The MSNBC Legal Analyst is a staunch support of police reform and harsh critic of the Trump administration.
Maya Wiley is stepping back as a contributor with MSNBC and NBC News to focus on her political ambition.
Wiley, a former top attorney for Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) and chairwoman of New York City’s police oversight agency, is reportedly eyeing a run for mayor of the Big Apple. If she wins, she would become the first female mayor of the NYC, New York Times reports.
Wiley previously served as chairwoman of the Civilian Complaint Review Board. She also serves as senior VP for social justice at The New School and the Henry Cohen Professor at the Milano School of International Affairs, Management, and Urban Policy.
Read More: Mayor Bill de Blasio to slash NYPD budget by $1 billion
Wiley dished about her possible run for mayor of New York City with MSNBC chief legal analyst Ari Melber.
Mayor de Blasio is term-limited and cannot run next year.
“There have been reports in multiple outlets about some people discussing whether or not you might run for mayor of new york,” Melber noted. “Not as friend of Maya, but as a journalist, do you have any comment on that? Are you considering running for mayor?”
Wiley said, “I have been so overwhelmed by just the amount of support and kind words and outpouring I’ve gotten as a result of these news reports. All I can say to you is, I am certainly exploring it because I’ve been extremely privileged to be asked by folks to think about it.”
She added, “For me the biggest issues of the city is whether or not we’ll have a bold future, not one of tinkering, where we have leadership advancing the fundamental historical moment we’re in, which is to do history-making, not deal-making so this is a city we can all stay in, this is a city we can all live in.”
Read More: New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is leading the vanguard on police reform
Wiley, whose father George A. Wiley was the former head of the National Welfare Rights Organization, resigned as De Blasio’s lawyer in 2016, amid rumors that she felt slighted about not being part of his core team.
“Anyone who has been in Maya’s presence knows that she is a force,” said Rebecca Katz, former adviser to Mayor de Blasio, “and I would not underestimate her.”
Wiley is a staunch support of police reform and was present at recent social justice protests. She has even called on de Blasio’s police commissioner, Dermot F. Shea, to resign.
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The post Maya Wiley to leave MSNBC to possibly run for NYC mayor appeared first on TheGrio.
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