Zohran Mamdani on his first priorities as NYC mayor (Full video interview)

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