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NYC Mayor Mamdani Addresses City of New York After Taking Oath; Zohran Mamdani Publicly Sworn-In as Mayor of New York City; Swiss Police: Dozens Killed, 115 Hurt After Fire at NYE Party; Around 100 Fire Victims Hospitalized in Switzerland & Abroad; Fireworks Accidents Kill Two in the Netherlands; Fire Destroys Historic Church in Heart of Amsterdam. 3-3:30p ET

Aired January 01, 2026 - 15:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

MAYOR ZOHRAN MAMDANI (D-NY): These policies are not simply about the costs we make free, but the lives we fill with freedom. For too long in our city, freedom has belonged only to those who can afford to buy it. Our City Hall will change that.

These promises carried our movement to City Hall, and they will carry us from the rallying cries of a campaign to the realities of a new era in politics.

Two Sundays ago, as snow softly fell, I spent 12 hours at the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, listening to New Yorkers from every borough as they told me about the city that is theirs.

We discussed construction hours on the Van Wyck Expressway and EBT eligibility, affordable housing for artists and ICE raids. I spoke to a man named TJ who said that one day a few years ago, his heart broke as he realized he would never get ahead here, no matter how hard he worked. I spoke to a Pakistani auntie named Samina, who told me that this movement had fostered something too rare: softness in people's hearts. As she said in Urdu: "logon ke dil badalgyehe."

One hundred and forty-two New Yorkers out of eight and a half million. And yet -- if anything united each person sitting across from me, it was the shared recognition that this moment demands a new politics, and a new approach to power.

We will deliver nothing less as we work each day to make this city belong to more of its people than it did the day before.

Here is what I want you to expect from the administration that this morning moved into the building behind me.

We will transform the culture of City Hall from one of 'no' to one of 'how?'

We will answer to all New Yorkers, not to any billionaire or oligarch who thinks they can buy our democracy.

We will govern without shame and insecurity, making no apology for what we believe. I was elected as a democratic socialist and I will govern as a democratic socialist. I will not abandon my principles for fear of being deemed radical. As the great senator from Vermont once said: 'What's radical is a system which gives so much to so few and denies so many people the basic necessities of life.'

We will strive each day to ensure that no New Yorker is priced out of any one of those basic necessities.

And throughout it all we will, in the words of Jason Terrance Phillips, better known as Jadakiss or J to the Muah, be 'outside' -- because this is a government of New York, by New York, and for New York.

Before I end, I want to ask all of you, if you are able, whether you are here today or anywhere watching, to stand with me.

I ask for you to stand with us now, and every day that follows. City Hall will not be able to deliver on our own. And while we will encourage New Yorkers to demand more from those with the great privilege of serving them, we will encourage you to demand more of yourselves as well.

The movement we began over a year ago did not end with our election. It will not end this afternoon. It lives on with every battle we will fight, together; every blizzard and flood we withstand, together; every moment of fiscal challenge we overcome with ambition, not austerity, together; every way we pursue change in working peoples' interests, rather than at their expense, together.

No longer will we treat victory as an invitation to turn off the news. From today onwards, we will understand victory very simply: something with the power to transform lives, and something that demands effort from each of us, every single day.

What we achieve together will reach across the five boroughs and it will resonate far beyond.

[15:05:00]

There are many who will be watching. They want to know if the left can govern. They want to know if the struggles that afflict them can be solved. They want to know if it is right to hope again.

So, standing together with the wind of purpose at our backs, we will do something that New Yorkers do better than anyone else: We will set an example for the world. If what Sinatra said is true, let us prove that anyone can make it in New York -- and anywhere else, too. Let us prove that when a city belongs to the people, there is no need too small to be met, no person too sick to be made healthy, no one too alone to feel like New York is their home.

The work continues. The work endures. The work, my friends, has only just begun.

Thank you.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: We are watching New York City's new mayor, Zohran Mamdani, and his wife, Rama. As he has just given his inaugural speech, it has been a busy half day or so for the new mayor, and now the hard work is going to begin.

I want to bring in Gloria Pazmino to talk a little bit about what we just saw.

I dare say, Gloria, this may be the first time that we've heard Jadakiss quoted, I think, in an inaugural speech, but this was -- this is a moment that people are looking at far beyond New York City. What did you think about what we heard?

GLORIA PAZMINO, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's exactly right, Brianna. In fact, Zohran Mamdani focused much of his speech on exactly that. And he said that people are watching, wondering if progressives can govern. And that is, of course, such a big part of the debate that took place after Mamdani's election. Would he be able to govern this big, complicated city and deliver on the promises that he made during that campaign?

And, of course, this is the beginning of that effort. He delivered a speech that really just highlighted, you know, the beauty of New York City. People who are from New York City, people who grew up here, who work here, who have struggled here, could have seen themselves reflected in that speech. He talked about what it's like to be a New Yorker, the culture of New York, the life of New York City streets, but the fact that in the past few years, this city has become more and more expensive and more unaffordable for working-class people.

He talked about how it's working-class people who keep this city running, and his administration is going to be focused on making sure that they can feel like they don't have to leave the city that they call home. That was, of course, the same promise of his campaign. There were a few really sort of important moments during his speech. One of the moments that caught my attention was him saying, I was elected as a democratic socialist and I will govern as a democratic socialist.

And that's just important because of the politics that are attached to that. You know, there are so many critics that have referred to Mamdani's agenda as too radical, as a communist agenda and as a socialist agenda. Standing on the stage here today, Zohran Mamdani did not run away from that label at all whatsoever. And he said that he would not do so during his time in office.

Of course, the next four years are going to bring a lot, and he is going to have to balance his commitment to that idealism, that socialist identity that he has and the socialist identity that got him to this moment with governing a city in a complicated place like New York, along with all the other politics that are at play. Of course, President Trump in the White House, the federal government, the threat that the federal government has made against the city, even though the two had a pretty positive meeting just last month.

So, it was certainly an energetic speech. Also, he took the time to sort of unify everyone. He talked about how, even though there were a lot of people here in New York City who did not vote for him, he is looking forward to being the mayor for everyone. Rama Duwaji on stage, first lady of the city of New York, certainly one of the youngest, I think, in the city's history.

[15:10:04]

New Yorkers now just getting to know her as well. We'll see if she plays any sort of part. But the work begins today, and it is my understanding that we're going to be learning if Mayor Zohran Mamdani takes any sort of executive action later in the day today.

That's usually what we see from new administrations. He now has the powers of City Hall, the powers of the local government and he talked today about how he is planning to use them to make sure that the working class and New Yorkers who try and keep the city running day to day are looked out for.

KEILAR: There was a moment, as you were talking about the mayor in his remarks, talking about the people he's going to represent. It was interesting, Gloria, he mentioned people who had voted for Trump, voters who had voted for Trump in the last presidential election, who have been frustrated with the affordability crisis and who he then sought as supporters successfully. He hearkened to that, which is also something he talked about in the Oval Office when he had that very interesting appearance with President Trump. But it was interesting to hear him make that sort of overture to some Trump supporters.

PAZMINO: Yes, in fact, that was the one Trump mentioned during this speech, Brianna, and you raise a very good and important point, because it was the crossover of the Trump-Mamdani voter that really made a difference in this election. And he has talked about that very often during the campaign. And after winning the general election last November, talking about the fact that after Trump was elected for the second time, he went out to the neighborhoods here in New York that swung further to the right and talked to voters about why they voted for Trump again.

And he said that he heard over and over from voters that it was because of the cost of living, affordability, everything being much more expensive. And that's why he said he anchored his campaign to that message. So, I think making that reference here again was important, because we've seen since then how much focus there's been on affordability, on the cost of living.

And he's made this point over and over about speaking to voters about that issue. And like you mentioned, it was something he brought up during the -- that meeting with the President in the Oval Office. And from our reporting, we know that part of what Zohran Mamdani said to President Trump when he first met him was, you know, some of your people are also my people. And that was sort of a strategy that he had going in there to try and talk with the president.

We'll see what happens over the next several months. You know, budget season here in New York City is about to get started. And that's important, because that's going to determine whether or not Zohran Mamdani can actually enact many of the ambitious agenda items that he has proposed, like the creation of affordable universal child care, making buses fast and free, making sure that rent-stabilized tenants get a rent freeze. Another moment during this speech here today, chance of tax the rich

broke out a few times. Zohran Mamdani has proposed taxing the city's wealthiest residents in order to pay for his proposals. But he's got an uphill climb on that, because Governor Kathy Hochul has said that she doesn't want to raise taxes for New Yorkers. She's going into her own reelection year this year. So, that's going to be a very important and closely watched political dynamic to see if they in fact raise taxes on the wealthy or if they find another funding stream to make a universal child care happen.

You know, the cost of living here in New York City is crushing the middle class. There was a recent report by the Comptroller's Office that said that a family needs to make at least $300,000 in order to afford child care for a two-year-old. That is completely out of reach for hundreds of thousands of people who live here in this city. And that was a big part of his speech here today, making the city more affordable for working class. There was a big celebration here today, a lot of energy, people who are obviously very happy about this moment, inspired by this moment. And now comes the hard part, and that's governing, Brianna.

KEILAR: Yes, people yelling at the mayor, tax the rich. And he promised that he was going to do that to make things more affordable for the middle class. A lot going to be riding on these next few weeks and months here. Gloria Pazmino, thank you so much for the wonderful reporting there from New York City.

[15:15:02]

And we're joined now by features writer and political columnist for New York Magazine, David Freedlander.

David, you have interviewed Mamdani many times. I wonder, just first off, what stood out to you as you were listening to this speech that he gave, and what is ahead here in the coming weeks?

DAVID FREEDLANDER, FEATURES WRITER & POLITICS COLUMNIST, NEW YORK MAGAZINE: Yes, I mean, I think this was a new mayor that seems to like have not trimmed his ambitions at all. That was what was sort of most striking. I mean, this is usually a time, you know, when newly elected mayors and governors and presidents start talking about the hard work ahead and sort of back off some of their campaign promises. But that's not what we heard today. This is a guy who's full throttle on the sort of Democratic socialist project in many ways.

KEILAR: What did you think he's talking about a new era of politics? And it is interesting, he ran against Andrew Cuomo, the former governor who had, you know, a number of troubles of different categories. The outgoing mayor, Eric Adams, facing that alleged bribery scandal. What does this mean and what are New Yorkers expecting as this page is kind of turned?

FREEDLANDER: I mean, you know, he's so new and so different than, you know, every other of the one hundred and eleven or so mayors that we've had. You know, he's so young. He's so new to politics. You know, he's the first Muslim, the first mayor born in Africa, the first Democratic socialist.

So, I think it's really a way of sort of talking about, you know, politics as different than the kind of like, you know, collection of interests and interest groups that we've seen before.

KEILAR: Does he have if you can talk a little bit about kind of the machinery behind him, the folks around him, the institutional knowledge to hit the ground running, which are with what really are some different ideas and big promises that New York City voters went in on?

FREEDLANDER: Well, you know, he has hired a lot of folks from previous administrations, in particular from the Bill de Blasio administration. You know, a lot of the core team around him, though, his close aides who came from the campaign, I was with some of them earlier today and (INAUDIBLE) it was their first time entering the building. So, I think it will be a mix of some, you know, veteran figures familiar to, you know, many decades of New York City politics and government and some folks who are really just coming into this for the first time.

KEILAR: And what about his relationship with President Trump? Just a fascinating appearance. We saw them together in the Oval Office recently.

FREEDLANDER: It really was. I mean, I think that surprised a lot of people. I know it surprised Mamdani's aides. I mean, everyone is sort of, you know -- you know, battling, preparing for the new battle with the new -- with the administration in Washington here in City Hall. But, you know, Trump seems sort of receptive right now, who knows if that's going to stay the case. I think folks are expecting that that, you know, relationship will probably change, you know, knowing how Trump's moods and whims can change fairly quickly.

KEILAR: Yes, it was something to behold and quite unexpected, though.

David Freedlander, great to have you. Thank you so much on this big day.

FREEDLANDER: Thank you.

KEILAR: And we'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:22:20]

KEILAR: We turn now to breaking news on that horrific fire at a ski resort in Switzerland. Dozens of people are dead, more than 100 others injured after flames ripped through a crowded bar as many were celebrating the new year. Let's go right to CNN's Nada Bashir, who's following these developments for us.

Nada, what's the latest here?

NADA BASHIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we've been hearing updates from officials and local authority leaders with regards to the investigation. At this stage, it is simply too early to tell what caused the deadly blaze. But what we do know is at least 40 people are confirmed to have been killed in this tragic fire. At least a hundred others are said to be injured. And according to officials who spoke a little earlier in a press conference, many of them have been badly burnt as a result of the fire, which broke out at about 1:30 A.M. local time just after New Year celebrations had taken place.

And of course, this is a very popular ski resort. This is a very popular lounge bar where many would have been taking part in those New Year's celebrations. And we've been hearing from officials saying that many of the victims were quite young. But at this stage, we haven't been given any firm details on the names and nationalities of those killed and injured. In fact, we've heard from officials saying that some family members are still waiting for confirmation and they are still working on identifying all of those killed in the blaze.

But we have been hearing from witnesses on the ground with regards to the distressing scenes which unfolded in the early hours of this morning. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SAMUEL RAPP, WITNESSED AFTERMATH OF FIRE (through interpreter): There were people screaming, and then people lying on the ground, probably dead. They had jackets over their faces. Well, that's what I saw, nothing more. Then, I received videos where people were trying to get out, but they were trampling over each other, so it was hard to get out through the exit. And there were people shouting, saying, help me, please help us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASHIR: Now, we have heard from officials describing the immense response effort that was underway in the early hours of this morning and has continued throughout the day. Some 150 medical workers, 40 ambulances, air ambulances, as well working to transport the injured to hospitals around the region. And in fact, we've heard that some victims are now being transported to hospitals abroad, including to Italy, where they are set to receive specialized care. And in fact, we heard from the Swiss president thanking European allies for offering support with that response effort. But this is set to be a lengthy investigation. At this stage, no clear confirmation as to what caused the deadly blaze.

KEILAR: All right, we'll be looking for that. Nada, thank you so much, and we'll be right back.

[15:25:05]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:29:27]

KEILAR: Now to some of the other headlines that we're watching this hour. In the Netherlands, two people died in firework accidents overnight and a historic church burned down. In Amsterdam, the historic Vondelkerk Church was destroyed. You see it

here, its steeple -- famed steeple -- destroyed in a fire. Amsterdam police and the fire department there are saying they're investigating the cause of the blaze. There were also scattered instances of violence in the country as people were celebrating the new year.

And Russia claims that at least 24 people were killed yesterday in a Ukrainian drone attack on a Russian-occupied part of southern Ukraine.

[15:30:05]

CNN has reached out to Ukrainian authorities for comment on this. The governor of that area ...