Gayle King: Mayor Mamdani got a sense of humor, it seems, joins us now. You haven't done anything too bad yet, you haven't done anything too good yet, so we'll give you a grade. How do you think you're doing in your first 100 days?
Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani: I'll always leave it to New Yorkers to give me the grade, but I will say that I'm proud of what the team has accomplished over the 100 days. I mean, we saw $1.2 billion secured in a partnership with Governor Hochul to deliver universal child care in our city. We held bad landlords accountable for $32 million. [We] fixed 6,070 apartments. We filled 102,000 potholes. And we did all of this while also returning $9.3 million back to workers and small businesses that have been ripped off by mega corporations.
Gayle King: Yeah, that's all the good stuff, mayor, but people talk about the promises that you made during your campaign. Three of your signature issues: universal free child care, freezing city rents, making city buses free. Promises haven't been materialized yet because the rent isn't frozen, the buses aren't free, no universal child care. And so New Yorkers are saying, "It's been 100 days, why haven't you done it?" What do you say to that? Because your campaign promises were big for a lot of people.
Mayor Mamdani: As they should be, because New Yorkers are facing a big crisis in affordability, so I'll go through one by one. We said that we would deliver universal child care. On day eight, we announced that agreement with Governor Hochul. For the first time in New York City now, we are delivering universal child care for two-year-olds. Two thousand this year, 12,000 next year, every single two-year-old by the end of year four. We said we believe that the rent should be frozen for New Yorkers who live in rent-stabilized housing. There are six vacancies on the board that determine that. We filled those vacancies. They're going to make their decision. They're an independent board. They'll make that decision this summer.
And then we said that we would speed up the slowest buses in America and make them free as well. And we're proud to say that we're already speeding up buses for more than a million New Yorkers, putting six minutes back in their pockets, which, as you know, in New York City, time is money. And we're working with Albany to make them free. And so what I would say when we look at these three main campaign promises is we're seeing the kind of progress we were told was impossible, and we're doing all of it while also accomplishing the same thing that we said we would do before even affordability, which is public safety. And that is a key part of our agenda.
Vladimir Duthiers: Mr. Mayor, I want to widen the lens a bit. After your campaign win, there were a lot of questions about whether Democrats across the country could have similar success. Do you think it's possible a democratic socialist platform can translate into something that's electorally viable in a statewide election or a national election, given that, according to Gallup, many older and rural voters still have issues with the term, with the label "socialist"?
Mayor Mamdani: You know, what I find is that New Yorkers ask me less about how I describe my politics and more about whether my politics includes them. And I think what we can see is that a democratic socialist politics is one that should be judged on its delivery, like any ideology. And what we're showing in this city is we can pursue the big things, like universal child care, and do the pothole politics at the same [time], and not just filling in the potholes, changing the catch basins, but also repaving over a thousand miles of roadway.
Vladimir Duthiers: But Mr. Mayor, presidential and statewide elections are often decided in battleground regions that do not look like New York City.
Mayor Mamdani: I'll be honest with you. Before I was the mayor, I was an Assembly member of Astoria and Long Island City. At that time, I was told that, "You could only be a Democratic socialist in Northwest Queens." Then I became the mayor. Now the next question is the state. Then it'll be - the next question will be the country. I think that this is a politics that can flourish anywhere, because frankly, there is only one majority in this country. That's the working class. And it's time we have a politics that puts them at the heart of what it is that we're pursuing and not as part of the appendix.
Gayle King: Can we talk about President Trump for just a second, and specifically your relationship with President Trump? I mean, I think you guys raised a lot of eyebrows and people were like, "We weren't expecting that," because both of you seem to enjoy that moment in the Oval Office. What is your relationship with him today? Do you talk to him on a regular basis?
Mayor Mamdani: I would say the two of us are in touch. We've had a number of meetings now in the Oval Office, and we are honest [and] direct about the fact that we have many disagreements. There is one place of agreement that we have, which is that we both love New York City. And that's, I think, something that is at the heart of every conversation we have is how can we make this city better? Because both of us have said publicly that the better the city does, the better we feel.
Gayle King: Were you surprised that the two of you seemed to get along well? Because most people thought, no way these two are going to work. No way.
Mayor Mamdani: I think in many ways it's a New York story of people who have vehemently differing views and have said many things about each other and can also still work together on the points of agreement.
Gayle King: You have vehemently different views on the war in Iran, for instance.
Mayor Mamdani: Absolutely. I'm deeply opposed to the war. I think it's something that should be opposed not just on a political level or an economic level, but frankly, a moral level. We're talking about spending close to $30 billion to kill thousands of people an ocean away while we're told that we don't have even an ounce of that money to help working-class Americans across this country.
Gayle King: Have you spoken to him specifically about that?
Mayor Mamdani: It's no secret [how] I feel about the Iran war. The president and I are very honest about those disagreements, and I'll give you another example-
Gayle King: But I know it's no secret how you feel because you've told us, but have you two had a conversation about that specific issue?
Mayor Mamdani: We've had a conversation about a number of issues, and that includes our disagreements on foreign policy. And I'll keep the frequency and the nature of those conversations private because that's the premise of them, but I will tell you that in those conversations, it is one that is driven by actually being candid. And the last time that I sat with him, I was there to speak with him about the potential of the federal government to invest in what would be the largest housing development the city had seen since the early 1970s. In the same conversation, I mentioned to him: "President Trump, [just] this morning, ICE had detained a Columbia student," I told him. And I said that this was part of a pattern of five individuals who had been detained in or around Columbia.
Gayle King: I remember that story.
Mayor Mamdani: And I put the list over to him, and then 30 minutes after that meeting, he called me and said, "I've made the decision to release her."
Vladimir Duthiers: Your administration, speaking of the president, you released a plan to eliminate racial inequity in City government, including addressing pay disparities, anti-racism training, other things. The president's assistant attorney general for civil rights called it "fishy" in a tweet. She called it "fishy and illegal." What is interesting about this is your administration is being accused of scrubbing references to diversity, equity and inclusion in this report. Did you do that to appease the president?
Mayor Mamdani: What we did is we inherited a report that had been diluted by the prior administration, one that hadn't even been released, had been stonewalled for hundreds of days. And we strengthened that report because, frankly, the truth is, and that many New Yorkers know, that we can't speak about the affordability crisis if we're not also speaking about the way it's been intertwined with the history of racism in this city. The very same neighborhoods that are being hit hardest by rises in rent and affordability are also the ones that have been overlooked by City government time and time again. So, we laid out this plan that's both a racial equity plan for how government can do better and also a true cost-of-living plan. Now, if you have federal administrative officials who are saying that this looks fishy or illegal, I wouldn't trust their barometer of what's fishy or illegal, because they've been doing a lot of fishy and illegal things in the name of the law.
Gayle King: Can we get your take on the story that's making national news of police officers, the undercover police officers-
Vladimir Duthiers: In Brooklyn.
Gale King: In Brooklyn, in Vlad's neighborhood, who you can see physically beating a man. Turns out this guy apparently hadn't done anything wrong. I want to get your reaction to this and what you think should be done. It's very tough to watch. We give everybody - we say it's disturbing, heads up, very bad. But as mayor of the city who's in charge of the Police Department, what do you say about this? You and the commissioner.
Mayor Mamdani: It is incredibly disturbing and it is unacceptable. What we are seeing on this video is the kind of behavior that should never be condoned. And I not only have made that clear, the police commissioner has made that clear. It's being investigated as we speak, because as New Yorkers see this, this is not what it looks like to deliver safety or justice in this city.
Gayle King: I know. But, you know, whenever we see video like that, that's always the line. It's disturbing. It's upsetting. I think people want to hear, what are you going to do about it?
Mayor Mamdani: These officers have already been shifted in their duty. They've already been put on desk duty. And the point of this investigation is to ensure that we get to the entire set of facts here so that they're actually held accountable. Because no one in government should be above accountability, and that includes myself as well.
Vladimir Duthiers: Mr. Mayor, before you go, Governor Kathy Hochul has been adamant about not raising income taxes on the wealthy, which is key to getting much of your agenda accomplished. How do you get her on board for what you're trying to accomplish?
Mayor Mamdani: Well, I'm actually really excited that you asked that question. Just a few days ago, the governor announced that we are going to be pursuing the city's first-ever pied-à-terre tax. This is a tax on secondary homes owned by non-New Yorkers that are worth more than $5 million. We're talking about oligarchs from across the world. And these are homes that when they're built, developers even tell local elected officials, "Don't worry, it's not going to be an increase in city services because no one's going to live here." We're going to be raising $500 million for the city directly from this new pied-à-terre tax. And it is a clear example of not only a system of taxation that has been hurting working people, but now one that will be fairer by taxing the wealthiest just a little bit more.
Gayle King: Are you still enjoying this job?
Mayor Mamdani: I am.
Gayle King: You are?
Mayor Mamdani: It's truly-
Gayle King: Would you tell us if you weren't?
Mayor Mamdani: I would blink twice.
Gayle King: Blink twice. He's not blinking. Thank you for your time.
Mayor Mamdani: You're very welcome.
