RUSH TRANSCRIPT: Andrew Cuomo Addresses Queens Ministers and Community Leaders Following Major Endorsement
Key Clergy from Across Queens Endorse Andrew Cuomo for Mayor
“What our city needs now is not slogans, but action. I want to partner with our pastors and churches to rebuild New York, community by community.” - Andrew Cuomo
Earlier today, surrounded by nearly 100 community members, in a powerful show of support from faith leaders across Queens endorsed Andrew M. Cuomo for Mayor of New York City. The event was attended by longtime Cuomo supporter, Assemblywoman Vivian Cook, who joined clergy in praising Cuomo’s record of fighting for working families and the underserved.
Today’s endorsements include:
Pastor Carlton Mobley — Ambassadors Baptist Church
Pastor Gilbert Pickett — Mount Horeb Baptist Church
Pastor Wilbert Ingram — Tiberian Baptist Church
Pastor Evan Gray — Macedonia Baptist Church (Far Rockaway)
Pastor Patrick Young — First Baptist Church East Elmhurst
Pastor Akim Beecham — Maranatha Baptist Church
Bishop Calvin Rice — New Jerusalem
Pastor Francko Harris — Mount Olivet Baptist Church
Pastor Isaiah Holland — Good News Baptist Church
Pastor Victor Hall — Calvary Baptist Church
Pastor Darryl Frazier — Majority Baptist Church
Pastor William Armstrong — First Church of God and Christ
Deacon Jenkins — Merrick Park Baptist Church
Pastor John Boyd — New Greater Bethel Ministries
Pastor Robert Lowe — Mount Moriah A.M.E.
Pastor Phil Craig — Greater Springfield Community Church
RUSH TRANSCRIPT Below:
Thank you all very much. It’s good to be home.
I spent eight years in Washington in the Clinton Administration, and I was in every state in the nation. People would hear me speak and come up afterward to ask, “What kind of accent is that? Is that a New York accent?” I’d say, no — that’s a Queens accent. And it’s good to be back in Queens, and it’s good to be in Rochdale Village.
I want to thank Pastor Mobley very much — let’s give him a round of applause. Pastor Beecham, let’s give him a round of applause. And my sister, your representative who does a phenomenal job in Albany representing you, Assemblywoman Vivian Cook — let’s give her a round of applause.
The pastor mentioned COVID. I learned a lot of lessons during COVID — I think we all did. One of the most important was this: when things were at their worst and we had to figure out how to do the impossible — how to test every person in New York, how to vaccinate every person in New York — we had no mechanism. We had never done it before.
So I went to our faith-based community. I went to pastors and said, I need your help. I need you to open your churches to bring people in for testing and vaccines. We’ll send the nurses and doctors, but I need you to open your doors and bring in your community. And they did. Churches across the city opened their doors. People went there to get tested and vaccinated. And because pastors brought credibility — because people were nervous — when pastors said, this is good, this is safe, this is right, the community came together. That was a winning partnership, and I learned that lesson.
Now, we have work to do in this city. We have a lot of work to do.
We must fix the public education system. Too many failing schools are in Black and brown communities, and that is discriminatory. We must fix it right away.
We must build more affordable housing — and fast — because the rent is too darn high. The only way to lower it is by building more housing.
We must create more jobs. Too many people are leaving New York because it’s too expensive, and they’re looking elsewhere for their future.
We have to turn all of that around — and I want to do it in partnership with the faith-based community, the same way we did during COVID. That was a winning partnership, and I want to partner with pastors and churches across New York City to rebuild, community by community by community.
Now, let me also say this about today.
As you know, the federal government is playing politics right now. They’ve shut down between Democrats, Republicans, and President Trump. They’re making all sorts of threats — and they’re good at making threats.
One of those threats is against New York. We are a favorite target of the Trump administration. Yesterday, they said they were going to stop $187 million in counterterrorism funding to New York. This is funding the NYPD uses to stop terrorists — and they’re going to pull it. How ludicrous is that? You want to play politics with counterterrorism efforts? God forbid you play politics and a terrorist slips through — that blood is on your hands. That is no place to play politics.
And today they said they’re going to stop transportation funding — funding to build the Second Avenue Subway in Manhattan and the two rail tunnels that bring trains across the Hudson into New York and the entire Northeast. They want to stop those projects to leverage New Yorkers, to extort us, to threaten us.
This is who they are: dangerous people with no responsibility. They would endanger public safety by cutting counterterrorism funds. They would cripple our economy by halting vital transportation projects. I’ve seen a lot of garbage politics in my life — but this is the cheapest, ugliest tactic I have ever seen.
Well, let me be clear: you are not going to extort New York. You are not going to threaten New Yorkers. You are not going to bully New Yorkers. You put your finger in our chest, and we’ll put our finger right back in yours — and knock you right on your rear end. That’s who we are.
So we’re going to come together as New Yorkers. We’re going to lock arms. And when New Yorkers lock arms, there’s nothing stronger. We are going to beat back this Trump administration and their threats, and we are going to make this city better than it has ever been.
And we’re going to do it together. We’re going to do it the Queens way.
Thank you, and God bless you.
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