Transcript: Mayor Adams Appears Live on FOX 5’s “Good Day New York”

June 6, 2025

Dan Bowens: Well, the first New York City Democratic mayoral primary debate was held Wednesday night when nine candidates squared off for the first time. There was one big name, though, that was missing, current mayor, Eric Adams.

Rosanna Scotto: He was elected as a Democrat. He's looking for a second term, this time as an independent. Mayor Adams, joining us in the studio this morning. Nice to see you.

Mayor Eric Adams: Nice to see you. What’s interesting is, I’m still a Democrat, but both Andrew and Mamdani are both going to be running on independent lines also. One is [Working Families Party], and there's another line that Andrew created. And so there's going to be a very competitive November election.

Scotto: Alright, so let me ask you, breaking news this morning, State Senator Jessica Ramos not dropping out of the race, but she says she is going to support Andrew Cuomo. What do you think that means?

Mayor Adams: Nothing. She is going to put her message out there. It's just been sort of vague and not consistent. We just focus on, after the race, the primary to see who's in it.

Scotto: Why didn't you run as a Democrat? Do you feel abandoned by the party?

Mayor Adams: Well, again, I'm still a Democrat. Our rules allow us to run on independent lines. There's a number of lines that are out there. The rules, fortunately, allow us to do that. 

And so, in the Democratic Party, there are various beliefs and opinions. It's not monolithic. I just don't support the opinion of defunding police, being difficult to businesses, allowing e-bikes to run across our streets without having any enforcement, of what we see happening on Rikers Island closing. I don't support those philosophies.

Scotto: Are you saying this is what the Democratic Party now stands for?

Mayor Adams: No, I say there's a portion of the party that stands for that. In November, we will have an election and we will see exactly what the party stands for and who they determined to be the mayor. 

We're going to continue to move forward, making our cities safe, our streets safe, bringing businesses, and more jobs in the history of the city. Or are we going to go in a negative direction in some of those philosophies they have? 

Idealism collides with realism when you start saying you're going to spend, spend, spend, spend without knowing where the money's coming from.

Bowens: Mr. Mayor, I want to ask you a question. These are just some of the headlines that we've seen in the last month. New York City sees the fewest murder shootings in modern history. Mayor celebrates 4,600 new homes. Rat sightings down 18 percent. 

This is the stuff that you promised New Yorkers. So why are you polling in the single digits?

Mayor Adams: Well, I think it's a combination of things. Think about it, for 15 months, I was being just assaulted on the lawfare that came out of the Justice Department. It was unfair. 

President Biden said his Justice Department was politicized. The president said it. I said it. Americans who are on the FBI watchlist for protecting their families. They said it. And so, I went through that for 15 months. 

Now I have an opportunity to go back and do what I do well, and that's show New Yorkers the success that you just stated.

Bowens: And you did just bring it up there. You've been under federal investigations. You say that they were unfair. Obviously, they moved on here. 

How do you restore your credibility, though, publicly in just a couple of months? I mean, in just a couple of months we're going to be in the November election.

Mayor Adams: Looking forward to it. And you get out on the street, you communicate, you do a whole series of things. And remember, when I ran in 2021, I was losing to Andrew Yang by double digits in the month of February. And we're not calling Andrew Yang the mayor. We're saying Eric Adams is the mayor. 

I know how to communicate to voters. I'm a working class mayor, I'm a working class person. And when people remember, this is why we elected this guy in the first place. 

The things I ran on, producing jobs, making us safe, educating our children, those are the things you are seeing right now. I lived up to what I promised New Yorkers.

Scotto: So one of the people who seems to be picking up some speed is Zohran Mamdani, and he's promising a lot of free things, free grocery stores, free buses. What do you think about his free campaign?

Mayor Adams: You know, you'll find that both Mamdani and Andrew, they are saying anything to get elected. One day they don't like congestion pricing, the next day they do. One day they want to do bail reform, the next day they don't. That inconsistency shows a candidate that would say anything to get elected. 

I'm going to be honest to New Yorkers, just as I did when I ran in 2021, we had some tough choices. If we didn't do those savings in the beginning, we would have had to spend $7.7 billion on the migrants and asylum seekers. I'm honest about, I don't want migrants and asylum seekers or anyone that commits crimes to remain in our country after they serve their time. 

I'm just going to be honest with New Yorkers, they're going to say anything to get elected. I don't have to say anything to get elected. I'm elected, I want to continue the work that I've been doing.

Scotto: Obviously, they were talking about their relationship with Donald Trump. They were, you know, it didn't look like they wanted to play nicely with Donald Trump, either one of them. You have a different relationship with the president. How is that going and what's going on with that?

Mayor Adams: Well, I'm the mayor and that's what they must understand. When you're the mayor of the largest city in America, you can't be warring with the president. You need to be working with the president. 

I did that with President Biden, 10 trips to Washington, two visits with President Biden. I got him to come here to deal with crime and guns, with ATF appointments.

Scotto: But he didn't want to talk about the migrant situation at the time.

Mayor Adams: That was a big mistake and I truly believe that the information was not being communicated by his underlings. 

Scotto: Well now we hear about his mental decline. Do you think that played a part? 

Mayor Adams: I'm not sure, but it was a huge mistake, and I told the president, I said, Mr. President, this border issue is a problem, we need to resolve it. Now we're seeing the borders under control, almost a 90 percent decrease and we're watching, we're not seeing that flow from in Chicago, New York, we're seeing the situation is better management control.

Bowens: Mr. Mayor, one last question and we're going to try to get to our fishbowl question here. Andrew Cuomo is leading right now in the Democratic primary. If he is the one who you end up having to face in November, what's one thing that you could do better than he would do? I mean, why should people trust your leadership as opposed to him?

Mayor Adams: That is a great question. He's running from his record. I'm running on my record. Andrew put in place bail reform and made our streets unsafe. He put in place the cannabis law that overproliferates cannabis in our street. He took away the retirement benefits of civil servants in our city. Now he said he's going to bring it back. 

He contributed to the homeless crisis. He closed mental health psychiatric beds. He did not invest in NYCHA. I can go through a list of things that he did as governor. He has a record as governor that he's running away from. I'm running on my record.

Bowens: So many serious issues in the city, but we also have a question that we want New Yorkers to get to know you maybe a little better. All the candidates who sat in that seat have the same fishbowl, sir. Take a look. Please read the question out loud.

Scotto: There are no wrong answers. 

Mayor Adams: That sounds good. If you were to start a business, what would it sell? Probably a business selling sports memorabilia. You know, there's some great legends like Walt Frazier, Tommie Agee, Ed Kranepool. People love sports and probably sports memorabilia.

Bowens: Do you regret naming all those streets after the Knicks? Because after that, things didn't go too great for you.

Mayor Adams: That's a lack of inaccuracy. I know when I went to get the game at Madison Square Garden, we won. So, I brought them a lot of luck. I should have flown to Indiana.

Bowens: You should have gone to every game.

Scotto: Mayor Adams, thank you so much for coming in. And we appreciate you coming on Good Day.

Mayor Adams: Thank you.

Bowens: Best of luck, sir. 

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