Governor Cuomo: Trump ‘Declared War on the Cities in this Country’
On Trump’s Proposed Budget, Cuomo Says: ‘This is Going to Be a Second Battle that We Have to Win’; Cuomo Rallies Congregation in Fiery Speech at Alliance Tabernacle in Brooklyn
Because when New Yorkers are united, there is nothing that can beat us. So can we fix the city? Yes we can. Can we build affordable housing? Yes we can. Can we restore public safety? Yes, we can. Can we get those mentally ill off the streets? Yes we can. Can we fight back against President Trump in these cuts? Yes we can. Can we make this New York City better than it's ever been? Yes, we can. Are we going to take this city to new heights? Yes, we can, and will together.
- Andrew Cuomo
Governor Andrew M. Cuomo, candidate for Mayor of New York City, today delivered remarks at Alliance Tabernacle, where he delivered a fiery speech on President Trump’s proposed budget cuts to a packed congregation in Brooklyn. Governor Cuomo spoke about the drastic consequences that Trump’s budget cuts would have on New York City and cities across the country. Cuomo also spoke about how New Yorkers must fight back to protect essential funding for affordable housing, education, Medicaid, and other programs to protect seniors and others who would be harmed.
Cuomo was welcomed by Pastor Charles Galbreath in the church. He was also joined by Brooklyn Democratic Chair and Assembly Member Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn, Council Member Farah Louis, Bishop Orlando Findlayter, and District Leader Josue Pierre.
Following his visit, Cuomo delivered remarks at Mount Ararat Baptist Church Brooklyn where he was welcomed by Pastor Steven Eugene Carter. He was joined by Assembly Member Latrice Walker, Bishop Orlando Finlayter, and District Leader Anthony Jones.
A transcript of his remarks at Alliance Tabernacle appears below:
Thank you. Thank you. God is good all the time to Pastor Charles Galbreath. Let's give him a round of applause. And we thank you for everything he did during COVID, which was really extraordinary. That was a test of leadership and the pastor showed leadership. Thank you so much. Thank you Lord for the First Lady. Thank you very much for having us here to Pastor Donna Tiz. Thank you so much for the honor of allowing us to be here. As you heard from the pastor, there's a number of my colleagues who are here. First, the spiritual leader to me, Bishop Findlayter. Thank you, pleasure to be with you. We have great political leaders. We have, as you heard, assembly member Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn, who is also the Queen of the Brooklyn Democratic Party. Council Member Farah Louis is just a rising star. Pleasure to be with her, District Leader Anthony Jones and District Leader Josh Pierre.
Thank you for giving me time today. I recently made a change in my life plan. I had served for eight years in the Clinton administration. I was HUD Secretary with Bill Clinton. I was then Attorney General. I was then governor for 11 years and I felt that I had gone through my trials and tribulations and then some, I did my tour of duty and had my share of shrapnel for a while. And I was going to do something different. I rejoined the private sector. I was practicing law doing something called the vacation. They have vacations which nobody had told me about for the first part. Seeing my kids, taking it easy, doing little fishing with my brother Chris, which I enjoy because I always catch the bigger fish. Reinforces my status as the older brother. It really bothers him, which I also enjoy, which is not a good thing, but it is the true thing.
But then I was looking at what was happening in New York City and I'm worried about New York City. I'm worried about what's going on. And you can feel it on the streets. You feel the anxiety, you feel the frustration. We had 500,000 people leave New York, 500,000 who just said we can't take it. It's too expensive, it's too difficult. It's too dangerous. We are moving out and that has to stop. We're now facing a battle on two fronts. First, we have to clean our own house. We have to fix New York City. That is up to us. That's the first battle that we have to deal with. And New York City is too expensive and it is not affordable. And we have to address that. We have to get people free childcare. We have to cut taxes for the working families. And the rent is just too darn high.
And we have to build affordable housing and we have to build it fast. And we know how to do that. Building affordable housing is not rocket science. I was HUD Secretary. I did it. I did it in my twenties and thirties here in Brooklyn. We can do it. We can take those NYCHA units that are now 60 years old, take them down, build new housing, add additional housing, take those office spaces that we're not using, convert them to residential housing, go to our churches and say to our churches, we're going to use you as partners in housing and community development and empower them to do it and have a community preference for the housing we build. So we're not bringing outsiders in. We're providing affordable housing for the people who are within the community.
We can do that. We have a public safety issue. Job one is keep people safe. There was six shootings in 11 days just in East Flatbush. It has to stop. The violence has to stop. We have too many homeless mentally ill who are dangerous and you should not be on the streets. And rather than arguing to protect their civil rights, get them the help they need. Show compassion, show common sense. And there's too much frustration that people feel government isn't delivering. There's not enough progress. We don't see enough things happening. To me, government is not about a debating society. They call it public service. Service. Do something, deliver. Make my life better. Show me results, show me.
That's what it's about. It's about making a difference. Romans 2:11, God judges all equally by what they have done. You are judged by your accomplishments, not your words. It's your deeds. And that's what we have to start doing. Look, change is not easy. Change in government is hard. Change in society is hard. It's the nature of the beast, right? It’s New Yorkers, we argue about everything. Whatever the change is, we're going to argue, right? You go to change a light bulb in this town and there's going to be opposition. You change that light bulb the next day you're going to get sued by the committee to preserve old light bulbs.
Yes, that is true. But you know what? That is the job when you’re in government, that is the job. There is no major project that I undertook that they didn't curse me at the beginning, that they didn't protest, that they weren't afraid of the change. We built a new LaGuardia Airport, went from the worst airport in the United States to the best airport in the United States, a beautiful Shirley Chisholm Park on the other side of the Belt Parkway. We built a new Kosciuszko Bridge, a New Moynihan Train Station in Manhattan, new Second Avenue Subway, new JFK Airport is coming up out of the ground. Yes, change is hard, but you can do it. And that is the job. And we have to do more of it. And we have to do it faster. So New Yorkers see the progress and believe in the city and they stay with us. And they say, I'm not moving out. I'm staying here because I have a sense of optimism about the future of the city.
That's battle one. Battle two is a five letter word starts with T, and it goes T-R-U-M-P. President Trump just announced his budget, preliminary budget, what he's going to do. The budgets are important because people talk but a budget is where you're putting your money, right? And where you put your money is where your mouth is, right? And this is a president who ran saying that he was going to help the hardworking families of America. He was the middle class working family champion. Well, the only thing that's happened with the working families is everything is going up because of the tariffs, right? And what he really wants to do is give a tax cut to the rich, which is what he did the first time he was president. But when you do a tax cut, you have to find the money to finance the tax cut.
And basically when you look at his budget, what he did is he declared war on the cities in this country. Because where he's getting the funding or the services that are essential to cities, with all we have going on, what is he going to do? He's going to cut funding for affordable housing. He's going to cut Section 8. He's going to cut 202 housing, which is housing for senior citizens. He's going to cut Medicaid, which is healthcare for poor people. That's what it is. He's going to cut education aid to the poorest districts in the country. That is what he's going to do. And that's what he did the first time. And that means that we are struggling with these issues and we are going to have to work twice as hard now because we're going to have less federal money. He's even cutting funding to homeless housing and homeless services. Even though we have the greatest homeless problem across this country that we have had in decades.
I was HUD Secretary. We started a program called Continuum of Care, which gave people services and then housing. It’s been in existence for 30 years. I put it in place as HUD Secretary, won the Harvard award as one of the best programs ever. It was kept in place by Republicans and Democrats, President Bush, President Obama, President Clinton, and now President Trump is going to end that program called Continuum of Care, which is vital for us to help the homeless and get those mentally ill off the streets.
This is going to be a second battle that we have to win because we can't let it happen. And we're going to have to fight it and we're going to have to stop it and we're going to have to fight it in the Congress and we're going to have to oppose these cuts, which will only make it worse for cities like New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, all across the country. But we can do that because we have fought this president before because the pastor was talking about Covid. We went through it with President Trump during Covid. Remember when we had Covid first and worst than any place on the globe? And we were on our own and we couldn't get assistance from anyone. We couldn't get medical supplies, we couldn't get respirators, we couldn't get masks, we couldn't get vaccines. We couldn't get anything from anyone. Remember what the president said? His idea? Drink Clorox.
Drink Clorox. I promise you, Covid won't kill you if you drink Clorox. Sure because Clorox will kill you. That's what we got from the President. But we pushed back and we told him we deserve better. And we got some financial assistance but more what we did is we came together as New Yorkers. And it was a special moment. It was a matter of life and death. And that's the moments in life where you really see what you made of and you see inside people. And when Reverend Dr. Greed said, I will step up and I will make my church a testing center in a vaccine center, it spoke to who he was as a leader, as a member of the community.
And when we had to deal with Covid and we were on our own, we said, we will handle it as New Yorkers together. Because when New Yorkers are united, there is nothing that can beat us. So can we fix the city? Yes we can. Can we build affordable housing? Yes we can. Can we restore public safety? Yes, we can. Can we get those mentally ill off the streets? Yes we can. Can we fight back against President Trump in these cuts? Yes we can. Can we make this New York City better than it's ever been? Yes, we can. Are we going to take this city to new heights? Yes, we can, and will together. Thanks, God bless.
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Watch the Full Remarks of Governor Cuomo's Speech Here
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