Cynthia Nixon is challenge incumbant Governor Andrew Cuomo for his seat as governor of the state of New York. She sits down with Ebro in the Morning to discuss some of the issues she is running on, her decision to run, and much more.
They discussed everything from legalizing marijuana, to why she felt she had to challenge Andrew Cuomo, public housing, schools, immigration, and much more.
Here are the top 10 quotes from the interview.
Cynthia Nixon On Andrew Cuomo.
“He runs as Democrat because he’s Mario Cuomo’s son and because he’s in the state of New York,” she said. “I think he’s really Republican.”
“He incentivized the group of democraticly elected state senators to go over and vote Republicans,” she said. “He also allowed Republicans in state senate to gerrymander their own districting maps. So when he did these two transfers of power to the Republicans in the state senate he basically gave the ability to block pretty much every progressive priority we had here.”
Legalizing Marijuana
“I came out for them near the beginning of our campaign it seems like [Cuomo’s stance changed] completely and the New York department of health too. Last year he was saying it was a gateway drug, then as soon as we announced our intention to legalize it the next day he said the facts on marijuana has changed.”
Believes We Have To Invest More In Our Public Schools & In School Choice
“New York schools are the second most unequally funded schools in this country. We spend 10,000 more per pupil for our kids in the top 100 school districts than we do in our lower 100 school districts.”
Feels We Have To Stop Crimilization Of Schools Of Color
“We got medal detectors and school resource officers in the schools,” she says. “Every young person that I speak to that has them in their schools says ‘I’m told this is supposed to make me feel safe, but this doesn’t make me feel safe. This makes me feel like a criminal from the moment I’m supposed to stand 40 minutes on line in the rain and the snow.”
“These are all New York’s kids and they all should go to schools that have adequate funding.”
Creating Jobs
“You can create jobs through investment. We got billions of dollars being spent on economic development and we have little to show for it because it is going into the pockets of Cuomo’s biggest donors.”
Being labeled a socialist.
“If this is what democratic socialism is, that housing is a human right, that healthcare is a human right, that justice is a human right, that education is a human right then yes, call me a socialist. We need a sea change in our country and we need a sea change in our democratic party. Because the influence of corporations and economic politics that is nothing new…”
Past interactions with Donald Trump
“He appeared in one of the Sex in the City movies, I’m pretty sure. Also, I have two Emmys, and he gave me the first one. He looked really longingly at it. Then he handed it to me. He never got one himself. Sometimes I think if I let him have it, we wouldn’t be in this mess.”
On Calling ICE a ‘Terroist Organization’
“ICE has strayed so far from their mission. Their mission is that they are supposed to be keeping America safe right? They are literally spreading terror. So many people across the country, and across New York state live in not just daily fear but moment to moment fear that there is going to be a knock on the door, and one or both parents in the household are going to disappear. And there is so much that we could be doing in New York state to protect our undocumented people that we aren’t doing. Because of the Republicans that Andrew Cuomo has empowered in the state senate. We haven’t the New York DREAM Act, we haven’t passed the Liberty Act to stop our law enforcement from cooperating with ICE. Most importantly – this is something that I’ll do in my first week in office – the governor by executive order can expand access to drivers licences to all undocumented people.”
Cash Bail In New York
“We need to end cash bail in New York State. It doesn’t make any sense. On any given day we got 25,000 people in New York jails. 70{347b3eab01faeb3048b2b7ab2b58c469963f1a36dd9436ceff3f6050f82e3ac3} are there awaiting trial, legally innocent because they can’t afford bail because their poor.”
New York Public Housing Crisis
“It’s not just the last eight years, but the last few decades now. Not only the state, not only the city, not only the feds, have just completely underfunded, and deserted and abandoned public housing completely. We need to make an investment I think having a federal monitor here in New York for our public housing is hopefully a step in the right direction. We have to be sure that we need to make a greater investment. All of us do – state, city, federal.”
“But that what Andrew Cuomo did last time he made a major investment is that he broke it up in little parcels and doled it out to different elected leaders tso that they can bring home the bacon for their district. What it meant was there was no ability to do wholesale renovation.”
“We needed that money to be given wholesale so that we can do the most pressing issues like replacing the boilers, or fixing the rooves that are leaking, or addressing the mold, or addressing the lead paint. When I walked around in public housing and talked to peoplem I could feel it in my lungs for literally a couple days afterwards. It’s not just that it is falling down, it is a hazard to their health.”
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Watch the full conversation below.