Interview with New York City's Mayor Bill de Blasio; Donald Trump Makes Waves
COSTELLO: All morning long, we are following developments from the Louisiana theatre shooting and we'll talk more about the investigation in just a minute. But for now, we have to talk about politics. So let's talk Donald Trump. He took his fight against illegal immigration directly to the U.S./Mexico border where he met with officials and spoke to law enforcement during a four hour swing. But Mr. Trump did not offer any specifics about how he would solve the issue aside from his much claim along Mexican border. Trump also address that bombshell interview with the Hill where he said he considered a third party bid is the republican party is in his word fair to him during the primary.</s>DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm a Republican, I'm a conservative, I'm running, I'm in first place by a lot it seems according to the polls. I want to run as a Republican. I think I'll get the nomination. We'll see soon enough, but I think I'll get the nomination. The best way to win is for me to get the nomination and run probably against Hillary Clinton.</s>COSTELLO: Trump went on to say that despite the controversy swirling around his remarks about Mexico, he thinks he'll win the Hispanic vote handedly. I sat down with the New York City mayor Bill De Blasio to talk about his visit to the Vatican and climate change and I'll share that with you in the next hour. But I was also compelled to ask the mayor about New York's own Donald Trump. Let's just say if Mayor De Blasio had his wish, New York would never do business with the Donald again.</s>MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO (D), NEY YORK: I don't think he represents the values of New York City. He's from here but he doesn't represent the values. Because this is a place of ultimate city of immigrants and a place that believes in including every kind of people in our society.</s>COSTELLO: But he says he loves Hispanics. He said, thousands who worked for him.</s>DE BLASIO: Yes. I mean, obviously his comments about Mexican- Americans were derogatory and inappropriate. There's been more outrage all over the country about them. So I would simply say he's gone far from his roots here because this is a city we would never tolerate that kind of language.</s>COSTELLO: Will you do business with Donald Trump in the future?</s>DE BLASIO: Not if I can help it. Look, I think he has set a very negative tone. That's even before what he said about Senator McCain. You don't have to agree with senator McCain politically to think that -- that was outrageous and inappropriate. I think Senator McCain is a war hero, period, and should be respected as such. I think Donald Trump has invalidated himself as a public figure. We will not seek out business with him and his companies. We will certainly look for other options.</s>COSTELLO: I know that your office is reviewing contracts to see if you can get out of them. Is that review complete?</s>DE BLASIO: It's not quite complete. I don't think there's a construct to get out of those contracts but we'll look for every option.</s>COSTELLO: Why do you think so many people are attracted to Donald Trump? What is it about him?</s>DE BLASIO: I would differentiate him from things he's saying. There's a subset of American people that are very frustrated about some of the reality we face. And unfortunately, try to blame. Immigrants who are not the root of the problem. We need to have a better conversation in this country. The best thing we can do for the economy is comprehensive immigration reform. It would be economically strengthening.</s>COSTELLO: Not building a wall?</s>DE BLASIO: Not building a wall. So the conversation needs to address the fact that many Americans are economically very frustrated. They have seen their families fall behind. They are looking for answers and someone to blame. Immigrants are not the problem. The problem is income inequality. The problem is the concentration of wealth and power and the fact that too many policies don't help working people. That's where energy should go. Unfortunately, someone like Trump tries to whip people up and blame immigrants as the root of the problem. They are not the root of the problem.</s>COSTELLO: He also blames politicians because he says I have enough money to do things. Nobody can buy me. I'm worth $10 billion, everybody should be grateful because I'm an independent person and I'll do what I want. I'm not controlled by the lobbyists and a lot of people like when he says stuff like that.</s>DE BLASIO: I don't know how many. I'm sure some people find that appealing. I think giving more power to an extraordinarily wealthy person would take us backwards.</s>COSTELLO: Even though he says his wealth gives him independence?</s>DE BLASIO: His wealth gives him a perspective to continue policies that have failed for the American people. He's the ultimate example of trickledown economics. He believes someone like him having a lot of wealth is the best thing for the economy. The reverse is true. We have seen wealth concentrated in fewer and fewer hands and had a negative impact on how many people are unemployed and what kind of wages they have. Trickledown economics has failed. We need a government that understands for most working people they have lost ground in the last quarter century that needs to invests in infrastructure, raise wages and benefits, focus on working families. Guarantee things like paid leave and sick leave. It's what we have been working on through an agenda. It's a platform that progressives across the country have put forward to say these are the building blocks of a more fair economy and a way to address what's become rampant inequality in this country. You saw the pole a month ago that pointed out that income inequality is deep in the minds of people across the region and across the party. They want to see a more fair economy. We who believe in a more progressive option have to make clear that folks like Trump are just going to take a bad situation and make it worse.</s>COSTELLO: If he runs a third party candidate. Will you applaud?</s>DE BLASIO: I don't practice punditry. The fact is we need a progressive candidate who will talk about the changes this country needs economically.</s>COSTELLO: Mayor De Blasio, more of my interview in the next hour in NEWSROOM but joining me now Gerald Deliernus, is the co-chair of the Veterans for Trump Coalition of New Hampshire and a marine corps veteran and obviously, he is a supporter of Mr. Trump. Good morning, Sir. Thank you for being with me.</s>GERALD DELIERNUS, CO-CHAIRMAN, "VETERANS FOR TRUMP": Well, good morning, thank you Carol and thank you for having me.</s>COSTELLO: Did you hear my interview with Mayor De Blasio that just played?</s>DELIERNUS: I did. I was kind of wishing I could be in on that conversation and debate him on a few of his subjects.</s>COSTELLO: Well, what did you think?</s>DELIERNUS: Well, I would disagree with him on the trickle down economy statement that he made about Donald Trump. And also on the effects of Illegal immigration. He lumps immigrants in with Illegal immigrants and that's a Mistake. Because legal immigrants I believe Donald Trump fully supports as I do and as I think as America does, but the illegal immigration when the first of someone coming into this country is to break our laws, that's a problem.</s>COSTELLO: I think what the mayor meant is that some Americans are looking for a scapegoat, somebody to blame their problems on. Somebody to blame the economic woes on. And right at the moment, it's undocumented immigrants and the mayor says that's not the problem. The wage gap is the problem. There are other things that factor in.</s>DELIERNUS: And he's correct on that. There are other things. But illegal immigration does effect it. I couldn't compete with companies that hired illegal immigrants that didn't pay taxes and workers comp. So you either hire illegals or lower the wages of your employees. But he is right. It isn't all illegal immigration. I would agree with him on that. Our federal government has done a terrible job of keeping jobs in this country. I blame trade agreements we got into for allowing our manufacturers to promote him to leave the country and take the jobs with him. And on that I would agree with the democrat from Ohio. She was strongly opposed to that when those deals were going through.</s>COSTELLO: Do you know of any policy that would solve the wage gap that Donald Trump has put forth?</s>DELIERNUS: Well, he hasn't released his policies as of yet. I'm sure he's still working on them and he will have the best and brightest working on that. I do know he's really concerned about our trade with foreign countries and as I am as well. We've been on the wrong end of the trade deals for decades. And what we need to do is revisit the trade negotiations we have had like the north American trade agreement. And revisit those so that we can entice manufacturers to bring those good paying manufacturing jobs back to America and employ more Americans.</s>COSTELLO: You're sounding like a democrat.</s>DELIERNUS: You know, actually, I'm hoping I sound like an American. I think we get a little too caught up on the democrat/republican to be frank with you and forget about what's good for America. What's good for American is going to be good for all Americans. We need to have a sense of fair play for Americans in general. I think that's been lost a lot in the political speech on both sides of the aisle.</s>COSTELLO: I agree. Gerald Deliernus, thank you so much for joining me this morning. I appreciate it. Still to cover more, still to come in the newsroom, the Louisiana movie theater shooting is raising grim reminders of what happened in Aurora, Colorado three years ago. 24- year-old Jessica Ghawi died in that rampage. Her participants join me, next.