Transcript: Mayor Adams Appears Live on Fox5's "The 6 O'Clock News"

November 22, 2023

Teresa Priolo: The NYPD already ramping up security for the Thanksgiving Day Parade. This explosion only adds to those heightened concerns. Mayor Eric Adams joining us live now with more on what is being done to keep New Yorkers and all the tourists safe. Hi, mayor. Good evening.

Mayor Eric Adams: How are you? Good evening. Great to speak with you.

Priolo: So, we just heard the governor say that at this point this does not appear to be terrorism related, but still a lot of security concerns. The city already on high alert due to the parade. How does this affect things?

Mayor Adams: We were on high alert since October 7th, real omnipresence and monitoring the chatter that you hear on social media and really monitoring, you know, many of the protests you saw in the city. We've had over 400 protests in the city, and the New York City Police Department and the other agencies did an amazing job.

And as you can expect, when we heard earlier about this incident that took place on the border of Canada and America, of course everyone was a little jittery. And as the governor stated, there's no indication at this time of her preliminary reviews that this was involving terrorism.

Priolo: You talked a little bit about chatter not only during your security briefing, but we just heard you mention it again. Can you elaborate a little bit on that?

Mayor Adams: You know, it's amazing what you hear on social media, it's amazing what you hear from people who are at protests and some of the comments that they're making, some of the flyers that you see around, some of the threats that people make or… Just how we follow every lead. And so that's the type of chatter that we talk about.

Our number one concern here in the city, there's always been a focus on lone wolves. Those who are radicalized inside their homes, making sure that we really follow up on any lead and prevent any form of action. The Police Department has been successful over the years in preventing terrorist attacks, and we are going to continue to remain vigilant.

Priolo: And just also on the Niagara situation. We have the benefit here in New York of having the NYPD protect us. You said earlier you were sending members of the NYPD to the border to help out there. What's your team relaying back to you?

Mayor Adams: Well, Commissioner Weiner, who is the deputy commissioner of intelligence, what we traditionally do, if there's some form of action, mass shooting, some form of terrorist act, we would like to get our officers on the ground to number one, assist in any expertise they may have if it is requested. We'll never interfere.

But at the same time, get original reports on what took place, unfiltered. Because many times those officers who are responding to the location from that municipality, they're going to have their hands full. So having our guys there and being able to report back to us is extremely helpful, and that is why we, from the preliminary reports, we saw what was taking place.

Priolo: All right. Mayor, before we let you go, of course you're in front of one of the balloons. Tomorrow is a very big day here in the city. You have touted the benefits of being a vegan, so I'm curious. On a day that is centered around poultry, how does a vegan survive and dare I say, thrive?

Mayor Adams: I like to say plant‑based. I try to get as many plant‑based meals as possible. And look around the table. I mean, you have everything from yams to collard greens to string beans to mashed potatoes. There's so much more to eat, and we want people to have a healthy Thanksgiving this year. And I like to remind people: it's Thanksgiving, not Thanks‑receiving, so go out and do something, give back to someone that's in need.

Priolo: Good advice there. Mayor Adams, thank you for joining us tonight. Happy Thanksgiving.

Mayor Adams: Thank you.

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