Andrew Ross Sorkin: With just a few weeks left in office, we are joined now by New York City Mayor Eric Adams. And at least for us, what may be an exit interview of sorts. Good to see you, Mr. Mayor.
Mayor Eric Adams: Hey, great being here this morning.
Sorkin: I want to talk about the last four years, but really want to talk about the next four years and what you see in this city. We were talking a little bit off camera just about the next mayor. And I said to you, so maybe you could say it on TV, whether you had met with the mayor and just what that experience has been like. Because you guys have obviously been at it on both sides.
Mayor Adams: And it happens during campaign season. You'll have the back and forth action. But then the election is over. It's time to safeguard a place that we all love, and that's New York. And that's what we did. We had a great conversation. We're going to turn over a transition document with a lot of information. My team, we have already been meeting with his team, the mayor-elect, to make sure that he can have the smoothest transition as possible. That's my job.
Sorkin: How many times? Have you met him a couple of times? You talk to him a lot? What's going on?
Mayor Adams: We communicate several times. The modern communication way now through text messages, number one. Number two, we had a great meeting at Gracie Mansion. And actually, I met the mayor, his dad, prior to him running for mayor. We had a great conversation then. And New Yorkers, I have a New York state of mind. That's it.
Sorkin: Are you optimistic about the city?
Mayor Adams: Cautiously. If he gets in office, and as many of us do, realize the complexity of running a city of this level, we're navigating some turbulent storms. Some that we see, and some that you don't see. But if he allows the agenda of the Democratic Socialists of America to be the platform of the city, we're going to be in for some real problems.
Sorkin: Let me ask you a separate question because you took to Instagram and some social media and the like. When he came out and said that he was going to stop the sweeps of some of these tented camps around the city, we then had Kathryn Wylde on the broadcast. And she tried to suggest that actually, he wasn't going to do that. What do you think is going to happen there? Because it gets to the issue of security and, you know, just life around the city.
Mayor Adams: Well, you're right. It's more than, first of all, it is a security issue. In January, when I became mayor in 2022, I went and visited those camps. Stale food, human waste, drug paraphernalia, schizophrenic behavior. And so we need to understand that not only is it a humanitarian issue, but also as a business. You don't want to walk out of your business and see someone sleeping in a tent. We look at what's happening in other cities. And it was a humane thing to do to get people indoors.
Sorkin: So, what do you think he's going to do? And have you talked to him about that or his team about that?
Mayor Adams: When we sat down and spoke, I told him how important it is to make sure that we keep the encampments and homelessness under control. That's one of the top things you hear from New Yorkers.
Sorkin: And so, what was your takeaway from that conversation, given what he said publicly about this?
Mayor Adams: Well, I think that he has a team of people he's working with. As I stated, many people don't know of the Democratic Socialists of America. They should read their agenda. They don't believe there should be any prisons in our city. They don't believe that you should do encampment enforcement. What they believe, they believe in decriminalizing prostitution after all that we've done. If he follows that agenda, we're going to be having some real quality of life issues in our city.
Melissa Lee: In recent weeks, you've signed a number of executive orders in a seeming effort to sort of stop Mayor-Elect Mamdani from enacting parts of his agenda. Is that the right characterization of what has gone on, trying to bulwark the city against what he is trying to do?
Mayor Adams: No, not at all. I'm protecting the legacy and protecting New Yorkers. And I was really surprised to see how many people talked about my executive orders. And I look back at some of the stories of what Bloomberg left de Blasio, what de Blasio left for me, no one talked about the executive orders. I don't control my Campaign Finance Board. Those are all de Blasio appointments. I don't control the Conflict of Interest Board. Those are de Blasio appointees. And so, this is what happens in government.
The incoming mayor must deal with whatever was put in place by the previous mayor. So, I'm just making sure New Yorkers are safe and the legacy is safe. Like on the RGB board, if you tell small property owners for the next four years, no matter what the economic outcomes are, you could never be able to increase the rent. Small property owners, 18-unit housing, they're going to hurt in this city. I'm protecting New Yorkers and my legacy.
Sorkin: Let me ask you a different question. We were talking at the top of the broadcast about what happened in Australia, Bondi Beach, and it was clear antisemitism, if not terrorism, and those murders. And there is a conversation in this city happening right now about Jews, I'm Jewish, by the way, and about antisemitism and the conflation oftentimes of anti-Zionism, which is something that this mayor has talked about to some degree, and whether you think that people understand what is a very nuanced position, in some cases, about folks who disagree with the policies and politics of Israel versus the folks who disagree with folks who are Jewish. And how do you think about that today and what is about to happen in this city with this next mayor?
Mayor Adams: That's a great question. And look at Sydney right now. Have you heard the Sydney government, have you heard them talk about antisemitism in this attack? Have you heard them, since October 7th, 100,000 Jews in that country, have you heard them stand firm? No, you haven't. And that's troubling.
And if the leadership of a country or a city is not willing to point out when a particular group of people in their country or city are being harassed, harmed, threatened, standing in front of a synagogue, calling for globalizing to fight, if we're not willing to stand up as the leader of the city and say, this is wrong, and it's not going to happen, that is what's troubling. Antisemitism, it has been normalized across the globe in general, but specifically here in New York. And that's what the mayor elect—
Sorkin: Let me ask you about this next mayor then. So, what do you think his real position is? By the way, he came out, to his credit, I think, yesterday, put out a statement about not just what happened at Brown University, but what happened at Bondi Beach. And I just wonder what you think it portends for the city?
Mayor Adams: Well, he has to corral his supporters. And when you go into office with your staffers, your supporters, and their philosophy is the destruction of Israel and translates into what you verbalize and what you show here in your city, that's a problem. And he must corral his supporters and send a very clear message, not only about what he says, but his inaction. Don't dismantle the IHRA definition. Don't dismantle my Office to Combat Antisemitism. Keep doing the group sessions that we're doing with communities across the city to bring us together.
So, you can't say in one breath that Israel does not have a right to exist. Then you have so many Muslim countries that have Muslim leadership. I've been to Saudi Arabia. I've been to Oman. I've been to Jordan. They are clear Muslim countries, and they have a right to exist. I respect their right to exist. Israel has a right to exist. Our only partner, when you think about it, they're against ISIS. ISIS hates America. They're against Hamas. Hamas hates America. They're against all these other terrorist groups who hate America. I'd rather align with those who love me than those who hate me.
Sorkin: Let me ask you a separate question. Commissioner Tisch, who runs the NYPD, she worked for you. She's going to work for him. Do you think that she is going to be in that role a year or two or three from now?
Mayor Adams: We hope so. Look what we've done with crime, 25,000 illegal guns off the street. We had one period over last week, 12 days without a homicide. We're seeing a record level of safety on our subway system, where the employees of the companies that watch the show are.
Sorkin: The reason I ask the question, though, is having spent time with this next mayor, though, do you feel confident that he's going to give her the independence to make the decisions that, by the way, clearly she has views that are different from his?
Mayor Adams: That's the conversation that the two of them, I'm sure, they had when they sat down together and she made the determination of what she's going to do next. I know she loves the city. And I know that, like my other commissioners, Commissioner Sewell, Caban, and now her, there's been a consistent decrease in crime. Our city is still the safest big city in America. More jobs in this city in the history of the city, broke the record 11 times, more small businesses, double A bond rated. This city is on a good plateau that we can't allow safety to harm it.
Lee: In terms of what you're looking forward to in 2026 and the concerns that you may have, we were discussing in the break that we, as New Yorkers, will be able to fare whatever comes pretty well. We're very fortunate. But there are many in New York who aren't. And they're the people who, in large part, voted for Mayor-Elect Mamdani. In terms of the policies, where are you the most concerned in terms of the policies not necessarily serving those who are the most vulnerable, whether it be in educational funding or safety in the streets?
Mayor Adams: That's a great question.
Lee: Where are you worried?
Mayor Adams: Okay, two things. Number one, those weren't the New Yorkers who voted for him. Let's be clear. 49 percent of New Yorkers did not vote for him. 49 percent. 50.3 or .4 did. So many New Yorkers are concerned. But here's my areas of concern for New Yorkers. Public safety. He wants to release 3,000 inmates from Rikers Island. They're going to go back to the communities they preyed on. The Brownsvilles, the South Jamaica, Queens, etc.
He wants to decriminalize prostitution. We did a great deal of work to tell these young girls and boys don't sell your bodies on the street and be exploited. He's going to go backwards in that area. You can't tax communities based on their ethnicities. You can't tax White communities based on their ethnicities. We saw that what's happening now with African-American and Asians and other communities are being taxed based on where they're located. Can't do that.
And you can't run millionaires out of the city, 51 percent of our taxes. So, we're in a financial ecosystem where the guys that drive the limousine should have a good pay and the guy that's sitting in the back of the limousine should pay his taxes. So, what he, if he continues the DSA policies is going to hurt working class people. That is my concern.
Sorkin: Let me ask you a different question. Given your concerns about this mayor. This is a personal question for you. You dropped out of this race. There's an argument to be made that you should have dropped out a lot earlier. That if, in fact, you really wanted to prevent this mayor from winning and wanted somebody else to win. In this case, Andrew Cuomo, who I don't think you were a big fan of either. That you needed to have dropped out much earlier in the process to give him a chance and whether he would have had a chance, a better chance to win otherwise.
Mayor Adams: Think about that. Think about how ridiculous that question is. I'm the sitting mayor of the City of New York who stated I'm not going to run in the primary. I'm going to run in the general to go head to head. And many people said, “Eric, that makes no sense.” And then all of a sudden people realize how wise I was because head to head, we would have had a fair chance to win. And I had many conversations with the governor and said, “Governor, let's look at this field. You had the primary. Let me now go–”
Sorkin: So you're arguing that he should have dropped out earlier and then you would have won.
Mayor Adams: Without a doubt. You know, sitting mayor. We were able to put together the operations to have a serious campaign. And look at the outcome. 49 percent of New Yorkers who didn't come out to vote. Many women didn't come out to vote because of how they felt.
Sorkin: But the polls did not seem to reflect that you– And I think one of the reasons that you dropped out was, in fact, that you weren't going to win.
Mayor Adams: No, no. The reason I dropped out is because we could not have a three way race, as other candidates dropped out. I did what was best for the city, not what was best for me.
Sorkin: And where I'm going with this is, would it have been best for the city to have dropped out a month or two or three months earlier? That's where I'm going with it.
[Crosstalk.]
Sorkin: And I mean, retrospect, you know, everything's you know, it's a lot clearer afterwards. So, I get that. But when you look back at it now and again, if we were to go to lunch five years from now, would you say, “You know what? Maybe I should have.”
Mayor Adams: No, no. Maybe I should have done what I was sworn to do, to run for office, run for reelection as the sitting mayor. Remember what I'm saying here. I was the sitting mayor, the second African-American mayor in the history of this city. I'm the sitting mayor. If I would have said after the primary that I'm going to abandon right away, that would have been the same foolish thing to do when people were calling me to step down while I was navigating the city on the right path.
I made the right decision. I recovered our economy. I brought down crime. I build more housing than any mayor in the history of the city. I improved our education. Just as I didn't listen to those who were saying, step down, step down, step down. I became a successful mayor.
Sorkin: Mr. Mayor, I give you an enormous amount of credit. I actually think that you've done an extraordinary job and the city has prospered during your time here. No question. I also think for whatever reason, and I apologize for saying it to you this way, but because of some of the scandal and baggage and the relationship with the situation with Trump, you were considered a flawed candidate. By the way, Andrew Cuomo was also considered quite a flawed candidate.
Mayor Adams: I'm glad you said that. And Curtis Sliwa was considered a flawed candidate.
Sorkin: I'm saying there's a lot of flawed candidates here.
Mayor Adams: Mamdani was considered a flawed candidate.
Sorkin:100 percent.
Mayor Adams: Listen, he had a 49 to 50.3 or .4. Everybody was a flawed candidate. So, the goal was to follow the plan that Eric laid out. “Hey guys, run in the primary. I'll do this in the general election. We will have two bites at the apple.” So, my plan wasn't flawed. It was flawed when you had people like Curtis Sliwa, who I still believe was working for the Zohran campaign.
Sorkin: You think he was real–
Mayor Adams: Without a doubt. Without a doubt.
Lee: Based on what?
Mayor Adams: A number of things. He never raised money like this before when he ran for office. So where was all those contributions coming from? Number two, he clearly knew he had no chance of winning. He clearly knew that. But he stayed in anyway. And then do an analysis of who he attacked. He didn't attack Zohran. He attacked Andrew Cuomo. He attacked Eric Adams. So, his whole strategy, you need to question and look at. And I think history is going to reveal his role.
Sorkin: Okay, I got a different one for you. So, there's a lot of business folks who are going to be watching the broadcast.
Mayor Adams: And they all say, “We loved Eric Adams as mayor because Eric returned our economy, doubled the bond rating, the city’s safe.”
Sorkin: They may very well, Mr. Mayor. My question to you is, I think there's a debate going on in the business community, among the larger businesses, about whether they should try to embrace this mayor and try to get in the tent with him. Or they should be adversarial, if you will, publicly and privately. And I'm curious, as somebody who's been on the other side of this, what you think the real answer is.
Mayor Adams: No, they should love New York. And they should—
Sorkin: No, but, by the way, you can love New York and have whatever perspective. You can love New York and get in the tent. And you can love New York and say, “You know what, I don't like this part of it and I'm worried that it's going down the wrong direction and I need to be outspoken against it,” if that's the case.
Mayor Adams: That's exactly what they should do. And I said the other day–
Sorkin: What's exactly?
Mayor Adams: That they should work with the mayor when they can work with the mayor. But if the mayor is not doing what's best for the city, they need to make sure they use their abilities as leaders, like the partnership, like REBNY, like ABNY, and they should use their ability as leaders to state where the mayor is going wrong, like they've done for me and they've done to others.
And so we should be clear. The role of our business community is to continue to thrive, continue to grow. And the people in these buildings here, those are everyday working-class people that live in the communities that want to ensure that we're safe, that don't want encampments on the streets, that want their children educated. So sometimes when we look at the business community, we forget about the secretary, the accountant, the A.I. professional. These are working class people.
When they get on the subway system, they don't want to see homelessness. They want to be able to swipe their MetroCard and go to their location safely. They don't want prostitution in front of their child's school. They want to walk out and see a clean environment. And so if the mayor doesn't continue what we have successfully done, then they need to raise their voice and not be silent.
Sorkin: Mr. Mayor, I want to thank you for your service. Thank you for the interview, for being with us. What's the next plan for the mayor? What are you going to do next?
Mayor Adams: Smoke a cigar. Have fun. Enjoy Jordan. You know, I've been doing this for 40 years. 40 years. It's time for me now to sit back and just enjoy life. I want to travel again. I want to write a book. I want to get my Ph.D. I want to do some stuff across the globe and here in this city. I'm not going away. I love this city and I'm going to make sure that nothing hurts the working-class people of this city.
Sorkin: We look forward to seeing you again soon, sir.
Mayor Adams: Thank you.
Sorkin: Thank you again. Appreciate it.
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