Transcript of Remarks: Governor Cuomo Delivers Remarks at Linden SDA Church
Cuomo Joined By Pastor Keith Albury, Senator James Sanders Jr., Assemblymember Alicia Hyndman, Councilmember Selvena Brooks-Powers
Government is not about talking. You're supposed to make a difference in somebody’s life. They're supposed to know that you were there. And they’re supposed to be able to say, “My life is better because of this. Government did this for me. It touched me.”
- Governor Andrew Cuomo
Video of Remarks Here
Photos of Event Here
Governor Andrew Cuomo, candidate for Mayor of New York City, delivered remarks at Linden SDA Church, joined by Pastor Keith Albury, Senator James Sanders Jr., Assemblymember Alicia Hyndman, and Councilmember Selvena Brooks-Powers.
In his remarks, Cuomo emphasized the need for real leadership and government that delivers tangible results. He urged voters to support experienced, effective leaders in the Democratic primary who can address public safety, economic opportunity, and quality of life—reminding them we are a nation of immigrants and that the stakes are too high for inaction or inexperienced leadership.
A transcript of remarks below:
Thank you very much. Good morning, Linden family. Good morning. Pastor Albury, thank you so much for having me here today.
Did you see that little shuffle that was just done there between the Councilwoman and the Assemblywoman and the Senator? One comes up, then the other one comes up, then the other one comes up. That's a legislative tactic. That’s what they used to do to me. One would come in, then the other would— they'd have me so confused at the end of the day I’d say, “Whatever you want, whatever you want, I will sign.”
But it’s my pleasure to be here. First, you are blessed with a great delegation, and you have them all here today. The Councilwoman Selvena Brooks-Powers—she is a dynamo and she is fierce, and she's fighting for you all the time. Assemblywoman Alicia Hyndman—she is extraordinary, and it was my honor to work with her in Albany, and she's always fighting for you. Senator Sanders, who is in the Senate, which can be a difficult body to get things done—his guiding hand has really helped get a lot of progress made. So let’s give them a round of applause. Thank them all for being here.
For me, this is being back home. The Cuomos are from Queens. We didn’t move very far. My father was born in Jamaica, Queens, to Andrea Cuomo, an immigrant—poor Italian immigrant, came with no language—dug ditches.
We’re from immigrants. We're all from immigrants. And we should remember that. Mario Cuomo was born in Jamaica. They made the big move up to Hollis. That was their big move. A mile and a half. They moved uptown from Jamaica to Hollis. They were all excited about it. That was progress. That was the American dream. And then my father moved a block and a half away from my grandfather, and that was that.
So it is a pleasure. It is a pleasure to be back. And as you heard, we have a Democratic primary coming up. Let me be concise with you, because you have more important things to do.
A Democratic primary is a time of introspection for Democrats, right? It’s when we look in the mirror and we say, who are we as Democrats? What do we want to be? What did we do right? What did we do wrong?
We just lost to a fellow named Donald Trump—the national election. I don’t believe Donald Trump won. I don’t believe there’s a great outpouring of support: “I want to go out and vote for Donald Trump.” I think Democrats lost—not that Trump won. And why did Democrats lose? Two reasons.
Number one, we lost connection with who we are. We lost connection with our people. We’re not talking to the issues that matter to the working women and men of New York. We’re talking about a lot of concepts, but not at the kitchen table. We’re not at the kitchen table with them talking about their issues—their mortgage, their education, crime, taxes—what they’re dealing with. And the second reason is the Democratic Party forgot that you are supposed to deliver something at the end of the day. You know, my father, Mario Cuomo, was former governor. His whole thing was: what did you produce? What did you do?
Government is not about talking. You're supposed to make a difference in somebody’s life. They're supposed to know that you were there. And they’re supposed to be able to say, “My life is better because of this. Government did this for me. It touched me.” And the Democratic Party lost that point of view.
On the disconnection point, this is a quote from my main opponents—a fellow named Lander and Mamdani—on safety and disorder: “I want to acknowledge that some progressives, including myself, were slow to respond to the growing sense of disorder and the increase in crime, and slow to respond to the mental health crisis.”
And then a whole bunch of quality-of-life issues like mopeds, and illegal weed shops, and retail theft. And those issues are really cultural. They are what people really feel. How the heck do you lose connection with crime and with quality-of-life issues? That is what everybody is dealing with all the time, you know?
And that’s that ivory tower Democratic mentality, where they’re not on the street and they don’t have the same feel. And that’s what has happened to the Democratic Party. And then in terms of making a difference: my main opponent for mayor—two-term assemblyman—passed three bills. Okay? Alicia Hyndman passed three bills by mistake. Alright? Three bills is nothing. He has five employees. You become Mayor of the City of New York—300,000 employees. Never worked with the City Council, never worked with Congress, never worked with Donald Trump, never negotiated with a union, never negotiated with the legislature. No experience. But you know what? They don’t even think about that, because they don’t even understand that there is a function to the government—that you're supposed to know how government works so you can actually make it work.
It is a complicated machine, and these are difficult times. It’s not easy out there. You have Mr. Trump. He is serious, like a heart attack. I dealt with that man when I was governor and he was president. He is serious and he is dangerous. Sending troops into L.A.—he did this back in 2020. He sent troops into Cleveland, sent troops into Chicago, sent troops into Detroit—cities all across the country. You know the one place he didn’t send troops? New York. You know why? Because he knew if he sent troops into New York, he was going to have a problem with me and you. That’s why he didn’t send troops into New York. But he is serious. They pulled a U.S. senator out of the Senate yesterday, put him on the floor, and dragged him out like they found him convicted of murder. Today, there was a representative in Minnesota who was shot to death. It is frightening out there. And this is not the time for an amateur. This is about real life and making a real difference.
I understand what is going on out there. I understand how government works because I’ve done it all my life. I learned it at the kitchen table with my father. I was HUD Secretary for Bill Clinton—did housing and urban development. I was Attorney General. I was Governor. I don’t do a lot of things in life. I don’t play golf. I don’t dance especially well. But I know government, and I know you, and I know how to make a difference for you. And I know how to protect you. And I can promise you this: I know these are dark days, and I know there’s a lot of reasons for despair, but we can still do great things, and we can still do big things.
And the Councilwoman was mentioning them. We’ve done things that are hard, right? We’ve done things that they put off for years, because government is very good at making plans. I was in a mayoral debate the other day. Everyone has a plan. “I have a plan for this. I have a plan to build housing. I have a plan for this.” Yeah, I know. Everybody’s got a plan. But you know what happens with those plans? Nothing. A lot of trees have died for a lot of plans, but there’s not a lot of progress. It’s about knowing how to get things done.
They had a plan for 30 years to replace LaGuardia Airport. We got it done.
They had a plan for 25 years to replace JFK Airport. We got it done.
They had a plan to replace Moynihan Station in Manhattan. We got it done.
Second Avenue Subway—we got it done.
Kosciuszko Bridge—we got it done.
Upstate New York—we redid all the airports in Upstate New York.
We’ve been talking about raising the minimum wage to put more money in people’s pockets. We raised the minimum wage to the highest level in the United States. And we’re going to raise the minimum wage again, if I’m mayor, to $20 an hour to put money in people’s pockets.
We can make college more affordable. We can raise the MWBE goal so we get more wealth into minority businesses and women-owned businesses. We can do these things. We have great capacity when we are smart and when we work together. If you ever doubted, just remember what we did during COVID.
That was a time and a place. We had never been there before. No one knew what they were doing. Then they said, “You have to test every person in the state.” Who ever heard of things like that? How do you test 18 million people? Where do you even start? What do you do—tell everybody, go to the CVS? How do you do that? And then you had to vaccinate everybody in the United States. Then you had a health pandemic. And we were on our own. President of the United States: “Drink Clorox. Drink Clorox. COVID won’t kill you.” No, the Clorox will kill you. Who do you think you're talking to? We were on our own. But you know what? We came together, we stayed calm, we rose to the occasion, and we saved each other’s lives.
We saved each other’s lives. That’s who we are. That’s what we can do. That’s what we can do with this state. We’re gonna leave this state better for our children than we found it, because that’s our legacy and that’s our destiny. And that’s what God said when He put us on this earth. He said, you leave this place better than you found it. It should be better for you having been here. At the end of your life, you wanna be able to say, “I made this place a better place.” Together, we’re going to do that.
Thank you, and God bless you.
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