Transcript: Mayor Adams Calls In for a Live Interview on Good Music, Good Times (GMGT) Live's "The Reset Talk Show"

April 9, 2025

J.R. Giddings: Welcome back. This is the Reset Talk Show. Audience, tell a friend, tell a friend. We have New York City Mayor Eric Adams with us this morning. Good morning. Welcome in, Mr. Mayor. How are you? 

I think you're muted, Mr. Mayor. 

Mayor Eric Adams: Hey, how are you? Can you hear me now? 

Giddings: I can hear you loud and clear. How are you? 

Mayor Adams: Quite well, quite well. You know, on the road, you know, constant movement. Doesn't stop.

Giddings: Should I say campaign mode?

Mayor Adams: No, everyday mode, you know. I don't shift in gear from time to time. It's the same gear.

Giddings: Okay, so Mayor Adams, first of all, congratulations on the recent dismissal of the corruption charges against you with prejudice. How do you feel after 15 months of difficult times? And what did you do to get through those difficult times? What did you rely on to get through those difficult times?

Mayor Adams: You know, I am 65 years old, J.R., and I was telling to a group the other day, you don't reach this age and not have this many encounters and experiences where you don't come in contact with people you meet who just disappoint you. And, you know, you sometimes make bad decisions on people who are in your circle. And there's some people I trusted that I should not have trusted. But God is good. 

I knew I didn't do anything wrong. I knew I did not break any laws. And I needed to, I had to lean into my faith and people who knew me throughout the years knew I was always the type of person that tells people you got to follow the rules. There are no shortcuts and we have to do that. Do all the people around you adhere to that? No. And that's just the reality of it. 

But I'm pleased that the Justice Department decided to look over this and my attorney said he's going to seek justice. And I believe justice prevails. And I'm hoping that we can continue the progress he made in the city. And that is the message to the people of the city. 

I've been fighting for working class people all my life, and I'm going to continue to do that. And then voters will decide. You know, I've never said that perfection was the quality I have. In fact, I'm perfectly imperfect, but I'm dedicated to the working class people of this city.

Giddings: Thank you, Mayor Adams. Now that you have officially stepped away from the Democratic Party and you're seeking re-election as an Independent, can you tell New Yorkers why you're running as an independent?

Mayor Adams: Yeah, I think there needs to be some clarity because a lot of people believe when you run on an Independent line that you're no longer a Democrat. I'm still a Democrat. I still believe in the values of the Democratic Party. I say over and over again, the party has left the people, I believe. 

When you stop talking about working class issues around affordability, around public safety, around educating our children, all those things that are articulated. We collected 25,000 signatures to be on the Democratic Party line, but the judge just delayed so long. As you know, the independent person he chose stated three weeks before he made his decision that the case should be dismissed. It just took him almost three weeks to do so. It was on the eve of filing the petitions. We just did not have the time to communicate the way we wanted to. 

And so now by running on an Independent line, still as a Democrat, I have a longer time to really let New Yorkers know the success that we've had and really put this in the rearview mirror. Many people will stop me and say, Eric, what about the case? What about the case? Now they no longer have to ask that. I can just run on my record. Other candidates are running from their record and try to move away from the record. I'm running on my record. And the facts are very clear.

Giddings: Mayor Adams, I attended your presser yesterday and I saw you sporting a T-shirt, In God We Trust. What do you say to your defectors that left you and are now joining up with former-Governor Andrew Cuomo?

Mayor Adams: Well people should do a real analysis of who was with me the last time I ran for office. A lot of people don't know I did not have the institution, I did not have the elected official. I had very few elected officials that endorsed me when I ran the first time. Many people don't know that. There was just, the people were with me. 

I lost the what they call the New York Times belt. The Upper West Side, Brooklyn Heights, Park Slope, Cobble Hill. People said you can't win as a mayor citywide by losing that belt. I lost all of that, but I won the everyday working people. And that has always been my secret weapon. The everyday working class people supported me. So when you look at endorsers, they don't win your race. People win your race. And those are the people I have to go back to and remind them why they endorsed me in the first place. 

They endorsed me because I said I was gonna bring down crime. I did. The lowest number of shootings in this quarter in the city's history, second lowest homicide in the city history. The major crime, the decreasing crime, the subway sector. I said I was gonna build affordable housing. I did. We broke records in year one, year two, and we're gonna do it in year three. The most affordable housing built in a single year in the history of the city. I said I was gonna get people out of homeless shelters into permanent housing. We did. More people moved from homeless shelters into permanent housing in the history of the city. 

Invested foster care children, outpacing the state in reading and math for our children and managing the crisis. We have more jobs right now than there are in the city's history. We have in the City of New York decreased unemployment, all demographics in general, but specifically Black and brown. 20 percent decrease in unemployment. So when you look at what I had up in the course of childcare from $55 a week to less than $5 a week, high speed broadband for NYCHA residents for free. All of those things that I read and I'm doing, now I have an opportunity not to have people, my success overshadowed. But now people are able to see, look at this mayor in two and a half years. Nobody else has a record like this.

Giddings: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I'm gonna open up the panel for a minute. Welcome in the panel. We have New York City Mayor Eric Adams, the 110th mayor of New York City here with us this morning. Donnatella only one question for the mayor this morning. The mayor has a hard out.

Donnatella Craig: Good morning. First, let me preface what I'm saying with, hi, my New York City mayor, who has my support, happy to hear about all the charges being dropped. And you do such a thorough job. I feel like you already pre-answered a lot of the questions I had in mind. 

However, as a small business owner who really uses my platform to amplify the voices of smaller brands, I really would like to know going forward, what do you see in your mind as targets and areas to help our struggling small business brands and entrepreneurs?

Mayor Adams: Yeah, and that is so important because when you look at David Dinkins put in place a program over 30 years ago for M/WBEs, that was David Dinkins' program. But the program never actualized into putting money back in the pocket of women and minority-owned businesses, Black businesses, typically. 

We changed that. We put over $18 billion, $18 billion with a B, into M/WBE. A big thank you to our chief, my partner, for bringing in that program. We have a, all of our agencies now, they are [inaudible]. 

But more so, the commissioner, Commissioner Gross, has opened small business services. We've had a series of events to allow our small businesses to know how to get access to opportunities, how to go after procurement contracts on the city and state. And so, upon finding a lot of the resources we have available, our small businesses are not aware of them. 

We want to find out how should we do, what should we do to get the information that we have out to you so that you can take access to them, that you can see your business people, and get some of the, not only the contracts, the everyday information we can give you of the business. 

Craig: Absolutely, thank you, mayor. Thank you.

Giddings: Thank you. Mayor Adams, as always, you're here to talk us through where we are, to lead us through where we are. We now, we're being joined by Rabbi Cohen. Rabbi, we have Mayor Adams here. Your question to the Mayor this morning

Rabbi Eli Cohen: Well, first of all, I comment that you seem to be very well connected in high places, Mayor, because things are going very well for you right now, and I'm really excited. So, I don't know what your secret is, I think I know what your secret is. I don't know if you want to share it, but you got some good connections up above.

Mayor Adams: My secret was revealed yesterday, in God we trust.

Rabbi Cohen: That's it, that's it, I really think so. And also, I think you've also put a lot of work through, Pastor Monrose working with faith-based organizations and helping communities all around the city. Donatello was talking about small businesses, but I think also small congregations, religious organizations have been given an opportunity to connect with city resources thanks to your administration. So, maybe you want to share that with the people also.

Mayor Adams: Yeah, that's so important, because nonprofits fill the gap that often be unfilled, because you're on the ground, you're able to see first-hand. We try our best in our nonprofits to navigate the challenges and complexities, and we've had some hiccups before the past court system. 

It's a system that is supposed to monitor, register contracts, and have a plan. It's just not consistent as the way we believe it should be. This is what was put in place prior to our administration, we had to make a decision on if we would keep something differently. That's who we are right now [inaudible] to make that determination. But we have focused on our nonprofits and really supported them, even increasing the pay from our non-profit sector, so that they make sure that they get in the way that they deserve. Our nonprofit sector, you know, which is predominantly women and largely of color, we wanted to make sure that we provide the same things they provide for their families.

Giddings: Thank you for that, Mayor Adams. My parting question to you, I know you have a hard out after this. Go ahead, but one minute, please, because the mayor really has to run.

Questions: Good morning, mayor, thanks for coming to the platform, and congratulations on the drop charges. I just wanted to ask you, you know, with all the tariff cuts, et cetera, and things that are going to be skyrocketing, and the federal government trying to take back the monies that were appropriated to you, how are you going to handle that, and, you know, so that we can help the working-class people, you know, keep the money in New York City?

Mayor Adams: Yeah, and, you know, J.R., you were at the press conference yesterday. Just to show you the distortion of how people report on what I said. There is a image that they're trying to portray to the city, that Eric is not going to fight on behalf of the city, and they've been trying to take that message over and over again, and J.R., you were in the room when they asked and said that we're going to fight to get any money that's taken from us. There's lawsuits, the courts will decide, but we're going to be aggressive in that. 

We believe the money is owed to us from the previous administration, and I shared that with folks, but what I also shared is that our current economy is not working. You know, I indicated that in September of 2024, think about this for a moment, in September of 2024, we had more Americans traveling to Europe than in history, yet in that same year, we had more Americans in food pantries than history, and so something is wrong. 

There's a real gap between the haves and the have-nots. You can't have 10 percent of Americans having more wealth than 90 percent of Americans, and so we know something is wrong. Is this experiment that the president is doing with the tariffs and saying we're going to use the tariffs to make sure to build it domestically, is this going to work? I don't know that. I'm not an expert on tariffs, but what I am an expert on is that what is happening to working-class people is no longer affordable. 

They're afraid to be able to say they can pay for their mortgages. They're afraid to know if they can buy groceries, and so the system we had was, it may have been beneficial to some, but it was not beneficial to the masses, and we need to examine how to give some relief to the masses. 

Now, the new tariffs, my 401k, my retirement plan is going to get a hit, but the question before, without these tariffs, a 401k hit [inaudible], we must do something different to go after the working-class people who can no longer afford to live in their cities. 

Homelessness is increasing across our country. The people losing their homes, the affordability of food prices. We got to do something different, and so I don't know if this is the answer because I'm not an expert on this, and I try to be authentic and honest about the things I don't know, reading up, learning more, but I'm not afraid to say what I don't know. I think people run around and act like they know everything when they know nothing. I know what I know, and I know what I don't know, and I think the experts need to have a conversation on this. Is this method that the president is using is right? 

Now, we lost $80 million to FEMA, and they put back the money during our environmental safety issues, and ironically, that's the same [inaudible] actually created the things we're doing to shorelines and weather issues. He created that in his first administration. They're clawing back those dollars. We're going to go to court and say it's not right to be clawed back, so we're going to fight for those things we believe is right, but we're not going to get into this constant negative energy that you see. 

Think about this for a moment. I don't want to go so far upstream, but think about this for a moment. I just looked at a poll the other day where 51 percent of the people that polled said it's a right to assassinate people that they don't like in politics. What is wrong with us? Are we that angry because our candidate didn't win that we're now resorting to violence? 

Is it right to carve up the car of a Tesla owner, go down the block and burn it up because you hate Elon Musk? You don't hate the person who's in that car. You don't hate the factory workers who are being employed because of these factories. We just have gone so far from reality. This Trump derangement syndrome is real, and we need to check those negative energies. It's not healthy for any of us, so we're going to fight the administration on those things we believe are unfair to our city. But we're not going to fight just to fight. 

I brought the transportation secretary here to look at the [inaudible]. He's the transportation secretary. I need to bring in resources to our city. I'm coordinating with other federal agencies to get resources from New York. I'm the mayor of the largest city in America. I'm supposed to speak with the president and his team to bring resources to our state.

Giddings: Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I know you have a hard out. Thank you for taking the time to come to the Reset Talk Show this morning, and we hope to see and hear more from you.

Mayor Adams: Thank you. Good to see you all. I thank all of you. Reset is really— you're giving unfiltered information to the people. Agree or disagree is not important, but people should make their own decision. Unfiltered is the key to what you have done, and I hope you continue to prosper and grow. We need real, unfiltered communications so that we can navigate where we are now. Thank you very much. 

Giddings: Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

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