Transcript: Mayor Adams Appears on NY1's "Inside City Hall" (Extended Online Interview)

July 13, 2023

Emily Ngo: And Mayor Adams, may I start with a news of the day topic please? The city council will override your veto of a package of housing assistance bills. Why did you veto that in the first place if they had the votes to override and could you have come to a solution if you have the same end, overarching goal?

Mayor Eric Adams: Well, there was various pieces to their bill and we thought the 90-day rule was crucial. We negotiated with them, we all agreed on it, but when you looked at the other pieces of where we were now going to have those who are in shelter compete with those who may have fallen behind in their rent, the price tag that's attached to that, billions of dollars of New York taxpayers dollars during a very difficult time, and it just sends the wrong message and we wanted to make sure that I was on record saying this is not the right thing to do. And then we're going to follow the course of action. I think this is a state action where DSS is supposed to apply these rules and we are going to let this take its course.

Ngo: Thank you very much for that. I am someone who's also their ancestors wildest dreams, but I haven't been arrested, rejected, and elected. I've listened to a lot of your speeches. I follow a lot of what you say. And several instances in recent weeks and months have been about the "they" and the "you," people who want to beat you even though you already have the scars, people who want you to call yourself Toby, when you're Kunta Kinte, and people who don't want a mayor like you in office. Who are you speaking about and what is the grievance that would warrant a metaphor to slavery?

Mayor Adams: Well, I think a couple of things. And one of the most impactful moments for me was probably back in the '90s with Ti-Hua Chang, a pioneer among the AAPI community. And he talked about walking in newsrooms and how they wanted him to act humble and play up to stereotypes. And the years of knowing those who were of color that was in the journalism profession, that really shapes opinions. People don't realize that, but they shape opinions. And I watch the way the news is being reported and there's this sort of coordinated effort that if you don't pay attention to it and call it out, no one is going to be willing to talk about it. And I think it's so important to realize that Eric Adams called out police abuse and racism while he was in the Police Department.

So why would he come to the role of mayor and all of a sudden not be vociferous about his observation? And I look at some of the inaccurate coverage that we have witnessed and some of the coordinated effort by the same players who are doing the same thing. And so pointing the fingers at who they know they are, it's just going to elevate them even more. They know who they are, we see what happens. No matter what we do in the city, they have a coordinated effort in their appearance to attack it. And it's the same fingerprints and the same names.

Ngo: It's about the news media, not about other individuals or other groups?

Mayor Adams: It's a combination. I think it's a combination. My son…

Ngo: And you won't call them out because that would be elevating them necessarily?

Mayor Adams: Exactly. My son…

Ngo: But you have these names and people in mind?

Mayor Adams: Based on my observation.. My son says something to me the other day. He says, "Dad, you have those who have far left policies that disagree with you and no matter what you do, they attack you." He said, "Some of them own restaurants, some of them are accountants, some are different professions." He said, "Dad, why you don't think some of them are in the media? Why you don't think that some of them start out today believing that no matter what Eric is going to do, we are going to tilt the story." So it's not a blanket coverage of the media. The attack is not the media. The attack is let's really talk about the success, the great comeback of this city and some people, no matter how much we're coming back, they're not accurately reporting that.

We are coming back. You look across the line, decreasing crime, you're seeing 99 percent of our business is recovering, money in the pockets of families with decreasing the cost of childcare, tourism is up, earned income tax credit, handling the pandemic, what we inherited, and handling 87,000 people in this city that they're not going through what other Americans are seeing in other cities. This is a city that has an amazing recovery story and that's not being reflected.

Ngo: Mayor, this is because of the references to slavery and racism, this kind of coverage, perceived attacks, it's because you're Black, because I'll speak from personal experience, we went after Mayor de Blasio in a similar manner.

Mayor Adams: Well, depending on what year are we talking about. Inaccurate coverage is not because I am Black and I've never said that that inaccurate coverage is because I'm Black. I've never said that the coverage that people did is because I'm Black. I'm saying it's inaccurate coverage. But we cannot say to ourselves that -isms don't still exist. Anti-semitism exists, anti-Asian violence exists, anti-LGBTQ exists. So we cannot ignore the fact that it does exist. We don't live in that. I don't stop being the role of mayor because -isms exist, but I'm going to point out if I think something is inaccurate or unfair, and I've done that throughout my entire life, this is not new, we should be clear on that. My persistence of dismantling -isms has always been consistent. If it's from anti-semitism to anti-Asian violence to African Americans and other groups, that has been my consistent trademark in this city.

Ngo: And what you did when you were a police officer of the NYPD, you've said yourself you're a disrupter and that's one of the reasons that they don't want you in office. I would see a parallel in that 84-year-old woman who spoke to you at the community conversation and you said she was acting like the owner of a plantation that you were on, but she was just speaking out in the way that you say you have. Did she deserve that?

Mayor Adams: Let's go back to that because that incident is so important because that talks about the distortion of reporting a story. What you saw on social media and what you saw in the reporting of the story was Eric's action. No one talked about… We were in a room of Spanish-speaking New Yorkers when we had an orderly movement of the tables. She totally disrespected and disrupted the meeting. She wasn't called on to speak. The people in that room were following the order of hearing their voices heard. She stood up and spoke. We allowed her to speak. I answered her question. She talked in a disrespectful manner.

And as I say over and over again, there was only one piece of advice my mother gave me, "Don't ever let anyone disrespect you." She was disrespectful and I didn't know her background. I didn't know where she was from. And so when people attach other parts of that, you want to create a picture. She disrupted the meeting. She did not respect the other people that were in the room. Her question was answered and she spoke in a disrespectful way. And the people who were there, you know what they did? They applauded me after I spoke.

Ngo: They did. And I've seen how you are received when you speak at churches too. So I know that there are people in agreement with that. Did you disrespect her in turn when you called her effectively a plantation owner?

Mayor Adams: Did I call her a plantation owner?

Ngo: You said that you were…

Mayor Adams: I was very clear.

Ngo: You said that she was treating you like someone on a plantation…

Mayor Adams: Exactly. And that's exactly what I received from her. Exactly what I felt. When you speak in that derogatory term, she was disrespectful and I know that there was an appearance to paint her based on that snippet instead of the totality of what happened at that event. That is what I talk about. Allow the viewers to hear the full scope of what happened there and don't just take out a snippet. And that is what we saw here.

Ngo: What criticism or critique of you would be valid? A lot of it is opinion, but in terms of the numbers you've talked about removing homeless encampments, that's what? 2,500 people taken off the streets? But free in permanent housing according to one audit. Is there any criticism that would be valid in your mind? Do you expect it all to be tough pieces?

Mayor Adams: Oh, there's a lot. No, there's a whole lot of criticism. Remember what I say? I am perfectly imperfect. Every day I am attempting to manage a city of over 8 million people with many different changes every day. We don't always get it right. We never stop trying. But when you do an analysis of what we did with people with serious mental health issues to the point that they can't take care of their basic needs, people criticize me for that, but it was the right thing to do and New Yorkers were saying it was the right thing to do. And then look at the other cities. The other cities have encampments. There are people living on the highways, on the sides of roads, tents, cardboard boxes. We don't have that in New York.

Ngo: So you would want and hope that more people could end up in permanent housing, that free can't possibly be acceptable?

Mayor Adams: I want people to end up in permanent housing, that's what we want, but if you are judging the success of our program of removing encampments based on who is living in shelters or not, I don't think that's an accurate assessment. How about some people went back home? We saw people who were living in tents, who had checks, who had money, but they just gave up on society. And so this is a more complicated issue than people should realize. And then let's add this to the fact, we're doing this with 87,000 new arrivals and no support to assist us on a federal level. So if people want to critique, we have a right to do so and we read those critiques, but let's do an acknowledgement that this city is recovering, if not it has recovered, from tourism to safety to jobs to what we are doing in our schools, the program giving people the resources they deserve, and I think that we need to tell the total story of New York City and not just give a partial version of what is happening in this city.

Ngo: It's a little bit of a tabloid culture here, I must acknowledge. I've heard you use that perfectly imperfect line frequently, including from the church pulpit where you've also talked about Esther 4:14. And it's one thing to say that God is speaking to you. It's another thing to say that you don't necessarily believe in the separation of church and state that's in place to help respect other people's religions or people's right not to practice religion at all. Do you feel that you may exclude someone when you make a statement like that, that you exclude someone who's practicing another religion or chooses not to practice religion?

Mayor Adams: Listen, people have the right to practice any religion they want. And government should never be used in an abusive way because someone decides they don't have a faith. But I cannot separate my principles of my belief. "Thou should not kill, thou should not steal, thou should not do this or that." I can't go into office and all of a sudden state I'm going to separate what I was rooted in. I would never use my faith to deny people access to the services of government. No one comes to city hall or any agency and we ask, "What faith are you are part of?" But I'm proud to be a Christian just as I'm sure my Jewish brothers and sisters are proud to be of that faith, my Muslim brothers and sisters, those who are Buddhists. I embrace faith and I think that part of the things we must examine is our belief that we should embrace this spiritual part of us. I'm a big believer in that. And if someone does not embrace that, they would never have a lack of services because of that.

Ngo: Spiritual but not necessarily religious?

Mayor Adams: Well, I think there's always a conversation, the difference between the two. I'm more leaning to the spiritual part of it, not organized religion inside what I do. I'm a spiritual person. I'm comfortable in a Buddhist temple, I'm comfortable in a synagogue, a church, a Sikh temple and I enjoy the spirituality of being a member of New York City where that diversity of religion lives.

Ngo: Mayor, I think it's interesting that we're set up in this room because it's all white dudes, all white elected leaders.

Mayor Adams: I would've been beaten up for saying that.

Ngo: Not live. Would you have been beaten up? I don't know about that. But why do you think there's only been two black mayors in the history of New York City, a city that has a rich and vibrant black culture and record of black excellence? Why have there only been two?

Mayor Adams: I think it's a combination and it was a 30-year gap between Dinkins and Eric Adams. And there's a combination to becoming the mayor. Access to resources, I was the only mayoral candidate that stated we should have removed outside dollars for campaigning. No one else called for that. I stated, "Let's stop asking people to raise money. We should have a predetermined amount of money that people could use to spend." The lack of access to funding is a serious issue. We're talking millions of dollars. And also how one is portrayed. That is why I look at one who's leaving New York, one also to go teach journalism is crucial, why we are going to use the mayor's fund to try to get $500,000 to have New York City residents that want to go into journalism. How you are portrayed every day is very important to allow your voice and opportunity to be heard and we have to build out those pipelines.

What I'm going to do around diversifying journalism, I'm not going to benefit from that, but we should be doing things that future generations are going to benefit from and I think it's a combination of how candidates are portrayed, being able to have access to the resources that are needed and then being willing to go and be inundated by the scrutiny that comes with being the mayor of the city of New York. You are scrutinized beyond belief when you are running and if you are elected to the role.

Ngo: You've been through far worse, I know that Mayor Adams.

Mayor Adams: Yes I have and you know people think I joke when I say it, but I'm honest about... people say this is the second most difficult job in politics and I say when does the hard part start? I know what hard is. Hard is seeing what Dorothy Mae Adams did every day in raising those six children and hard is being an early arrival to this country from anywhere and navigating for your family. I'm blessed to be the mayor and I'm blessed to help people by using this office, one for symbolism and for substantive. The symbolism is to say what is right and sometimes I don't search through a thesaurus before I do that. I'm a New Yorker. New Yorkers are opinionated, they are very clear on how they feel. I was raised in this city and I'm still very much part of this city.

Ngo: Is there a signature achievement or a legacy project that you could leave behind that benefits black young people with working class backgrounds, the very group of New Yorkers that you represent?

Mayor Adams: I always like that question because I find that electors and mayors attempt to point out one specific item that they've done. I just think that's a failing mindset of when you have a system that's so broken. If I was able to help foster care children, which we are doing, in a real way and that's all I've done, how could I stand up and say success? If I was able to just do dyslexia screening to prevent children from being incarcerated because they have learning disabilities, that's not enough. If I bring down crime, that's not enough. And so my signature issue is to take a city that I believe has been dysfunctional for generations and finally allow it to deliver the goods and services that taxpayers are paying for. That is how I want to be judged, that a city that's efficient using taxpayers dollars and provide the goods and services that they deserve. My mother was betrayed, my sister was betrayed. Families in this city of working class people have been betrayed.

Ngo: The system didn't work for them?

Mayor Adams: The system not only didn't work for them, the system fed their crises over and over again. If you don't give a child-

Ngo: Class issue or a race issue?

Mayor Adams: No, I just think it was incompetence that we believe that cities can't run effectively because it's not only Black and brown people that have been failed by the inefficiencies of government, it is working class people all over the city have been failed. I go to all of my various communities of different backgrounds and I'm seeing the failure of those failing policies and implementation of what agencies should be doing. We have some of the best workers in this city, but there are systems that are not allowing them to do their jobs, and we're going to turn that around and we're excited about what we're doing. I think when you do a reflection on this administration, you're going to see an administration that finally is going to get trash off our streets by placing them in containers. You're going to see every child that's dyslexic being able to be screened at an early age so they can get the services they need. You're going to see foster care children being able to go to college that we are paying for, 100,000 summer youth jobs, Summer Rising. When you start to look at what we are doing, it's going to impact all New Yorkers, not just based on their ethnicity, but based on who they are as New Yorkers.

Ngo: And before we know it, it's going to be time for you to focus a little bit of your job on running for reelection. God spoke to you, you've said, and told you that you were going to be mayor in January, 2022. Has he told you that you're going to be reelected?

Mayor Adams: Well, two things. Number one, if you are doing the job every day, you don't focus on when it's time to run for reelection. Every day I do the job and New Yorkers are going to make that decision. And I believe that my path has always been clear by…

Ngo: Because God told you you'll be reelected?

Mayor Adams: My path has always been clear on what God wants for me to do. And when that message comes clear to me, you'll be the first I will share with no matter where you are in journalism.

Ngo: Mayor, I was in the front row of reporters in February of 2022 when you pointed out, with some validity, how homogeneous the press corps is here, but you also looked at a young Black man next to you, he was there for a summer youth employment program announcement, and you said something to the effect of they don't get us, so we need to get each other. Has there been any progress in your mind of understanding from New Yorkers at large, if not the news media, about Black New Yorkers, about Black Americans, about Black excellence?

Mayor Adams: But see, and I think that that's what I hope people don't miss because this is uncomfortable to talk about, ethnicity and race and gender. It's very uncomfortable. And so when I say to that young Black man that was standing next to me as we were talking about a young child who was shot and killed, I was saying to that young Asian student who sits inside corporate America and still wonders why he's not getting the promotion that he deserves, I'm saying to the LGBTQ, I was saying to my Jewish brothers and sister who takes off their yarmulke before they get on the train because they're afraid of some of the antisemitism, I'm saying to the people of this city, many people don't get you. They don't understand you. They have not sat in your circles. They have not attended your events. They have not spent time among you. And I'm saying, your mayor does, your mayor does. I've been among the people of this city.

I don't know another mayor that has spent more time among the people of this city. And when you move around the diverse people of this city, they say, hey, that is the first Hindu mayor, that is the first Bangladeshi mayor. When you look at where my votes came from, particularly the outer boroughs, you saw everyday New Yorkers in their diversity say we see something in Eric because Eric sees something in us. And that's what I was saying to that young man and I'm hoping everyone out there who feels as though they are not understood, know what I was talking about.

Ngo: I still don't know if you necessarily helped that cause. There's nothing wrong with what you said obviously, but that you advanced that goal by referencing slavery and saying that someone is treating you as if you were a slave, as if you were a Kunta Kinte being forced to call himself Toby. Why did you go there?

Mayor Adams: I beg to differ. The discomfort on how I articulate is not because I'm going to shy away from that. That scene in Roots was a significant scene for Black and brown and people of color in this city. Many people don't even know about that docu-series of Roots. That was a very significant scene. I remember like it was yesterday, watching LeVar Burton being stretched and having someone beat him until he no longer said Kunta Kinte. People understood that when I said it. They remember that scene and believe it or not, there are people that want to tear you down to the point that you no longer feel you are who you are, and sometimes you have to use painful analogies to get your message across and I use those painful analogies.

You'll find that oftentimes I say things that people feel like saying, and I think people are going to look back on this mayor and state that he did not take a Gallup Poll before he stood up for what was right. He dealt with what was right, and I've done it over and over and over again. And this is the life I lived from the first time I was a public servant.

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