Marcia Kramer: So, Mr. Mayor, I'd like to ask you this. Is there a difference between Eric Adams, the mayor, and Eric Adams, the man?
Mayor Eric Adams: That's a great question. And I would like to believe, it's not. And I think that's almost why I get in hot water sometimes, because what you see is what you get. You know, the famous quote, “Let your haters be your waiters,” “You have to inspect what you expect.” You're seeing Eric.
If the lights are off and I'm by myself, it's the same person. And I think that people are tired of fake folks. They want authentic people who can laugh at themselves, who is perfectly imperfect and just dedicated. And that's who I am.
Kramer: But you project a confidence, a swagger, as you talked about when you first became mayor. When you're alone at night, is there any insecurity that shows up, any swagger will leave you, any self-doubt?
Mayor Adams: Not self-doubt. You want to do what's right, because so much is counting on you. If I didn't manage those 237,000 migrants and asylum seekers, their lives would be impacted. If I don't improve education, you know what I say, if you don't educate, you incarcerate. I had to get it right. If I didn't take those 25,000 guns off the street, those are real victims.
And so you want to get it right. And I don't think there has been a mayor in history, probably back to La Guardia, that spent so much time on the ground. I'm in that hospital when that person is a victim of a shooting. I'm there when I had spent the night in an encampment. So I am– I feel the pains of everyday New Yorkers.
Kramer: When you're alone at night in your bed, going over whatever happened that day, do you ever second guess yourself? Do you ever feel like I could have done it differently–
Mayor Adams: Yes.
Kramer: I could have done it better. And does the swagger leave you as you say, maybe I should have done something different?
Mayor Adams: Without a doubt. And, you know, every night I have a routine, every night and every morning. Every night after my prayers, I write in my journal, I reflect on what I could have done differently. I do my breathing exercises. Then before going to sleep, I just reflect on what I could have done differently.
And there have been many days where I said that, you know what, you could have handled that differently. You could have probably got a better outcome. But when you are in that ring and the blows are coming at you, you could be a good corner man and say, “Hey, next time duck.”
But you're in that ring. And I've been in the ring for four years. And the most that I'm impressed and thankful for is that in spite of what was thrown at us, no one can lie that we [didn’t] move the city forward.
And even when I was indicted with that lawfare, look at every quarter. Every quarter we built more housing. Every quarter we brought down crime. Every quarter we decreased unemployment. You did not see me stop. No matter what noise, I moved the city forward.
Kramer: So what was the best day for you and then what was the worst day for you?
Mayor Adams: I had many great days. Probably one of the best days is when I really started to see we were making real inroads in public safety. That I was really excited about.
Kramer: How long into your term was that?
Mayor Adams: Probably a year and a half. I was starting to say, “hey, we got this.” We were taking guns off the street. The CRT unit was doing an amazing job. And I started to see the numbers come in. I said, “You know what, I ran on public safety and we got it.” The worst day by far is when I was indicted due to this lawfare.
Kramer: Did that surprise you that you got indicted?
Mayor Adams: Without a doubt. I mean, look at– many people never read the indictment. And what I was charged with, things that elected officials do every day. I called the Fire Department and asked them to do a building inspection. And Marcia, when you looked at the text message, it said, “If you can't, let me know and I'll manage the expectation.” And they turned it into he pressured them. They pieced together communication.
Kramer: So why do you think you became a target?
Mayor Adams: I think a number of reasons. You know these allegations come up on elected officials all the time. And I thought that there was a lot of anger around my posture and position about the migrants and asylum seekers. This was hurting New York. We spent over eight billion dollars and we still have not seen the fallout of that money.
And I think that there were people in our administration who got angry and this was a way of doing the same thing that happened to Brian Benjamin because people forget about that. His career was destroyed because of an indictment that was eventually dismissed.
And now we're learning more and more when we look at what was happening under the Biden Justice Department. President Biden said my Justice Department has become too politicized. He pardoned his son.
Kramer: But he let him do it.
Mayor Adams: I'm sorry?
Kramer: But he let the Justice Department do it.
Mayor Adams: I concur with you 100 percent. And it's something like that. It destroys your life, your family life. And, you know, it was just really unfortunate–
Kramer: Did it ever make you cry?
Mayor Adams: I'm sorry?
Kramer: Did it ever make you cry when you thought about it?
Mayor Adams: No, no. It made me angry. And I believe my faith is strong. You look at the press conference that I had in the Rotunda the day after. I mean, a few days after the indictment. And I stated clearly my faith in God is stronger today than it has ever been.
Kramer: I'm wondering, is there anybody in your personal life that ever says no to you? And when was the last time you took their advice?
Mayor Adams: Does anyone say no to me?
Kramer: Does anyone say no to you–
Mayor Adams: Are you kidding me, all the time.
Kramer: Well, tell me about it. Who says no to you?
Mayor Adams: You know, what's interesting–
Kramer: Do you listen?
Mayor Adams: Yes. You don't surround yourself with yes people. You surround yourself with people who love you and are going to give you good, solid advice. And there are many days you will look at the advice that comes from my team that I say, “Okay, that makes sense. We're going to move in another direction.”
But I never get away from the fact that the people of the city elected me. And that's the advice I want to give to the incoming mayor. He was elected. There are many people around you who want to carry out their agenda. But the people elected me to be the mayor. And after I hear the good advice, I make the determination on what direction I'm going to go in.
Kramer: So I guess the question is this, you know, you were the one who had to deal with the migrants coming here. And for you, the worry was, am I going to have people sleeping on the street because there's no place for them?
But now it's gone to a whole other level where people are being arrested merely for showing up to their court hearings. I wonder how you relate to that and whether you think it's gone too far.
Mayor Adams: Well, I was always clear on who I believe should be arrested. Those who were violent offenders like that will come to our country and violate the privilege of being in America. When they committed a crime after they served their time, they should be deported. They should not be allowed to stay here.
I don't think a person should be arrested if they go to a court following the process. I made that clear over and over again. And when you look at the national immigration leaders, they would tell you no one has done more for the migrants and asylum seekers in the country than what we have.
Kramer: So when New Yorkers reflect and remember you, what one thing would you like them to remember about you?
Mayor Adams: Compassion. You know, the city failed my mom. You know, you heard me say it over and over again. It failed her. It failed my sister who gave up her childhood raising her five siblings while mommy was doing three jobs.
I really was committed not to have a city fail New Yorkers. And the Dorothy Mae Adams of different communities and different organizations. I want them to remember me that that's exactly what my policies were.
Kramer: So what would disappoint you the most if they remember you for?
Mayor Adams: Would disappoint?
Kramer: In other words, would you be disappointed if they remember you for fill in the blank?
Mayor Adams: Well, you know, I think that when I go to town hall meetings and gatherings and I share what I have done as the mayor in this administration, and I hear people say over and over again, “wow, we didn't know that.” And I think that if I hear people– I did a show the other day and someone called on and said that, you know, your administration was corrupt. And that was just–
Kramer: That one hurts you.
Mayor Adams: Yes, it does. Because that's not who we were. We were the administration that stayed up doing COVID. We were the administration that met buses where migrants and asylum seekers came in, that worked the streets to bring down crime, that built more houses than any other mayor.
Do you know that I zoned this city to build 433,00 thousand units? That's more than 12 years of Michael Bloomberg, eight years of de Blasio combined. I broke the record for jobs in the city 12 times.
And so when you have all that you've done being overshadowed by something that should have never happened to you, does it hurt? Yes. But I know history is going to be kind to me.
Kramer: We're going to have to leave it right there for now, but we will be right back.
[Commercial Break].
Kramer: We’re back with Mayor Eric Adams. I'd like to ask you about the rise of antisemitism. I know that you've traveled extensively in Israel and you feel it personally. Why do you think we're at this position where there's so much hate? And are you going to continue to talk about it once you leave office?
Mayor Adams: Yeah, I think the hate was always there. I believe social media allowed it to become more pervasive and we've normalized antisemitism and we use cute phrases like, “I'm not against Jews, I just don't believe Israel should exist as a Jewish state.” That is just such a level of hypocrisy.
The Vatican is a Catholic country. You know, I've traveled across the globe. I've been to Saudi Arabia. I've been to Oman. I've been to Jordan. You know, these are Muslim countries. And so when you say that you don't believe Israel should exist as a Jewish state, you know, then don't go to Tibet and see the Buddhist monk.
Kramer: So how do you feel when the present mayor-elect says he will not agree that Israel should be a Jewish state? How do you react to the person who's going to replace you saying that?
Mayor Adams: Well, I think people need to ask the tough questions, particularly journalists, to [ask] “Do you believe that it shouldn't be because they are Jews or do you believe no country should be a country that is predominantly a particular religion?” Then you have to talk about those, those Muslim countries, those Buddhist countries.
Kramer: Does this add to antisemitism?
Mayor Adams: I think it does. I think we've normalized antisemitism and we've normalized hating Jewish people. We've normalized that. And just as we've normalized in history, other groups, remember we've normalized hating Blacks. We've normalized hating Chinese. We have laws to stop Chinese immigration.
Kramer: How do we stop it?
Mayor Adams: Yes, we can. And that's part of what I want to do when I get out of office. I want to commit myself to do the things that we did with Breaking Bread, Building Bonds. I believe the vast number of New Yorkers and Americans believe that we need each other and we have to remind ourselves of that.
Kramer: So what is Eric Adams going to do?
Mayor Adams: We're going to announce several initiatives that we're going to be focusing on,in general, dealing with hate, but specifically to deal with the increase in antisemitism that you're seeing become so pervasive, particularly around young people. Young people have caught onto this because it has become a bumper stick, a slogan.
They don't even know the full depth of why some of the commentary that's being made is wrong and it's inaccurate and it's not even valid information. We need to reeducate and we need to reclaim our young people.
Kramer: What's the next chapter for Eric Adams?
Mayor Adams: You know, I'm excited. You know, a couple of months ago, I talked about one dream job that was coming towards me. I now have four.
Kramer: Oh c'mon, tell me all four.
Mayor Adams: It's going to be a combination of, you know, I want to go back to school. I miss school so much and I want to write a book and I want to just spend some time with the family. But I really, you know, my love of travel has always been, and I have some excellent opportunities.
Kramer: So you're writing a travel book, a mystery novel.
Mayor Adams: I did a food book. I want to finish my term as mayor. And then, we're going to roll out some of the things that we're going to do, but we're going to improve cities. We want to continue to assist improving this city and we're going to improve countries.
Kramer: So here's the next question. How optimistic are you about the city's future?
Mayor Adams: I, you know, I'm cautiously optimistic. If the incoming mayor allows the philosophies that's associated with the Democratic Socialists of America, which many people don't realize, we're going to have a problem. You can't decriminalize prostitution after we tell young people to stop selling their bodies and fight against sex trafficking.
Kramer: So how can you be optimistic when you're saying all these things?
Mayor Adams: Well, because when you become mayor, you stop living what you basically ran on because it sounded great. Now you're in an office and you now have to say, okay, what does it mean to allow people to sleep on the streets again? What does that really mean? What is it–
Kramer: People are not going to like that.
Mayor Adams: I'm sorry?
Kramer: The New Yorkers are not going to like that.
Mayor Adams: Without a doubt, they're not. And what does it mean to empty out Rikers Island, 3,000 dangerous inmates and go back to the communities that they prayed on? What does that really mean? What does it mean to disband SRG, the organization that went into 345 Park Avenue to make sure that the shooter was apprehended. So when you become the mayor, you sit in a seat, idealism collides with realism. You have to make real choices.
Kramer: So are you saying that this is going to change Zohran Mamdani?
Mayor Adams: I'm saying, I'm hoping that once he becomes mayor, he can still follow the things that are important to him, but he has to understand how it impacts communities. You can't run every millionaire out of the city. That's 51 percent of our tax base. You can't tax communities based on their ethnicity.
That's what we're fighting now and what's happening to African American and Asian and Spanish speaking communities. So I'm hoping when you get in the seat, you say, wait a minute, there are things you must do to run a city this complex. And that is what I'm hoping [for]. That's why I say I'm cautiously optimistic.
Kramer: When you took the oath of office on December 31st, you had a picture of your mom and your mom, you will call her mommy, has been a recurring theme through the four years of your administration. How do you think she'd feel today or the last day of your term? How would she evaluate it?
Mayor Adams: You know, during our last days, she was starting to be getting stages of Alzheimer's and she was starting to see things. And she would say, this book is moving and things like that. And I remember going to the house and sitting down, speaking with her and explaining what Alzheimer's is, what dementia is, and I said, “This is what you're going to expect.”
And after the next day or so, you know, she called to thank me, because she was a very rational woman. And she just inspired me. She was a third grade educated woman and she raised a mayor. What more. It doesn't matter if she raised a mayor for one term, two terms, or three terms, she did it.
And all those mommies out there that have babies that just want them to have the best, I'm hoping my mom is a symbol. Never give up on your child.
Kramer: I'm wondering if you see yourself very quickly more as a servant of the city or a symbol of the city.
Mayor Adams: I'm sorry?
Kramer: You see yourself more as a servant of the city or its chief symbol.
Mayor Adams: I am a symbol of the city. Perfectly imperfect. A young man that was dyslexic. A young man that was arrested, rejected, and got elected to be the mayor.
Kramer: And on that note, Mr. Mayor. We have to leave it right there for now.
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