showing the footage of people standing in line sometimes for hours in New York City to get a test. Did you get today from President Biden, what you need to ease that burden?

Mayor: It's a beginning, Michael. I want to see obviously that supply expand quickly. And I urge the President to use the Defense Production Act to the absolute maximum. Because we're going to need much, much more in the way of testing to get through Omicron and really put the COVID era behind us. We're going to need billions and billions of test kits for the whole country. So, I think we need to get some of those companies that could turn their production lines to test kit production and the federal government needs to make that very clear as an order for the good of the whole nation. Look, I'm adamantly opposed to shutdowns. I think we cannot afford any more shutdowns in our country. So, if we're not going to do shutdowns, it means vaccine mandates. And it means a whole lot of testing.

Smerconish: Mayor, quick, final question. I know you've not yet made a decision about New Year's Eve, Times Square, the ball dropping, but what will be the metric that you'll look at to make that call?

Mayor: Michael, we're talking with our health care leadership. We're talking with the folks in Times Square who run the event. What we want to make sure here is that we can do this event safely and determine the measures that will make that possible. But I want to tell you again, I don't believe in shutdowns whenever they are at all avoidable. I think if we can find the right way to do it, it's important to keep moving forward and send a message that this city's fighting back against Omicron, and we're going to fight our way through. We're all going to have to deal with some big challenges in these coming weeks. But the answer is not to turn away. The answer is to buckle down, get vaccinated, fight our way through Omicron, and get back to recovery on the other side.

Smerconish: Stick around for a second in case I need your assistance responding to social media. What do we have on – put it up on the screen and I'll share it with the Mayor? Is this retroactive to those who have already – I knew someone, I should have asked this question. With regard to your incentive, is this retroactive to those who've already gotten the booster in New York City? I’m tired of the folks who have done their part right away being left out of these incentives and the stubborn ones, then get it. What's the answer to that, Mayor?

Mayor: I understand that, but I'm telling you, this is strategic. This is to move the people who are not moving fast enough. God bless the people who went and got their booster fast. That was the right thing to do for themselves and their families. We gave it to them for free. But if we got to move some other people with an incentive, get them off the dime, get them moving for the good of all, that's a good investment.

Smerconish: Mayor, thank you for coming back.

Mayor: My pleasure, Michael. You take care.

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