Transcript: Mayor Adams Appears Live On MSNBC's "Morning Joe"

October 16, 2023

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Mayor Eric Adams: We are not all right when Hamas believes that they are fighting on behalf of something and their destructive, despicable action that carried out. We are not all right when we still have hostages who have not come home to their family. We are not all right, and we're not going to say we have a stiff upper lip and act like everything is fine. Everything is not fine. Israel has a right to defend itself, and that's the right that we know. Your fight is our fight. Your fight is our fight.

That swastika not only displays the pain of antisemitism, it displays the pain of racism among African Americans. You marched with us with Dr. King. You stood with us with all the fights we have. And I'm saying we're going to stand with you and stand united together. And we don't have to be all right. We should be angry of what we saw.

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Joe Scarborough: That was New York City Mayor Eric Adams last Tuesday speaking out in support of Israel after the horrific terror attacks. The Mayor continued his message of support in a synagogue on Friday vowing the New York Police Department will continue to protect and defend all Jewish residents. And Mayor Adams joins us now also with some conversations with the President of the National Action Network and host of MSNBC's PoliticsNation, Reverend Al Sharpton. Thank you both for being with us.

Mayor Adams, greatly appreciate you being here, appreciate your words. I want to read another quote from you that's striking: something is wrong that within the City of New York where we have the largest Jewish population outside of Israel, if you don't feel safe here, where else can you feel safe?

We have to change that course, and there's so many Jews that I've spoken to that don't feel safe on college campuses, don't feel safe in schools, don't feel safe in parts of New York City. You're exactly right. Even in the best of times it can be dangerous. There will have to be police posted outside of synagogues because of antisemitism. Can all New York City leaders not be unified on this issue and speak out like you?

Mayor Eric Adams: Well, I think that some New York City leaders don't have the consistency in standing up on the rights of individuals. I have a long track record of standing up and fighting on the rights of individuals, as Reverend Sharpton. And when I speak with my Muslim brothers and sisters, I take them back to 2001 how I led the fight that a young Muslim should not be forcibly incarcerated. I know what I did when someone called for Kill a Muslim Day, I walked the streets with them and showed my support.

The consistency of how I feel about my Jewish residents is no different than how I feel about all residents of all ethnicities. Now, antisemitism has no room in this city. There's no place for hate in this city. And it really, I think, was despicable, while our Jewish brothers and sisters were mourning the immediate aftermath of the slaughter that we saw in Israel that you had the DSA and others carrying swastikas and calling for the extermination of Jewish people.

That's not acceptable. We cannot stop the march because of their rights to march, but we darn sure can speak out against it and make sure that this city is a safe place for Jewish residents and others.

Scarborough: Well, Mayor Adams, you've said what I've also heard Reverend Sharpton talk about, that whether it's in support of marches, peaceful marches after George Floyd or whether it's in support of the Jewish people after these terror attacks, we all need to speak with one voice. My question is, why are some… Why is it so hard for some elected leaders in New York and the New York area to come out and call terrorism terrorism?

Mayor Adams: Well, you had three elected leaders that joined the march that took place, the first march, they actually were sponsors of it. I think that we have allowed the loudest among our group to silence the voices of those that know this was wrong. And I refuse to do that. That is not who I am, and that is not what I committed my life to doing.

Everyone should be talking about horrific actions of watching children slaughtered in front of their parents a Holocaust survivor was removed, women being raped. This is something that particularly the African American community holds dear to us as we fight for justices, but in general, all of us have some horrific moments in our past that we should be standing up and say this is not acceptable.

Hamas is a terrorist organization and they should not depicted by anything other than that. And they are destructive to the people of Palestine as well as destructive to peace and humanity across our globe.

Scarborough: Reverend Sharpton, I'm so glad you're here in this conversation, because obviously, a generation ago you had a difficult relationship with the Jewish community in New York. You talked about a conversation you had with Coretta Scott King, you talked about transformation, and you have dedicated your life since then to fighting for all people.

And of course, I've talked about you and Jonathan Greenblatt constantly pushing back and fighting together against antisemitism not just in New York City but I remember what you all said and did after Pittsburgh and what you've done time and time again over the past few decades.

What is your message to those leaders that will not call terrorism terrorism? What is your message to those leaders who say, we're going to fight for the rights for some people, but when it's Jews who are attacked and slaughtered and fell under siege, we're going to say nothing or keep quiet or morally equivocate.

Reverend Al Sharpton: Well, you cannot be selective about fighting for what's right. You have to fight for what's right for everyone or you're fighting for no one. And you have to choose whether you're going to be a political leader or a political punk, because you're afraid to stand up. As soon as this happened Saturday before last, I was exchanging text messages with Mayor Adams, because we go back ‑‑ way back in these fights ‑‑ and he was in South America texted me back telling me what he felt and how we need to move forward, get the clergy forward.

And he got off the plane, I'm sure as they were saying "we're about to land" he was already giving orders ‑‑ because you must fight against what is wrong. What happened was not activism, was not militants, it was absolute murder. And those of us that have been the victims of that should be the first ones on line.

I remember years ago when I was stabbed by a lone person in Bensonhurst marching against a racial crime, and Mayor Adams was then the head of the Black police, he sent security to take care of my family. How can I as a victim of an assault ignore that?

We remember in 9/11 friends of ours died in that building. Bin Laden didn't care that Blacks or browns were in the building, they were going after what they wanted, and so are these people. We don't even know who the hostages are. It could be people there visiting the Holy Land.

So, when Mayor Adams stands up and says about lone wolves, we're not only talking about just Jews, we're talking about on the Muslim side, on the Arab side. A 6‑year‑old kid stabbed to death yesterday in Illinois for being a Muslim. That's just as wrong. And we are looking for the families that are suffering in the Gaza just like we are in Israel.

But you can't have it both ways if you don't have it all the way. And Mayor Adams, one of the things that that struck me when I saw your speech in the synagogue was how you talked about you are going to secure and look for those lone wolves, people that are inspired to do something like this guy I talked about in Illinois that killed a young Arab 6‑year‑old kid yesterday.

Talk about how you are trying to make sure we secure everyone and how we need to deal with the fact that everyone needs to be involved. We saw Islamophobia after 9/11, we had to fight over a mosque even being downtown. So we [inaudible] antisemitism or Islamophobia.

Mayor Adams: No, so true. And that is what the orders were handed down to our law enforcement officers. We secured those sensitive locations in the Jewish community, but we also secured the sensitive locations in our Muslim and our Christian and other communities. We are consistent, and it's imperative that we send the right message that hate is hate. I've stood side by side with my Chinese brothers and sisters during the high level of Asian violence. That consistency is important.

And we had a moment at Gracie Mansion where we brought together all of our faith leaders from different walks of life to pray for our city and push the faithful peace that we all look for. This is, there's a war taking place right now, and we all know, like the war in Ukraine and other places, that innocent people die during the war. And that hurts all of us. But let's be clear: Hamas initiated this action and what Hamas much did was terrorism. They wanted to bring about terror and they wanted to bring about a level of hate. And we should really identify that.

Here back on our soil in New York City, I have the obligation to make sure that all New Yorkers are protected, and we are keeping our eyes out by looking at intelligence for those lone wolves like the lone wolf we saw in Buffalo that took the lives of innocent African Americans in the supermarket.

People are being radicalized through social media. And if I would say this, Joe. We need social media to step up. They need to stop using the algorithms to continue to radicalize our young people to help promote this violence. They are silent in many of these actions that we've seeing across the entire country.

Jonathan Lemire: So, Mayor Adams, let's get you to talk a little bit more, please, about the current security situation in New York City. There had been a lot of chatter about this past Friday as being one where Hamas leaders had called for violence. We did see a little bit around the globe. Thankfully, none in New York. Can you talk us through some of the steps you're taking to keep New Yorkers safe, and is there any credible intelligence that suggests there could be threats in the days ahead.

Mayor Adams: No, we want to be extremely clear to New Yorkers. There are no credible threats against New York City or New York City residents at this time. But we're not going to rest because there are no known credible threats. And so we're approaching this on multiple levels, one are things that we're doing based on intelligence and unseen. The commissioner of Intelligence, Commissioner Weiner, has a full monitoring system in place to look for any form of credible threats.

But we also wanted the visible presence of our police officers. Many of our offices are assigned to plainclothes assignments, we had the entire team back in uniform to have the omnipresence we needed on our subway system, on our streets and in sensitive locations. And we have reached out to all of our partners. We have several meetings with our houses of worship and other leaders throughout the city to put them also on high alert.

And we're saying if you see something, say something or do something, and reach out to the authorities so we can properly investigate. And I just want to really commend the men and women of New York City Police Department and all of our law enforcement entities for our collaboration of addressing this weekend, but we're going to continue to stay on high alert for the next few days.

Mike Barnicle: Mayor Adams, to that point — police presence and the men and women of the NYPD — do we have enough police officers? Numbers are down from what they were eight, nine, 10 years ago. Do we have enough police officers?

Mayor Adams: We could use more. I'm very clear on that. We do have a decrease in numbers of police officers. And I think we have a law enforcement crisis across the entire country, and we must start recruiting young people to get back into the profession of law enforcement. The numbers are down.

But based on the numbers that we have, no one does it better than the New York City Police department. We're going to make sure we mobilize our manpower to get maximum results that we're looking for. And we can see that. We see crime is decreasing across the city in areas of the five out of seven major categories, and we're deploying our police in the right way. And we're utilizing our manpower to get the results we're looking for.

Mika Brzezinski: All right. New York City Mayor Eric Adams, thank you very much for being on the show this morning. And Reverend Al Sharpton, thank you as well.