00:00Let's start tonight with some breaking news that happened yesterday afternoon when federal agents
00:04descended on Canal Street, arresting street vendors who have been selling counterfeit
00:08designer merchandise for as long as any of us can remember. This is the first time we've seen
00:13major federal law enforcement activity in the city outside of arrests at immigration court in
00:18lower Manhattan. And some critics are now ringing an alarm bell, calling it a dangerous and
00:23unprecedented use of federal agents in New York City. Others say that the vendors were a major
00:28quality of life problem in the neighborhood that the NYPD had ignored. So I'll ask each
00:34of you to respond to this. How should the mayor and the NYPD have handled both the presence
00:39of the street vendors and then the federal action? We'll start with you, Mr. Cuomo.
00:44I've had a lot of dealings with President Trump. And there's only one way to deal with him.
00:48He puts his finger in your chest and you have to put your finger right back in his chest.
00:53I've actually had this situation with ICE interfering in New York before. It was upstate New York where
01:01ICE just showed up and started to take action. And I called the president and I went down to the White
01:06House and I said, that doesn't work in New York. You don't send ICE in without coordinating with
01:13our police. It's not smart. It's duplicative and it's dangerous. We don't need ICE to do quality of
01:20life crimes. We don't need them to deal, worry about illegal vendors. That's a basic policing
01:28function for NYPD, Consumer Affairs, et cetera. I would have called the president and I would have
01:36said, look, you're way out of bounds. They're way out of bounds. Call them back or I'm going to have
01:42the NYPD step in and stop them because this is not their jurisdiction. You're in the city of New York.
01:49Okay, Mr. Mamdani. ICE is a reckless entity that cares little for the law and even less for the
01:56people that they're supposed to serve. What we need to be doing here in our city is to end the chapter
02:01of collaboration between City Hall and the federal government, which we've seen under Mayor Adams.
02:07What we need to do is actually pass the street vending reform bills that have been in the city council,
02:12some of which that this mayor has actually overridden. That's an example of how we can both protect
02:18street vendors, ensure quality of life, and leave no stone unturned in delivering for the people of
02:23the city as opposed to working with a president who is looking to declare war on those same people.
02:27Mr. Sliwa.
02:29Unlike both of my adversaries, I patrol that area many times, Church and Canal. And as you said,
02:35Errol, that activity has been going on for a long time. Selling the knockoff, sometimes stolen
02:41contraband by a series of people. The local 5th precinct, they make arrests when they have, obviously,
02:49cause to do so. And they complain that they have to release them because of no cash bail, of which
02:55both of my adversaries are in favor of and I'm not. The feds should not have stepped into this
03:00situation. There is not communication between the local authorities and the feds. This is a matter that
03:06should have been left up to the NYPD. But we can't tolerate citizens attacking our federal law
03:14enforcement forces in the street because then that will just lead to anarchy.
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