Governor Cuomo Remarks on Comptroller Lander’s Detainment
Governor Andrew M. Cuomo, candidate for New York City Mayor, responded to the detainment of Comptroller Brad Lander today following a GOTV rally with more than 3,500 members of organized labor in Union Square.
A transcript of his statement is below:
“First of all, I think it was a disgusting display of the thuggery of Trump's ICE. It was breathtakingly ugly and brutal. Then what I thought about was, this is a city official with security guards. Imagine a family. Imagine a family in a Home Depot, or a family in a school, or a family walking down the street, and you are basically attacked by these ICE thugs. What situation are they in? Right? This is a New York City official with police, and look at what they did to him.
So you, you understand why so many people are afraid and frightened for themselves, frightened to send their kids to school, frightened to drive a car, that they'll get pulled over and get taken out of the car. You can see it. It was on full display. And this is what happened because Mayor Adams turned over the keys of the city to Donald Trump.
That is what happened. ICE does not run this city. The Mayor of New York runs this city, and we don't treat people like this—American citizens—in this city. And if it wasn't for the arrangement between the mayor and Trump, you'd actually have a mayor who's running the city, rather than Donald Trump allowing his ICE thugs to push people around and abuse people's rights, which is exactly what is happening. And it's an outrage. It really is.
Now, look, I've seen a lot of things. Alright. I've been in the federal government, I've been in the state government. I've been through emergency disasters, COVID. To see federal officials act with this arrogance and impunity and brashness and violence and brutality really is sickening to me.
And again, to a city official. Imagine just a family who's not surrounded by reporters and cameras and police forces. And they should let Lander go immediately. I mean, it was just—it was one of the worst demonstrations. And we've seen plenty now, by the way. But this is just another example of what we can't allow to happen and the abuse that Trump has brought. I've lived through this with him before—Operation Legend, he called it—when he sent federal troops into cities all across the country. Now, he didn't send them into New York because I said, “We don't need them and we don't want them, and we won't tolerate them in New York.” But this is now, I believe, a direct consequence of Mayor Adams handing the keys to Donald Trump.”
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