00:00Whether you are a consumer, a small business owner, an employee, the DCWP has the ability
00:10and remit to stand up for your rights and to fight predatory practices across the five
00:15boroughs. I want the next commissioner of this great agency to approach their role with
00:20a track record of achievement and an agenda of imagination, someone unafraid to take on
00:26entrenched interests. And Sam Levine, that is exactly the kind of leadership New Yorkers
00:31will get.
00:37These working class New Yorkers are the very heart of this city. There is simply no New
00:42York without them. And it is time they have a city government that has their back. As
00:48commissioner for the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection, I'll make sure that
00:52every gig worker, small business owner, independent contractor, and consumer knows their rights
00:58and knows with confidence that they have a champion in the city government.
01:02Topic questions, please, or votes.
01:05Yes, I have a couple for you.
01:07Can you talk to us, Mr. Pumbani, more about the inauguration, the plans? I mean, it's the
01:11first time here, at least in New York City, we've seen like a block party afterwards. Do
01:16you plan on joining the people after you get inaugurated? And where did the thought come to do this?
01:21You know, the reason that I'm standing before you as the mayor-elect of our incredible city
01:29is because of the support, not just of those who voted for me, but frankly for those who
01:36volunteered over the course of this campaign. We had more than 100,000 volunteers. And so
01:41we wanted to ensure that as we celebrated the beginning of our administration, it was
01:46a celebration that was not simply for the typical people who would be invited to an inauguration,
01:54but in fact for everyone. And we're already so heartened by the response from New Yorkers
02:00who understand that this is not my success, it's our success. It's not my administration,
02:03it's our administration. Similarly, it's not my inauguration, it's for all of us. And
02:09I think that I'm so excited, frankly, at the prospect of celebrating the entirety of our
02:18city as we look to the work that we have to do. Are you going to join any of those New
02:22Yorkers along the party route? I currently, I do not know.
02:27Hours after October 7th, someone else saying Zionism is racism from the Committee on Legal
02:35Affairs, someone from the Committee on Worker Justice, who shared a post that said Zionists
02:40are worse than the Inquisition and the Nazis. Will the policy of your administration be to
02:47reject candidates who are actually hired to your administration when positions, when they
02:55express anti-Semitic positions or have anti-Semitic statements in the past? Are you going to
03:00automatically reject them from your administration? And were any of these statements or these people
03:04that I identified or that were identified in the report, were these already flagged or identified
03:10by your transition team? So I have always spoken out against anti-Semitism and hatred in any form
03:18and have made it clear that the commitment I have made to protect New Yorkers, to protect Jewish
03:24New Yorkers, is one that I will uphold as the next mayor of this city. And we must distinguish
03:30between anti-Semitism and criticism of the Israeli government. The ADL's report oftentimes ignores this
03:37distinction, and in doing so, it draws attention away from the very real crisis of anti-Semitism we
03:43see not only just in our city but in the country at large. And this is a team we are speaking of of
03:49more than 400 New Yorkers that we have assembled to advise on the transition. These are
03:55committees, 17 of which, that range from worker justice to the importance of the arts. And we will
04:05continue to build an administration of appointees that reflect not only our commitments but also the
04:11fulfillment of our affordability agenda. I think there's no tolerance for anti-Semitism. And also,
04:17when we're thinking about critiques of Zionism and different forms of political expression as much
04:24of what this report focuses on, there's a wide variety of political opinion, even within our own
04:30400 plus transition committee, on the Israeli government and its conduct.
04:35I was on the transition committee. I'm also a Jewish New Yorker. I have every confidence that the
04:45mayor will be a mayor for all New Yorkers. If I had any doubt whatsoever, I would not be standing here today.
05:05I have a city council member, but I have a city council member of North Carolina. I am a man of a community
05:20county council member of the state. I think that in the city council, I have a city council member of the state.
05:26It's a city council member of West Virginia levels, people members of state and state and state of state to work with
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