Bill Ritter: Good morning, everyone. Welcome to Up Close. I'm here right now at Gracie Mansion. Yes, we're going to talk to the outgoing mayor. In just over three weeks, January 1st, Mayor Adams finishes his first term and turns the reign over to Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani.
This morning, we sit down with Mayor Adams and talk to him about what life is going to be going ahead and what it's been like as the 110th mayor of New York.
One of the things I've enjoyed in our conversations over the years, good times and bad times, tough times. Easy times, never any easy times, but the beauty of being in New York and the possibilities of this city, I know you're going to miss that.
Mayor Eric Adams: Yes, without a doubt. And what you said is important, the possibilities. Mommy and my five siblings, we did not see those possibilities and we were betrayed by New York City and government. And I wanted to really change that betrayal in a real way.
I want the betrayal of having a learning disability and not getting the resources I needed. The betrayal that my sister didn't have a childhood because she was raising us because mommy was doing three jobs. The betrayal that government was not there. And I committed my life to ending that betrayal.
Ritter: After four years in office, you have less than four weeks left. Sounds weird, I know. And I can see your reaction to it. You're about to hand over the reins of the job that you wanted. And a job that for the most part, you love.
Three and a half weeks left. What are your thoughts going through your head right now?
Mayor Adams: I'm just so lucky, you know, in so many ways. I always talk about my mom. She's not here to see her son lead. But, you know, here you had a woman with a third-grade education. She raised a mayor of the greatest city on the globe. And I'm just hoping every parent that looks at their child knows that what you pour into them is going to determine their potential. And mom did that.
And she has a mayor. And she was just so proud when I graduated from being a police officer, a captain, a state senator, a borough president. And, you know, what else can you ask for? We all do that.
Ritter: I was going to ask you about your mom later, but since you brought it up, she died just months before your election, both the primary and then the regular. And that was painful for you. And you didn't have time, really, to remember her in a way because you were facing, you know, in the middle of the pandemic still.
Mayor Adams: Yes, so true. The pandemic, the campaigning, I was in the hospital room. It's six of us. And I was the only child that was in the hospital room to hear the last heartbeats from her. But she lived a good life. I spoiled her beyond belief. And I know, I didn’t have to look back and say, “Well, I wish I would have,” because I know I did. She knew I loved her. She loved me. And I'm always going to remember what she did for me.
Ritter: She was always with you. There's no question about that.
Your tenure, not exactly how you wanted it to end, we know that. That said, how would you grade yourself over the last four years? Getting down to the nitty gritty.
Mayor Adams: Well, think about it. No one wants to leave the ring prematurely. But that's just the reality. And I learned that my plan B was God's plan A. There's a lot waiting for me because of what I did in this city. And I see myself that it's an A.
When you look at how you judge a mayor, when you look at housing, we did it. We broke records. What we're preparing the city for is more than 12 years of Bloomberg, eight years of de Blasio combined.
We brought down crime. We saved lives. The numbers are clear. Lowest numbers of shootings and shooting victims in the history of the city. The subway system, this year, is showing the lowest number of crimes in our city's history.
Our economy is the best, best it has ever been. We broke the records for jobs over and over again, dropped the cost of childcare, universal afterschool programs, $30 billion back in the pockets of working class people.
I mean, when you look at the record, get away from how you feel about the mayor, but say, “Let's just judge this mayor on what he and the administration has done and the people of New York, what they have done.” This has been a win. This has been an A administration.
Ritter: What's the area where you thought you might get a home run, but in fact you struck out?
Mayor Adams: I don't have that area. There's nothing that we laid out on what mayors are supposed to do that we struck out. Did we get a walk and not hit a home run? Yes. There’re some things that you would like to finish, of course.
I don't think having the lowest numbers of shootings and homicides or lowest numbers of shootings and shooting victims is a W. I want no victims of crime. And so that's not perfection. There's always more we could have done, but we gave it our all every day.
Ritter: When you took office, Mr. Mayor, one problem, nobody thought you'd ever have to deal with it. There was a lot to deal with led by COVID. Immigrants arriving in mass to New York City, thanks mostly to the governor of Texas, who put immigrants on the bus by the busload and just brought into the city. How tough was that? I want to get into it, but how tough was it?
Mayor Adams: Oh, it was, it was extremely challenging. Many nights I stayed up because I knew that if I got it wrong, then a young child one day is not going to talk about how we received them. I met the first bus and we got a lot of criticism for those that didn't understand the complexity of these issues. We were attacked, but we had 237,000 migrants and asylum seekers. At one high point, we were getting 4,000 a week. Just think about that number.
We had to feed, house, and clothe. The Biden administration betrayed this city. And I said it then, and I'll say it again. We should have secured our borders. We should not have put this on Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, Denver, and other big cities.
Ritter: That's not what happened. What happened was, in fact, you got stuck with everybody. So, you did the humane thing. I think that New Yorkers would say, most New Yorkers, there’s some who wouldn't, but most New Yorkers would say, “Hey, we did the right thing. It's the humane thing to do.” It's what New York–
Mayor Adams: But history– the current state was not kind to how successful we were because many of the advocates that did not have to deal with the daily problem attacked what we were doing. We did the right thing. 90 percent of those who came into our care went on to the next step of their American journey. Not one child or family slept on the street because of what we did.
Ritter: So, what you're saying is that they got pushed ahead. They had someplace to stay, they had food to eat, and they had education if they needed it. They came in a mass.
Mayor Adams: Yes. Almost 50,000 children went through our educational system. New Yorkers opened their hearts, and we were able to accomplish a difficult task.
Ritter: And the bigger one, equally big as school, jobs.
Mayor Adams: Yes. What we did in the areas of temporary protective status, preparing people with our free legal clinics to enroll into employment, fighting to get work authorization. This is a textbook case of how do you take a crisis and manage that crisis in your city.
Ritter: When you were elected, Mr. Mayor, you said this is the face, the new face, of the Democratic Party. Mr. Biden, President Biden, said pretty much the same thing. And yet, when this came down, he pulled back on you. Why did that happen? Did you guys have a run-in with each other? What happened?
Mayor Adams: I don't think it was the president himself. When you are the chief executive, you have many people in your administration that have their own agenda. And in my conversations with the president, several on this topic, he clearly understood we had to do something about the problem. I believe there were those in his administration that had their own agenda and did not do the right thing for the cities of America.
Ritter: Senator Schumer also said he was going to pull– I interviewed you. I interviewed you about this very same thing. And you said we're going to get maybe as much as $8 billion out of this.
Mayor Adams: Yes.
Ritter: What happened to the senator?
Mayor Adams: [He] did not produce the dollars. What they did to New York and to America’s big cities was wrong. And you know what, Bill, what a lot of people don't understand, it cost us $8 billion. $8 billion. People think, “Okay, wow, you dodged a bullet and everything is fine.” No.
That is a billion dollars we couldn't put into more housing. $500,000 should have gone to children who were chronically absent from school. A billion dollars to our senior care. The long-term impact of what happened during those years is going to have a major impact on the future of the city.
Ritter: And undocumented workers play a big role in the economy of New York City.
Mayor Adams: Yes, yes, yes. Without a doubt. That's the part of pursuing the American dream, coming here and finding your way.
Ritter: We've been talking about how the undocumented workers were given shelter and food. Most people believe that was the humane thing to do. With that in mind, sir, Mr. Mamdani now says he will end police sweeps of homeless encampments on the streets because we were on the verge of having a homeless encampment instead of having to go to a hotel. You're already on the air protesting that.
Mayor Adams: Right, idealism colliding with realism. That's what I like to say over and over again. I appreciate the idealistic view he has of life because you need that as a mayor. But the realism is– imagine if we said that you are allowed to sleep on the streets of our city in tents and encampments with 230,000 people coming to our city. You know what that would look like? All you have to do is go look at other cities that are having that take place.
We stated it was inhumane for people to live on the streets, human waste, drug paraphernalia, schizophrenic, bipolar, living on our subways, living in our streets. We said, no, you deserve to be inside. We care.
Now, if he's stating he's no longer going to implement a smart policy on our part, New Yorkers are going to see the repercussions of that.
Ritter: And your message to the new mayor?
Mayor Adams: You're the mayor now, and it can't be merely listening to the extremism of his party, like the Democratic Socialists of America, who never governed anything. You are now the mayor. You have to make tough decisions. And if you believe that you could just push those decisions to the side, it's not going to happen.
Ritter: Let's talk about some of the things that happened to you, and you did. In so many ways, a mayor, of course, is judged by those who help run the place. It's not just one person. Some of the people you hired into top jobs let you down. People you knew very well. Some of them were your very close friends. And you've been criticized for hiring friends. Did you make mistakes doing that?
Mayor Adams: Oh, you make mistakes, but I think it's sort of inconsistent for someone to state, Bill, that you hired a friend. Go through every administration and tell me, did they hire a law school buddy? Did they hire someone that was a former business partner? Did they hire someone who they may have known?
Think about the Chancellor Black that Bloomberg hired. She had no experience in education, but he knew her, and he thought that she would be a good leader. It was a mistake. He corrected that mistake.
Ritter: Very quickly he corrected that mistake.
Mayor Adams: Yes, he did. Yes, he did.
Ritter: He took her out.
Mayor Adams: Right, exactly. And so, I don't think that one can look at a chief executive that judged people that they know throughout life and saw how they ran a particular project or action, and stated that, “Let me see if you are a fit.” If you're not a fit, then you have to make that adjustment.
But you can't ignore the fact that those same people brought down crime, built more houses, executed a real plan for this city, and carried it out. There were some people I hired that were a bad fit.
Ritter: And going back into that, you hired different people for your second round there. So, what is the lesson for you there?
Mayor Adams: Well, let's not ignore who was there, got us through COVID, got us through the migrants and asylum seekers. I don't want people to state that everyone who we hired that did not remain, they were failed hires. That is just not true, because they got us through. They turned around our economy, they got us through crime, they got us through COVID, they got us through migrants and asylum seekers. Look at the results.
Was it always pretty? No, it was not. But you do learn to bring people that can also do so without so much fanfare and noise. But I don't want to walk away stating that the men and women that sacrificed their lives to come into government during a difficult time, that they didn't do the right thing for the people of this city.
Ritter: I'm not saying that they didn't. I'm not saying that they didn't. You're a former cop, obviously. In your four years as the mayor, you had four police commissioners. If I do the math, it's not the best batting average, there's no question about that. Did you, and I say this word with all due respect, did you meddle too much in running the nation's biggest police department?
Mayor Adams: Not at all. I'm the only mayor in the history of this city, I believe, that was a former police officer. Only one. No other mayor was able to go into the Police Department and understand we get the product that we deserve.
Ritter: You had four people who were in charge. And as a cop, you would say that's not the way it should have been.
Mayor Adams: No, if I had to get six, I would have six. I would have seven. I was responsible for the safety of the city. I ran on the platform of public safety as a prerequisite to prosperity. That is what I ran on. Did I bring down crime? Did I take 25,000 illegal guns off the streets? Did I prevent terrorist attacks from devastating our city?
So you better believe I was engaged, and I was engaged every day. And if I had to have a police commissioner that leaves every year, then so be it. I promised New Yorkers I was going to keep them safe. And I didn't meddle in the Police Department. I had a very clear direction. So when you look at Keechant Sewell, who was a great police commissioner, we started the whole process of building a foundation. Eddie Caban–
Ritter: First woman to be–
Mayor Adams: First woman. First woman. There were a whole lot of firsts under my administration. First Indian to be a deputy mayor, first Dominican to be a deputy mayor, first Filipino to be deputy mayor, first woman to be a police commissioner. So, there were a lot of firsts under my administration.
But let's be clear on this. They didn't leave because I was meddling. Eddie Caban didn't leave because I was meddling. Tom Donilon didn't leave because I was meddling. And so, the narrative that, “Hey, you were meddling in the Police Department,” that's not an accurate analysis. I did my job as the chief executive.
Ritter: I said we'd run out of time, and we're going to start running out of time. I have one quick question for you, and then I'm going to go into some other things that might be interesting to you about other things.
This past month, NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch told Mr. Mamdani she would like to stay on the job. A lot of people say she's changing the United States. She's changing New York by doing this. What was your response to that? Have you talked to her about that? Did you talk to her about that?
Mayor Adams: Oh, yes. And I thought it was smart on the incoming mayor's decision to retain the police commissioner. She's doing a good job. Under all my commissioners, crime has gone down, under all of them. Let's clearly understand that. So, me keeping an eye on the Police Department has been successful.
And so, I think it's a good decision that she's staying. She loves the city, and I think she's going to bring a level of expertise. But you're going to see a lot of my staffers, he's going to ask them to stay because we ran the city well.
Ritter: You spent much of your life in public service, in fact, all of your life in public service. Do you plan to stay in public service or are you headed for the private sector?
Mayor Adams: I'm going to continue to contribute to the city, but I'm looking to enjoy the private sector. And like I stated, I want to write a book. I want to go back to school. I'm a lifelong student. But I have some great interest in the private sector as well.
Ritter: We're going to take a quick break and go into a second block. We're going to take a quick break, as I said. And when we come back, a few more questions from you about your life, about your mom, and what you're going to do now. Most, most, about missing the place you live in right now. Because it's a beautiful mansion. We'll be right back.
[Commercial Break.]
Ritter: Welcome back to Up Close, we are speaking with the soon-to-be former mayor of New York City. Does that sound weird?
Mayor Adams: Yes, it's alright. It does. You keep your mayor title forever.
Ritter: You do? So, you're always mayor? I guess we'll call you mayor, right?
Mayor Adams: Yes.
Ritter: Okay. You've been at work these last few weeks ahead of Mr. Mamdani becoming mayor. Some say you're trying to block him in some ways, and there's some evidence to show that. For example, you started the process of adding 5,000 new cops in New York City. By the way, you could have done that in the last four years. You can answer that if you’d like.
And you signed executive orders, like the one prohibiting the city from boycotting and divesting from Israel. What's behind this recent change of yours, and why did you do it when you were a lame duck?
Mayor Adams: Well, many people don't realize mayors always finish up what they started. Like the board members that you see on the Campaign Finance Board and other boards. Those are not my appointments. Those were the former mayor’s appointments. So, I've been sort of monitored by former mayor appointments.
When Bill de Blasio left, he put people on the Correction Board. Those were not my appointments. Mayors try to finish up what they believe needs to be done to put their legacy in place.
Ritter: Right. But are you trying to block him to some degree?
Mayor Adams: No. Just to the contrary, I'm trying to protect my legacy. The investment in Israel, the BDS, is crucial. Do you know how many products we get from Israel that save the lives of people in this country? I don't want that harm. I don't want to stop the interaction. I spent years building up a relationship with the tech companies and the startups and Israel companies. Do I want to see that disbanded?
I believe houses of worship should be protected. One of the executive orders I put in place is to stop protests in front of houses of worship. Churches, synagogues, mosques, all of them should be protected.
And 5,000 cops, we already started increasing the number of cops. We have some of the largest number of classes that are coming in years. So, this is not to block anyone. This is to protect the legacy of New Yorkers' safety and what is needed for the city to continue to grow.
Ritter: As a young kid with dyslexia, you rose to be mayor of New York City. You overcame dyslexia. You were a cop. You were an activist to raise questions about keeping the NYPD on the straight and narrow. You were an elected official in Albany and then a borough president of Brooklyn. What advice would you give to a young Eric Adams who may be thinking of doing this?
Mayor Adams: That's a great question because there were more naysayers than yaysayers. People often told me because of who I was, my ethnicity, my learning disabilities, where I lived, where I grew up, where I went to school, that I would never reach any real heights. It's unbelievable how many people discourage and not encourage.
And it's just really important to make up your mind to ignore that. Mommy gave me a sign when I was a little boy when I came home and was struggling in school. She wrote out the word impossible, I-M-P-O-S-S-I-B-L-E. And she said, “Son, I want you to say the first two letters first.” And I said, I. And she said, the next letter, I say M. She said, “Now say the word, possible.” She says, “I am possible. I want you to say that every day. You're not impossible, Eric. You're possible.”
Ritter: You are optimistic, to say the least. And it always dawned on me, no matter what the problem we're in, whether it was getting indicted, wherever it was, whatever the challenge, I had sense, and I don't want to sound too sappy about this, but I did feel that. That your mom was with you and you thought about your mother and what she would want you to do. Is that true?
Mayor Adams: No, without a doubt. And everything I did, I said to myself, how would this impact her and her name? And so that's why it hurt a lot when I was indicted, because it was so in contrast to what I lived my life as. I did nothing wrong. I believe I was targeted because I stood and fought for New Yorkers and people who didn't read the headlines, but read the indictment, said, “This should not have ever happened.”
Ritter: Were you worried that Donald Trump would use you later if you got this election after a second term?
Mayor Adams: No, I was not. And the president did not use me. Prior to being elected, he was saying over and over again, “Look at what they're doing to that mayor.” He stated before being elected, I think he personally knew what his family went through. And now we're looking and seeing some of the things that our federal agencies were doing over and over again. And I think that he wants to correct the wrong. And I believe he made that decision to have his Justice Department look at it.
Ritter: And does he want to take over part of New York? Do you worry about that?
Mayor Adams: No, I don't. I think he wants New York to run correctly. And he's concerned that if New York is not properly managed, it's going to impact the entire country. New York City is the economic engine of the entire country. The way goes, New York goes, America, and the way goes, America goes, globe. It's a very important position. And I think he and others are concerned.
Ritter: I want to get two questions in. What have you learned about New Yorkers that you didn't know even when you were borough president, but you had to learn as the man in charge of the city?
Mayor Adams: I think they're resilient. New Yorkers get up every day. They may not be living in conditions that they enjoy. They may be doing jobs they don't like. But they're resilient. They don't give up. They don't surrender. And I'm just really impressed with the resiliency of New Yorkers and what we go through and we continue to survive.
Ritter: So, I'm going to give you the last minute because you own that. You've been mayor for almost four full years. You can tell them by talking to me. What would you say to the 8.6 million New Yorkers about you and about them and about what this city is about?
Mayor Adams: This is a romance. I love the city. I love the people in the city. And I don't always get it right. I've been perfectly imperfect, but I've been dedicated. When you wear a bulletproof vest for 22 years and you protect children and families, it's a different love affair.
And so, I know there are times that, you know, I have to say sorry. I may have disappointed them. But when you do an analysis and see that this was a person that got up every day and he committed himself to end the betrayal that children and families experienced and that I experienced. And I'm hoping when history looks back on it, they're going to say this was a man that loved this city and loved the people of the city.
Ritter: Mr. Mayor, good luck to you.
Mayor Adams: Thank you. And healthiness.
Ritter: And, you know, one thing, you were interesting from the beginning to the end. Eric, good luck to you, sir.
Mayor Adams: Thank you.
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