Transcript: Mayor Adams Calls In Live On 77 WABC’s “Sid And Friends”

May 2, 2023

Sid Rosenberg: The great Gordon Lightfoot, “If You Could Read My Mind.” He passed away yesterday at the age of 84-years-old. Rest in peace, Gordon Lightfoot. And of course the voice before that you heard was Governor Kathy Hochul talking about the new budget. With that said, here he is, the mayor of New York City, my friend Eric Adams, back for the first time in about a month. Man, you've been busy, Eric Adams. How you doing, brother?

Mayor Eric Adams: It's a big city, brother, big city. And if you can read my mind, you realize how big this city is. But listen, Gordon Lightfoot was, it's all about moving in the right direction. And that was great music for a time where I think music is no longer enjoyable.

Rosenberg: Yeah, me too. I liked him too. We played about two or three songs this morning. And again, he passed away yesterday at the age of 84. Hey, did you go to the MetLife Gala last night? I didn't see you there.

Mayor Adams: No, no. Busy as hell last night. Had a lot going on and wasn't able to get there, but it brings a lot of money to the city. And so it's so important. I went to the Literacy Gala, where they're raising a great deal of money for childhood literacy. And there's a number of organizations this week that I attended their events that are really looking into dyslexia and other childhood learning disabilities, and I wanted to make sure I supported them and I had a few to attend throughout the week.

Rosenberg: Oh, that's a big deal. Look, everybody knows — who's friendly with you, like me and others that — you've got dyslexia. One of the reasons why you get along so well with my son Gabriel, you've got dyslexia, he's got dyspraxia and you guys seem to really bond on a level about that. So that's a big deal. Congratulations.

I will say that I didn't see AOC there last night, but you've been having a pretty public battle with her, dating back to last week when she was all over you because you had the nerve to give the cops a raise. So congrats on that one. Pat Russo, all the cops said, "Hey, tell the mayor thank you very much and keep fighting AOC because you are right on this one." And like most things, she's wrong again.

Mayor Adams: Well, the name of the game is focus. I know what it takes to run a city, and one of the most important things is to make sure your city is safe. And you can't have police officers on the front line and then they have to go home and worry about how do they put food on the table. That makes no sense. And that matches how we look after the DC 37 workers as well, our largest municipal union. These are the men and women who are food service workers in the schools, school crossing guards. All of these things that happen in our city do not happen automatically and we cannot treat our blue collar workers unfairly and just ignore the fact that they're making sure the city continues to run every day.

Rosenberg: No, again, they did deserve a raise and I'm glad you did do that, actually deserve more. I know you know that, but there's just so much money right now that you've got.

So I do want to get, Eric, to today's New York Post cover. Adams claims it's racist for Texas to bus migrants to New York. Now, one of the reasons why you and I get along so well, you're a Democrat mayor, I'm a Trump supporting Republican radio host, we know that, Daily News. And we have a lot of things in common. But one of the reasons why we get along is we're not afraid to tell each other how we really feel.

And I got to be honest, I'm sick of hearing that word racist. And I got to tell you something, Eric, when people start to use that word racist every time something doesn't go their way, sometimes they are unfairly labeled racist themselves. This isn't racism. This is about a different color than black. It's called blue. Every one of these cities, whether it's Denver or D.C. or New York or Chicago or Los Angeles, they're Democrat cities. Has nothing to do with Black people, white people. It's called Democrat policies. So I don't like it when they use that word. I really don't. Because what it does is, it dilutes what real racism is. And this is more political than it is Black or white. And I know you know that.

Mayor Adams: Well, I think first, there needs to be a level of accuracy and what my comments were, because if you look in it, my comments, and that's why I put out a written statement, I didn't use the term racist. What I did was show the facts. We have 108,000 cities in America, 108,000. Many of them are Democratic cities, but where did Abbott send the migrants? To New York, to Chicago, to Denver, to Los Angeles, to Houston, to Washington. Each one of those cities are run by Black mayors, each one of them.

So if he could have, he passed over thousands of cities to make his way to cities that are run by Black mayors. So when you look at the facts, you have to scratch your head and say, "We couldn't find any cities en route to make his political statement?"

Rosenberg: Well, what if I said to you that's where these migrants wanted to go? Because the truth is, Mayor Adams, and I give you credit, you've called out Joe Biden by name. That took a lot of guts. I'm going to give you credit. But the truth is, it's his policy that's doing this. And on one hand, you call out Biden by name, and on the other hand, I understand there's a right to shelter. But in some of these cities, they take it to another extreme — fancy hotels, free meals, Xbox. What if I told you the migrants wanted to go to those cities because those Black mayors treat those people better than maybe they should be treated?

Mayor Adams: Well, first of all, that is not accurate. When you look at this crisis that we are facing, it is not the people, it's the policies that are creating the crisis. When you look at how this was done, particularly in Texas, they had and informed the asylum seekers, "If you want to go to any other city, you have to pay. But if you want to go to New York, we will send you there for free." And so there was a clear target on these cities.

Now, we're going to do what we're supposed to do like we've always done from immigrants that came through Ellis Island, from all over the globe. That is what our city is. But it's unfair to target another city, another municipality. We should be working in conjunction on how to deal with the failures on the Republican side, they're not doing real immigration reform, and on the failures of the White House for not having a real plan of addressing this crisis that is hitting our city.

Rosenberg: Well, let's talk about unfair for a second, because you know your stuff, Eric. When Donald Trump was president and you are the Biden of Brooklyn — you like Biden, that's fine, that's okay. That's a democracy. But when Trump was president, what you can't argue is we had none of these issues. He was building a wall. He had folks there that were making sure these people weren't crossing the border. There was zero border issues in four years. And oh my God, a Democrat, Biden takes over and now the world is on fire. It's a complete mess. That's fine.

Don't you think it's a bit unfair that four states in particular, Texas, Arizona, California, New Mexico, these border states have to deal with the brunt of all this. What about equal distribution to the rest of the cities? If anything's unfair, it's those four states, Mr. Mayor, that have to deal with this. For all the people we've got here, that's a pimple on the butt compared to what Abbott deals with in Texas every day. You know that.

Mayor Adams: No, to the contrary, Sid, and at first I want to talk about the fairness of those cities. I'm with you 100 percent. El Paso shouldn't go through this. Brownsville, Texas shouldn't go through this. None of these cities should be experiencing this. This is a national problem. The national leaders should be addressing it.

I was happy that Senator Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries, the leader of the Democratic Party, both the Senator Schumer and him was able to allocate money to deal with what's happening here. But we need more. But the problem is when you do a close examination — that I communicate with my mayors across the country, and I'm very clear: no city should be carrying the burden of a national problem. It's unfair to our cities. We already deal with crises coming out of Covid, and I stand with the mayors of all of these cities and say, none of them should have to experience this, what we're seeing.

Rosenberg: What about these City Council members? Tiffany Cabán, Mayor Adams, that's out there. She's got a pamphlet where she tells little kids, "Yeah, some cops are okay, but a lot of cops are really bad. And there are cops out there that are killing brown and Black people for doing the same thing white people do." Beat up a seller, for example. I know you like Vito and Joe Borreli. They were on John Catsimatidis’ show yesterday and they said, "Wouldn't it be nice if some of these members like Tiffany Cabán no longer got to enjoy police coming to their house when they're in trouble?" Now, cops wouldn't do that. You're a former cop, Eric. You guys are too good-natured. You wouldn't do that. But, I don't know about you, I've had enough. I'm sick and tired of people like Tiffany Cabán, people in our own City Council in New York, badmouthing police to the point that they do.

Mayor Adams: I agree 100 percent. You are 100 percent correct. And when you think about some of the comments going after the men and women who put their lives on the line, and just to think ... You know what I was told as a child? "Eric, if you have a problem, you go over to that police officer. You go over, because he's going to do what is right." And for someone to take those who cross the line and do what is wrong, and give it the appearance that the thousands of officers that are running towards violence to keep us safe, are bad people, that is just wrong. It's the wrong thing to do, it's the wrong seed to plant in our children, and it could be actually harmful to our children as they grow up.

Rosenberg: Two more and we'll let you run. The Mayor Eric Adams, as always, really kind to spend a lot of time with me here.

So Eric, you heard me play that piece from Kathy Hochul, and there's a lot of folks in this city that give you credit. They really believe that you are in Hochul's ear quite a bit leading up to this new budget, specifically to help with the bail reform. Now, there are some liberal outlets that are claiming, "Well, there was a victory there," when you and I know full well, there really wasn't. The truth is, judges don't get enough discretion, still. The dangerousness clause is still not there. So the victory they're talking about is minuscule. Not your fault, not Kathy Hochul's fault, but what do you think the outcome of the budget, specifically bail reform — what's your thoughts on how that ended up?

Mayor Adams: Well, I've stated over and over again on the program, and that's why I have to take a real continuous role of educating the public. It's more than that bumper sticker slogan of bail reform. We have a broken criminal justice system, where we don't have people able to get through it to seek justice on those who are accused of a crime, and those who are victims of crimes. We must allow a swift, thorough movement of justice. Too many people have to wait too long to do so. We don't use technology enough to expedite cases, we're losing district attorneys, we're losing defense attorneys, we're losing probation officers, and losing police officers as well.

The infrastructure of our public safety apparatus right now is being challenged, and we need to confront it to make sure we do not destabilize the safety of our city. So it's more than just bail reform. We were able to get the least restricted, which is important. But I say over and over again, say that there are many rivers that feed the sea of violence, and we have to dam each river, and we dammed one during this process.

And so just as I speak with the governor, the governor speaks with me. She has been a partner on many levels. She was the one that helped us with the Subway Safety Plan to get those cops in the subway to stabilize the violence we were standing in the subway when I came into office. And I will continue to work with her, and those in Albany, the leaders that made these necessary adjustments, we communicated throughout the year, and we're going to continue to do so.

Rosenberg: Let's end this on a high note. Mayor Eric Adams, the numbers have come back, and the crime numbers again going your way, the city's way, which is good news. Outside, I guess, of stealing cars and catalytic converters. And that brings us to you with the AirTags. And some people said, "Oh my God, this is so Orwellian. It's like 1984. They're going to put tags on our cars. They're going to know where I am, who I'm out to dinner with. It's basically like a LoJack on a human being." I know you've heard that criticism, yes?

Mayor Adams: Well first of all, I keep saying over and over. This is New York City. 8.8 million people, 35 million opinions. So no matter what you do, if you tell someone happy birthday, they'll curse you out because their birthday was a day earlier.

Rosenberg: Well by the way, you did wish me a happy birthday a day late last week.

Mayor Adams: Remember what I said over and over again Sid, we're going to use technology to run the city better. Every level of technology. And think about it, you make a $40,000 investment in a vehicle, you take a $30 AirTag, place it in that vehicle somewhere, someone steals it, it notifies you on your phone, police are able to identify right away where that vehicle is. You can actually find that vehicle within 15-20 minutes of it being stolen. That's just smart. That's a man that uses drones, uses robotic dogs, uses all forms of technology to run our city smarter. And I'm going to continue to do that. And so the naysayers are going to be pleased when they see the productivity of using the technology that I'm using.

Rosenberg: I would like to see you put those AirTags on recidivist, rather than cars. So we know where those bastards are.

Mayor Adams: That that may not be a bad idea.

[Laughter.]

Rosenberg: Hey brother, I know you're busy and you give me this time every couple of weeks. You know I appreciate it, so thank you for coming on. It was a good conversation. We both discussed some very important topics from our points of view, and that's great about this segment. And if we're ever going to improve this city, we got to keep doing stuff like that. So God bless you and thank you.

Mayor Adams: Well said. Give my regards to my little guy.

Rosenberg: You got it, pal. You got it. Thank you buddy. Thank you. There he is, Mayor Eric Adams. Right here on the Sid Rosenberg Show.