… © 2021 Condé Nast. Now, I’ve really refrained from making that accusation because the headline is, ‘Mitch Calls Donald a Racist, Donald Calls Mitch Ballheaded.’” And, he's doing … And in those circumstances, you need well-trained police officers. After negotiating a consent decree with the federal Department of Justice, you made major improvements. “The field’s getting filled up,” he said. A number of prominent Democrats have already announced presidential bids, including Sens. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Condé Nast. Landrieu is now using the report’s results to create grants and fellowships designed to promote greater racial equity and understanding. Does it just mean only that, or does it mean something else?” Well, it means something else. Over the weekend, New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu won a triumphant re-election victory. Mitch Landrieu told audience to remember history, not revere it. In the wake of the recent hopeful upwelling, the mayor talks about small increments of progress—and how much still has to be done. Former New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu (D) provides political commentary for CNN from Detroit, Mich., ahead of the Democratic debate on Tuesday, July 30. A lot of the white people, not all of them, but many, say, “Look, I don’t have any connection to slavery. Now to the one he thinks he escaped. It took a huge investment of money. No. “You never say never because you don’t know how things will work out,” he said. now reading: Mitch Landrieu's Moment. Mitch Landrieu likes to operate in the dark and it brings to mind an old rumor that has stayed just below the surface for years. Well, I don’t like the word defunding, because it means so many different things to people. Mitch Landrieu: No. Maybe 20%, maybe 25%. Lots of other people say, “All you politicians are a bag of bad apples, but Trump is giving me what I want in tax cuts or conservative judges, and he’s giving me at least lip service that he cares about me and sees me.” I’m a little bit chastened by the fact that his public-approval numbers still stubbornly remain around 42, 43%, after everything that he’s done and how much he’s abused his power. What are a couple of the key things you heard? Senator Landrieu serves on the Board of Directors of CenturyLink, the second largest US communications provider to global enterprise customers. The point has to be to get away from the notion that you have to shoot first or use force first to that being the absolute last option. By signing up you agree to receive email newsletters or updates from POLITICO and you agree to our privacy policy and terms of service. I did think that there was nothing that we were seeing that is any different than what I have witnessed since the day I was born in 1960. In the aftermath of the 2015 Charleston church shooting, Mitch Landrieu, then the mayor of New Orleans, decided to remove a prominent public statue of General Robert E. Lee. The League of the South opposed the removal of Confederate monuments in New Orleans by the On the surface, his subject was the recent removal of four statues around the city, each celebrating the Confederacy. You can thank me for protecting you!”-Mitch Landrieu This is the same “strong mayor” that spent $40 million on a surveillance camera project that he planned to expand despite public pushback. History has set its course. I think the diversity of the protesters is good. The Landrieu’s hidden ancestry puts the removal of historic monuments in perspective. Mitch Landrieu was the 61st Mayor of New Orleans. In 1985, he earned a Juris Doctor (J.D.) But that was only the beginning. Senator (Bill Cassidy swamped her in the 2014 elections; she’s a well-paid Washington lobbyist now… The whole point of reverential monuments in public spaces is to encourage people to be like that person. Former New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu isn’t running. It is painful for a mayor to assume the operations of a government and see that 60% or 50% of a city’s budget is spent on police or jails. “I feel comfortable that the people are going to get in this race, each and every one of them are better than what President Trump is offering us for the country right now.”. Let us not miss this opportunity in New Orleans and let us help the rest of America do the same because now, see, now is a time for choosing. One of the most powerful things we heard in the African American community was, “Could we just please start with an acknowledgement that slavery was awful, and romanticized versions of it are offensive as hell? Mitch Landrieu's Moment. That is just upside down for our country. Black people get it, of course. The specific spark to the recent toppling of Confederate monuments and to the mass protests against racism and police abuses was the killing of George Floyd. The United States won. Editors’ note: This interview took place prior to the tragic New Orleans shooting that occurred on July 28, 2018.. On May 19, 2017, Mitch Landrieu delivered a speech to the people of New Orleans unlike any they, or the rest of America, had ever heard. The estimated speaking fee range to book Mitch Landrieu for your event is $20,000 - $30,000. Follow our presidential election coverage. Looking for more? And “defunding” allows the other side to paint you as extreme. Like water. Why in the world would we want our young kids, Black or white, walking by names that communicate to them that you don’t belong here or, if I would have had my way, you wouldn’t currently be capable of reading or writing? Tyler Kaufman/Getty Images for Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz. Read New Orleans mayor Mitch Landrieu's speech about taking down the city's Confederate statues. Landrieu is also a paid consultant for the Walton Family Foundation, working on projects to transform public schools in New Orleans and Baton Rouge. The disparate impact that COVID has had on African Americans is certainly part of it. You can unsubscribe at any time and you can contact us here. Why shouldn’t we use the names of our military bases to honor American heroes or people who lift us up? Cory Booker of New Jersey, Kamala Harris of California, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Kirsten Gillibrand of New York. Mitch Landrieu's Moment. Trump may be able to delay it for a little bit. First of all, most law enforcement officers show up … The battle took two years but a crane finally pulled Lee from his pedestal. So it happened once, I’m absolutely clear it can happen again. Last year the Democrat removed statues of Gens. Mitch Landrieu's Moment. 778 talking about this. When he took office, the city was still recovering from Hurricane Katrina and in the midst of the BP Oil Spill. Now to the one he thinks he escaped. I’m 60 and Anthony Fauci is my guy. Mitch Landrieu likes to operate in the dark and it brings to mind an old rumor that has stayed just below the surface for years. As her brother Mayor Mitch Landrieu applauds, U.S. Mayor Mitch Landrieu. Sign up for POLITICO Playbook and get the latest news, every morning — in your inbox. When I saw the video I was enraged, just really infuriated, about how unnecessary and how violent and how wrong that was. You’ve been traveling the South asking hundreds of people about race and their lives. degree from Loyola University Law School in New Orleans. Julián Castro, a former mayor of San Antonio who was former President Barack Obama’s secretary of Housing and Urban Development, has also announced a presidential campaign. We also had peer intervention, designed to deal with the exact same thing that the young officer needed to know who was standing next to officer Chauvin, which is, if you saw another officer violating a policy, you take action, and you would be praised for it in the department, not punished. February 12, 2019. That was terrible. Since leaving office in 2018, he’s traveled to 28 communities in 13 Southern states, leading conversations about racism to produce a detailed 2019 report, “Divided by Design.” Landrieu is now using the report’s results to create grants and fellowships designed to promote greater racial equity and understanding. now reading: Mitch Landrieu's Moment. Mitch Landrieu's Moment. Vanity Fair may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. Has seeing more statues banished left you feeling vindicated? New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu is opening up about his decision to remove four Confederate monuments from prominent places in his city. The Landrieu name is well known in Louisiana politics (U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu is the mayor's older sister.) To the extent that it means eliminating police departments, I think that’s a bad idea. In politics if you’re explaining what something means, you’re generally losing. Fall 2018, Spring 2019. Come on, white people, help us out a little here.” And I think when a lot of white people saw George Floyd laying there, they thought, “Wow. Mitch Landrieu was the 61st Mayor of New Orleans. There is no defense for having a monument in a place of reverence to a person who fought to destroy the country in order to preserve slavery. Or at least he isn’t planning on it. Former New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu isn’t running. On May 19, 2017, Mitch Landrieu delivered a speech to the people of New Orleans unlike any they, or the rest of America, had ever heard. AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File. Former New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu says he doesn’t intend to run for president in 2020, despite ongoing speculation. So that was kind of encouraging. On the surface, his subject was the recent removal of four statues around the city, each celebrating the Confederacy. The race for 2020 starts now. White people who participated really kind of rejected the notion that there’s institutional racism. Here is what The Hayride blog had to say about him in May 2017: Related Program: How much of Trump’s support do you think is just racism? All rights reserved. The Louisiana Democrat, however, noted the large of field of Democrats who are vying to be their party's nominee as a reason not to run. The war is over. It makes me sad, actually, that it took so long. Mitch Landrieu was born on August 16, 1960 in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA as Mitchell Joseph Landrieu. By Eve Troeh • Feb 3, 2014 . The Mayor who ignores his past wants to whitewash the city’s past too. Mayor Mitch Landrieu, who pushed hard for the monuments’ removal, seems to have a less than stellar moral reputation. The monuments are an example that many, many people in this country want to walk by institutionalized racism and bias and not do anything about it. Mitch Landrieu, currently mayor of New Orleans and formerly Lt Governor of Louisiana, has been mentioned as a dark horse, lurking on the edges of the political landscape. The Louisiana Democrat told CNN on Wednesday morning that he does not think he will seek his party’s 2020 presidential nomination, citing the already packed field of “great candidates.”, “I don’t think so,” the former mayor responded when asked whether he would mount a 2020 bid. Given the coronavirus, the better part of wisdom for me is to use my voice on national media platforms. And then we had to have much more robust supervision, with an early warning system so that if any officer had an innumerable amount of complaints, we would flag them. New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu has taken down four in his city because the message they send about the Civil War is "a lie," he tells Anderson Cooper. X. That, and perhaps the … By Michael Gerson. The League of the South opposed the removal of Confederate monuments in New Orleans by the Landrieu administration. Mitch Landrieu, Self: In Principle. As mayor you inherited a notoriously corrupt, violent, and hated police department. February 12, 2019. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement (updated as of 1/1/21) and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement (updated as of 1/1/21) and Your California Privacy Rights. But I’m absolutely with them in spirit. And we’re still stuck in a place that we should have gone past a long time ago. It’s going to come easy or it’s going to come hard. WASHINGTON — Louisiana viewers who tune into CNN's Democratic presidential debates this week will likely see a familiar face: Mitch Landrieu. We have to tell the real story. He is married … He grew up in the Broadmoor neighborhood of New Orleans. Vanity Fair: Your removal of the Lee statue in New Orleans helped set the stage for the wave of Confederate monuments torn down in the past few weeks. However, I am foursquare in support of reimagining police. But I do understand that I have a responsibility for fixing the results.” That number is actually moving in the right direction. Now, as the party looks to rebuild, Democrats say Landrieu and other non-establishment politicians like him could be the future of the party. The furor also helped spur Landrieu to create a nonprofit, the E Pluribus Unum Fund, backed in part by money from the Ford Foundation and Laurene Powell Jobs’ Emerson Collective to study and tackle the legacy of slavery. AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File. But let me just tell you one thing I’m sure about. — The Parallel Universe of Ivanka Trump, America’s Dissociated Princess— “No, I Am Not Okay”: A Black Journalist Addresses His White Friends— Why Bankrupt Hertz Is a Pandemic Zombie— Scenes of Fury and Mourning at the Minneapolis Protests— Civil Rights Advocate Brandi Collins-Dexter on Why Facebook Chooses Trump Over Democracy— Democrats’ Blue-Texas Fever Dream May Finally Become a Reality— From the Archive: Taking Stock of Melania Trump, the Unprepared—And Lonely—FLOTUS. How? Former NEW ORLEANS Mayor MITCH LANDRIEU's E PLURIBUS UNUM is partnering with JEREMIAH TITTLE's NEXT CHAPTER PODCASTS to launch s new podcast, "DIVIDED BY DESIGN," a look at systemic racism in AMERICA. What about defunding police departments that have failed, over a long period of time, to stop abusing civilians? This sign-up form is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Last year, the former mayor also went on a media tour for his book, “In the Shadow of Statues.”. Mary Landrieu election night. We need a culture shift, and one of the things that needs to happen is the historical narrative needs to change—all those people who tell stories about the Lost Cause, those things have to go away. Landrieu toppled a statue of Robert E. Lee. The camera and the viciousness of officer [Derek] Chauvin made it impossible for the country to look away. Mitch Landrieu with his father, Moon Landrieu, December 6, 2014 (Gerald Herbert / AP) “This particular problem has to do with a lot of things,” Landrieu said to me as we drove to Angola. What do you find that’s hopeful in the protests? I would have expected much lower. Landrieu's father, Moon, served as … To revist this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories. The only running the 57-year-old Landrieu is doing, both he and his associates insist, is running out his second term in City Hall, which ends Monday. We have bad people who are going to do bad things that are going to hurt other people. The only running the 57-year-old Landrieu is doing, both he and his associates insist, is running out his second term in City Hall, which … That number is actually moving in the right direction. A speaker and best-selling author, Landrieu is now … Landrieu’s teenage daughter, Mary Shannon, now lives at the family’s New Orleans home and attends school in the city, according to a person close to … Change is going to come. 782 talking about this. Mitch Landrieu, the mayor of New Orleans from 2010 to 2018, is the author of “In the Shadow of Statues: A White Southerner Confronts History” and the founder of E Pluribus Unum (unumfund.org). For now, Landrieu is more concerned about understanding why Trump happened, and figuring out what he is prepared to do about it. Landrieu said he believes the many candidates already in the field are better than President Donald Trump but left the door to a 2020 bid cracked open. For Landrieu, it … Or at least he isn’t planning on it. Stay in the know. Thank God. Mitch Landrieu: It's a very painful example, again, that we haven't gotten it right yet in the country. “A lot of people have asked me that. The freshest-and most essential-updates from Washington, Wall Street, and Silicon Valley. Missing out on the latest scoops? Former New Orleans mayor on 2020 run: 'I don't think I'm going to do it', Cruz says his wife was ‘pissed’ about leaked text messages, paparazzi coverage, How the White House botched the Neera Tanden nomination, Judge rips Capitol rioter’s Trump defense, McConnell to support Garland for attorney general, Bloomberg’s 2020 aides got an unwelcome surprise in their tax forms. Mitch Landrieu was the 61st Mayor of New Orleans (2010-2018). Ad Choices. Booker, too, was formerly the mayor of Newark, N.J., before becoming a senator. The Landrieu name is well known in Louisiana politics (U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu is the mayor's older sister.) The NOPD had a 39% public-approval rating when I took office, and it was 55% by the time I left. Trump demonstrated how a person that gets only 44, 45% in the right states can take the power of the presidency away from a majority of the people of the country. That’s hard to say. That happened a long time ago. Beyond Landrieu, multiple current and former mayors from around the nation have considered presidential bids, including Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, who said last month that he will not run, and South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg, who has announced that he is running. The Landrieu’s hidden ancestry puts the removal of historic monuments in perspective. NEW ORLEANS, Feb. 9, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, E Pluribus Unum (EPU) Founder and President and former mayor of New Orleans Mitch Landrieu released a new podcast series titled Divided This is the brother, after all, of Mary Landrieu, the recently-deposed U.S. It holds all of us back, not just African Americans. And this whole wave of white nationalism that has been given amplification through the president’s office has taken us to a place we had not been before. Voters In New Orleans Give Mayor Mitch Landrieu 2nd Term . I never say never, but at this point in time I don’t think I’m going to do it.”, Landrieu’s national profile grew most notably in 2017, when he delivered a passionate speech in favor of removing New Orleans’ Confederate monuments, earning the attention of former President Barack Obama. Given your experiences with the New Orleans Police Department and your recent work on racism, were you expecting this convulsion to happen at some point? Mitchell Joseph Landrieu is an American attorney and politician who was Mayor of New Orleans from 2010 to 2018. After graduating from Jesuit High School, he enrolled at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. This is the first time in my adult life people are really beginning to understand how critically important it is to deal with institutional racism and institutional reform. The Mayor who ignores his past wants to whitewash the city’s past too. Mitch is, of course, the brother of Senator Mary Landrieu and the son of former mayor Moon Landrieu. “I think the Democrats have a lot of great candidates.”. Sign up for our daily Hive newsletter and never miss a story. We had to have a new lens through which we recruited and hired police officers. That’s the whole point! Mitch Landrieu is a keynote speaker and industry expert who speaks on a wide range of topics. AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File. Will be used in accordance with our Privacy Policy. By Michael Gerson. And we’re still having an argument about it. Mary Loretta Landrieu (/ ˈ l æ n d r uː / LAN-drew; born November 23, 1955) is an American politician, entrepreneur, and former Senator for the state of Louisiana.She is a member of the Democratic Party.. Born in Arlington, Virginia, Landrieu was raised in New Orleans, Louisiana.She is the daughter of Moon Landrieu, former New Orleans mayor and Secretary of the United … But they are not going to be able to hold it back. Born on August 16, 1960, Landrieu was the fifth of nine children born to Moon and Verna Landrieu. I’m encouraged that the protesters have been doing what I think is a patriotic duty to call the country to our promise to each other. A Democrat, Landrieu served as Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana from 2004 to 2010. Mitch Landrieu Using Communication to Lead Change in Racial Conflict Financial analysis is the assessment of the stability, viability as well as profitability of a sub-business, business or project. A speaker and best-selling author, Landrieu is now … We had to retrain every police officer. Mitch Landrieu: Now is the time to send a new message to the next generation of New Orleanians a message about the future, about the next 300 years and beyond.