Sid Rosenberg: I was just talking to Jessica Tisch, the police commissioner on this show, and she said the weather today is eerily similar to what we saw 24 years ago today. My next guest is the current mayor here in New York City, and it's great to have him on today. He did a terrific job on Fox News about a half hour ago on his way to the memorial, Mayor Eric Adams.
Mr. Mayor, good morning. How are you?
Mayor Eric Adams: Good morning, Sid. We, you know, all in one way or another, remember the lives that were lost on September 11th. And we never forget, it's not a bumper sticker, it's a real concept that we must remind ourselves of because the hate that took down our towers is the hate that took down Charlie Kirk. It's still very much among us, and we need to be honest about it and respond to it.
Rosenberg: I'm glad you brought up Charlie because that was just brutal yesterday. And as if today wasn't bad enough, Mr. Mayor, you compound it with the murder of a beautiful 31-year-old guy who really, I mean, you're involved in politics. He spoke to both sides. He wasn't, you know, I'm a divisive guy. I can be nasty, you know, but he wasn't like that, and he still died at the hands of some assassin.
You know, so 24 years ago today, Mr. Mayor, you were a cop, right? I mean, Bernard Kerik was the commissioner, and you were working on the force in this city.
Mayor Adams: Yes, I was a lieutenant at the time, and if you remember, it was election day, primary election day. And, you know, I can remember Sid, walking past a store in upper Manhattan and seeing the plane fly into the building on the news, and I immediately thought terrorism. And then when the second plane struck, we were instructed as police officers that whenever there is a major event that you are mobilized to either your home precinct or your precinct of assignment, and so I started making my way down to the 88th precinct, and the buildings collapsed.
Later that night, I went to Ground Zero, and you just could not imagine the smoldering of the smoke, watching dust on everyone. The air was thick. It was an emotional moment for everyone, but, you know, we as Americans and as New Yorkers, we should always remember 9/11 is a painful day, but 9/12, we got up.
We got up as a country, and we showed the terrorists that those [] are not going to make us move away from our way of life. People hate our way of life, and we need to understand that, and our role is to fight our enemies, both foreign and domestic, because we have our enemies that are among us as well.
Rosenberg: Yeah, I saw that on your tweet last night. Well said, Mr. Mayor. You're exactly right. So you're the current mayor. Of course, we all know the mayor back then was the great Rudy Giuliani. I've seen pictures of Rudy on television about 10 times already this morning. He's in a wheelchair because he was in a very serious car accident a couple of weeks ago, but when you get to the actual memorial site, you walk up to Rudy Giuliani. What do you say?
Mayor Adams: Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I communicated with his people yesterday, in fact, and I was happy he was still able to make it in spite of the accident. I spoke to his son the day of the accident, but I want to say thank you.
Leadership, if you recall, is something that should be not only talked about, but displayed, and I still remember the images of him walking through the site, holding the face mask, and just leading, because generals don't lead from the rear. They don't send their troops into battle and ask, how was the war? They lead their troops into battle, and he did that. That was a part of his leadership that I thought was important, and I'm going to continue, as long as I'm the mayor or in public service, I'm going to continue to lead our troops into battle so that we can fight this war against hate.
Rosenberg: You're right. Hate. Again, with Charlie— listen, two more, we'll let you run. I know you've got to start this memorial at about 8:40[am]. President Trump is in town tonight, he'll be at the Yankees game. I know, Mr. Mayor, you love the local sports teams. How much does it mean to you and the city to have the president in the Bronx later on tonight?
Mayor Adams: It's so important, because leadership is both actual and it's symbolic, and symbolism is just as important as the substantive. If you remember back then, there was a very emotional uplift to our city. The Mets were playing, and Mike Piazza came to home. And sports has always been a way of showing our patriotism and our energy. So being at the game tonight says a lot, and I think it's so important for him to do so, and it's great for the city.
Rosenberg: On the way out, Mayor Adams, you're going to speak to all these families coming up in like two or three minutes when you pull up there. Thank Kayla, by the way. What is your message to folks that are not going to be there listening on the radio, to the people that are still suffering, who lost loved ones, and New Yorkers that maybe didn't lose somebody, but New Yorkers like me, who 24 years later still feel like it was yesterday?
Mayor Adams: Yeah, so true, Sid. That's important. What I think this moment must be, it must be a moment of real reflection. As we hear by the reflective pool, it must be a moment of reflection, because, Sid, our children, our young people are being radicalized, and when you have our young people praising bin Laden and saying America deserves this, when you have commentary like that, it is telling us, it is time for us to ask ourselves, what are we doing with our upcoming, I like to say our minor leagues, using the sports analogy.
The farm team must believe in the team, and if the farm team doesn't believe in the team, damn it, who's going to wear the uniform to make sure that we win in the years to come? We must spend time sitting down with our young people and telling them this is the greatest country on the globe, and it's a privilege to be an American, and we should be happy to be an American.
Rosenberg: Mr. Mayor, thank you. I know you've got a very, very busy day. Thank you, Eric, for calling in this morning, and terrific job there today. We'll all be watching, so thank you so much, and God bless you.
Mayor Adams: Thank you. God bless you, and God bless America.
Rosenberg: Eric Adams, right there, the current mayor of New York City, he's about to host this memorial coming up in literally eight minutes, so I appreciate the mayor calling in on this busy morning.
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