Transcript: Mayor de Blasio Appears Live on Fox News' the Kelly File

November 16, 2016

Megyn Kelly: Breaking tonight – new developments with one of the more controversial proposals from President-elect Trump. This is loosely referred to as a so-called Muslim registry. But listen – according to Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, Trump’s police advisors are now discussing a proposal to create a registry, not for American Muslims, but for immigrants coming into America from Muslim countries, with the idea of better tracking people from places where there may be a lot of terror activity. Well, our next guest – he has been critical of some of Mr. Trump’s policies. And he met with Mr. Trump earlier today. He says this is just one of the many issues over which he is willing to battle the new administration. Bill de Blasio is here – the Democratic Mayor of New York City. Mr. Mayor, great to see you.

Mayor Bill de Blasio: My pleasure.

Kelly: So that’s – why is it a problem if we create some sort of record of immigrants coming over from Muslim countries?

Mayor: It’s a problem because it doesn’t conform with our American constitutional values and our respect for all religions. If you say, we’re looking at people with a specific issue in their background, specific indicators that might be an issue of concern, that’s an individual matter – fine. If you say there are certain countries where’s there such propensity to an issue – we’re going to look at those countries with extra care – okay. But to say we’re going to treat people of a certain faith, across the board, as if there’s something wrong with it – well then, are we going to have a Christian registry, and a Jewish registry, where does this end? The Constitution –

Kelly: You can’t just say – to reinstate a registry for immigrants from Muslim countries – that’s too broad.

Mayor: Of course it’s too broad. You’ve got Muslim countries –

Kelly: But from Syria, from Iraq – I mean, now we’re getting there?

Mayor: Well, I think there’s a specific condition we’re looking at. For example, if someone comes from a region where there’s –

Kelly: Yemen.

Mayor: But even more specific than that. I’m saying if there’s a particular hometown  where there’s been an issue –

Kelly: Wow. You got to really thread needle.

Mayor: I think you need to know the facts – not you personally. I’m saying one needs to know the facts of how we do this. So this should be our security personnel determining what causes them to want to look for extra information. But I’ll tell you from the NYPD perspective, we don’t profile people. We don’t assume. In fact, one thing I talk about about the NYPD – there are 900 Muslim-American members of the NYPD protecting all of us. We can’t be talking about registries and treating people of a faith one way. And think about the countries of the world. Indonesia is a very different Muslim country than a Syria or a Morocco. So I think the conversation – the language has to change immediately.

Kelly: Wait, so now – is this – did you say this to President-elect Trump because you went to Trump Tower today. You had a meeting. And at the meeting you said you raised concerns about the rhetoric and messages that for so many people have been hurtful –

Mayor: Yep.

Kelly: And have made so many New Yorkers fearful.

Mayor: I expressed to the President-elect that a lot of people in his hometown were very, very worried about what was going to happen to them and their family and that a lot of people felt that there wasn’t a place for them in his vision. And I say it respectfully. I will say it was a constructive meeting in the sense of a real give and take.

Kelly: You think he got that? He heard you?

Mayor: I don’t want to speak for him. I think we had an hour-long dialogue, and it was a candid dialogue and it was a very substantive dialogue.

Kelly: What do you want him to do to assuage those fears?

Mayor: To come out and clarify once and for all that American Muslims are going to be treated with the same respect as all other Americans and people who want to come here are going to be looked at for who they are individually, not because of their faith. And we’re not going to classify a whole – there’s 1.6 billion Muslims in the world – every one of them individual and different. If we have a concern about someone, it has to be an individual and specific concern.

Kelly: Let’s talk about illegal immigration because several mayors throughout the country are saying they will not comply if Donald Trump tries to crack down on sanctuary cities or sanctuary city-type policies. Today, you were asked about some local reports that suggest you said you will delete any City records for people who have applied for a New York State ID that would be given to some people who have – who are undocumented or who have limited documentation. What’s the truth on that? I mean will you delete those City records? Are you going to try to protect them like that?

Mayor: We are looking at that situation. Here’s the truth – when we went and set up our own municipal ID card, which almost a million people have now –

Kelly: For undocumented.

Mayor: For everyone. For everyone. But many undocumented people wanted it because they had no other ID that they could use to go to visit a loved one in the hospital, to go see their children’s school and get in to see their teacher, to get a lease, to get a bank account. We thought a city that has half a million folks who are undocumented – we needed some way to give them an opportunity to be able to go –

Kelly: But what are you going to do? What are you going –

Mayor: So, so –

Kelly: If the Trump administration comes in and says I want that list, I want to see the records?

Mayor: Right. And we’re going to make that decision well advance of the administration coming in. But here’s the thing – we never asked people their documentation status to begin with when we gave them the ID. They had to prove who they were.

Kelly: So you don’t have the information?

Mayor: We don’t ask them overtly. We have information about who they are as individuals, but not their documentation status. But the bigger point to the dialogue today is here is an example where – one of the things that I said to the President-elect – is talk to law enforcement around this country. Talk to Commissioner Jimmy O’Neill of the NYPD about how our police will be the first tell you – they need to be able to have a good, and honest, and open relationship with people in the city, including those who are undocumented. If an undocumented person witnesses a crime, if an undocumented person is a victim of a crime, you don’t want them unable to go to the police because they fear the next step is deportation. And law enforcement all over the country will tell you – we will be creating a whole new problem if we do mass deportation. Now that’s very different, Megyn, than if someone has heinous crime –

Kelly: I got.

Mayor: That’s a different matter.

Kelly: I got to run, but I have to ask you a quick question before you go. You’re the Mayor of New York City. Rudy Giuliani used to be the Mayor of New York City. What do you think of his ascension to possibly Secretary of State under a President Trump?

Mayor: Look, I’ve had my differences with Rudy Giuliani, I really have. I don’t want to tell the President-elect who to choose for his cabinet. I can say that in this city, there were times when Rudy was not a force for unity. If he’s going to be involved in the federal government, I hope he will learn the lesson of some of the things that happened here in New York City.

Kelly: You had some moments of not being a force for unity yourself. You backed Governor Cuomo when he made those remarks about conservatives not belonging in New York City.

Mayor: I will say differently. I think the point here is that in a city that’s the greatest cosmopolitan center in this country, the issue is – do we find a way to bring people together across all the different demographics that make up this city? And I think if Rudy is going to be involved domestically or internationally, one of the things he has to focus on is to not go down the road that we saw too often in New York City.

Kelly: Mr. Mayor, great to see you.

Mayor: Thank you, Megyn.

Kelly: Thanks for being here tonight.