NYC NOW - October 6, 2023: Midday News

Episode Date: October 6, 2023

The man responsible for shooting 10 commuters on a subway train last year received 10 concurrent life sentences. Meanwhile, an ice skating rink is set to open at Brooklyn Bridge Park next month, staying operational until March. Additionally, following Kevin McCarthy's recent removal from his House Speaker position, Republican Representative Andrew Garbarino of Long Island joins us to discuss what’s next.

NYC, Welcome to NYC now. Your source for local news in and around New York City from WNYC. It's Friday, October 6. Here's the midday news from Michael Hill. The man who shot and wounded 10 commuters on a crowded subway train last year is going to prison. 10 life sentences to run at the same time. WNYC Samantha Max explains.

In court, Frank James apologized to his victims, then lambasted the city's mental health system in a nearly 20-minute speech. His head hung low as multiple victims described the fear and panic they felt on the subway that day, and the physical pain and psychological trauma that linger. James' attorney said her client has schizophrenia, and that he tried for years to get treatment without success. Prosecutors said he never took full responsibility for his actions, and that he lied, when he said he didn't want to kill anyone. James pleaded guilty to federal terrorism and gun charges earlier this year. This winter, New Yorkers can ice skate at Rockefeller Center at Bryan Park, and now they can even ice skate under the Brooklyn Bridge. A new rink is opening at Brooklyn Bridge Park

at the base of the structure. Glide at Brooklyn Bridge Park is opening next month and the welcome skaters every day all the way till March. It's barely fall in New York, but tickets are all already on sale for this winter wonderland, you can get them at glidebk.com. 70 with a few showers out there now, a 50-50 chance of showers this afternoon, cloudy and 72, and then tomorrow showers, maybe a thunderstorm heavy, rain at times, and the threat of flash flooding and the temperature falling to the 60s. This is WNYC. NYC. I'm Sean Carlson for WNYC. As you've been hearing on our show this week, the House of Representatives is scrambling to find another speaker after Kevin McCarthy was booted from his speakership role earlier this week, grinding the chamber to a halt.

Joining us now to talk more about what is next is Representative Andrew Garberino, a Republican who represents the South Shore of Long Island, including parts of Suffolk County. Hey, Representative Garberino, welcome to all things considered. Hi, I'm glad to be here. You were one of the representatives who voted not to oust McCarthy. Can you tell us more about why you made that decision? Well, it was a majority of the advanced majority. I think only 4% of the Republican conference joined all the Democrats in removing Mr. McCarthy from his position.

And, you know, the main reason is continuity of government. I mean, I support, I supported Kevin McCarthy. I thought he was doing a very good job. But now with a speaker, everything's ground to a, a halt in Congress. Until there's a new speaker, we can't, business can't continue,

which means that the government in 40 days or so, when the funding's up, there could be a government shutdown. Ukraine, the supporters of Ukraine and the country itself has said that they are going to run out of money to help defend itself in the next, I think within two weeks. There's no additional aid.

Anything that could be done. to secure the southern border. It can't happen now. Anything that Governor Hockel or Mayor Adams was hoping to get from the federal government to help them with the problem in New York City can't happen now. So, you know, just the fact of the continuity of governor making sure that, you know, we can take care of our constituents. And that can't happen now until there's a new speaker.

Is this something that you expected to happen or how much of a surprise was it? You know, I would always thought that, somebody, you know, one of the, some of us like to call them in our conference, the exotics, you know, the ultra extreme members, the unreasonable one, because I don't even want to say, I don't even put it on ultra extreme members, because we had a lot of those members, a lot of most conservative, a lot of most moderate voted to keep Kevin McCarthy. It was eight members, along with the Democrat that did not. And, you know, did I think that one of them would bring it up? Yes, I did, but I never thought that every Democrat would vote to shut the,

would vote along with the eight exotics to shut down the government as, as we know it right now. Nothing can move, especially with all the things that are going on. I never expected this Democrat to go on with it. I wasn't expecting the Democrats to vote in favor of McCarthy, but you know what? People vote present all the time, you know, and the leader Jeffries had said, you know, we don't want to get involved in the middle of a Republican Civil War.

Well, they did. And by doing it, they did a, which I will tell them is probably a very good political move on their part, but it was a terrible move for government. It was a terrible move for the people in the States, a terrible move for the people in New York State. So when Governor Hockel and Mayor Adams want to blame somebody for the lack of help coming from government for the problems going on in New York City, they can live. look at Leader Jeffries and the rest of Democratic caucus because they reason, along with those

eight Republicans, that all government has comfortable hold right now. What is your party's reaction to what happened been like? What have been hearing from fellow Republicans? Well, right now you have several Republicans that are calling around and trying to be elected at the next speaker. The conference will have, there's a candidate for, forum, anybody who's interested in being speaker, will have to be part of the candidate forum, which I believe was scheduled for coming up Tuesday night back in Washington, D.C. And I think a lot of Republicans want to come up with a, if it's even possible, want to come up with a speaker in that conference that can get 218 votes on the floor right away because,

you know, we want to get back to work. You know, we were in the middle of passing appropriations bills. We had, we got a CR done to keep the government funded so we could do these appropriation bills. That clock is ticking. So the longer we're messing around this, the less of a chance we have to actually to move ahead with other very important issues like government funding, like securing the border, like fighting inflation.

And, you know, so there's a big focus on coming up with a candidate who can get 218 votes on the floor right away. In our last 30 seconds here, represent. representative, anyone you see who could be a good fit for the role? You know, right now there's a lot of people, a majority leader, Scalise, he's a great guy. I think he would be very good. I know Jim Jordan's been calling around. I know, you know, Kevin Hearn, who's a member from Oklahoma, he's been calling around. You know, you have Patrick McHenry sitting there, who's acting speaker pro tem,

and you never know, speaker, former speaker Kevin McCarthy. He might be back, because he might be the only one to get as many votes. You know, it's going to be very interesting to see how this all plays out starting a Tuesday night at the candidate forum. As Representative Garberino represents the South Shore of Long Island, thanks for joining us.

Thank you. Thanks for listening. This is NYC now from WNYC. Be sure to catch us every weekday, three times a day, for your top news headlines and occasional deep dives. And subscribe wherever you get your podcast. We'll be back this evening.