저자: Kevin · 외국인
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뉴욕 시장 후보 맘다니 인터뷰를 다룬 영상. 맘다니는 무상보육·무료버스·임대료 동결·공영식료품점을 제시하며 13%p 리드 중이라고 소개됨. 출연자는 맘다니 발언을 비판적으로 평가하고, 뉴욕 부동산 임대료 동결이 장기 공급 감소로 집값을 올릴 것이라 주장. 또한 부유세 인상 시 자본 유출은 제한적이나 오피스 임대료는 상승할 것이라 봄. 맘다니가 2028 대선 주자로 부상할 수 있다는 정치 전망 언급.
다듬은 글
Mom Donnie is back at it again. This time with comments going viral around Hamas. Let's listen to what he has to say. Former hostages celebrate being home. There is new heartbreak for families of those killed by Hamas. Hamas says that it can't hand over any more bodies without special equipment to recover them.
Israel says one of the four bodies returned so far does not match any of the hostages who died. Zan Namdani is the is leading the race for mayor in New York City, the biggest city in the country and the capitalist centery is proposing free child care, free buses, freezing rent and cityrun grocery stores.
He has claimed that we should not really have billionaires in this city and he has vowed to make New York the strongest sanctuary city in the country. His views on hot topics like the NYPD and Israel have been a constant source of controversy, but he is ahead by 13 points right now in this race. I sat down with him on the eve of tomorrow night's big mayoral debate in New York City.
Here's part one of our exclusive interview. Thank you very much for being here. Candidate for mayor of New York City. You're up by 13 points. It looks like you've got the wind at your back. You've got a big debate coming up tomorrow night with the other candidates, Andrew Cuomo and Curtis Leewa. Um, obviously New York City policy is front and center, but I would imagine that some of the big headlines recently are going to come up tomorrow night as well.
So, I want to get to all the policy issues in New York. But I wanted to ask you this first. If you are asked tomorrow night if you give credit to President Trump for the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas and the return of Everybody should. Donald Trump's actions humbling Iran are what led to the lack of backing for Hamas to have the balls to stand up to the Israeli deal that they didn't have any say in negotiating.
They probably heard about the deal. They're like, "We didn't negotiate that deal." And they called Iran and they're like, "Yo, you going to send us some more money or weapons?" And Iran's probably like, "Bro, we we kind of can't right now. Sorry. Um, come back a different time." They're like, "All right, I guess we'll take the hostage deal." So, Trump deserves credit on this.
Like him or not, you got to give him credit on this. The 20 living hostages, would you raise your hand? You know, first I want to say it's a real pleasure to be here and thank you for having me and it's it's it's an honor to have this opportunity to speak. Don't don't forget to answer the question. And you going to give Trump credit or not?
To so many New Yorkers and Americans across the country. And when it comes to the ceasefire, I am thankful and I have hope that it will actually endure and that it will be lasting. And I continue to have concerns because I've seen reports still just in the last few days that five Palestinians were killed by the Israeli military.
And that's what gives me pause about issuing any Yeah. We also heard that Hamas came out and started executing people again because they're freaking terrorist scumbags. kind of praise or celebration at a moment when it is still so in its infancy. And what I will tell you is that in that same moment, it is also one that requires a focus on ensuring that that hope, that belief in a better future is one that is emblematic in our policies right here in New York City.
These freaking big words, why don't you just say Donald Trump deserves credit? Have some balls. Even Bill Clinton had the balls to say as well. And that's what we're hoping to lead with. Would you give President Trump credit or not? To any extent, credit or not? I think it's too early to do so. Too early to say.
But but if it proves to be something that is lasting, something that is durable, then I think that that's where you give credit. So, uh, you've denounced Israel and the United States for the response to the slaughter on October the 7th. In fact, at times, uh, you've called it a lasting stain, the response, and at times you have left October 7th out of your statements completely around this issue.
right now. You just talked about Israelis killing some Palestinians, but Hamas is killing Palestinians within Gaza and they have not returned the bodies that they promised to return, including two Americans, um, Itai Chen and Omar Neutra, whose families we have interviewed over these months. So, what is your response to what Hamas is doing now?
I think those are bodies and remains that should absolutely be returned. And I think that I have no issue with critiquing Hamas or the Israeli government because my critiques all come from a place of universal human rights. And my focus, however, is right here in New York City and transforming the most expensive city in America into one that's affordable for each and every New Yorker.
But okay, I and I want to get to that. Uh, absolutely. But do you believe that Hamas should lay down their weapons and leave the leadership in Gaza? I believe that any future here in New York City is one that we have to make sure that's affordable for all. as it pertains to what does that have to do with Hamas laying down their weapons talking about afford I mean I get it he's the mayor of New York but he's also the host of the United Nations when they come to the United States and he's saying that he's going to arrest BB of Israel even after this deal is struck now fine you could have a position on that but answer the question
in Palestine that we have to ensure that there is peace and that is the future that we have to fight for But you won't say that Hamas should lay down their arms and give up leadership in Gaza. You don't really have opinions about the future of Hamas and Israel beyond the question of justice and safety and the
Oh, okay. So, I have no opinions on Hamas, but yes, we should arrest BB of Israel. Come on, man. I'll have some opinions. Were there a lot of innocent people who died? Whether they were meat shields, which is terrible to say, but it's true in Palestine or they were entirely innocent and Hamas was maybe around them accidentally or on purpose.
Hell yeah. 50 mommies and daddies died every single day in Palestine for the last 2 years. 25 children died every single day. And even if those numbers are overstated by a factor of two or even three, it's still horrible because not all of them, I would actually argue the vast majority of the Palestinians who died are not terrorists like the scumbags of Hamas, but you should call out Hamas for what they are.
The fact that anything has to abide by international law, and that applies to Hamas, that applies to the Israeli military, applies to anyone you could ask me about. Okay. Um, one last thought on that. You have said that you would arrest Netanyahu if he came to the United States. You've been very outspoken in your criticism of him.
Do you stand by that? You would arrest him if he came here if you were mayor. I've said that this is a city that believes in international law and this is a city that wants to uplift and uphold those beliefs. The prime minister, the United States doesn't stand by the international criminal court. It hasn't signed the treaty for the international criminal court.
The international criminal court, however, has issued a warrant for the arrest of Benjamin Netanyahu as it has in the United States. Could you arrest us as it has for Vladimir Putin? I've said that I believe that we should uphold arrest warrants by the International Criminal Court and that we would should do so only in abiding with all of the laws in front of us.
I'm not going to make a new law to ensure that we can actually Yeah. mind you, New York can't actually arrest BB. So they don't even as mayor, he wouldn't have the power to do it. He would have to operate in coordination with international law enforcement agencies. Commissioner and you know obviously our federal government
would allow you to arrest Netanyahu in in New York City. I've appreciated Commissioner Tisha's leadership of the NYPD and I think that she's done a good job at lowering crime across this city. But if she do you think that she would she would be go along with arresting Netanyahu in New York? I can tell you that I'm going to exhaust every legal option in front of me not to make new laws to do so.
You have no legal option. So I guess that means you're not going to do anything which will probably be similar to your campaign. Although I do think he's going to win. We'll see what happens in the debate. And I was impressed with some of his recent interviews. This one leaves me disappointed. So like I'm like I'm torn on this guy.
It's like I think the policies about freezing rent, they apply or appeal really well to existing tenants, but they're going to be horrible for the future New York. It's just going to skyrocket prices in New York. But let's keep listening. Maybe you want to be the mayor of New York City, which you know, last night I chat GPT.
Where is the capitalist and global finance center of the world? And it said New York City, which made me feel good as someone who loves New York City. Is that a moniker that you're proud of and one that you want to continue for this city? We should be proud of it. And I will also say that that's one thing you have in common with Andrew Cuomo because he also uses chat GPT to answer many questions including that was a good singer.
Oh yeah, I give him credit on that. That was I always say, don't tell people, you should rarely tell people that you're using GPT because it just it it doesn't look good. Resolve the housing crisis in this city. And it's time that we are not only proud of us, the financial capital, the cultural capital, but also we should make it a capital of where working people can afford to live in this city.
Because right now, what we're seeing is that one in four New Yorkers are being priced out of the wealthiest city and the wealthiest country in the history of the world. That that's absolutely true. Freezing rent is not the way to do it. You have to build more. But whatever. Um, one of the things that's
what does he know about real estate? Also true is that JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs have moved major operations to Texas. They've not abandoned New York, but they're hedging their bets on New York. Speaking of hedging, did you see Bill Aman? I hate the guy's guts, but Bill Aman donated like a crapload of money to counter Mom Donnie.
Mom Donnie. Bill Aman. How much was it? Bill Aman gives $1 million to anti- Mlani effort. Defend New York City pack opposing Zor on Mlani. Wow. Because of the increased taxes that they see coming if you become mayor. So when they do that, jobs move out of the city as well. So how does that help affordability if people in the city don't have the jobs that they had that they once had here?
Well, I'm looking to make this a city that every person chooses, whether they're a business leader or they're someone who works for that business. And the key ways of doing that are actually delivering quality of life, public safety, and affordability for each and every person. Because what we're seeing right now is we have
government can't deliver affordability. When government gets out of the way, capitalism can deliver deflation. Government delivers inflation. A broken status quo. We have a corrupt political system and we have the politicians that sustain that. That's really what's on the ballot is whether New Yorkers want to continue that, whether they actually want a city they can afford.
That's what I'm going to deliver. So, Governor Hokll, you would have to get approval from the legislature to raise individual taxes, income taxes, and also corporate taxes in New York, which you've said you you would like to do in order to pay for the free buses and the free child care and the different programs, the government grocery stores and the like.
She says no new taxes in her governor's race. So, what are you going to do if she won't allow taxes to be raised? How will you pay for these programs? You know, I've said time and again that I believe these are the most straightforward ways that we can actually fund universal childare, making buses fast and free.
And I've said that the two, keep in mind, it's the failure of New York New York's policies around building that have led to such terrible unaffordability. Like the fact that New York, just as an example, incentivizes you to build anything four units and under and punishes you if you want to build more units.
Well, what a surprise if you take a plot of land that could support 16 or 32 units, but you only build four because it's not profitable to build any more than four because of the stupid policies on commercial real estate versus 1 to4 real estate. What a surprise. There's an affordability crisis. The existing system sucks, but replacing it with more government and housing is the opposite.
It's actually a great invitation to landlords to go invest in New York City real estate because prices are just going to go higher. Clear ways to do so. Raising personal income taxes on the top 1% by 2% and raising the corporate tax to match that of New Jersey's corporate tax of 11.5%. Now, if there are other ways to raise this money to fund this agenda, the most important thing is that we fund the agenda.
I still think that these are most the most important and clear ways we can do it and I'm thankful to have Governor Hokll's support in this race and the fact that she said we have a shared commitment to delivering universal child care for New Yorkers across the city and this I think that's great. I think everybody would love to have free health care and free buses and all these things, but the question is how do you pay for it?
The city's already in debt. The governor says no to new taxes. Like Margaret Thatcher said, you know, socialism is great until you run out of everyone else's money, other people's money. Well, what Andrew Cuomo said is that if he had $959 million, he'd give it to Elon Musk in tax credits because that's exactly what he did.
And I bring that up to you to say that it's often a question of whether you have the willingness to spend that money to benefit workingass people, not where that money is in the first place. What would you cut? What would you draw from to do it? I don't think we have to cut. I I've spoken about raising taxes on the wealthiest.
And frankly, this is this is an issue that we have here in New York City and frankly even across this country. When I've spoken to Trump voters right here in New York City, Hillside Avenue in Queens, form Road in the Bronx, they've told me it was cost of living that drove them to vote for Donald Trump.
They've told me it was a promise of a lower actual whether it be cheaper groceries, whether it be child care, whether it be rent. And what we're seeing time and time again is childcare in fairness is a big issue. You know, it's really hard for people to get ahead when they have kids uh and and they don't have the support system around them.
Like single parents, really hard to get ahead. It's so hard. So, uh, I'm I'm actually not so opposed to the support for child care. More focused on the question of billionaires and the most profitable corporations than we are on people who can't even afford to make ends meet in this city. Well, we know affordability is an issue and I think that all politicians are getting to an understanding of that and I think that you've done a lot actually to bring people's attention to that issue.
Um, let's take a look at the free buses issue just for a moment because I know you said that um, the pilot project that you did was one of the biggest accomplishments of of being an assemblyman. Uh, the Washington Post said this in an editorial about this. Quality inevitably declines when a service is offered for free.
Vagrants and drug addicts would camp out all day on New York's buses, especially in the winter. Parents would go afraid to let their children ride alone. wealthier residents would find another way to get around, but poor New Yorkers who depend on the bus would suffer the most. What do you say to that?
Do you agree with that? Well, I would say that they should actually look at the report of the five free buses we delivered across New York City. We didn't see an increase in homelessness. We did see an increase in New Yorkers riding the bus. We did see a decrease in assaults on bus drivers by 38.9%.
And we also saw a decrease in New Yorkers who were having to take a cab or take their own car. They were actually getting on the bus. more than 10% of new riders were doing. So that's why we care so deeply about this because of the fact that it can actually deliver economic public safety and even congestion relief to New Yorkers who are looking to take these buses.
I know that you're turning 34 on Saturday and I want to talk about your qualifications. Um you know some say you have never run a business in in your life. So I'm curious and President Trump said that you never worked a day in your life. If I went you've worked as an assemblyman uh and you've had other positions in the government, but what qualifies you from your life experience to run the largest city in the country?
You know, I want to take this moment because you spoke about President Mind you, people put together these little like case studies are like, "Wow, we had five buses. Come on, man." Like whatever. I are we really like going to pick a governor or a mayor rather based on like five buses or or or even frankly childare like let him give childare that's not a big deal but fix to fix the affordability crisis you should have a business environment that supports growth and investment into the region and a development environment that supports building more homes.
You got plenty of vertical room in New York build. but he doesn't talk about that. So those those are the bigger issues. But in fairness, Martha, whom I've personally had an interview with as well, Martha, that was over at the Beverly Hilton. That was there was a cool place, a cool set they had. But anyway, Martha is asking softball questions here.
Trump, and you may be watching right now, and I just want to speak directly to the president, which is that I will not be a mayor like Mayor Adams who will call you to figure out how to stay out of jail. I won't be a disgraced. Oh, that's a mic drop. That is a mic drop because um Donnie T basically uh you know uh AFBI let's drop the fraud charges on Adams.
You know he's going to he's going to turn on the Democrats and support Donnie T. So let's just drop the case against him. Yeah, that's pretty corrupt. Like Andrew Cuomo who will call you to ask how to win this election. I can do those things on my own. I will however be a mayor who is ready to speak at any time to lower the cost of living.
That's the way that I am going to lead this city. That's the part practically you're doing it wrong. It sounds great, but you're doing it wrong. Fine. Partnership I want to build not only with Washington DC, but anyone across this country. I think it's important because too often the focus on the needs of working-class Americans, working-class New Yorkers are put to the side as we talk more and more about the very kinds of corrupt politicians like Andrew Cuomo that delivered us into this kind of crisis.
So, so the question I asked you, this is the other thing, too. People look at Cuomo and they're like, man, I'd rather take a chance with a young guy than go back to a Cuomo. What specifically in your background gives you the confidence that you can run a $115 billion budget and run this city? Specifically, from your personal experience, and your background,
I've been a state assembly member here in New York City. I've represented 130,000 people in Queens. And in the time that I've done so, I've not only delivered more than hund00 million in increased bus and subway service, I've also secured half a billion dollars in debt relief. When I was a politician, I spent money for workingclass taxi drivers.
That makes me uniquely qualified to be your next politician. I'm great at blowing money. President Trump knows this. New Yorkers know this across the five burrows. Taxes knows I blew money. We're looking at them right here. are suck. We're looking at all the spending right now. A part of what we love about this city.
And yet those same drivers were sold a lie about a ticket to the middle class if they bought a medallion. I stood with those drivers. I organized with those drivers. I went on a 15-day hunger strike with those drivers. And we secured half a billion dollars in debt relief that allows those drivers to do more than just think about struggle.
How many employees would you be overseeing in the New York City government? More than 300,000. 300,000. That's a lot of people. Um but but thank you for answering the question. I know that you want to stimulate small business. What are the weak answer or weak questions who actually makes mom Donnie look really solid cuz he's got the answers.
He's hitting back at her shutting her down with the GPT con man. This is actually a pretty good interview for him. You got to give him, you know, credits in the city and we all walk around the city that we love and we see a lot of empty storefronts. So, give me your plan on how you would do that. You know, I've spoken to a lot of New Yorkers for whom their aspiration, their dream is in that small business, and I've told them that we are going to make it easier to not only open it, but keep it open.
We're going to cut fines and fees by 50%. Because, as you said, we have a city government that has 116 billion budget. It's not funded by charging a restaurant 25 bucks a year for the right to sell a frozen dessert. We're going to streamline the regulations and rules that these small businesses have to adhere to.
Because today, if you want to open up a barber shop, you have to fill out 24 forms, go to seven agencies, 12 inerson activities. And furthermore, we're gonna have a mom and pop ZAR. Someone that'll help businesses navigate through this because while we are holding these kinds of businesses to the This actually sounds relatively reasonable.
Some decreased regulation and red tape for businesses. I like it. These kinds of rules, we're letting the most profitable corporations walk all over us here in New York City. And it's part of the problem where so many New Yorkers look around at the wealthiest city and the wealthiest country in the history of the world and asking themselves, there's all this money.
Why can't I afford $2.90 to even ride in the bus? So, let me just quick question on that and I want to get to um public safety because it's another obviously another big issue um for New Yorkers. So, a lot of individuals in this city pay more than 50% of their income in taxes. When you talk about a fair share, how much more than what is the fair share?
What's the number? I've said that we should increase personal income tax by 2% is is fair. And my and my point is this. Give up more than half of your income. That's if you're making a million dollars in New York City or more than that. You can afford to pay 2% more. And the reasons you can afford to do so is because that money will be used to better your quality of life as well.
Because when I speak to the wealthiest New Yorkers, I hear concerns about the cleanliness of the city, the quality of life in this city, questions of public safety. This money is the money that will be used to deliver on those things so that we can ensure that we have a return on investment, the extra 2% taxes.
We'll see about that. All of the money that we are raising and spending right here across the five burrows. I I want to talk to you about public safety and your relationship with police. So, so just in terms of public safety, I want to go to an example first because I hear from people that they don't feel safe walking home at night.
There's drug addicts on the street, you know, right around the corner here. You can walk around the corner and see people shooting up. Um, a lot of garbage on the streets right now. The subway um is something that people are really concerned about. Last week, 64y old Nola Tanzy, who was a church leader, a pillar in his community, was brutally beaten to death.
I I tried to watch this video uh in preparation. It's very hard to watch. In a subway station in Brooklyn, 25-year-old David Mazeros had a 20-inch sword. He's the suspect in this case. He was he was out. They lowered his bail so that he could get out. he was already waiting a trial for um attacking someone in Chelsea.
33 past arrests. Um you were in favor of bail reform. Does that make you want to change your mind or think twice about reversing that? This is a horrific incident and and it's the same video that I saw and it's one that horrifies New Yorkers across the five burrows and it's completely unacceptable. And what it makes me think about is the necessity of providing public safety in our New York City subway system and across the five buraus.
And also how do we end the revolving door? Because when you look further into the case of whether this individual or so many individuals, especially those suffering from mental health issues, what we find the recidivism is really bad. Basically what you find is you get people go to jail and as soon as they get out whether it's on bail or or otherwise they go right back in.
It's terrible. Is so often the only mental health system that we have that's functioning in this city is Riker's Island. 40% of the incarcerated population there are suffering from serious mental health is the question. Why was he on the street? Because we have a broken system. A system they lowered his bail.
He had a bail he couldn't pay. Then they lowered the bail and then he could pay it. This is imagine if you're this family and they look at 33 prior arrests and they why why was this man on the street? What would stop him in your administration from being on the street? Because what we would do is actually address the systemic problems that would ensure that someone who goes through the system this many times can actually
his issues are addressed, the services are provided. Right now all we have is going in and out, especially when it comes to mental health. I'll give you an example. Yeah. in your in your world where nobody funds me. I I when I ran for governor, that was a big thing I talked about was this idea that you have to fund mental education.
You know, we we fund PE in schools, but we don't fund mental education. Uh and and that's a big failure of government. So, you need somebody to actually do that. If he can do it, good for him. Where would he be in a mental institution? He would actually be getting services from the first time that he was arrested as opposed to having to go through them 33 times.
If you look at the New York Times, they did an investigation on a thousand different incidents of violent crime in the city tied to mental health episodes. They found that so many of those same New Yorkers were failed by the interactions they had with the city when they went for help for mental health assistance.
And that failure is a blight. It is a stain on our city. And it's a failure that I'm looking to fix by actually transforming this with the only comprehensive plan for public safety of any of the candidates. Because what we are going to do is put out a plan and a proposal that we have shared with New Yorkers to create the department of community safety that would bring together all of these pre-existing silos that address mental health crisis that address homelessness into one department provide it with the funding necessary and
yeah more departments is tough but I mean yeah you you need some kind of centralized mental education system not only in in schools but also in in rehabilitation manner you know afterwards. Uh Martha looks keenly interested which is amazing for Fox News actually address. Where do these people go though is my question.
Are you going to put them in a a mental institution so they can be taken care of or are you going to leave them at home on medication? What's the plan? There's there is a plan right now that allows for involuntary confinement which I think should be a last resort because the fact that when you look at the actual results this is something that so often doesn't actually have that's what that what has been spoken about but what we have today that actually works for New Yorkers with serious mental illness.
There are things like Fountain House. This is a clubhouse model peer-led rehabilitative treatment for New Yorkers with serious mental illness. It costs $4,000 to have someone in Fountain House for a year. That's the cost of being on Rikers for 3 days. And what we see, however, is that those services, they
you putting anybody in a club for $4,000 a year, employment by 50%, they reduce hospitalization by up to 45%. And they actually reduce the cost of health care as well for those same New Yorkers. This is what we're looking at. This is why we say that. Of course, if you could solve the mental health problems, people stop showing up at the ER.
By the way, thank you AppState for a $20 donation to the stream. Appreciate you. You can just see people who are suffering up and down 8th Avenue just as one example and I hope we'll have a chance to talk more about that next time, but I I don't want you to leave without me asking you about your relationship with the police because obviously this is a big issue.
Um, you said in the past, I almost don't need to go through it. been said many times, but that you called the police force racist, said they were a major threat to public safety, called them wicked. Yeah. He's been a big proponent in the past of defunding the police. Now, he's softened that stance a lot because he realizes this is a problem,
corrupt. And now the report that you apologized to dozen members of the NYPD, what did you say to them? I apologize for the language that I used and I spoke to them about the fact that I want to work with them to deliver public safety because what we're seeing in the city right now. How about you fund the police appropriately so you have better training
now is we're asking officers to do nearly everything we can think of. We used to ask officers to focus on serious crimes. Now we're asking them to focus also on the mental health crisis to focus also Oh, okay. Right. Cuz cops all of a sudden are trained in mental health. You need to fund the police.
on homelessness. In one year alone, the NYPD receives 200,000 mental health calls in one year. Yeah. And you know what they told me? That one out of three of those, the person has they're very, very dangerous interactions. You're going to send a social worker in there. You can always have a police officer actually come to address that.
But look, you're saying one out of three, two out of three times. If you don't need the police and you're sending them to do that, then why aren't you sending them to respond to shootings and murders? Five, six years ago, the response time for officers was closer to 10 minutes. Now it's closer to 16 minutes.
New Yorkers deserve a police department. Yeah, that this is why you need more funding for law enforcement. Now, you could make the argument that, oh, we're just going to send community service officers to a bunch of uh, you know, whatever call outs, but what end up what ends up happening is something that's a public disturbance and you send a community officer that has no ability to has no arrest powers and no ability to self-defense or to defend themselves.
You potentially end up just aggravating the situation. So, there's a balance there. It all comes down to more funding. department that is asked to do the things that it can possibly do, not one that covers the failures of every break in the social safety net. So I police officers that I spoke to, they they don't want a behind closed doors apology.
They want a broad public apology for the things that you suggested about them. Will you do that right now? Absolutely. I'll apologize to police officers right here because this is the apology that I've been sharing with many rank and file officers and I apologize because of the fact that I'm looking to work with these officers and I know that these officers, these men and women who serve in the NYPD, they put their lives on the line every single day and I will be a mayor that both
your mind about it. You know, I moved to the city when I was 7 years old. I grew up here and two of the things that I thought often about was safety and justice and growing up here learning about the case of the exonerated five, learning about Shawn Bell, learning about Eric Garner, learning about Michael Brown and then in 2020, the year where all of these tweets are referring to.
It was the year when George Floyd was killed and it felt like safety and justice had never been further apart. And it was actually Eric Adams in 2021 who said that New Yorkers need not choose between these two things. And so one of my focuses was how do we deliver that justice? And now what I know having represented 100,000 people in western Queens is that to deliver that justice, you have to also deliver that safety.
And that means representing I don't think anybody disputes that you need safety in a city. It's just practically challenging. I think Martha is bluntly asking for, hey, can you U-turn on defund the police? Because sure, you might be saying, "Hey, we're going to fund community support programs, but you also need to fund law enforcement so they can actually have the staff that they need." The vast majority, over 60% of police departments in the United States are underfunded and under staffed.
And we got a lot of officers in New York City. You walk around, but you also have a lot of citizens. There's a lot of problems to deal with. So, you kind of have to fund both. men and women in the NYPD. It means representing the black and brown New Yorkers who've been victims of police brutality. It means representing the Muslim New Yorkers in my district who were surveiled on the basis of their faith.
68% of uh independent voters want more police officers on the street. And Cuomo tomorrow night in that debate, he's going to say, "I'm going to bring four 5,000 more police officers to the street." Will you match that and agree with him on that? I don't look to Andrew Cuomo for leadership and will you put 5,000 in the street?
You've been very clear. I want to keep the number of officers that we have and I want to make it easier for those officers to do their job. And what that means is that we allow officers to focus on serious crimes. And for all of the focus on the headcount, we should focus on the retention crisis. When I started running for mayor, 200 officers were leaving the department every month.
Now it's 350 and a lot of them are leaving because there's simply no way they can do their job in what's being asked of them. And to your point, however, Andrew Cuomo is going to say a lot of things tomorrow night on the debate stage. And frankly, I wish it was more like NASCAR so New Yorkers could see the billionaires that were sponsoring him right on his suit jacket because this is a man who had 10 years and I know now that it's politically
part of the reason you're seeing this law enforcement attrition is because it is a hard job. There is such an overwhelming amount of demand on these officers and that's that that's the one thing that I would love to ask bluntly of him. Would you increase funding for that department? So, you talk about wanting to support crime and safety.
How about increasing training funding? That's that's why I'm I'm just not hearing that. I hear everything around it, but I don't hear that. That makes me a little nervous talking like a politician. But, I mean, he sounds good. Convenient. He watches Fox News as well, so I'll just speak to him directly.
Andrew, you had your chance to lead the state. You took that time to sell out workingclass workers to your billionaire donors. And instead of actually meeting the needs of people who couldn't afford to live in this city, you gave $959 million in tax breaks to Elon Musk. And now you want us to believe that we can't spend less money than that to make every bus fast and free in the same city.
All right. I'm going to squeeze in two two very quick ones here if you can answer them quickly. Um, Commissioner Tish, you have suggested that you want her to stay. Have you asked her to stay? And has she said yes? because I think that is one issue that would go a long way to pro towards police retention.
I've said that I appreciate Commissioner Tish's record of uprooting corruption in the upper echelons of the NYPD. I've appreciated her presiding over drops in crime across the city and I continue to actively consider her to be my police commissioner. I haven't made any personnel commitments. Okay. So, you don't want to ask her right now?
No. No. That's the kind of conversation I would actually have in person in private, not a politics opinion. Okay. It's an issue that a lot of people uh brought up with me when I told them I was going to be speaking with you. Last question. Uh, you want to have a World Cup Zar? I know you're a huge uh soccer fan.
I'm done. So, look, I don't hate the guy. I actually think he's he's a great smooth talker. I think his housing policies are just You need to build more by getting by reducing regulation. Freezing rent will have the opposite effect. You'll increase the cost of housing. I'm a little frustrated that he talks about wanting to help with safety but refuses to talk about actually funding and supporting the police department.
That makes me nervous. I don't care that he wants to give uh you know free bus rides. I that's fine, good, good, fine. Donald Trump just cut a bunch of money from the Harlem subway expansion, which I think is wrong. I think the subway should have been expanded and Trump ripped that money off from from Harlem, which they need it the most.
Uh, you've got the support for child care in a city that actually has a lot of single parenting and a lot of food insecurity. I'm okay with that. I'm totally accepting of that. This idea of paying more in taxes if you make more than a million dollars a year. You know what? People aren't going to flee New York because of that.
I don't like higher taxes, but I don't think that's going to leave people fleeing New York. So, I'm not really worried about that either. Uh, now, yes, there have been relocations to, you know, Texas or Florida, you know, Citadel's moving, but that trend has already been happening anyway because you're trying to get, you know, what you're trying to do is you're trying to recruit more of those younger kind of millennials.
You're trying to get the beach lifestyle, the crypto lifestyle, and this aligns with sort of the Havanaesque, Puerto Ricoesque, uh, uh, Miami lifestyle, which is fine, but office rents are actually starting to skyrocket in New York because people are coming back to the office. New York will not be left for dead.
New York is actually probably just going to become even more expensive. I actually want to invest in New York if this guy wins because his freeze rent policies are going to leave people leaving the investment community. You're going to see less building and what is that all going to do? Drive up housing costs over the long term.
So, it'll actually like he will be great for hedging your real estate exposure in in uh New York. But those are the concerns I have. But otherwise, you know, and and I don't like, you know, I think he's being a little bit of a weenie baby on calling out Hamas. Uh but uh whatever. So, uh we'll see. But he'll probably win.
Uh so, we'll keep an eye on it. And if he wins, he'll probably be moving into national politics in 2028. So, you got to pay attention to this guy. Uh I could see him trying to fight Nome for the 2028 presidency. Uh and I have to say, I like this guy way better than AOC. So, you got to give credit where credit's due, but he's still a politician.
Uh, you know, he's still a politician. So, I find that very interesting. But, uh, but yeah, I'm really excited. Uh, I mean, broadly, if this guy wins, you know, other parts of New York City that I think would be really interesting. uh Bronx, Brooklyn, you know, uh these these are areas that could do really well uh with uh uh with with uh housing prices actually going up under him, you know, office rents blowing up in Manhattan.
Uh that'll spread. Uh and so it's it's an interesting trend that's going on. So, we'll se.
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