Earlier today, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo was a guest on MSNBC's PoliticsNation with Rev. Al Sharpton. 

AUDIO is available here. 

A rush transcript of the Governor's interview is available below: 

Al Sharpton: I'm joined now by the Governor of the State of New York, Andrew Cuomo. Governor Cuomo, thank you for being with us. First of all, tell people nationwide, and you and I have debated and we've known each other 35 years since both of us were toddlers - no, we were grown but we've known each other that long - why I've said this is some bedrock stuff. A lot of groups for many years have been pushing for some of these things. You and I have talked about it for years, even some of the progressive groups for the last several years. But now you've signed it into law. Explain what those bills are and then I want to go into your executive order which raised the bar as far as I'm concerned that I did not even expect to hear when I went to the bill signing.  

Governor Cuomo: Thanks, Reverend. Good to be with you. We have known each other 35 years and I understand that you're more fit than you were 35 years ago. I just don't know how we started out the same age and you became younger than me after 35 years. Look, God bless you. You have been arguing this case for a long time. Rodney King was 30 years ago. Abner Louima in New York, 23 years ago he was brutalized. Mike McAlary won the Pulitzer, your friend and mine. 

Why did it take so long? I don't know but we're here now and I believe you making that argument, you standing up every time there was an injustice, we hit a critical mass and the nation rose up with Mr. Floyd. We now have to seize the moment because you're exactly right. It's demonstration, legislation, reconciliation. The point of the demonstration is for change and the change comes when you change the laws and this is the moment we're in and I want to make sure we capitalize on the moment and New York can be the laboratory for this. We have that energy. People want change. What is the change? Let's show them in New York. 

We passed what's called repeal 50-A. It's a new transparency for the disclosure of complaints against police so you'll get the full file of a police officer when he's accused or she's accused of doing something wrong. Now that can either exonerate or it can implicate. If there were no other charges that would work to the police officer's benefit. If there was a pattern of charges we'd know that also.  

We legislated that the Attorney General is a special prosecutor if there's a police killing and you know I had done that by executive order five years ago but now that is part of the law. So we're making dramatic legal changes that should have been made frankly 30 years ago. No chokeholds. I mean, Eric garner, we went through that tragedy six years ago. Why did it take so long? I don't know. But we're here now. Capitalize on the moment. Carpe diem, seize the day, seize the moment. Carpe momentum. And we've done that by changing the laws in New York and we signed that into law this week. You were kind enough to be there.  

Al Sharpton: Now the thing that also impressed me and you're right, we've dealt with these laws while I was with you when you announced the giving the Attorney General by executive order special prosecutor five years ago, but now it's law. It's not just an executive order. I remember Jonathan Moore the attorney, Donna Lieberman, attorney, Mike Hardy and others dealing with you for a long time about 50-A, and a lot of other groups that have come in. One of the things that strikes me is on the Left you're going to have people arguing about who should get credit rather than making sure we're monitoring in force, and on the Right you're going to have unions that are going to be angry at you or thinking you went too far. But it's getting the job done. But you went a step further. You said you want every mayor of every city and police chief to come up with a plan on how to work with the community around these issues or you'd withhold State money and I think this is something other of the governors, 49 others to be exact, ought to really look at. Explain that executive order because I think this is something totally different and it's backed up with money. 

Governor Cuomo: Reverend, I'm excited by this moment. As I said I'm sorry it took so long to come. I'm sorry so many had to suffer and so many had to die. I applaud you for your continued advocacy over all these years. But now we're here. Let's seize the moment. You asked Martin, and good to see him, by the way, even if on this video,where do we go from here? I think the point about the Kerner Commission - take a fundamental look at society. Justice only works if we have full justice, social justice, economic justice and racial justice. I think that's right, but short term in this moment what can we get done? Reform the police. Reform the police. The outrage has been expressed. People are ready to change. Government is ready to change. But the art form is and do what? What we're saying in New York is every local government, you have to reinvent your police department. You have to sit down at a table and redesign it in a collaborative. Bring in those protesters, bring in those activists, bring in those civil rights people, sit there with the police department, bring the mayor, bring the city council and redesign the police department now in this moment. Take into consideration everything we've heard. We want to demilitarize the police. How do you do that? Use of force policy, how do you do that? End bias of policing, how do you do that? More diversity. Okay, how do you do that? That's the art form, turning the energy into action and what we said in New York is every local community has to do that. The city has to do that. The mayor has to be at the table. The city council president. You have nine months. You then have to pass a law instituting that plan and if you don't do it then you're not going to get any State funds. Because why? If you don't have an incentive sanction they're not going to do it. This is a hot potato. The politicians don't really want to deal with it. They'd rather do these press releases, stop tear gas, stop rubber bullets. It's a more fundamental issue than that. You want a different police force for the year 2020. Design it and design it now so we don't lose this moment which has been too long in coming.

Reverend Al Sharpton: The President and others in the Republican Party have yet to really address this. I understand Senator Tim Scott is supposed to do it and Martin III just said we need to have bipartisan focus on this. Here's Tim Scott, Senator from South Carolina, this morning on Meet The Press signaling the Trump Administration's response to this moment. Watch this.

Senator Tim Scott: The executive order that will come out I think on Tuesday really does reference a national database, strengthening a national data base, police misconduct from my understanding. It also talks about the importance of co-responders from a mental health perspective. 

Reverend Al Sharpton: Shouldn't he look at the blueprint that you've just done with these four bills and executive orders to go further than just having a database? We know there's the problem, to just certify and put the numbers to the problem is not moving toward government solving the problem.

Governor Cuomo: Reverend, we know what they're going to do. There's no secrets left with this administration. We saw the President's response when he staged that photo op and he had the military kick out the protesters so it didn't get in the way of the camera lens. They're not going to do anything. I don't even know what that means, a national database of bad cops. What is a bad cop? What are the rules? What do you want the police to do? What is the use of force policy? How do you demilitarize the police? That's what we have to find out first and we have to do it now. This moment is so precious, right? When do we actually make change in society? When the planets line up. When did we get gun control in the state of New York? After the Sandy Hook massacre because people stood up and said enough is enough. That's when change comes. People are standing up and saying enough is enough now. Great, seize the moment and make the change. But literally redesign the police department community by community. Because the New York City police department is one type of police department. Suffolk County will have other issues. Erie County will have other issues. Buffalo, Mayor Brown, God bless him, he'll have other issues to address. But make them do it now while we have the moment and we have the energy. And that's how change comes. 

Reverend Al Sharpton: All right, Governor Andrew Cuomo, again, thank you for being with us. And again, we've known each other for years, I won't tell everybody that your father, Governor Mario Cuomo, told me Chris was his favorite son and that your oldest daughter said to Chris that I'm her favorite TV show. Good to be with you, Governor.