First post-mayoral interview.

0:00 Speaker 1 With us today. He is former Mayor of the City of New York, Bill de Blasio, and he was mayor from two thousand and fourteen to twenty twenty one and one hundred and ninth mayor of the City of New York.

0:14 Mayor de Blasio, how do you You’re out of wefice now for two and a half or short years. How do you feel. What are you doing? Your friends and the people in New York would like to know.

0:27 Speaker 2 Well, I appreciate it, John, and I want to thank you as always every time we talk, every time I see you, I think about our friendship, and I think about everything you’ve done for the city. I want to thank you, and you keep doing for the city. I really want to thank you. And look, you know, I’ll

0:44 tell you that there is life on the outside, you know.

0:48 Speaker 1 Last year and a life, there is life after being mayor.

0:53 Speaker 2 There is absolutely life after being mayor. And you know, so it’s been a little over a year and a half. I’ve been teaching, you know, this this year teaching at New York University. Last year I did a little stint up at Harvard. That’s been really great, seeing a lot of great young people who want to be part of

1:11 making the city, making the country better. That’s been really exciting, and you know, working on a lot of interesting issues. So I I’m got to tell you it’s been it’s been nice to get a break, especially after those two years that I was governing during COVID, and I’m counting my blessings. You know, we got through that the way

1:32 we did. But I got to tell you also, I miss I missed so many of the people I worked with who were incredible, and you know, we were able to do some good things. And that’s that’s the part that I think anyone who has the honor of being and the privilege of being mayor of this city to

1:51 feel the life of the city the way only a mayor can and to have an impact, you know, it’s an extraordinary thing. And you you always have to appreciate that.

2:03 Speaker 1 UH. Now you know you were mayored during COVID. You were mayored. I’m sure we had a lot of threats under your time as mayor. UH. New York is under threat again, being threatened by various people in the in the UH, I guess hamas UH in the Middle East.

2:27 How do you feel about New York being under threat again? I mean we we we suffered through nine to eleven, we suffered through COVID, we suffered through so many things. What do you what say you?

2:40 Speaker 2 Well, look, this is a very painful moment. I want to You’re not just for for Jewish New Yorkers. All New Yorkers should be feeling right now. That’s just a sense of pain and horror at what we saw from Hamas.

2:53 It was. It was disgusting, in humane. We really it’s really important at this point. It can’t be any moral relativism or mixing words here. What we saw was disgusting and unacceptable and needs to be condemned by everyone across the spectrum. You know, as I said, I’m teaching at NYU.

3:13 We had a very unfortunate situation with a student leader trying to justify the terrorism of Hamas. Luckily, a lot of us in the NYU community spoke out against that very quickly. I think that’s what people have to do.

3:27 We have to make very very clear of course, we stand with the people of Israel. And the one thing, because New Yorkers have felt terrorism, we know exactly what terrorism is in ways that a lot of other people haven’t experience. We’ve got to condemn it wholeheartedly the second you see it. And by the way, I think President

3:45 Biden his speech was one of the best examples of that I’ve ever seen in my life, and obviously from the heart. But for New York City right now, we got to be ready. You know. During my time as mayor, working with our Police Commission at the time, Bill Bratton, we started the Critical spons Command that was a specific

4:02 anti terrorism unit within the NYPD because we knew that we had to beef up our capacity. We learned after nine to eleven, John, that you know, New York City was so often having to protect itself and it was so important to have our own strength. And what we saw with Hamas is another reminder, you know, even though

4:24 until then it was a little quiet for a few years, it’s not something that’s going away in the world, and we have to be ready. So I am quite certain NYPD is very effectively on full alert right now and that something should reassure New Yorkers. But let’s be clear, let’s be honest, this this threat’s going to exist in

4:42 the world for quite a while, and we’ve got to protect ourselves.

4:46 Speaker 1 Tell us you taught school up at Harvard Kennedy School, and you’re teaching now at NYU. Which one do you like better?

4:56 Speaker 2 Well, I’m a New Yorker, so I like being in New York better. I grew up. Part of my upbringing was up there in Massachusetts, so it was nice to experience that again. And you know, obviously Harvard’s an amazing institution, but no, it’s not even close. I went in YU was undergrad John. That’s the cool part. I mean, I’m

5:12 talking to young people now who are literally exactly sitting like I mean literally sitting where I was sitting when I was a student, the same building, you know, in the same classrooms, and I’m teaching graduates and undergraduates, but particularly when I’m talking to the undergraduates, I’m like, it’s an amazing feeling to go full circle and come back

5:31 to your alma mater, which you know, when I was a kid at NYU, starting at age eighteen, I had no idea what life would bring. And the one thing I knew was, you know, I loved New York deeply, and that love just grew year up year. But I never imagined back then I’d be mayor one day. And

5:50 you know, who knows maybe one of the kids I’m talking to him in one of my classes will be mayor one day. So that’s a it’s an amazing feeling to help the next generation. And I’m i gotta tell you, John, I’ve seen a lot of energy, idealism, a desire to serve.

6:06 I thought I might confront cynicism. I’ve actually seen quite the opposite. I’ve seen a lot of very very sincere young people who want to be part of solving these big challenges we face.

6:16 Speaker 1 Harvard is going through a well is it a change in life or whatever you want to call it, where people at Harvard seems, you know, and you you said you are pro Israel, it seems to be more pro hamasd th pro Israel. You actually went there, you spend time here, give us the posts and how you see this?

6:46 Speaker 2 Well, John, I understand why you raise it, because there have been some student groups who, you know, I think would really really inappropriately seem to be backing what Hamas did, or at least not condemning it the way they need to.

7:02 You know, even if someone who says, oh, I want a different future for the Palestinian people, well start by condemning the horrid disgusting terrorism of Hamas that was inhumane and should never be considered an example of anything about the Palestinian people. So I would say to anybody out there who says they care about Palestinians, start by condemning

7:24 Hamas and what they’ve done, and then you can talk about, of course, whatever else you believe. I think some of the groups of Harvard haven’t done that, and I, you know, because I still have a connection there. I also joined and signed on to a letter that a number of organizations at Harvard sponsored to say we don’t accept this,

7:42 we don’t accept any form of terrorism, and we don’t accept that. The environment on the campus includes organizations that somehow don’t think it’s necessary to see us all as human beings. That if Jewish lives are being destroyed and children killed in front of their families, that that that, you know, somehow that doesn’t need to be spoken to.

8:06 Of course, it has to be condemned. But I would say to you, John, I don’t. I don’t think the groups that have had the wrong position out of the majority by any stretch. I think they’re unquestionably a minority at Harvard. I think the key thing in all American academic institutions is to speak up and the leadership just

8:24 to stay very clearly we condemn this terrorism. We stand by democracy, and Israel is a democracy. There’s you know, a lot that needs to be done in Israel going forward. And I’m still I’m still a believer in the two States solutions, and I’m someone who has a strong critique of what Yahoo has done, particularly lately on these judicial changes.

8:48 I think you got to protect democracy in Israel. That’s part of what makes Israel so strong. But you know, you can have those political differences and still say, let’s let’s defend the state of Israel no matter what, because of what it means in the world. It’s the only refuge that the Jewish people have after you know, millennia

9:08 of being under attack. Israel is absolutely necessary. Now let’s do the work of peace. But that can’t involve horrible terrorists that we’ve seen in these last days and the.

9:24 Speaker 1 Great divide we have in Washington. I mean, he doesn’t go back to the days when well Bill Clinton and now Kingridge didn’t like each other, but they did a good job for a country. But right now, what the heck is going on in Washington? And how have we fixed it.

9:45 Speaker 2 You know, it’s very difficult to watch this because it’s not the America that we all know, and it doesn’t you know, what a strange thing, especially in the middle of this crisis in the Middle East. You know, here’s America.

9:56 We can’t elect a speaker of the House of Representatives. That’s not America. This is something a bigger problem we got to solve. You know, I will say, you can imagine I’m not someone who’s necessarily a big fan or friend of Kevin McCarthy or Mitch McConnell, but both of them did show the ability to work with Joe Biden

10:15 to come to some agreements on some things. We’ve actually had some really important bipartisan legislation like the Chips Act and some of the infrastructure work, and clearly on the budget process. You know, until this recent uprising by a very small number of extreme right Republicans, you know, there was still some kind of motis of NDE going on

10:36 in Washington to get some things done. But I think in the end, John, what gives me hope is that really extreme group within the Republican Party. They are still a very small group. I you know, obviously have some big disagreements with the message of the Republican Party of today.

10:54 I don’t think it looks like the Republican Party of the past by any stretch. But you look at the individual members of the House and Senate, a lot of them are people who are trying to do serious work and trying to be reasonable. And if it weren’t for this just handful, you know, business would be going on

11:12 and going forward. I think the solution is going to be a political one. I think the American people are going to look at this we discussed and they’re going to respond to it in the election next year and then and the bigger question is until we correct this dysfunction and this strange you know, inability of people to

11:30 work together, you really almost always need to have the three branches, you know, the House, Senate or not. You know, I should say two branches of Congress and the Presidency.

11:42 Speaker 1 We actually have four branches. We have the Congress, the Senate, the Executive Office, and the Supreme Court.

11:51 Speaker 2 Yeah, and I’m saying if to get anything done nowadays, you need you need House and Senate and Presidency all on the same party. Realistically, until the day that people restore some of the normal ability to go on. I mean, John, you and I I like to remind people in a good way, we actually were in the same election from

12:09 mayor together and we were right. We were not only civilized, we’re friends. You know.

12:15 Speaker 2 It’s like we we like each other. We can hang out, we can talk. It’s like, it’s not that I don’t know when it became this thing that if you disagree with someone, you still can’t be their friend or their neighbor or agree on the things we agree. I mean, there’s stuff you’ve done, the work you’ve done with the

12:30 police Athletic League, for example. You know everyone should applaud that. You know, God bless you for helping so many kids. You know, there’s plenty of examples, like I could disagree with you on an issue but still say, I’m really thankful that you’re doing such good things for the city.

12:45 Why we got to model that, We got to show that that’s the way it should be in Washington.

12:49 Speaker 1 Also, we should all walk together towards having all you’re doing the day in the old wan O Reagan and tip o’meals and having beer at Chicks o’clock after the day’s work.

13:04 Speaker 2 Have a big, great meal at the end of the day.

13:07 Speaker 1 Okay, we’ll do that, sir, Well, Mayor Bill de Glacio, the one hundredth and ninth mayor of the city in New York. Thank you for your input and we’d like to have more discussions in the future. And and good luck and everything you do. And thank you for helping the people in New York.

13:27 Speaker 2 That’s really kind of John. I look forward to more conversations, and thank you for always having this kind of dialogue because you are showing people the way it’s supposed to be. It gives us a little bit of hope. So thank you for that.

13:41 Speaker 1 Thank you. Dialogue is important. And have a good weekend, and hope there’s no war in Israel. Amen, Amen, God bless