Earlier today, Governor Cuomo called in to 1010 WINS to discuss President Donald Trump and gun laws with Larry Kanter.
Larry Kanter: Joining us on the live line, Governor Andrew Cuomo. What is your response to what the president said this morning?
Governor Cuomo: Well, good morning, Larry. Look, with what this president says, it's always confusing, right? Because he's capable of saying anything. First, on your first point, I think it's well taken. It's difficult for this president to now show up to these areas that are grieving when so much of the cause of these situations is hate, is anger, is this new white supremacist terrorism that is growing in this country and the president undeniably has fomented. Nobody will say that the president started discrimination and stereotype and hatred. But, there's no doubt that he has incited it. "We're being invaded by immigrants. Anti-Muslim." He has been divide and conquer; that's his strategy. And now you reap what you sow. So, it's going to be very hard for him to avoid that.
The second issue is, and the more constructive: what do we do about it? There were two elements here: one is hate, but the second is a gun. It's not just hate. The president said mental illness pulled the trigger. That was the most obnoxious political rhetoric I have heard. Mental illness didn't pull the trigger; the trigger was on the gun. It's about the gun, and we have to limit guns. And the Republicans don't want to do it. We did it in this state six years ago after Sandy Hook. It was hard, I took a political beating, frankly. But six years later we're safer for it. Legal gun owners have not been affected. And the president should; if he wants to be a leader, he should stand up and say we're going to pass sensible gun control. And if the Democrats want to be leaders, Larry, I can't even understand where the Democratic presidential candidates are. I said to them this morning very clearly: you're running for president, you're a Democrat, you want to come to New York, you want our votes, we want you to sign the Safe Gun Pledge.
Four points: no assault weapons, high-capacity magazine, universal background checks, you don't buy a gun unless you go through a background check. Mental health database. In this state, we have a mental health database - 100,000 people are now on that database — seriously mentally ill people who could've bought a gun - 100,000. And number four is the Red Flag Bill. If they want New York Democrats to vote for them, they need to agree with that. And Larry, now, let's give the American people the choice. Now you understand this is what the Democrats are for; this is what the Republicans are for. And people who actually want to make change know how to make change.
Larry Kanter: This plays in New York, but the rest of the country is not New York. How do you convince them?
Governor Cuomo: Look, New York is not even New York, right? I'm a New York City boy. Your listeners are New York City. Upstate New York, we have Republican Conservatives who are as Republican Conservative as anywhere in the country. And they opposed my passage of these gun laws six years ago, and that's why I say I paid a political price. But, six years later, you don't have a legal owner, a legal gun owner, who's come to me and said, "My right was infringed upon." Larry, I own a gun. I'm not anti-gun. This nation is not anti-gun. We're just common sense. And if a Democratic presidential candidate is not going to change gun laws, then you know what, I'm not going to support them. It's that simple. And that's what Democrats have to say. If you don't have the political courage to change the gun laws and this madness is going to continue, then I don't think New York Democrats should support them.
Well, of course, Democrats support gun control laws. I watch this as closely as anyone. I can't tell you what the Democratic presidential candidates' positions are. But, I want to know, and I want to be able to tell New York Democrats before we vote and also on your point, nationwide. Nationwide, Americans have common sense. They support an assault weapon ban. They support a universal background check. The concept that anybody can buy a gun without a background check - you can be mentally ill, and you can buy a gun - I mean, that's absurd. Nobody supports that. This has been years of this carnage. It's not El Paso and just Ohio. It was the Pittsburgh Synagogue shooting; it was San Bernadino, it was Parkland, Florida. It was Sandy Hook, Connecticut six years ago; they killed school children. It has to end.
Larry Kanter: Governor Cuomo, you've issued the challenge, and now we'll see the response from the Democratic presidential candidates. Thank you for being with us this morning.
Governor Cuomo: Thank you, Larry.