Transcript: Mayor de Blasio Appears on MSNBC's Morning Joe

March 2, 2016

Mika Brzezinski: Hillary Clinton easily won seven states last night. She swept the South, claiming victories in Arkansas, Tennessee, Virginia, Texas, Georgia, and Alabama. And, in some states, she did it with an electorate more liberal than eight years ago. Joining us now, Democratic Mayor of New York City Bill de Blasio, who is supporting Hillary Clinton for president – John Heilemann back with us as well. Good to have you on the show. 

Joe Scarborough: It’s great to have you here. Willie and I have figured [inaudible] right?

Brzezinski: What’s that?

Willie Geist: What’s that?

Scarborough: Well, he’s going to have to support – he’s going to have to represent the Manhattan candidate, not the candidate from the ‘burbs, right?

Geist: New York City’s favorite son, right Mr. Mayor?

Scarborough: C’mon, New York values, my man.

Mayor Bill de Blasio: Let me tell you, there’s a lot of people in New York City who are more angry at Donald Trump than ever for the way he’s tried to divide this country, and it does not fit the values of the people of New York City. And it gets worse – Joe, I said – I commented on you the other day when you said it was disqualifying for Donald Trump to have to think about whether to disavow David Duke and the KKK – it’s 2016, how do you have to think about that?

Scarborough: Can I actually ask you – can I actually ask you if it’s either good for you or me if you’re quoting me?

[Laughter]

Mayor: I have questioned myself.

[Laughter]

Scarborough: I would think a lot of Manhattan voters would find that to be disqualifying. 

Mayor: I consider myself a Scarborough Progressive Democrat. 

[Laughter]

Scarborough: Oh my god –

Brzezinski: Wow, that’s almost like a –

Mayor: You could figure out that sentence. 

Scarborough: No, I really can’t. 

Brzezinski: Admission of guilt in some way –

Scarborough: Kind of circular – so, you’re a great political analyst – I’m going to go to John Heilemann in a second, who talked to the mastermind of Barack Obama’s campaign, who said anybody who thinks that running against Donald Trump is going to be a walk in the park is absolutely crazy. It scrambles everything. What would your advice be, first of all, to the Republicans who are trying to stop him over the next couple of weeks? And then what does Hillary Clinton do when he comes with the type of attacks that he’s used in the general election? 

Mayor: Well, Hillary needs a forceful, progressive, economic message, and that’s what she’s put together more and more over these last weeks. When you’ve heard her talk on these victory nights, it is a clear, sharp message of economic fairness, economic change, and that goes right to what people all over this country want. They want someone who’s going to tax the wealthy. They want someone who’s going to raise wages and benefits – that’s what she’s talking about. And her message has gotten sharper and sharper – that’s the best way to counter Trump. I think the Republican Party establishment has lost touch with the anger and frustration people feel over economic unfairness, income inequality. And what can the Republican Party say? We’ve been the party of the one percent? We’ve been the party of, you know, tax breaks for the wealthy and for the hedge funds? That’s not going to be a great message. Trump has disconnected, and his base has disconnected, so, I would argue this – the Republican Party is now in a structural crisis. Democrats actually are seeing what could be the beginning of a sustained Progressive era, and we see a lot of signs of that around the country. Democrats have to own that space – have to be bold, clear progressives on economic issues. If Hillary does that, I think she can do a great job across the country – but don’t take Donald Trump lightly. As we say in New York City politics, don’t go to sleep on Donald Trump.

Scarborough: John Heilemann, explain why – who you were talking to a couple of weeks ago – and I actually saw you guys tweet about this as well.

John Heilemann: Yeah, you know, I was talking to David Plouffe, of course, who was a kind of – as you said, Joe – the mastermind behind both of Barack Obama’s election victories, and out in Nevada at the caucuses. And Plouffe would say to me, you look – you know, I would never be complacent about facing Donald Trump in a general election. No premature victory laps for Democrats, and no licking your chops. His attitude is, as a presidential campaign manager, what you want in an opponent is a predictable opponent in two ways. One, in the way that the map is predictable – you want to know where your opponent is strong, where he’s weak, to find the battlegrounds, and then go win those battlegrounds. Trump scrambles the map. It might be that you can beat him easily in a lot of places with a lot of Hispanic voters, but in the industrial Northeast, in the industrial Midwest, which were hugely important for Democrats and for Barack Obama in the last two elections, maybe Trump’s more competitive in those places. So, he scrambles the map, and then there’s the predictability thing with day-to-day. You want a candidate, a rival, an opponent, who you basically know what they’re going to do every day and how they’re going to react in any situation. Trump – not like that. So, in a really volatile year, what you don’t want is a really volatile opponent, and Trump is the ultimate in unpredictable and volatile opponents. 

Mayor: I was a campaign manager myself. I have great respect for David Plouffe, but I would look at this a little bit differently. You want a candidate that has actually done something for people. Hillary Clinton can talk about the Children’s Defense Fund. She can talk about taking on the health insurance companies during the debate of 1993, ‘94. She can talk about a lot of actual focus on children, families, etcetera. What has Donald Trump done for people? What is Donald Trump going to say? He’s a billionaire with a very questionable business history who can’t disavow the KKK, and has insulted women, Mexican-Americans, Muslims. What is he going to say? Because when people are actually hiring a president, they want to know what you’re going to do for them. Where is Trump going to provide any evidence of the ability to lift up people? 

Giest: Well, he’s said time and again on the debate stages and elsewhere, “I’m the only person up here who’s actually hired people, who’s built companies, and has had to employ people, and give them jobs.” So, that’s part of his argument. I want to ask you though, Mr. Mayor, about this economic inequality point that you made, which Hillary Clinton talks a lot about, Bernie Sanders obviously does too, and a big part of that is railing against Wall Street. As the Mayor of New York City, somebody who does business with these companies and has to deal with the everyday – Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, and others – how do you view the role of Wall Street not just in the City, but in the American economy. Are they a force for good?

Mayor: Well, Wall Street needs reform to be what it should be in this country – I think that’s the bottom line. And Hillary said it very clearly, we cannot have a country where Wall Street can create the kind of problems that it did almost a decade ago. We need clearer restrictions, clearer balance – and that’s what her platform calls for. So, Wall Street plays a productive role if Wall Street cannot end up putting us into crisis again. And we’re still not there – we don’t have the right approach to reigning in the excesses of Wall Street to this day. And I think it’s important to say that out loud, by the way. I’ve said it to Wall Street folks – they need to be a part of that reform and that change for the good of Wall Street and good of the whole country. 

Brzezinski: Right. So, Mr. Mayor, this is an election of throw-the-bums out, we’re sick of Washington, we’re sick of the some old promises, we’re sick of them saying things but it not actually getting done on both sides of the isle. 

Mayor: Right.

Brzezinski: Having said that, and hearing what you’ve just said about Wall Street, and what needs to be done as we move forward, should your candidate relate the transcripts of the speeches that she made to Wall Street, to big banks, and received a very big check in return? 

Mayor: My blunt answer to you is I think it is much more important that she challenged Wall Street when the financial crisis and economic crisis was beginning, and I think it’s much more important that she’s saying, right now, she’s going to put additional restrictions on Wall Street that we still don’t have.

Brzezinski: But doesn’t this cut into the trust issues if we can’t see what was said behind closed doors? How do we know that will happen? Isn’t it raising that question and saying she’s got something hide – she says one thing behind closed doors and something else to the public when she’s running for office. Shouldn’t she release the transcripts?

Mayor: My blunt view is I care what she says on her platform. I really don’t care about –

Brzezinski: So, no?

Mayor: No, listen to what I’m saying.

Brzezinski: No transcripts?

Mayor: I don’t care about those speeches. I care about what’s in her platform. Her platform would reign in Wall Street excesses more even than Bernie Sanders would, and a lot of progressives have said that, and Paul Krugman’s said that. She has the sharpest platform for addressing the Wall Street crisis that any candidate’s had since the Wall Street crisis, and that’s out loud, and that’s what she’ll be held to. That’s what matters in this election. 

Brzezinski: So, no. Mayor Bill de Blasio, thank you.

Scarborough: Thank you, Mr. Mayor.