Transcript
[00:00:00.00] – Laura CoatesGot some breaking news out of New York. Governor Cathy Hochul may be closer to deciding if she’ll try to remove New York City Mayor Eric Adams. Hochul says she’ll be meeting with key leaders in New York tomorrow to discuss the path forward. Adams, so far, has remained defiant, and he even turned him heads earlier today after he said this to reporters while making the case for him to stay in office. [00:00:27.06] – Mayor Adams
I remember listening to some of Dr. King’s teachings, and he talked about the book Mein Kampf. He indicated, If you tell a lie long enough, loud enough, people would tend to believe it’s true. That’s what you’re seeing right now, modern day Mein Kampf. [00:00:46.09] – Laura Coates
Okay, a book by Adolf Hitler. That was certainly a choice. Adam said, Minutes before, four of his top aides resigned, three of them saying that the extraordinary ordinary events of the last few weeks led them to their decision to quit. Those events being the Justice Department’s decision to drop bribery charges against Adams. The Justice Department says the charges prevented Adams from doing his job, mainly taking part in Trump’s immigration crackdown. The DOJ and Adams says it was not a quid pro quo, but seven prosecutors resigned in protest, refusing to take part in what they claimed was a plan, a bad deal. Joining me now, former governor of New York, David Patterson. He’s been a staunch supporter of Mayor Adams. You said it was outrageous for Adams to resign when he was initially charged. Do you still think it’s outrageous for Adams to resign? [00:01:48.05] – Governor Paterson
What I thought was outrageous, Sarah, were people telling him that he had to resign when only he knows really what went on, he and whoever he talked to, from the White House. Just this rush to judgment that we have in politics these days, where whenever anyone gets in the slightest bit of trouble, there’s this stampede to try to get them out of office. I didn’t think it was fair to him, and I don’t now. [00:02:18.13] – Laura Coates
Let me ask you this because there is this issue between him and Trump’s border Tsar Tom Homan. There is a question as to whether a backdoor deal was made and that was a quib pro quo. Whether it was months ago, he was at home and asked to go into Rikers to try and find immigrants who were there undocumented, and the mayor refused. Now suddenly, he’s saying, Sure, go ahead in. Then, lo and behold, his case gets dropped. Doesn’t that look bad? [00:02:51.18] – Governor Paterson
Well, Mayor Adams and Holman were on another network on Friday, and they asked Holman what happens if Adams doesn’t comply. He said something that was really vulgar, and I thought, unnecessary. Something that would lead you to think that there is a quote, quote, because when people talk like that, they must know something that they’re not revealing. [00:03:16.10] – Laura Coates
All right. Four top aides to Adams resigned. Do you have confidence that Adams can govern under this turmoil? These are just the recent folks who resigned. You had a litany of others who resigned, including the police commissioner and the health commissioner. Can he go forward and run this city? [00:03:41.04] – Governor Paterson
Well, the pathway to leading the city is obviously going to be encumbered by the loss of many of these very important people who work for Mayor Adams and very distinguished people who work for Mayor Adams. But if they feel that they can’t work in an environment where they’re doing their job, I don’t know that I blame them for that, but there are too many times when the staff of an elected official who is in some trouble embraces the trouble In other words, I worked for people who I thought they had no idea what they were doing, and I worked for people who I thought were corrupt. But when I decided to leave, I made it as quiet as possible because you don’t want stage the person that gave you the opportunity to work there in the first place. [00:04:34.08] – Laura Coates
I want to get your sense of what’s going to go down here. Governor Hochul says she is going to meet with key leaders tomorrow to discuss a path forward. What would you consider if you were holding this meeting tomorrow? Would it, in your mind, be a mistake for her to say, We’re removing you? [00:04:54.05] – Governor Paterson
Well, I think the governor is really on the right track here. If you have a difficult situation situations such as this, you try to bring other people around you. One person can’t solve all the world’s problems, but sometimes 10 people can. The fact that Governor Hochul is having a meeting, I think, is most appropriate. They’ll listen to the thoughts of the other leaders that they bring in. Governor Hochul did point out that governors never really removed a mayor. Previously, Franklin Roosevelt was going to remove Mayor Jimmy Walker in 1932, but Mayor Walker resigned and moved to a close neighboring village, a place called London, England. That’s, I think, real demonstration of leadership by Governor Hochul to actually do that. [00:05:49.17] – Laura Coates
All right. There are a few people that are running, including Michael Blake, for the New York City mayorship. The former New York governor, Andrew Cuomo is reportedly considering joining the race. He posted this video on X for Valentine’s Day, Embracing Voters, and a Democratic group has already endorsed Cuomo. Should Cuomo jump in the race, considering he resigned over allegations of sexual misconduct? [00:06:19.25] – Governor Paterson
Well, here again, if Governor Cuomo wants to jump into the race, and that’s what he truly wants to do, I don’t see any reason to actually stop him. He has held elected office for 14 and a half years, some of it as attorney general and most of it as governor. He was in office during the pandemic and did a terrific job. I mean, he was must see TV every day. I used to say, who needs Dr. Phil? We just turn on and listen to Governor Cuomo every day. But it would be a comeback for him. But he’s got a lot of experience and I think he has the resources that he could run. I think he also may have learned from some of his experiences that didn’t go that well. [00:07:11.16] – Laura Coates
People questioned what happened with nursing homes during his tenure, but they did get used to seeing him every single day on television, trying to calm people down as New York went through one of the most horrific times in its health care industry during the COVID-19 outbreak. Thank you so much for being here with us and walking us through this. This is a political tightrope that the mayor finds himself on. All right, just ahead. Secretary of State, Marco.
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