Earlier today, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo was a guest on CNN's The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer to discuss criminal justice reform and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

AUDIO is available here.       

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

Wolf Blitzer: The New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is joining us on the phone right now. governor, thanks so much for joining us. As you know, at the same time, you're banning chokeholds, President Trump says he understands why police would want to use them on what he calls real bad guys. So what message does that send to law enforcement?

Governor Cuomo: Well, look, I think it's clear from day one on this situation. The president made his position clear, Wolf, when he had the demonstrators moved by the U.S. military. That's where he is. He walks from the White House to the church, holds up a bible. He's trying to say God and country, and the protesters are bad people, and there's no validity to what they're talking about. And frankly, the disgusting and disgraceful thing was the use of the U.S. military. But we passed today the most aggressive package banning chokeholds, turning over disciplinary records so there's transparency, we used the attorney general as a special prosecutor. And even more, Wolf, I signed an executive order that says every police department has to sit down with their community and go through a reinvention reform process so we restore trust between the police and the community. That has to happen with all 500 police departments. It has to happen in nine months, or the state won't fund the police departments, because this is not just about Mr. Floyd's murder. This has been 40, 50 years and coming. Let's be honest, and let's restore the trust, because if we don't, the police can't do their job, and the community won't feel safe. 

Wolf Blitzer: As you say, you just signed these police reform bills into law as well as this executive order saying the police must adopt these plans to reform by April of 2021 to be granted the funding, but what are the biggest goals of these measures right now? And how do you make sure that the police throughout the State of New York, the police forces, the police officers, fully comply?

Governor Cuomo: Well, we lay out the issues that have to be addressed, and they're the issues that have been percolating for a couple of decades now, right. It's the use of force, it's the militarization of the police. What should the size of the police force be, what should the budget be, where should we use civilians, how do you manage a crowd? They have to do it in consultation with the local community, it has to be passed by the local legislative body, and then it has to have a deadline by April 1. The community must be engaged. The plan must be responsive to the concerns of the community. And then it must become law by the locality. And April 1 i think is a fair deadline, nine months. So, there's nothing squishy about this process, Wolf. There's a deadline, the issues that have to be addressed. And what we want to do is take the dialogue that you're seeing on the streets and now make it productive. We did it with Reverend Sharpton, who's been involved in a lot of these protests over the years. And his expression was the right one, demonstration, legislation, reconciliation. The demonstration and the protest is not the end. It's the means to get people's attention so you can now sit down and do the systemic reform. And that's what we want to do in New York, turn it to systemic reform. 

Wolf Blitzer: You've also repealed, governor, a decades-old law that shielded police disciplinary records. Do you want those records reviewed to ensure that you don't still have any officers like Derek Chauvin in Minneapolis still on the New York State, throughout New York State police forces?

Governor Cuomo: Well, certainly the release will do that, Wolf. We redact all the personal information, home address, et cetera, so the privacy of the police officer is maintained. But the disclosure is now going to be the same as any other public service official, same as a teacher, same as any other government worker where you can get their disciplinary file and you can get complaints that have been filed against them by citizens. I understand the original rationale for the police exception but it doesn't work anymore so we'll protect their privacy but people will have a right to know what disciplinary proceedings they've gone through. And by the way the record can either exonerate or implicate. If the person has never had any disciplinary findings against them and no complaints, well, that will help exonerate them. So it will work both ways. It will just be evidentiary of the past. 

Wolf Blitzer: I want to talk to you a little bit while I still have you. I know your time is limited, Governor Cuomo, on the coronavirus pandemic and New York State. You were signing legislation today. I didn't see the people wearing masks. They were pretty close together. I know different regions in New York are in different phases of re-opening right now. Are you ready to pause or reverse the opening if you see cases going up again and we're all worried about that?

Governor Cuomo: Wolf, we all should be worried about that and we're at another frightening moment and we are in denial once again. New York State, we went from the worst situation in the nation and you remember it well, worst situation in the nation. We now have the lowest rate of transmission in the nation. The lowest. New York, of all the states the lowest rate of transmission because we were disciplined and masks and closing and phased reopening. What you're seeing across the country, over 20 states now are seeing the numbers go up and when they say it's not a second spike that's even worse because then they're saying they blew the first spike that they had the virus slow but they reopened too quickly and they reopened without controls and now you're seeing the virus spike which is just what the health experts warned and too many people said no, no, we have to reopen, the economy is more important, and now you're seeing exactly what we were warned where the virus is increasing with the activity because the reopening was reckless and that will not help the economy. Look at the Dow Jones. As soon as they know we are losing control of the virus again you are going to see that market tumble. The virus goes up, the market goes down. We have been very disciplined in New York and that's how we have our transmission rate the lowest and we're going to stay that way but this is a frightening time in this country.

Wolf Blitzer: It certainly is. I'm going to be speaking live here in the Situation Room in a little while with Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease specialist. We've got a lot of questions for him at this frightening time indeed. Governor Cuomo, thank you very much for joining us.

Governor Cuomo: Thank you for having me and, Wolf, Dr. Fauci warned exactly about this and now we're there.

Wolf Blitzer: Yes, and hopefully we can get past this but there's a lot of concern right now about what's going on and we've got a lot of important questions for him coming up. Governor, thank you so much for joining us again.