Transcript: Governor Cuomo Delivers Remarks at Abyssinian Baptist Church
It’s hard. I understand that. But that is also the job of government to be willing to stand up and fight for fight and know how to make change.
Governor Andrew M. Cuomo, candidate for Mayor of New York City, joined the Reverend Dr. Kevin R. Johnson at Abyssinian Baptist Church Sunday morning in Harlem. The historic church in Harlem is one of the oldest African-American Baptist churches in the country, and the culturally rich community has been a hallmark in New York City.
In his remarks, Governor Cuomo addressed the crisis of affordability and public safety that New York is grappling with, the need for the Democratic Party to deliver on its promises for working families, and dealing with President Trump.
A transcript of his remarks appears below:
Thank you very much. Well good morning Abyssinian. It is such a pleasure to be back, just being back. My heart and my spirit, there is such a feeling of inspiration being here. So thank you all very much for having me here today. And how about that choir? I want you to know that I tried out for the choir. They didn't reject me. I've been on the waiting list, but it's been seven years. So I don’t know we're actually going to get there. We all have great memories of days gone by with Calvin Butts and great work that has been done. Let's give him a round of applause. But I'm also excited about the future and what Abyssinian is going to be and we have a great new leader, Reverend Dr. Kevin R. Johnson.
The Reverend is right. This is an important election. We face a triple threat.
First, we have to get New York City working once again because this city is in crisis. You can feel it when you walk down the street. You feel the anxiety, you feel the fear, you feel it when you walk down into the subway station. We lost 3,000 police officers because we had this new extremist group of politicians, which said, cut the funding for the police officers, so we cut 3,000 police officers and we saw crime go up on the street, we saw crime go up in the subways. By the way, Mayor David Dinkins, God rest his soul, he took over the city. We had a crime problem, he increased police by 40 percent so we have to fix New York City.
We have to make it more affordable. If you're a working family, you can't make ends meet anymore in this city. It's just virtually impossible. And it starts with the cost of housing and we have to build more affordable housing. It is that simple. Now, affordable housing isn't that complicated. This nation did it in the 1940s. I did it when I was in my thirties. I was HUD Secretary under President Clinton. We did it: Section 8 Housing, low income housing, tax credit housing, we know how to do it. What does it take? It takes a government with the experience and the leadership and the confidence to do it. And a government that is actually willing to fight to make change. Because don't kid yourself. You say, well why aren’t we making improvements in New York? It is hard to make change in New York, especially in New York City. Anything you go to do in New York City, there's going to be opposition. You go to change your light bulb in New York City and the next thing you're going to get sued by the Committee to Preserve Old Light Bulbs.
So it's hard. I understand that. But that is also the job of government to be willing to stand up and fight for fight and know how to make change. And we're also going to have to do it with a new group of partners and a new energy. And I believe the faith-based community offers an extraordinary vehicle to actually help do community development. Now, Abyssinian has done that before and has been a great force in community development. But what we have in Reverend Johnson is a really experienced and credentialed professional. He built not just the church in Philadelphia, he built a 100 million dollar student housing tower. He started a job training program that also got young people, high school diplomas. It had an 80 percent placement rate, which is just outstanding and outrageous. So he is a force who knows how to do community development. And he can open up a whole new chapter here with Abyssinian in Harlem and I'm looking forward to it. And if he can do all that work in Philadelphia imagine what he can do in New York City.
Second challenge we have to face is the Democratic Party itself. Because the Democratic Party has problems in its own house. Donald Trump did not win the election. The Democrats lost the election, that’s what happened. We had 500,000 fewer, 500,000 fewer Democrats come out to vote for vice President Harris. Why? Because the Democratic Party can pursue the ideal, but it has to live in the real. And the Democratic Party is supposed to serve hard working men and women. And this doesn't make a difference in life. Help me with my mortgage. Help me with my taxes. Help me with my safety. Help me with my child’s education. Help me in my life and what I live day to day. That's what I want from government. And I don't want more words. I want action. I want results. I want you to produce. I want you to get something done.
Scripture says that God rewards us by our words and deeds. Government is about delivery. That's why when I was in the state, I worked so hard to make a difference in people's lives. We raised the minimum wage to the highest level in the United States. Why? So you have more money in your pocket. Best paid family leave program, safest gun law in the United States of America so fewer people got killed out there on those streets. New secondary subway, new Moynihan Train Station, new Mario Cuomo Bridge across the Hudson. I named that just in case. But the Democratic Party has to get back to that, has to get back to making a difference. You want to be called the progressive party. I'll tell you what, you have to make progress if you want to call yourself a progressive. And we haven't been making enough progress.
And then the third threat is what the Reverend alluded to: President Donald Trump is a danger. I worked with him for years. I fought with him for years. I know him. He is not to be underestimated. I'll tell you something, he has gotten better between last time and this time. He's actually better at doing what he wants to do because he has a different vision of America and he wants to make that a reality and that is what he has working to do every day. And the Democrats are still trying to figure out how to deal with him, immigration, firing federal workers, threatening judges. But that's just the start of it – he's going to wind up following the money and he's going to follow the money in a way that hurts this city and state. And he's going to follow the money to Medicaid. What does Medicaid? That's how this state and city pays for healthcare for the poor and he's going to attack that. So he's a force for danger and he has to be addressed.
But even more than these programs, and even I've been there a few months, what I'd ask you to think about is that there's a common thread that cuts through all of this. Not only does the President have a different vision of reality, he has a different vision of America. And what he does is he plays on people's fears and he plays on division, and he plays on separating us, one from the other, separating us by race, by color, by creed and turning us against each other. That's how he won. By turning American against American by appealing to the worst rather than what is the best. And we have to stand up against that. We have to stand up against his exclusion, stand up against that fear mongering, stand up against that division. And we have to stand up for the opposite.
We have to say, you’re not going to divide us. Look at that flag behind you, Mr. President. There's a seal on that flag. And you know what it says? E Pluribus Unum. Every president has had that flag behind him: out of many, one. We are unified. That's what this country is about. It's about mutuality and community and caring about one another and standing up for one another. And not judging by the color of skin, but by the content of character and showing how strong we can be when we are together, and that’s what this city has to do. This city has to launch the counter revolution against President Trump. This city has to stand up and say, ‘we see a different America, we see a different reality, and we're going to stop you and we're going to stop you right here, and right now, and no one is better and stronger than the city of New York’. And that's our legacy and that's our destiny. Thank you and God bless you.
Watch the Full Remarks Here
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