MSNBC "The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell" - Transcript: Interview with Grace Meng

Interview

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O`DONNELL: We`re joined now by two people who were there today Democratic Congresswoman Grace Meng who represents part of Queens, New York and New York State Senator Jessica Ramos, who represents Elmhurst, both were present today with the President.

Congresswoman Meng, let me begin with you. What did the President learn about the situation that he did not know before he arrived there today?

REP. GRACE MENG, (D) NEW YORK: Well, we really wanted President Biden to come see what families were going through on the ground since last Wednesday. I also want to thank my friend, Senator Jessica Ramos, she`s literally been on the ground, feeding families, helping to carve out garbage and clean out the water every single day. And he saw people cry. He saw people`s emotions, but no one complained. They were tough from the little kids to the seniors. And we wanted to show him that we need investment. We need to make sure that we are getting programs and access to the FEMA money as soon as possible.

O`DONNELL: Senator Ramos, so many of us feel that we know New York City well, but I don`t think any of us anticipated that that kind of death by flooding was even possible.

STATE SEN. JESSICA RAMOS, (D) QUEENS, NEW YORK: Well, Lawrence, East Elmhurst, the neighborhood right outside of LaGuardia Airport is one big bowl. And when flooding happens, the bottom of the bowl gets really, really bad. And unfortunately, this is actually going back 40 years, our sewage system was not capable of dealing with our population back in 2008, when he was just handling 2 billion gallons of sewage water every year.

Now, in 2018, we`re up to five gallons of water. And we`ve had to record breaking storms. This past week with both Henri and Ida. Times have changed. We need a green new deal to update our sewage system in order to update our infrastructure to handle the people who are living in our city. And make sure that we`re able to call this planet home for generations to come.

O`DONNELL: Congresswoman Meng, what surprised you the most about what you saw, and what you`ve seen in the storm damage?

MENG: It`s just been so painful meeting so many families who within just a short period of time, within minutes, saw the water come in flood their rooms, I have six constituents in my district who died and who drowned. And so, it`s really heartbreaking. We not only need a Green New Deal. We need a Green New Deal for our public schools, our transportation system. And like Senator Ramos said, our sewage system. There are too many parts of this city, a lot of these homes had previous warnings, where they were already suffering from flooding and water damage even when there wasn`t a lot of rain.

O`DONNELL: Senator Ramos, it sounds like you knew that if this storm hit in the right way, this is the kind of thing that was possible?

RAMOS: That`s right, Lawrence, we`ve been advocating for a long time for changes meaningful investments to be made in this particular part of the city. Even a few years ago when President Biden visited LaGuardia Airport, he had called LaGuardia Airport, an airport like in a third world country and we were able to update the infrastructure there. But misguided priorities have ended up with investments in air train that is really miss advised for our district.

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And, you know, what we need to do is really make an investment in how our streets are able to support our people. I mean, perhaps there are streets where we can`t support people. Our earth is telling us where there`s natural catch basins, we need to make sure that our city is helping us actually clean out catch basins, before these big storms. There`s a lot to do in terms of preparedness and making sure that we`re putting together our best practices in order to prevent this from happening again. We`re expecting rain in New York City tomorrow, we`re expecting the possibility of another storm in coming days. And so, we have to operate in this mode of urgency. And I`m really thankful for Governor Hochul. She`s come out three times to the neighborhood. She understands that these changes have to be made as soon as possible. And that`s why we need those federal dollars. That`s why President Biden`s visit today was so important. We can`t allow this to continue to happen.

You know, when Sandy hit New York, we were able to help those houses achieve the resiliency they needed. It`s time for the North Shore of New York.

O`DONNELL: Congresswoman Grace Meng, New York State Senator Jessica Ramos, thank you both very much for joining us. Really appreciate it.

MENG: Thanks so much.

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