Subtitle (418)
0:00Astead, how are you? I'm doing well.
Mayor elect, how are you?
0:02Thank you for joining us.
I was trying to be the host for a second.
0:05No, I was actually gonna wear a suit, but
I decided that was your thing and not mine.
0:09Did you buy a new one for the...
0:10My culture is not a costume.
0:12Did you buy a new one
for the inauguration?
0:17I might be a little behind on
0:19thinking about the coat.
0:30You know,
I we're glad to talk to you at this point
0:32because, you know,
we want to focus on the transition,
0:35not only how you all have conducted
it, but also you're how thinking about
0:38how it informs the, you know, term ahead.
0:41We know that kind of mayoral transitions
can sometimes be the high watermark
0:44for elected officials.
0:45I recently saw that you were plus
15 in your own favorability.
0:48How do you reverse
what has been a historic trend?
0:51How do you make sure that this moment
in office, that you're
0:54taking office, is not the,
the end of something, but the beginning?
1:00am aided by the fact
that I have not given much weight
1:04to polls and favorability in the past,
1:08which is part of the reason
why I'm sitting in front of you,
1:09because I don't
I didn't even have enough recognition
1:11to have favorability done
at the beginning of, of this race.
1:15So, I think it it comes back to the fact
1:17that we ran a race
on an affordability agenda.
1:21It spoke to New Yorkers
1:24living in the most expensive city
in United States.
1:27We have to now deliver on that agenda.
1:29I think kind of the premise of your point
is that
1:33this is the moment of hope,
and then the question of what comes next.
1:37And even beyond the transition
1:40as a high watermark, oftentimes
campaigns, there's
1:43there's already a temptation of nostalgia
for what the campaign was.
1:47We have to ensure the campaign
is not the story we look back on.
1:50It's the path to the story
that we've yet to start.
1:52And I think that comes back to delivery,
that comes back to freezing
1:56the rent, making busses fast and free,
delivering universal childcare.
1:59You have to transform people's lives
in a way that they can actually touch
2:03and feel and hold on to,
2:04so that they're not just grasping at the
memories of what the struggle was like.
2:08I feel like the first clues
of how you all plan to do
2:10that came in the transition.
2:12You all had some kind of unique moments,
but there aren't these
2:14explanatory videos about semi-mundane
kind of process things.
2:18Baseball cards for staff appointments.
2:20We were at the event that you all held
last week at the Museum of Moving Image.
2:25What is the goal of those type of events?
2:27I think there's, there's a temptation
when you win.
2:31We've seen it in the past to say, "now,
trust me, you can go home."
2:35The point of me winning is that you don't
have to worry about politics anymore.
2:38The point of me winning is we keep
fighting for the same agenda together.
2:43And that means you bring people
along with you,
2:47and you also demystify
what it is that you're doing.
2:52this transition
period is probably the most opaque period,
2:55typically, because it's between a campaign
and governance.
2:58And most New Yorkers
are never brought into it.
3:01It's usually insiders only.
3:03And I think that's both
in the way that it's funded
3:05and it's the way
that it's also spoken about.
3:07And we wanted New Yorkers
to be at the heart of that, because
3:11most people didn't even know that there's
no public funding for transitions.
3:14And so we've been asking people
to donate to a transition.
3:17The first thing we have to educate them
about is what is a transition?
3:20What is this funding used for?
3:21And I've had so many people ask me,
what do you mean
3:24you have to pay for office space?
3:25What do you mean you have to pay
for payroll, health care, inauguration.
3:30These are often things
that are not brought up, because
3:33you fundraise
in the manner of previous administrations,
3:36whose average donations
were north of $1,000 per person, and ours,
3:41you know, I think more than
95% of our donations are below $250.
3:45And I think that's just that is one aspect
of how you bring people into this.
3:50Sounds like the demystifying efforts
are connected to what,
3:53has been described as inside out strategy,
that to the goal of delivering,
3:57you feel as if you have to keep
the public engaged.
3:59You have to keep that public pressure
going.
4:01And I think there's often a description
as if the campaign ends
4:06and governance begins with the implication
that you leave people behind.
4:10And, in many ways, you have to keep going
in the same kind of manner.
4:15How's that get harder
once you're in office?
4:17To your point
about the ways that campaigns
4:18and transitions
kind of create a sense of unity.
4:21You know, once the inauguration happens,
you know, everything becomes Mayor
4:26How do you make sure,
4:27how how do you reverse the trend of public
disengaging at that moment?
4:30I think you have to do the work
to create actual opportunities
4:34for engagement
as opposed to vague invitations.
4:37So, for example,
we put together an event for 12 hours
4:42called The Mayor's Listening, where,
as you were saying, your team was there.
4:45For 12 hours,
I sat at the Museum of the Moving Image,
4:49and I listened to New Yorkers.
4:50More than 140 New Yorkers
came to share their stories with me.
4:54And the point of that is not just to say
I listened.
4:57It's to actually take what they're saying,
and then act upon it.
5:00And some of the concerns were large.
5:04They were the concerns of undocumented
New Yorkers sharing with me
5:08the immense fear that they live
with on a day to day basis, the exhaustion
5:12that it leaves them with, the anxiety
whenever they leave their home.
5:16To a New Yorker who came to me and said,
5:18"my number one issue is
what time is the construction on the Van
5:21Wyck going to take place,"
5:21because it used to be during the nighttime
and now it's during the day.
5:24I think this idea that in fact, governing
could be informed by the people
5:29for, as opposed to treating New Yorkers
as if they're just subjects.
5:34that's the approach we've tried
to take over the course of the transition.
5:37And, and also the understanding that
5:41people to act upon something,
they have to know about something.
5:45So that's not just "what is a transition."
5:47We even take that approach to rights,
you know, in this moment
5:50when so many New Yorkers are fearful
of ICE agents and the potential
5:56of immigration enforcement, as we've
seen it take place across the city,
6:01we thought it was important to remind
every New Yorker of their own rights.
6:05And and so that the only way they can
exercise them is if they know about them.
6:09You know,
is there any argument, though, that, like,
6:10you know,
this is a little glitz and glamor?
6:12I mean, we, our folks were there.
6:13These were largely supporters of yours
I want to hear more about like,
6:17did you hear criticism?
6:18Did you hear,
any critiques of your campaign
6:21from some of those New Yorkers
you sat down with?
6:24that wasn't necessarily something
that was already part of your agenda.
6:27You know, there I think any gathering
of New Yorkers has to have some critique.
6:32Otherwise, you know, it's
not a gathering of the audience.
6:34And I think there's there's critique
6:38in a fear of, "are you
6:41are you going to be able
to deliver on these things,"
6:43because there's a fear of,
"should I have believed in this," and my job
6:47and our job in building
a team is to showcase the seriousness
6:50with which we took those commitments
and how we actually deliver them.
6:54And then I think there were other New
Yorkers for whom they told me,
6:59they just don't know.
6:59even if we accomplish these things,
will they be able to stay in the city.
7:03And having to build out an agenda
that speaks
7:06to the specificity of their concerns,
the universal approach at large.
7:10And then I had New Yorkers
who came and shared with me.
7:13You know, one New Yorker spoke to me
7:15about how their number one concern
was about casinos,
7:19you know, and I shared with them
that that I myself am skeptical,
7:23of the economic development promises
that come with casinos.
7:26And I also know that there's a referendum
that was passed by voters
7:29that creates the citation of three
casinos within the New York City.
7:32And I can't actually change that myself.
7:36And the frustration of knowing
that this is something
7:40that a person does not want
and you cannot help them.
7:42And that's also part of what it looks
like, is to be honest with people,
7:44even when that honesty isn't
what they want to hear from you, you.
7:48But part of the reason
why so many people are disengaged
7:54there is a lack of honesty within the way
in which we talk about it,
7:57and when the way
in which we even explain it.
8:00A couple more questions on the transition
before looking ahead.
8:02I know that you have been a legislator,
but not an executive, and back
8:05when I was doing that
profile over the summer,
8:07I know that you were talking to people
8:08about what leadership means about
how to grow as an executive.
8:12I wanted to hear,
can you share any of that advice with us?
8:15And how did you how did you what steps
did you take to close
8:19the gap to feel prepared
for stepping into this moment?
8:22And do you? You know,
I think the the key thing
8:25that I was told again and again
is the importance of the team around you.
8:28And frankly, that's been one of the things
that's been most exciting
8:31about the transition is that every time
8:36you announce a new member of the team,
8:39it's not like an endorsement
in the campaign, where it's
8:42kind of this momentary rise,
and then you're seemingly back into place.
8:49an incredible addition of capacity
in your ability to fulfill the agenda.
8:53And each time we've made an announcement,
each time I feel like our team
8:56is getting more and more prepared, more
and more ready for this.
8:59And I think the other part of the advice
that I've received beyond
9:02who you surround yourself with,
is that you actually listen to people,
9:07that you actually bring New Yorkers
along with you, because our campaign
9:11was not just about reaching out
to those who haven't voted in a long time,
9:16it was also reaching out to those
who haven't voted at all.
9:19And that's an opportunity to show people
9:22that political engagement
has to extend beyond the ballot box.
9:27It is not just one moment in one year
that you come back to every four years.
9:32It is something that requires
a participation and engagement.
9:36And in the same way that New Yorkers
won this election, not me,
9:40New Yorkers will win this agenda,
not just me.
9:42I know that you,
previously had said that you wanted a team
9:45that did not have policy litmus test,
that you wanted
9:48folks with differing opinions,
9:49has that transition team, has the staff
you put in place lived up to that?
9:53I think you'll see that appointments
are not simply a reflection of myself.
9:58And I think there's a tendency sometimes
to just look to reproduce yourself,
10:03your ideas, your preferences,
and each and every person you hire.
10:06What you do if you're to do that is create
the conditions
10:09where everyone in the room
is measured by the quickness
10:12with which they can say "yes" to you
and "yes" to any one of your ideas.
10:15You need to build a team
where people can also say
10:17"no" to you, where people can push you,
where you are able to have the debate
10:21inside the room, as opposed to waiting
to have the debate outside the room.
10:25And I think that in the appointments
we've made thus far,
10:28it's not demanding alignment on each
and every issue.
10:31It's asking, do you believe in the agenda
at hand, and do you believe,
10:35do you have a vision for this specific
position that shows you can fulfill that?
10:40You know, at the same time, there's folks
who have been frustrated with that
10:42that thought that some of this coalition
building, even among your agenda
10:46or even among your appointments, has maybe
betrayed the movement that got you here.
10:49I'm thinking about the appointment
of Jessica Tisch as police commissioner.
10:52I'm thinking about a vocal, rejection
of a Democratic challenger
10:57to Hakeem Jeffries, in Brooklyn.
10:59My question is, like as you've made
some of these moves to the transition,
11:02have you had to embrace
a different side of yourself?
11:04Do you hear any of the critiques that
we're seeing of "insider Mamdani" these days?
11:08You know, I think you have to first
11:11and foremost
take these critiques in good faith.
11:15You, you as you win, as you win
an election,
11:20you can start to tell yourself stories
that any critique is critique
11:23you have to keep far away from you.
11:24People don't understand.That.
11:25That is how you become removed
from the reason
11:28you did this in the first place.
11:30When you engage with it, you separate and
from the good faith, from the bad faith.
11:34And I think taking this at the good faith,
I understand
11:37the criticism that those have shared.
11:41it is important
that it's not just a reproduction of self
11:44in every single appointment,
11:45and that we understand that, for example,
with the NYPD,
11:50my decision in retaining
11:52Commissioner
Tisch is a decision on the basis
11:56of looking at her record
of coming into an NYPD
12:00that the Adams administration
had stacked the upper echelons of with
12:04corruption and incompetence,
and starting to root that out while
12:07lowering crime across the five boroughs,
making this decision
12:11not only in recognition of that,
but also to fulfill the larger public
12:16safety vision that we had laid
out over the course of the campaign,
12:18which focused on the creation
of a Department of Community Safety
12:22that will tackle the mental health crisis,
the homelessness crisis.
12:25This is also a decision that is not one
that is in tension with the commitments
12:30I've made specific to the NYPD,
12:32like the disbanding
of the Strategic Response Group.
12:35Those things still happen.
That still happens.
12:37And I think that's what's important
to make clear, to New Yorkers,
12:42the things that we campaigned on
around the disbanding of the SRG,
12:45the creation of the DCS, these are
still things that we will fulfill.
12:48We will do so with the teams
that we're building around us.
12:52I had is like, there's so much national
and international focus on both campaign
12:56and I think your administration going for
12:58that it's such a hyper local job, you know,
how do you, how do you balance
13:02what will be the intense attention
with the reality of who you're serving?
13:12you have to remember
not just that reality, but
13:17the point of this is to serve the city,
right?
13:20It's it's not like a reality check.
13:22It's the reason why I did this.
13:23It's the reason why it was possible
to weather difficult moments.
13:27Because it's all in service
of a city that I love.
13:30There's some days
where it's hard to believe that my job
13:33is traveling around New York City
and meeting New Yorkers
13:36and listening to their concerns
to have the opportunity to act upon them.
13:39And I also think the greatest thing
you can do is the power of example
13:43of what you can do, what you can succeed,
what you can deliver.
13:47And that's an example
that you can allow people across
13:51the country, across the world
to use to relate in their own lives.
13:54It's an example, however, that comes
for the delivery for New Yorkers,
13:58because what we're
talking about right now,
14:04sense amongst New Yorkers
that politics is irrelevant
14:07to their day to day
struggles, the inability
14:11for our political system
to deliver on crises large and small.
14:16These are not uniquely New York issues.
14:18These are issues that people feel outside
of the city, outside of this country,
14:23and we have an opportunity
14:26to show that by serving New Yorkers,
we can also showcase
14:29a politics that can serve working people,
wherever they may be.
14:33I want to look ahead.
14:34You know, you, how would you define
the priorities for your agenda?
14:37What would you define as success or failure
for the Mamdani administration?
14:41It comes back to affordability.
14:43The priorities have to be the fulfillment.
14:45Are those are the three part.
14:46Are we talking about busses, childcare,
whether my... Come on, hit 'em! Busses, childcare,
14:50Rent freeze. Come on.
14:51Boom. But what about like things like,
public,
14:54the publicly subsidized grocery stores?
14:55Is that priority too?
That is a priority.
14:58So it's all of the above.
14:59When we think about the campaign promises.
I would say that
15:01the the first order of priorities,
like ranking best friends,
15:04the first order of priority are the three
that we built the campaign around.
15:08There are obviously other commitments
we made in addition to that, commitments
15:11that I've shared with you
in this conversation.
15:13You know, five city owned grocery
stores, one in each borough.
15:18The fulfillment of these things
15:20are not just critically important
because you're fulfilling what, animated
15:23so many to engage with the campaign,
to support the campaign, but
15:26also because of the impact
it can have on a New Yorker's life.
15:29There's a lot of politics where it feels
like it's a contest around narrative,
15:33that when you win something, it's
just for the story
15:35that you can tell of what you won.
15:37But so many working people
can't feel that victory in their lives.
15:41The point of a rent freeze is you feel it
every first of the month.
15:44The point of a fast and free
bus is you feel it every day
15:47when you're waiting for a bus
that sometimes never comes.
15:50The point of universal childcare is
so that you don't have to pay $22,500
15:55a year for a single toddler.
15:57These are not things I have to explain
the worth of to you, or an intellectual victory.
16:02It is a material one.
16:03And so to me, when we talk about
the struggles of our democracy,
16:08when we talk about a withering faith in it
as a political system,
16:11we have to understand that
the withering of that faith is intensely
16:15connected to the inability of that system
to deliver on the needs of the people.
16:19So success is the big three promises.
16:21Success is the big three.
16:23What about political goals?
16:24I mean, I was really on cable news today,
16:26and they're talking about the "Mamdani
wing of the Democratic Party,"
16:29and they're talking about,
you know, challengers facing incumbents
16:33and the goal of spreading
kind of progressivism,
16:35I think specifically socialism
across the country.
16:37Is that a goal you share?
16:39do you look out at those challenges
and say, that is the "Mamdani wing?"
16:42I think that anyone fighting for
working people and fighting for a politics
16:47that doesn't just think of working people,
but puts them at the heart of what it is
16:52that we're doing, is critically important
anywhere in this country.
16:55I think that for me, it is,
17:00in time where we have to reckon with
17:04why people feel this way about politics,
and there is oftentimes an inability
17:09to reckon with the failures
that have come before us,
17:11because they implicate
a lot of what we're doing right now.
17:13But the implication
is that part of your political project
17:16is to spread across the country
and to Congress.
17:21I mean, part of my political project
is to spread the fight for working people
17:25And
I think that can mean new candidates.
17:29It can also mean a renewed belief amongst
those who are already there to fight.
17:34one of the things I also wanted
to ask is like,
17:35it feels like core to the kind
of Democratic Party's, questions
17:38of moving forward has been to
what to take from your campaign.
17:42I have heard
people say everything from "it's all about
17:45social media"
to, kind of "separate from the substance."
17:48I actually want to read you a quote.
Hit me. And have you respond.
17:51Is this mean tweets or good tweets?
17:52No, no, no, not tweets at all.
17:53People who just said "I think
my party wants to learn lessons from,
17:56Mamdani success that are portable to a place
like Michigan where I live.
18:00It's less about ideology
and more about the message discipline
18:03on focusing what people care about.
18:04It's about the tactical wisdom
of getting out there
18:06and talking to everybody."
18:08I'm wanting to know,
do you think this is true?
18:10Like when we get outside of New York, how,
you know, are we thinking that it's less
18:14about substance of campaign than tactics,
or can we separate those things?
18:18I don't think you can
fully separate the medium and the message.
18:24that person is correct,
that you have to have a politics
18:28that relates to working people's lives
and their struggles.
18:31It can't be one
that needs to be translated.
18:33I would also say that yes,
there are far more New Yorkers
18:37who do not ask me about
how I describe my politics and more.
18:40They ask me, "do I fit in that politics?"
18:43I also think, however, that if
if all we did was make videos
18:49an affirmative vision of how working class
New Yorkers could afford the city,
18:53then I wouldn't be seated
across from you right now,
18:56and that's, there are aspects
18:59of this campaign that are very much
focused on New York City, right?
19:03I don't know if there's a rent guidelines
board anywhere else
19:05in this country that can freeze the rent
for more than 2 million tenants.
19:08We do have
the slowest busses in the country.
19:11We do have childcare at costs
that are astronomical,
19:14but the struggle for working people
to afford day to day life, to afford
19:18dignity in in the city they call home,
that's not New York City specific.
19:22And what I would say is, wherever
anyone is, to ask the people around them,
19:28what is the example of that struggle
in your life and what are the tools?
19:32And then for you
as the candidate to think about
19:34that government has to intervene in that,
to actually provide relief to that?
19:38Because so often politics
feels like an exercise
19:43in language and ideas that you need
19:46to have been at the last meeting
to understand this meeting,
19:49and you actually need to meet people
wherever they are,
19:53and not explain to them
19:54why they should listen to you,
but to actually have a vision
19:58that is intuitive for the struggles that
they're living through. Come into May.
20:02what's more likely, Arsenal
Premier League title or you're
20:06still at plus 15 favorability?
20:12You know...
Trying hit things against each other.
20:14Honestly, I'm so new to this whole,
like, favorability as...
20:21So I don't I don't think
about the favorability, all that much.
20:29Arsenal are going to win the league
this year,
20:31and I also think it's not going to come at
the expense of the affordability agenda.
20:34I think we can pursue these things
at the same time.
20:36You asked me about the "Mamdani wing,"
20:38I was gonna say the "Bukayo Saka
wing" of the party.
20:41Certainly,
rather than anything Tottenham...
20:43I appreciate your time.
20:44And,
thank you for for making time for us.
20:47You were very
welcome. Was a pleasure to be here.
