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Maybe we made a real commitment here at Bloomberg surveillans that we would speak to the mayoral candidates. We're now in the habit of repeating conversations. We spoke earlier to Andrew Cromo, of course, the former governor of the state of New York. This for the mayor's race and a vote in November. Governor Cromo, thank you so much for joining us again at Bloomberg this morning. I'm going to cut to the chase. I talked to my number one advisor,
Martin Schenker this morning, decades of five borough experience. Here's his question, how do you get the younger voter. You've got the older voters in the outer boroughs, You've got a lot of Manhattan voting for you, Andre Cromo, how do you get the younger voter in this election?
Yeah, I know, it's a very good question. And thank you and good morning. Thank you for having me in the primaries. You had a tremendous vote of the under thirty, which is really a national phenomenon. They're highly energized. It started as a political movement that was anti Trump. It's now further energized by socialism, income equality, and this situation in the Middle East, Gazam. But my point to the under thirty years look, I agree with your statement of
the problems. Yes, affordability is a major issue. Yes, your rent is a major issue. But the solutions being offered by Assemblyman Mamdani are not real solutions. The answer is not freezing the rent for four years. Economically, that doesn't work. Landlords are not going to subsidize buildings, They'll walk away from buildings. So yes, the problems they have identified are care wrecked. Know the solutions offered by Assemblyman Mam Donnie will not solve the problem.
Governor, what is your path to victory? As you sit here today, can you still win if Mayor Adams does not drop out.
In a multi candidate race, Yes, you can theoretically win. The math is much more difficult. I think reality will set in at one point because the existential threat is I think Assemblyman Mam Donnie as Mayor of New York and many Democratic leaders feel that the business community feels that people feel that this is a radical form of socialism, socialism economic socialism in New York City, which is the art of business and corporate America. And how does socialism
work in New York City? How do you have a socialist city in a capitalist nation? The Assemblyman is anti police, both for defunding the police, dismantling the police. Said the police are wicked and corrupt as an institution, said the police are racists. How do you provide public safety? How do you recruit police officers? How do you keep police officers? If that's your position visa VI the police? So he
is the threat. You have several candidates who are now running, and senior Democrats have said, look, when you get to September, the strongest candidate should go forward one on one to try to beat Mam Donnie, and the other candidate should defer.
And I've agreed to that.
I said, if I'm not the strongest candidate in September, then i will defer.
Well, Governor, with a little bit of hindsight, Now, well, what is Mamdani's success in the primary? Tell you about the New York City electorate right now.
What it says is, first, you did have an aberration in the primary turnout. You had an explosion of this under thirty that actually distorted the turnout that's why.
The polls were all wrong.
Right, The polls all had me way ahead fifteen to twenty points. They did not account for this aberration in the turnout, which was the under thirty year olds who voted it an extraordinary historic proportion. Everyone else voted sort of at the same level of turnout except the under thirty, and he had connected with them very well on social media TikTok, etc. That we expect to continue in the general. But what happens in the general is you have a
much larger universe of voters. Right, It's not just the activist Democrats in a primary small universe. It's moderate Democrats, it's Out of Borough Democrats, it's older Democrats, it's independence, it's Republicans. So it's a much much different universe that you're drawing from.
Andrew Cromo, with this former governor of the Empire State, we welcome all of you across the nation. On the way you listen to Bloomberg Survey and that's good morning across Canada, around the world as well and on YouTube. We greatly appreciate your interests this of the mayoral race a vote in November. Governor, I want to get into the nitty gritty here wonderful questions from our Bloomberg News team.
Yesterday at Saint Bartholomew's Church, there was an inter denominational service, including Father and riqu Salvo from Saint Patrick's Cathedral to try to pick up the pieces of again violence in New York. Every conversation is what are we going to do to halt slow Christian of the New York Police Department, what's the Cromo plan day one to get more NYPD on the street and in the cars.
Yeah, it's a very good point. Public safety is job one right. Affordability is a major issue, no doubt, and there are other issues percolating, but public safety is and always has been the foundation. Nothing works without public safety. And crime is up. Some crime levels, some categories of crime are down, but crime overall is up and.
People feel it.
Yes, two interrelated issues in my opinion, to get the police back, and you have to get them back. We have We don't just have trouble recruiting police right now. Historic issues. Back in the day, you would take a test to become a police officer, you'd score on the test, you'd wait two three years to be called. We can't now fill a class and the attrition rate is very high.
They're leaving at higher rates than ever before. Why Number one, the salaries, and I've called for increasing the starting salaries. Starting salaries about sixty thousand dollars. I would do a retention bonus by the end of the first year, an additional fifteen thousand, because literally our salaries are not competitive.
But second, they've also been demoralized. You know, in this city, like many other cities across the country, you've gone through a period the past five six, seven years where this socialist faction of the Democratic Party has become dominant in these big cities, and they have demoralized the police.
Right.
Literally the statements I read you from a semblyman Mom d call people corrupt and racing.
Okay, nicely, governor works nicely, explained Paul, and I have talked to all the different candidates. But you carry a heritage, someone say, a baggage of your actions your father of a time that many people remember is being safer. What are the actions Andrew Cuomo will take to build that morale and to get to pay from an absurd sixty thousand day one up to where it should be.
Yeah, it's I think two steps. First day, one, raise the salary. It will have a practical effect, you'll be more competitive, but it will also say to police, I value you, I believe in you. And the second factor is I will have your back. As mayor. The relationship between the mayor and the police is very important. The police are out there every day day, they're risking their lives. It's inevitable that they're going to wind up in a controversy. They have to know that the mayor is going to
have their back. And right now they feel alienated from city government and that has been going on for a while. You go back to Mayor Deblasio, they literally turn their back at a police funeral. I'd never seen that before, but that was the symbolism of the NYPD saying we feel alienated and you're making us the enemy when we're not the enemy.
We're actually the good guy. Yep.
Governor, your donors, your supporters, the donors that's back to you in the primary. Will they continue to back you in his general election?
Yes they will.
What they're looking for is the same thing everyone is looking for is what is the path forward?
Right? You do have a multi candidate field.
Everyone is petrified about electing a socialist who's anti police, who they feel will bankrupt New York City. Right, if your anti business, what makes you think the businesses.
Are going to come here, let alone stay here?
If you're anti police, what makes me think that you're going to make the city safer? If anything is going to get more dangerous. So everyone is afraid of that happening. They don't yet see the path with both Eric Adams and myself and as a Republican, and that's why the path has to be one of the candidates whoever is not stronger, drops out one on one. I believe I beat the Assemblyment, but you have to get to that point.
When is that point? Is there a drop that date that you believe from a political perspective that either you or mayor Adams needs to make that decision.
Look, you're in August now, everyone is doing whatever they do. September after Labor Day, people get serious about it, and I think you get to mid September and that's going to be the let's call it the drop dead date where you're going to have to winnow down the field or people will think there is no way to beat the assemblymen. And then there'll be just a resignation.
I look into Chromo, I'm forget get in folks nationwide and across New York City. Good morning, Bloomberg eleventhree H Andrew Croomo with us here really after very difficult ten days for the city, looking forward to the election in November, Andrew Cromo within, as Paul correctly mentions, the drop dead date and all that, you got to.
Go out and speak to people.
There was a time, and you're old enough to remember that time where with your father's process or your early process, there were methods. What's the modern method to reach people in New York City, particularly those young people that you've got to grab.
Look, it is all all about social media. The number, the percentage of under thirty who get in news from TikTok is overwhelming. It is just incredible. Frankly, you know, first of all, news from TikTok to me is a sort of question about concept in general. But it is all about social media, especially for the under thirty, and that is something that I'm now focusing on very heavily.
And yes, I'm moving around the city. I'm doing all the retail if you will, and the traditional media, but it's social media.
Look at and post got a whole Let me get one more question and Governor and Andrew Paul rather as a whole series of good questions. I was standing outside the Waldorf and Okay, I'm one of the haves folks, and I'm looking up Park Avenue at the renaissance of this city. Or I can drive out across a bridge to LGA and I'm looking at the renaissance of this city, or the tunnels. Paul going to be here in a couple of years, and I'm looking at the renaissance of
this city. Why are those young kids so upset if we seem to be building and burgeoning like maybe three other cities in this nation.
Ah, that is the great anomaly, that is the New York City. IC, I see a city of great potential and great progress. LGA for those of people who don't pick up the acronym. We have a new LaGuardia Airport. Finally, Laguardie Airport was the worst airport in the United States of America. Joe Biden made that famous comment about if you were blindfolded, do you think you were in the third world country. We built a brand new airport which
they said was impossible. It was not rated, by the way, the best airport in the United States plugged for New York City shamelessly, new Moyni hand train station, new Second Avenue subway, new Shirley Children Park in Brooklyn. We were attracting AI technology. This city can really be poised to take off, and that's exciting. And the problems we have a road manageable. You know, this is not a post nine to eleven period. It's not COVID. It's what they
were all operational issues. You have a public safety issue, higher cops. We've done it before. We have an affordable housing problem. Build affordable housing. We've done it before. You know, we know how to do these things. Under thirty. This is more theoretical and ideological. We want a socialist society. Affordability is not just affordability for them, it's overall economic equality. You shouldn't have billionaires and people who can't afford enough
to sustain the family in a reasonable way. So it's an ideological dispute. The Middle East and Gaza is very big in that issue, and the assemblyman talked more about Israel and Gaza than he did public safety and economic development. You would think he's running for a position in the United Nations more than running for mayor.
Yep, but that's their interest. Governor.
A lot of folks are saying that you had your chance to beat mister Mumba in the primary, you did not. Why not let Eric Adams get his turn? How do you respond to the.
Well, Eric Adams had his turn right. Eric Adams was mayor for four years and New Yorkers have said they are unsatisfied with what he has done as mayor. He's had a string of very serious scandals and corruption issues. And then Mayor Adams was indicted, as you recall, and then President Trump dropped the charges for Mayor Adams conditioned on Mayor Adams cooperating with President Trump. And for Democrats, that was the kiss of death. That made the mayor
of New York the puppet of President Trump. And that was the mayor putting his self interest over the people of New York. And that's why the mayor dropped out of the primary. Right, he was in the Democratic primary, and he dropped out because he wasn't competitive. And in the general election, seventy percent of the voters are Democrats. So if you're not competitive, with Democrats, you're not competitive, and.
Tokomone time for one more question. I had the clearest memories is up in western New York of a gentleman from Italy talking about his grandparents. His parents, I should say, back in the nineteen tens, literally in fear of quote unquote being picked up after the entrance, whether it's Ellis Island or wherever. Right now, we're picking up people in these five boroughs as reports day after day. How would you handle this city as a sanctuary versus a Trump administration?
Oh, you have to fight it every step of the way. Look, I think President Trump, I think he has gone too far. When he there's no doubt that the illegal immigration was an issue, and he identified that and he ran for president on it and you won. He has gone too far. If you're talking about dangerous criminals, Americans support New Yorkers support you. We're not going to harbor criminals. If you have a personal committed to dangerous crime, a serious crime,
deport them. But when you start picking up people who have been in this city, who are working, who are families, they've been here for years, they're paying taxes, they're taking jobs that nobody else wants to take. By the way, they're working in the back rooms of restaurants, the landscapers, they're doing manual labor that no one else can do. And you're disrupting families, and you're doing it without any
due process. And by the way, you're making mistakes, you're picking up people who are here legally and putting them on a plane. You've gone too far. And that's what the sanctuary city laws are that basically due process guarantees. And I passed the sanctuary law for the State of New York as governor. The City of New York has a city law on top of the state law.
And it's just.
Andrew, we're out of time. Governor Cuoma, thank you so much for being with us today. We're looking forward to speaking to you on the road to November