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New Day
Interview with Mayor Bill de Blasio of New York; New York Voters Weigh in on the Race. Aired 6:30-7a ET
Aired April 19, 2016 - 06:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[06:30:00] BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And there are hundreds of students, young people that have been here since Sunday working around the clock to pack care packages for those in the mostly affected areas. They're packing water, food and clothing, but feeling like all of this work is going to waste because there are hundreds of care packages -- I don't know if you can see them because of the darkness to my right, that are simply not being sent where they need to be.
The students tell us they've been waiting for hours and hours for trucks to get here, to send them to those affected areas. This echoes what we heard yesterday in the province of Manabi. This is an area where the epicenter of the earthquake was. Residents tell us they're upset they see firefighters and military vehicles passing by their neighborhoods, without even stopping to see if they're okay.
These are areas where homes have been totally destroyed and people are living on the street and having to deal with going several days without food and water. So, there's growing frustration between this gap of having these resources here and not having them allocated the way they should be. Hopefully in the next few days, this will be taken care of.
Back to you.
BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Boris, thank you so much. I'll take it, in Guayaquil, Ecuador.
Meantime, escalating tensions between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia over possible fallout from a 9/11 bipartisan bill. The measure threatening to poison that already strain ties between the United States and its long-standing Gulf ally. President Obama now heading to Saudi Arabia tomorrow to meet with leaders there.
CNN's Nic Robertson is in Riyadh with the very latest.
Nic, good morning.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: The issue of the 29 pages in the 9/11 Commission come at a very, very sensitive time in U.S.-Saudi relations at the moment. President Obama about to arrive here, intense mistrust between the Saudis and the United States that's been developing through President Obama's presidency. So, the issue right now, the Saudis saying they would pull $750 billion of investments in the United States, if these 28 pages were made public. These 28 pages we don't know what they contain.
Is there a smoking gun in there saying the Saudi government somehow knew or supported or funded the 9/11 hijackers? Does it allude to the fact that perhaps just rich Saudis offered and gave their support for that attack? It's not clear, but at the moment, the Saudis distrust the United States, because they don't think the United States is reliable of an ally in the region. They formed their own Sunni Muslim coalition, 34 nations massively ramped up their defense and security spending. Now, the third largest security spender in the world.
So, this is a tough time in that relationship.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Nic Robertson, thank you very much for providing some context into the issues that will face whoever wins this ever-churning presidential election.
So, today is a big day, the New York primary. Hillary Clinton hoping for a big win here to show that this race is now all but over. But is it?
One of her biggest supporters, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, joins us next to make the case on NEW DAY.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:36:56] CUOMO: All right. The Excelsior State will be heard from today, my friends. The Democrats have a lot at stake. Hillary Clinton hoping to show that this is time for her to wrap up the nomination.
Bernie Sanders says, not so fast. I'm all about turnout. I'm going to show a different phase with what happens today in New York.
Let's discuss what we think will happen and why with his honor, the mayor of New York City, Bill de Blasio, Hillary Clinton supporter.
Mr. Mayor, thank you for being here.
MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO (D), NEW YORK: Good to see you, Chris. How are you doing?
CUOMO: So, you know the game very well. What do you think happens today? What do you think the margin is? I know you think Hillary Clinton will win. But by how much?
DE BLASIO: All I'm going to say, it's a solid margin. I don't think it's going to be close.
CUOMO: Because the margin is what matters for her, right?
DE BLASIO: Yes.
CUOMO: She is expected to win.
DE BLASIO: We've learned this season not to listen too much to pollster. There's been some real surprising results, but the consistency of these polls has been striking, and the response we're getting on the ground for Hillary has been overwhelming.
A lot of goodwill for Hillary Clinton in this state. She served it very well for eight years as our senator, and there's a great ground game.
And I'm a believer in turnout operations and ground game. I saw it in Iowa with her campaign and am certainly seeing it here in New York. She's got a great organization on the ground. I think it's going to be a solid victory.
CUOMO: All right. Let me make it tough for you. You have cultivated your water base very well, especially the last part. What we used to know at the liberal party, now the working family party. You came in strong with ideals and values, swept you into office.
Now, they love Bernie Sanders. They believe in his policies. They're working very hard for him right now.
What are you saying to that wing of your party, when they say, Mr. Mayor, you were our guy, you believe in it, you believe in what Bernie's saying, why? Why are you doing this?
DE BLASIO: I tell them to look at Hillary Clinton's platform. Hillary Clinton, when she walks in the door on 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, I believe she will, one of the most progressive platform of any president walking into the door in half a century.
She's ready to tax the wealthy, to close the carried interest loophole. She's ready to implement the Buffet Rule. No millionaire, billionaire should pay lower taxes than their secretary or their driver.
She's ready to do full-day pre-K all over the country, paid sick leave, paid family leave, higher minimum wage. This is a kind of a platform a lot of progressives have been dreaming of.
And look, God bless Bernie, he's raised some very important issues and he's done a great job bringing people into the political process and I think that's going to continue and deepen -- meaning I think a lot of those folks will continue to be involved. But if you look at platform and the ability to implement platform, that's why I'm a comfortable enthusiastic Hillary Clinton supporter.
CUOMO: All right. So, the second part there, you said platform and the ability to implement a platform, because on the first one you raised eyebrows. You ran Hillary Clinton's campaign in 2000.
DE BLASIO: Yes.
CUOMO: And you said, well, let's see what happens here, and many people attributed that to, obviously, you love the Clintons. You have the relationship, but were resonating with what Bernie Sanders was saying and you said it mattered especially for people in your city.
So, is it about the implementation thing? Because you believe in a lot of what Bernie Sanders believes?
[06:40:02] Fair point?
DE BLASIO: Well, I won't actually go -- certainly I believe in a lot of what Bernie Sanders believes and Bernie Sanders believes in a lot of what Hillary Clinton believes, and vice versa. Look at the two platforms, there's a lot of agreement, which has been one of the striking things this year. The two Democrats agreeing on a host of progressive initiatives. Obviously, Republicans spending time trying to kill each other divisively.
But let's go back to what we're doing here in New York City. I ran to address income inequality. I talked about a tale of two cities. The need to tax the wealthy so we can have pre-K, the need to fundamentally raise wages and paid sick leave. That's what we've been doing here, more affordable housing efforts.
Before Bernie Sanders was a major national figure, a lot of mayors around the country were doing these things. They were raising minimum wages, they were increasing paid sick leave, things like that. I think what Hillary Clinton saying is very consistent with this growing movement around the country for a need to address income inequality in a coherent way, to the point of who can get it done?
I thought the only missing link when Hillary announced her candidacy was the big full vision for addressing until inequality. I said, let's see that vision. Same thing we would say about any candidate. Show us a vision, show us a plan and that's what we can judge on.
She laid out a powerful vision, and not just on the more question of income inequality. What she said about mass incarceration, what she said about dealing with a structural racism that still pervades our society.
CUOMO: You don't think the predator comment disqualified Hillary Clinton --
DE BLASIO: No, because, first of all, she said that was a mistake and admire anyone could acknowledge their mistakes.
Second, the passion she has shown. When she talks about racial injustice and structural racism, when she talks about we have to do to reverse mass incarceration, you could hear it straight from the heart. This is a woman who right out of Yale Law School, went to the Children's Defense Fund to support children, in particular poor children of color. This has been a lot of her life's mission.
My point is, it was right to say to Hillary Clinton, show us a vision for America in a time of deep challenge, middle class profoundly troubled, people going back yards unfortunately. Show us the way forward. She did that. Once she did that, it was abundantly clear she was the person of all the candidates, by the way, on both sides of the aisle, the one who know the most about how to actually be an effective president.
CUOMO: So, one of Bernie Sanders's salvos on Hillary Clinton is, she's just too tied to the money. He struggles to point to specific actions where he can show that tie being a compromise, but the general sense works.
Now, his people painting you the same way. Federal probe going on. People who are donors to you, who seem like they were doing something inappropriate with the NYPD.
How do you respond to this allegation that people who are connected to you financially may have been up to no good?
DE BLASIO: I want to talk about the first part and then certainly answer the second part.
CUOMO: Please.
DE BLASIO: I found it particularly troubling when the Sanders campaign went at Hillary Clinton regarding the fossil fuel industry. Some people worked for oil and gas companies at whatever level had given her individual donations and suddenly, the Sanders campaign was trying to make an allegation.
Except here's the problem: Hillary Clinton's done more to address climate change with President Obama than any previous leaders in this country. They're the people who built the path to the Paris Accord, which is the first real progress we've seen on climate change and then look at her platform. She wants to rescind tax breaks for oil and gas companies.
So, if you received a donation from someone, but say to their face, you know, that's very nice but I don't agree with what you're industry is doing and I think you have to give back the tax breaks, well, that's my kind of public servant. They're telling them up front, this is what I'm going to do. If you want to donate to me, that's your business.
Well, over to our situation here in New York City, I've said very clearly, we hold a very high standard for our administration in terms of integrity and we also are very, very clear, that if there's any kind of investigation going on, we're going to fully cooperate because I want to be helpful to anything like that.
CUOMO: But the donors are under investigation.
DE BLASIO: Look, and what I think happened here, we've seen the NYPD, where there's a very strong internal affairs bureau, internal investigatory mechanism, they found NYPD leaders who apparently took gifts they shouldn't have taken. Well, those guys should suffer the consequences what I believe.
CUOMO: Is it fair to close the nonprofit group in terms why close it just then, just when the investigation came? How do you explain that?
(CROSSTALK) DE BLASIO: We announced it weeks earlier before anyone say anything about the word "investigation." And what we said was, we had a nonprofit that was supporting things like full-day pre-K for all our children, which we achieved. The most aggressive affordable housing in the country, including requirements that real estate developers create affordable housing. Literal mandate that they have to create affordable housing, first in any major city in the country. We achieved that.
We said the work is done. No reason to continue that non-profit.
CUOMO: Mayor de Blasio, as always, appreciate you coming on NEW DAY to talk about what matters.
DE BLASIO: Thank you very much.
CUOMO: Mick?
MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: All right. New Yorkers are casting their vote. We want to know what they are thinking. What are they looking for in a commander in chief?
Have they had their coffee yet this morning? Any nods from the crowd? Anyone?
[06:45:02] Real voters are here in our studio from New York. We're going to talk to them coming up next.
We might need to get some coffee.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: Welcome back.
Today is New York's crucial primary. We brought together a panel of New Yorkers who got up next and extra early for us this morning to talk about the different candidates they support, a couple of undecideds, just to find out who they would like to have as their next president and they're good enough to get up early, none of them have voted because they're dedicated to you, Chris Cuomo.
CUOMO: Yes. NEW DAY first.
BALDWIN: NEW DAY first, voting second.
I want to begin actually with the two undecides, Arlene here in the middle if we can pass the microphone to Arlene, and then Jared as well.
The two undecides. What are you thinking, how are you ruminating this early Tuesday morning?
ARLENE TIENG, UNDECIDED REPUBLICAN: I'm hoping to learn something from my fellow voters here. I think that, you know, later on today, I'll probably get some intuition that will sway my vote in one way or the other. CUOMO: So, which are you party are you leaning toward? Who you're
registered with?
TIENG: I'm a registered Republican.
CUOMO: All right. So, you're looking at Cruz, Kasich or Trump. And are they all still equal in your mind right now, or you got a leaning?
[06:50:02] You got a leaning?
TIENG: I think based on the numbers, I'm leaning towards Trump or Cruz.
BALDWIN: Just based upon numbers?
TIENG: Based upon numbers, based upon, you know, what they stand for. I attended the Trump town hall, so I got to see Mr. Trump in a different light.
BALDWIN: With the family?
TIENG: Yes.
CUOMO: Jared, party registration?
JARED: Democrat.
CUOMO: Democrat. So what are you thinking?
JARED: I honestly don't know I'll be decided before I get to the polls today. I would say I agree that process is probably a big part of what will influence my vote.
CUOMO: What does that mean? Process?
JARED: Process in that who is leading and- I like the idea of continuing the electoral process. So if I feel like Bernie has a good chance of continuing the process and dragging out the election, I think that's healthy. So I think that that would influence my vote.
BALDWIN: Describe, if you don't passing it down here --
CUOMO: Share. This is New York.
BALDWIN: Sharing is caring.
You are a Cruz supporter here. And I'm curious, since he was in Maryland yesterday, and is not in New York, as is New Yorker, does that bug you?
MENACHEM PERL, TED CRUZ SUPPORTER: Maybe slightly. I think it's probably the place to be, in New York. It could be he isn't really counting on winning. He's counting on really getting as close as possible. Trump is from New York. Trump in some ways stands for New York.
CUOMO: Do you think that Cruz hates New York and hat, all New Yorkers?
BALDWIN: As according to Donald Trump?
CUOMO: Now, of course you don't, because you're supporting him. But why were you able to reconcile what Ted said about New York values and support him?
PERL: I think it was an unfortunate phrasing what he was trying to say. I think what he really meant to say was more New York as in the large banks that really you've heard some, both Democratic campaigns, talking about, the large banks, those large companies, maybe wall street that some see as kind of that behind the scenes influencing elections.
I don't think he really intended to hit New Yorkers. I was born in New York. I am a New Yorker, lifelong. I really don't think he intended it that way and it was an unfortunate turn of phrase, but --
CUOMO: Giving him a pass as a gaffe?
BALDWIN: I'm with you on that.
Let's pass it down. I'm curious what the Bernie Sanders supporters, second on the end here. We have Cynthia and Joshua.
I mean, talk about awesome crowds, he's also about talking about wanting sort of record turnout which would really help him. We're talking to Jackie Kucinich, she was saying it could be a great day for Bernie Sanders loses by single digits. How do you feel about that?
JOSHUA CLENNON, BERNIE SANDERS SUPPORTER: I think if there is a big voter turnout I think Bernie Sanders will win this primary.
BALDWIN: Why do you like him so much?
CLENNON: I like Berne Sanders because he's been a consistent progressive voice for the majority of his career. He hasn't flip- flopped on the issues. He's the only candidate in this race that has promised to ban for-profit prisons. That's very important to me as an African-American voter.
And I also like his, the rest of his policy proposals in terms of a single payer health care system and affordable higher education.
CUOMO: Cynthia, if you look around the world right now, what's going on. You have what the U.S. military is going to do with Iraq. You have our defense secretary, Ash Carter, over there right now. You have Saudi Arabia in terms of how are we going to keep that going. What that relationship is.
Commander in chief winds up being a big deal. Who do you believe is the best commander in chief?
CYNTHIA KOURIL, BERNIE SANDERS SUPPORTER: Bernie Sanders, because he's not a war hawk, and I think that's really important. We've had endless war for pretty much my daughter's entire life, and it's not a cold war or a hot war. And the fact that he actually is not a war hawk, I think, will improve America's standing in the world. Right now, we're perceived as a bully.
BALDWIN: Hmm.
How about the two on the end? Both of you like Donald Trump.
Let's start with you, Joe. What is it about Donald Trump that says, commander in chief?
JOE KOVAC, DONALD TRUMP SUPPORTER: Well, I think that the Republican Party especially is looking for an outsider. If you look at the two strongest candidates, they're both anti-establishment candidates.
And I support Donald Trump, because I think that we need to do things differently. We need a fresh look, a fresh perspective. He's a successful businessman. He may not always say what he's thinking, or what comes out of his mouth may not be the best words to choose, but he's someone who I think would bring a big, a big vision to the White House.
CUOMO: Just so you know, Joe's a big, tough guy, but he got soft on Trump at the town hall when he saw how he was with the kids.
(CROSSTALK)
KOVAC: It's all about kids.
CUOMO: It was his heart that wound up swaying him.
KOVAC: What was it that spoke to that heart of yours? Thank you, Cuomo.
KOVAC: Well, again, as a father of three daughters, it's very important their family.
BALDWIN: It matters.
KOVAC: And I think that you get the real -- the real perspective of how someone is when they're around their family.
[06:55:09] And if you're a businessman if you're an elected official, a politician, everybody talks tough, and everybody talks, you know what I mean, as a tough guy. Chris, thank you.
But it's -- it's what I saw with his family. I saw him in a very different light.
BALDWIN: That's great. This is so great. Oh, my gosh.
CUOMO: Always our favorite process.
BALDWIN: Talking to the voters.
CUOMO: Real people, real ideas. Get away from the talking heads.
All right. We're going to have more in the next hour. Thank you very much. I don't know what they're offering in terms of food and coffee.
Mick, maybe you can take care of that. You're the one everybody likes.
PEREIRA: I'm just saying, Joe's been here twice and he's already on to your game over there, Cuomo. Just letting you know.
CUOMO: He's a fellow tough guy.
PEREIRA: Just letting you know, little tough guy.
CUOMO: That's right.
PERIERA: That was really great. We'll have them here throughout the morning and we'll talk to hem. It's going to be fantastic. Good job, Joe.
All right. We're going to talk about Bernie Sanders hammering Hillary Clinton over campaign money. The gloves are off as New Yorkers are heading to the polls. We're going to hear from both sides of the campaign, coming up, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Senator Cruz, I think New York values are America's values.
SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I can just picture Hillary tossing and turning in her jail cell.
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The other folks that are returning, they couldn't care less about New York.
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (D-VT), DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: New York state can help take a giant step forward for the political revolution.
