Mayor-Elect Zohran Mamdani Discusses Affordability and Transition

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2:30Ben Meiselas:Oh, the MAGA Republicans are losing control and they are collapsing right before our eyes on various live TV appearances, whether it's Speaker MAGA Mike Johnson saying that what's really just confusing the American people is that the MAGA Republicans have so many great messages on affordability. They just got to be a little more focused. That's what they're going with. they're too good on affordability really that's what you think your play this clip president trump's going to pennsylvania tuesday i believe to talk about his economic agenda ahead of the midterms do the republicans have a messaging problem with affordability uh no it's just that we've had so many things to message i mean it's a blessing and a curse the big beautiful bill was aptly named because there was so much in it so much policy and there were so many things to message all at once so you had different republicans out talking about different things which they need to do in their districts, but it made it appear as though the message wasn't unified.

3:23We are

3:23Ben Meiselas:laser focused on affordability, bringing down the cost of living. Then you've got MAGA Republican Congress member Hardopolis, and this guy's like, of course we're winning this issue. Why do you think Republicans keep on winning? You're not? Okay, here play this clip. You know, the Democrats in California went to the extreme. We're just trying to keep up with them at this point. But that said, I'm glad to see the Texas maps are finally in place. I think that will give an opportunity for us to keep the House. But we're going to keep the House, in my opinion, because we are the ones addressing the issue of affordability.

3:54The Democrats, their answer for affordability is higher taxes and going back to the Biden era policies, which completely failed us. And so I'm a lot more optimistic about next year than most. Again, we won in Tennessee by a decent margin, but we're going to do much better next fall because people are going to feel the tax cuts that we passed back in July.

4:13Ben Meiselas:And you've got MAGA Republican Congress member Jason Smith on CNBC, where the MAGA host Joe Kiernan, he's like, all right, you guys have like a health care plan. I'm trying to help you here. Do you have a health care plan? And watch what MAGA Republican Congress member Jason Smith says. Play this clip. There's things that was Mike Johnson. Is he saying that they have a plan as the speaker? Yesterday, he said that we're working on a plan. Okay. I'm wondering, Andrew, what do you think? Andrew, you got any? you're doing great really yeah who i'm not i'm trying to be down the middle i see trying to blame both sides but it is it is blameable on both sides well okay he's not going to really say anything he's just going to you're going to say what he said is that what you're saying what he you're looking at me saying what he said exactly okay we got to go uh mr chan we hope we hope you come back yes concepts of a plan folks concepts of a plan and then donald trump Trump goes in front of the Christmas tree lighting at the White House.

5:11Ben Meiselas:He's like, we've done it. Everyone's thriving. Inflation has vanished. Americans are doing great. Stop saying affordability. Play the clip into our country. Nobody, not one. Our economy is thriving. Inflation has stopped. Our nation is strong and America is back bigger and better, stronger, better than ever before. Think of it. And we're making peace all over the world. with settling wars at levels that nobody's ever seen before. Eight of them. We're looking for one more. That's Russia, Ukraine, if that's possible. And I think we'll get there eventually. Last. Next up, you have Donald Trump's national economic advisor, Kevin Hassett.

5:52Ben Meiselas:And Kevin Hassett's asked by Fox State Regime Media. They're like, OK, well, you know, like lots of people view the economy is not doing good right now. What do you say about that? Hassett here. Watch this. Let's take a look at a couple more polls. This this is this one shows on a scale of excellent, good, only fair or poor. How would you rate economic conditions today? And if you combine only fair and poor, you get 76 percent on that poll. And then we have who is more responsible for current economic conditions, President Trump or President Biden. And we have Trump at 62 percent. So, you know, I know that we've heard from you.

6:26We've heard from Scott Bassett saying that things are going to feel very different in the beginning of the year. And everybody hopes that that's absolutely accurate. And we look forward to that. But, you know, what would you say to people who are answering the survey that way, Kevin? Right. Well, one of the things that we've seen and we've studied over the last couple of weeks is that when there's a government shutdown, then the things that we economists call the soft data, the survey data, tend to really, really tank because everyone's in a terrible mood because Washington can't work and the government shut down and they're worried about how bad it's going to be.

6:56But the hard data are what do people actually do with their lives, with their pocketbooks? And so, for example, we just saw the best Black Friday ever. You know, people went out getting ready for the Christmas holiday shopping season, feeling very, very optimistic about the economy. As we go into next year, don't forget that all the people who have no tax on tips, no tax on Social Security, who are going to be able to deduct the interest on their car loan if they buy a car, all those things are kicking in big time as we go into next year. That's why Secretary Vessant and I are both very confident that we're going to be looking at growth in the four numbers for the first half of next year.

7:29Ben Meiselas:And then Fox keeps pressing him here. And they're like, these are troubling numbers, like jobless claims over one point one million in 2025, up 54 percent since the past year under former President Biden, now up 54 percent. Do you think that's good? He's like, ah, that's just the Democrat shutdown. Here, play this clip. With that last number that we just heard from from Grady Trimble that says that year to date job cuts show an increase of 54 percent. That that that seems like a troubling number. What's your take on it? Well, don't don't forget that there's hires and there's fires. There's separations and new jobs.

8:14And so net job creation for the year is very positive. but you know, the flow of jobs in and out is a little bit higher. There's a little bit more turnover. A lot of times that could happen because people feel like they're actually able to get another job if they leave this job.

8:29Ben Meiselas:And then even Maria Bartiroma from state regime media, she's perplexed. She's like, how is it that Democrats have been able to take over affordability? How are you guys screwing this up? Anyway, here, play this clip. I just think all of a sudden the Democrats have found a way to get affordability stick to their brand. And Kevin, President Trump came into office with this priority of getting inflation down. Let's not forget, we were at 40 year highs under Joe Biden. How is it possible that the Democrats have been able to rally around this this word affordability and make people think that that's what they're focused on and not what the Republicans are focused on going into an election year?

9:10Right. You know, it's just what happens sometimes when, you know, one political party has a lot of the media echoing what they're saying. But the bottom line is, look back at the thing that you just mentioned, the fuel economy standards, that Joe Biden's team was set to say that it had to be 51 miles per gallon on average for cars in America. We went around D.C. and went to car dealers and said, what's the highest gas mileage car you have? And the most efficient car we found was 36 miles per gallon. It was a Honda. And so that means that under Joe Biden's America, in just a few years, there's no internal combustion engine car that can be produced in America that meets their standards.

9:49And so what they did then, when you didn't meet their standards, is they hit the car companies with billion-dollar fines. And those billion-dollar fines, of course, were passed through as higher prices for cars for Americans. So there's lots and lots of things that we could do to reduce the problem of affordability. But the affordability problem was 100 % created by the Biden administration with their runaway regulation and their runaway inflation.

10:13Ben Meiselas:And finally, you have Kevin Hassett saying the following, look, we're making progress, but you just got to give us a little more time. No one ever said that we were going to get this done on day one. Really, that's literally what you all said. You all said you would decrease the prices on day one. That was the promise. Some might call it fraud. Here, play this clip. Under Joe Biden. And so we're making progress, but it's going to take a little bit more time to get the hole that Biden dug to be completely filled. But we're going to do it. We're highly confident we're going to do it. And the numbers that you and I have been talking about this morning highlight why people should be so optimistic that we'll be successful.

10:50Absolutely.

10:51Ben Meiselas:And now I want to bring in New York City Mayor-elect Zoran Mamdani. See, all these people are trying to copy him. But, you know, you got to walk the walk and not just talk the talk. And they say imitation is the best form of flattery. But when it comes to these MAGA Republicans, it seems that they're just trying to further defraud the American people. This is an interview that I conducted with Zoran Mamdani, New York City's mayor-elect yesterday. You'll notice I'm at my home yesterday. And right now I brought my family to take a little bit of a break. So that's why there's a different location.

11:26Ben Meiselas:But here's the interview I did with New York City mayor-elect Zoran Mamdani yesterday. They say that imitation is the best form of flattery, but not all imitation is authentic. A lot of people now using the word affordability, but you got to walk the walk, not just talk the talk. In New York City, Mayor-elect Zoran Mamdani, who we've got here is walking the walk already during this transition period. So I got to ask you, Mayor-elect, awful lot of people talking about affordability right now that we're not talking about it when you started in the primaries, huh? You know, I think it's always something to celebrate.

12:04The more that politics becomes about the people that have so often been forgotten, the better that we all are for it. And I think what we've seen is that cost of living as a crisis is not something that's just unique to New Yorkers, though we do live in the most expensive city in America. It's something that people are feeling across the country. And I think the question of housing, of groceries, of utilities, of childcare, of even public transit, it's something that people are looking desperately for an answer to. And And that's what we're focused on.

12:31Ben Meiselas:Look, I want to get into what you're doing already in terms of rent freezes, in terms of making the transition period more transparent. But I just I'd be remiss if I didn't ask you at the outset that photo, you, Donald Trump, FDR right behind him. It seemed like you got Trump to embrace the legacy of FDR, which is part of the legacy you're bringing to Manhattan. Well, you know, I appreciated when the president offered to give me a tour of the cabinet room and pointed out the portrait of FDR. I asked if we could take a picture there and explain that this was the legacy of politics that I was looking to build on in New York City and that my favorite mayor in the history of our city is Fiorello LaGuardia.

13:15And you can't tell the story of LaGuardia without the story of FDR and the story of the New Deals. And it is a story of a federal government and a municipal government working together to deliver on an affordability crisis that was threatening to push people out of their homes. And I see that very much as the lineage of politics that we're looking to belong to.

13:34Ben Meiselas:Let's talk about the kind of surgical steps you've taken already during the transition period. Talk to us about the rent freeze announcement, why that's significant, and why that's one of the first things rolled out during the transition. Well, the key part is that we have about 8.5 million people who live in New York City, about two and a half million of those live in what are called rent stabilized units. And the city sets their rent increase or lack thereof every year through a board called the Rent Guidelines Board, has nine members. Each one of them has been appointed by the mayor. And so today we had a hot chocolate rent freeze event where we were telling people that while the temperature is dropping here in New York City, one thing that's been rising over the last four years have been rents and that the current mayoral administration has raised those rents by more than 12 percent.

14:21What we're going to do is freeze those rents and we're going to do it because the median household income of those tenants is sixty thousand dollars a year. The annual profit of those landlords is 12 percent. There's room for that relief. And it's time to actually make politics relevant to working people's struggles. This is one of the key places to do it.

14:38Ben Meiselas:When do you think people in the boroughs are going to start in Manhattan and the boroughs are going to start feeling it? You know, I mean, so, So, you know, now this is, you know, you do the hot chocolate, you know, you got to corral the people, though, and get them to go along with the, how long does that process take and what does that look like? So the decision around a rent hike or a rent freeze is made every single year on an annual basis. And so the next opportunity will be next year at the Rent Guidelines Board to make that case. And I'm confident of our ability to do so. And what New Yorkers will actually be looking forward to is predicting that their rent the year after is the same as their rent this year.

15:15And, you know, rents are already so expensive. But what adds to so much of people's anxieties in New York City is not even knowing what the rent's going to be and whether they can actually afford to stay in the place they're currently calling home.

15:26Ben Meiselas:You know, what's been interesting watching even just the early stages of your transition is that you've opened it up to the public. it's often shrouded in these like transition boards where the billionaires donate the money and they do the big balls and, you know, it's a lavish affair. And you've democratized it, you've brought it to the people. Talk to us about that. And I think the feedback's been overwhelming in terms of the response in this with like, what, 70 ,000 people have said, can we help? Can we work for you? What can we do? Thank you so much, man. I mean, it's all part, as you're saying, of an effort to demystify government.

16:09I mean, there are so many New Yorkers who did not even know that there was a transition period that was not publicly funded because understandably, many had expected that there would be public funds for the work of preparing for a public-facing administration. And yet what we find is we have to raise this money ourself. And yet what we're trying to do though, is as you said, raise it in a very different kind of way. We are looking to make it just as much of a mass movement as we made our campaigns, whether the primary or the general. I'm proud to say we've raised more than two and a half million dollars from more than 29 ,000 donors with an average donation of less than a hundred bucks.

16:44And that's in stark contrast to previous mayoral administrations whose average donations would be something along the lines of a thousand dollars or$2 ,000. And it's kind of like you said, so many donations coming from very few people. And we're looking at a very different approach to this. I think the key here is you want to build a city government that is accountable to the people, that is delivering for the people. And like you said, we've already had 70 ,000 people apply to be a part of that city government. It's an incredible thing to see.

17:11Ben Meiselas:And talk generally about this new model of government. When the transition ends, what should people expect kind of right away that's going to make this look different than any of the mayors who have come before you or build upon some of the things that you liked? I remember your great debate answer. You said, look, I can surgically take the best of different mayorships, but not take the worst. Right. We can do that as well. Yeah, I think it's showing a little humility that there are those who came before you who have had ideas that you agree with. but it's about building on those and then delivering the ones that New Yorkers have often been denied.

17:47And when the transition ends, the opportunity to deliver begins, where our administration will start to take office on January 1st. And the focus is going to be how can we move as quickly as possible to start to fulfill this affordability agenda? And one thing that I've found is people often look at Washington and the speed with it, which, you know, it sometimes is taking action on an agenda that many of us have deep criticism and concern about. And sometimes we confuse that speed as if it is only possible with that kind of an agenda. But in fact, you can have that kind of a speed with an agenda that is looking to fight for working people as well.

18:23And that's what we're going to try and show.

18:25Ben Meiselas:What can people do who are watching this who want to be helpful right now? How do these 70 ,000 people get involved? Or how do these 29 ,000 people get involved? What can people do who want to embrace this vision and actually get involved and do stuff? Well, I think the key thing is to come to transition2025.com. It's where you can both submit an application if you're looking to be considered for a job in city government, and also where you can donate whatever it is that's possible for you, whether$5,$10,$50, whatever you have in your pocket that you're able to give. It is money that hires staff that are able to vet these appointments to make these hiring decisions.

19:03It pays for the office space. It pays for the basics such that we can put this next month to use where we are actually interrogating our policy proposals, creating implementation plans and ensuring, like you said, we hit the ground running on day one.

19:16Ben Meiselas:Anything else you think that's not getting enough attention, either part of the transition or that you're thinking about that you want people to be more focused on now, especially as we're heading into a new year? You know, I think one thing that I've been reflecting on is that oftentimes when we win elections, we tell people now to go home and just to trust us. And I think the message has to, in fact, be that we want you to come along with us. We want you to be part of this politics beyond just the ballot box. And that's been something we've been looking to share with New Yorkers, which is that your participation in democracy, it extends beyond Election Day.

19:50And we want to not just win with New Yorkers, but also govern with New Yorkers. And that will mean really infusing city government with a different kind of an outlook and changing what we even think of as public engagement, where we are really trying to ensure that i am not seen as a movement in and of myself i'm seen as a messenger of a movement that continues to grow across the five boroughs of the city well we appreciate you joining us it was