Transcript: Mayor Mamdani Appears on MS NOW’s Connect With Jacob Soboroff
Zohran Mamdani on NYC Mayor's Office transcripts.
Passages
You know, what an incredible night. What an incredible morning. I'm doing great. How are you?
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceYou know? I went to sleep at 3.45 a.m. And like most New Yorkers woke up asking myself: “Did that really happen”?
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceYes, yes. That's where I was and I think it was the same thing no matter what part of the city you were in. People have been waiting for this for 53 years and there have been so many heartbreaks, so many near-misses, so many years, every year, where we've told ourselves it's the year and for it to actually happen now? I mean, there's nothing more we can ask for as New Yorkers.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceIt's honestly a beautiful thing. And I think I was reading a piece this morning that really wrote about it quite beautifully, where it said that oftentimes, this kind of unity comes in moments of tragedy. And to see it coming now in a moment of joy, it's something that I've never seen before across our city, where the nation's largest city has become what feels like the world's smallest town, where everyone is thinking and hoping and praying for the same thing. And now, here we are, and we're just pinching ourselves and asking: “Is it real”?
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceWell, first and foremost, as a fan, I'm always hesitant not to jinx anything, but as the mayor, we do have to prepare for all the logistics. So, thanks to the team and partners at MSG as well as at the NYPD. This work has been happening behind the scenes just in case we were to win Game Five. And we're going to have a parade on Thursday. And it's going to be a parade that has a ceremony at City Hall. We'll be presenting keys to the city to the Knicks team. And then it will be the first ticker-tape parade in Knicks’ history, where New Yorkers will be able to celebrate a moment that has feels like we waited an entire lifetime for, because when it comes to people my age and a little bit older, we have.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceI haven't met him, but he is a New Yorker whose words have really stayed with all of us. Thanks to him, there are a lot of people who have just been running up to me over the last few weeks, just shouting at me: “My mayor's Muslim!” I said: “It's true. I am.”
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceIt truly is. I think it speaks to just what this city is and even this team. It's not just a cookie cut out of the same thing again and again. It's every single player having a role, bringing together all of the five boroughs for this moment. It's truly a joy.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceIt was amazing. We were able to deliver 1,000 tickets at the cost of $50 each with free round-trip travel, and to sit next to so many New Yorkers who had dreamed of this day. I was sitting next to a woman who showed me that she had posted on Facebook eight years ago that her dream was to go to the World Cup, and thanks to this raffle, she was able to do so. And I think that's just — it speaks to what we want sports to be. I mean, even when we're talking about the Knicks. We don't want sports to be a luxury commodity. We want it to be something that every person can see themselves in and be a part of. And to sit next to those New Yorkers who have long been waiting for this moment, it was one of the best moments that I've ever had.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceYou know, I think it's actually not too unrelated from the conversation we were just having. This is a moment of such excitement and joy as part of a reflection of the city as being a place where everyone is welcome, everyone is a part of it. There's a room for everyone to see themselves not only in the past or the present of the city, but also the future of the city. And these kinds of threats, as you've said from Tom Homan and the federal administration, they're not new and neither will our response be. We continue to be proud of being a sanctuary city. We continue to be ready to stand up for our immigrant neighbors and we continue to be ready to use every single tool at our disposal. And I've said to the president directly that I believe that ICE raids are cruel, and they do nothing to serve in the interest of public safety. And I do believe it's a rogue agency that should be abolished, because we need an approach to immigration in this country that has more humanity at the heart of it. And right now, in this city, humanity is what we are showing, by and large, across the five boroughs. And it's something that we're going to keep showing in our response to the federal government as well.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceYou know, we've heard threats time and again, I'm sure we'll hear more of them. We treat every single one of these as real things to be responded to, but we will not be backing down from our laws or from our values.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceWell, I think at the heart of it was a recognition of the fact that the affordability agenda cannot be won alone. If we are serious about transforming the nation's most expensive city into one that's affordable for the people who build it each and every day, we're going to need partners at every level of government. And when I looked at these three candidates — Brad Lander, Claire Valdez, Darializa Avila Chevalier — in each of them, I saw someone who would champion the working person that is often left out of these conversations entirely. And what I'm seeing in the campaigns that they're building is the kind of conviction and the kind of clarity that is oftentimes missing in not just our politics, but even in our party. You look at Brad's campaign and how he's building one to make it clear that, no, we're not going to let a billionaire buy an election. When you look at Darializa Avila Chevalier's campaign, [she has] a track record of having freed New Yorkers unjustly detained by ICE. And when you look at Claire Valdez — [at] a moment where working people are being pushed out of our city to have someone who rose up through the union whose focal point and focus is on the working person — to have that as a champion in Congress. It's more than any New Yorker could ask for.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceI gotta tell you, most of my focus is right here across the five boroughs. That's where I've kept it with my endorsements thus far and beyond that, all I'm really thinking about is the ticker-tape parade on Thursday.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceThank you my friend. Great to see you as well. ###
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the source
Every passage above is taken from this recording: NYC Mayor's Office transcripts, Transcript: Mayor Mamdani Appears on MS NOW’s Connect With Jacob Soboroff.