J.R. Giddings: Good morning, Mr. Mayor, how are you?
Mayor Eric Adams: How's it going? Great to be on with everyone, moving around the city.
Giddings: Great to have you, how do you feel this morning?
Mayor Adams: Great, great, energetic, thriving. God is good. I was told when you wake up in the morning and you place your feet on the ground, mission accomplished. God made a way for you to get through the night—
Giddings: Well, I hope the signal gets better. We have a lot of things to talk about.
Mayor Adams: Yeah, I'm on the expressway, this is a dead zone where I'm coming through, so it should get better.
Giddings: Okay, great, so Mayor Adams, there are a lot of things that we could touch on this morning, but we are two months out from election day. And this is the biggest talking point, everyone has been calling me because of our affiliation here with the Reset Talk Show and Mayor Adams.
Is there any truth to the rumor that President Trump has offered you a job in the federal government to take you out of the race for the mayorship, to pave the way for former Governor Andrew Cuomo?
Mayor Adams: Well, for first, I have been extremely clear on what I'm doing, and no, there is no truth to the rumor. As you saw, first they stated that I was going to HUD, then I was going to an ambassadorship, then they stated I was going to resign on Friday, I was going to go to Washington on Monday. And now it's reported in the papers that I'm meeting with the president at the Yankees game.
It's just a lot of talk, and what it's doing is part of the overall plan to really say we can't beat Eric at the polling place, so we're just gonna create all of these roadblocks. If we were just going, J.R., based on how I had run the city, everyone knows I turned the city around. But what this does, it hurts my donors because my donors are unsure, so they're trying to hurt my ability to raise money. It hurts my supporters because they keep trying to just take away my campaign.
They've always wanted to turn this into a two-person race, and just ignore the fact that I'm the city mayor of the City of New York. I have run the city successfully, and this is just the all going methods that, look, we can't beat him on his record, so let's just continue to create all of these narratives and stories. And it's unfortunate, but listen, it's life. Life has never been fair, and so we can't run around and complain about it, we just gotta fight and do what we do best, and that's what I'm doing at this time.
Giddings: You know, Mayor Adams, you just spoke about a two-person race. How offensive was it for former Governor Cuomo to ask you, the incumbent mayor, to step aside?
Mayor Adams: Well, it's part of his history. He has always undermined Black candidates, always, he did it to Carl McCall. Carl McCall ran to be the first African-American governor, he did the same thing, he got in the race, got on an independent line, I think it was a liberal line at the time, and he undermined Carl McCall.
Same thing with, when you look at Charlie King, he ran to be the first African-American attorney general. Andrew got in the race, pushed him out of the race, and won the race to be attorney general. David Paterson, David ran for re-election, and he got involved in the re-election when he was running, and undermined him, and then he ran for governor in his place.
And then many people don't realize what he did with David Dinkins, the first African-American mayor. David Dinkins lost because of two things. One, a report came out from his dad's administration, a report came out for the Crown Heights riots, and they put on the ballot a succession plan for Staten Islanders, which boosted up the turnout of Staten Island voters. And the combination of those things were the margin of difference for David Dinkins.
And so this is who he is, and I refuse to sit back and not give people that history, because we all run around, particularly Black folks, we run around believing that he's the savior for Black and brown people, when he's been just the opposite. He undermined us in COVID, he didn't give us the PPEs that we deserve, he sent it to the upstate regions, of what he did with nursing homes, of what he did with bail reform. I could go through the list of what this governor has done. And so his policies have hurt us, and Mamdani's policies will hurt us. And that's the problem that we're facing right now.
Giddings: I'm glad you mentioned Assemblyman Mamdani. What concerns you most about him?
Mayor Adams: It's his crew, because we're not only running against him, we're running against him and the DSA. And people should really go read the DSA platform. They hate our way of life. You know, they don't believe in families, they don't believe small property owners should own their properties. You know, that's where Black and brown wealth is. They want to decriminalize prostitution. I know what it's like to have little boys and little girls, 18, 19 years old, on the street corners, being abused from prostitution.
But also, he's doing something that really I find deplorable. He's a smart young man. He understands what he can do and what he can't do based on the layers of government. And he's promising things to people who are hurting, because affordable housing is a national problem, but you shouldn’t be telling people things you can't deliver.
He can't deliver free buses that cost $3 billion, and you got to get the money from the state to raise the income taxes. And mayors don't raise income taxes. Assemblymen raise income taxes, and he's an assemblyman. He didn't do it in Albany. And then the biggest thing is stating that you're going to freeze rents. That is just a trick in the mirror that he's doing. NYCHA rents can't be frozen by him. Those who are emitting rents can't be frozen by the mayor.
[Video cuts.]
Giddings: I think we lost Mayor Adams. I'm sure he's going to– Mayor Adams, you went out there for a minute. Hopefully we could jump back in. Boy, the mayor's really unpacking it this morning. A lot of clarity here, a lot of—
Mayor Adams: Can you hear me now?
Giddings: Yes, I can hear you now.
Mayor Adams: Yes, I was saying his proposal that's saying he's freezing rents. You can't. The only rent that the Rent Guidelines Board can freeze and not the mayor, the Rent Guidelines Board are rent-stabilized apartments. So that means NYCHA residents' rents can't be frozen. People who are Mitchell-Lama rents would not be frozen. Any rent that's based on your income, you can't freeze. And so he's selling something that he can't deliver, and he's smart enough to know he can't deliver.
Giddings: Well, I'm glad you touched on rent-stabilized apartments. What is your takeaway on Mamdani living in a rent-stabilized apartment?
Again, the mayor is making time to join the Reset Talk Show this morning. He's commuting, and I guess the signal is poor. Once again, we are here. We are here to deliver the facts. We're here to deliver every side of the story, and that's what the Reset Talk Show is about. I want the other panelists to pop in until we could get the mayor back.
[Video cuts.]
Rabbi Cohen: What I wanted to ask Mayor Adams, since he’s back on is, mayor remembering 9/11 and remembering Giuliani which is good and bad in different ways. And after him, Michael Bloomberg and then de Blasio, what do you think of the qualities that we really ought to be looking for in a mayor? And after your eight years in office, how do you want to be remembered, in terms of what you brought to the city?
Giddings: Mayor Adams before you answer the rabbi, we didn’t get your answer to your takeaway on Assemblyman Mamdani living in rent stabilized apartments. I think you were in the middle there.
Mayor Adams: When you think about it for a moment, and this is what’s interesting, rent-stabilized apartments, these affordable housing should go to people who need it. You know, his family, they're multi-millionaires. Let's be clear on that. And when you have people who can afford to find either market rate or afford to find apartments throughout the city, those who are in low income and truly in need afford these apartments, we should do that.
And there was the change that took place under Governor Cuomo. He signed the law that he's complaining that Mamdani is able to be in rent-stabilized apartments. But that was his law that he passed. That's the irony of it. And so I always believe that low-income New Yorkers should have the resources that the city has to assist them as they go through the challenges of life. And that's what we did.
Going back to what I heard the rabbis say, what I want to be remembered as, I want to be remembered as the mayor that finally gave low-income New Yorkers a pathway out of low income to middle class. What we're doing around education, what we've done around the record number of housing that we built, preserved and zoned the city for 426,000 units of housing. That's more than 12 years of Bloomberg and eight years of de Blasio combined.
What we've done to take away income tax for low-income New Yorkers, billions of dollars in medical debt that we're paying for, how we've reduced the cost of child care in the city. So I want to be remembered as a mayor who led from the front and a mayor who helped working class people, like I was hoping would have happened for my mother when I was a child, and it didn't. And that is what I want to be remembered as, a compassionate, caring mayor that dealt with crisis.
Crisis after crisis, and we stepped up for them. We navigated COVID, we navigated 237,000 migrants and asylum seekers. 90 percent of them are now taking the next step on their journey. We navigated crime. Crime is at record lows. Our economy is thriving. When you do an analysis and look at all of the bullet points on the success of a mayor, we check every box.
And yes, has there been scandals and crises and all of these other things? Yes. I'm the first to say yes. Have we made mistakes? Yes. Never broke a law, made errors that humans do when they're in the midst of addressing crises at any level, like any family would do. But we have been good for the city, and I'm really pleased that I was blessed to be the mayor for these three years and eight months, and I was able to deliver for the City of New York. I look forward to doing it again in another four years.
Giddings: Quickly, Pastor Straker, your question for Mayor Adams.
Pastor Louis Straker: Thank you so much. Good morning, Mr. Mayor. Good to have you with us. Really powerful video you dropped there on social media. I really hope people get a chance to look at it and listen to it. I think you make some very strong points on there.
A couple of weekends ago, we had the Labor Day weekend, very successful J'ouvre experience, Labor Day experience. But as you know, it ended once again with gunfire, shootings that took place after the parade. What are your thoughts on that, and what do you think that we need to do differently at the end of the parade that historically has this violence? What do you think we need to do as a city in order to curb that going forward?
Mayor Adams: Thanks, and thanks so much for you [inaudible] members who are out on the street [inaudible]. And that's why we have taken 237,000 illegal guns up our streets. But one shooting is too many shootings. But when you have a group of almost 700,000 people who are out celebrating the rich culture of the Caribbean community, all you need is one or two people who would discharge a gun, and it would really tarnish what 700,000 people [video cut].
J'ouvre had no shootings at all. Remember when J'ouvre used to be very well managed. And that's the same with the parkway. We're going to continue to put demand power there. We're going to continue to partner with the crisis management team. It's unfortunate that there is a small number of people [video cut] And it's really crazy, people who are new to the community that would like to see that parade stop. I would never allow that to happen as the mayor. But we are pushing back against that all the time. And when you have these one or two shooters, it really hurts our effort.
Giddings: Thank you for speaking to that, Mayor Adams. Let's talk about, you mentioned housing. One of the sticking points about New York is housing. What message do you have to New Yorkers about housing, the housing crisis?
Mayor Adams: I'm in a bad area, so I'm losing you.
Giddings: Okay, I was asking for your message to New Yorkers on this housing crisis that we're facing.
Mayor Adams: It's a real crisis. And here's part of that. Mamdani.
Pastor Straker: Go ahead, Mr. Mayor.
Mayor Adams: Yes. Yes, am I coming through clear?
Giddings: Now you are, yes.
Mayor Adams: Yeah, JR, can you hear me?
Giddings: Loud and clear.
Mayor Adams: Yes. The crisis is a real crisis. And that's why we have been moving to build at a fast rate. We've built and preserved more housing in this administration in our individual years than any mayor in the history of this city. What I need is my other electeds not to be impediments to building. Like Assemblyman Mamdani, he blocked a housing project in his district that would have produced a substantial number of housing.
The City Council, when we did our City of Yes, they took away 20,000 units of housing from us. There's a constant fight on the ground with our local electeds, the ones that don't want to have housing built in their community while we're struggling with a housing crisis. That is the problem that we're facing. And we're going to do our job. But I need my agencies to be able to partner with the local electeds to stop preventing housing from being built.
That's a huge struggle that we're having with our city councilmembers and others. We just rolled out an amazing project in Brownsville where we're building over 237 units of housing because we're finding all of the city spaces and building on. And everyone needs to be focused on this housing agenda.
Giddings: Well, thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thanks for taking time out. Your parting message for everyone on your re-election campaign. Are you all in?
Mayor Adams: It's been 30 years since we've had a mayor of color. 30 years. And Dinkins, when he was turning the city around, he came under great criticism and no one really acknowledged the work that he did. And that was Mayor David Dinkins. When you look at what is being written today, the same things that were being written about him.
We've turned this city around in three years. People told me it was going to take us five years. And so now we have to ask ourselves, what do we want the future to look like? Do we want decriminalization of prosecution? Do we want the emptying out the most dangerous prisons before they get the assistance they need? Do we want destabilization of our families? And I say no to those things.
And so we have four candidates in the race. Three of them, five, I'm sorry, that's in the race. Three of them don't have a record. One of them is running from their record. And there's one person who has a record, and that's Mayor Adams. I'm looking forward to serving the city. But the voters must make a decision on what the future is going to hold.
And if the future that these other candidates are talking about is what the city and our residents want, then it's up to them to make that decision in our respect to the decision of the voters. But I know my commitment and love for the city and the work we've done for the city. Thanks so much for allowing me to come on. It's always good speaking with you guys and ladies.
Giddings: Thank you. Thank you, Mayor Adams.
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