Transcript: Mayor Adams Calls in for Live Interview on 77 WABC's "Sid & Friends in the Morning"

January 15, 2024

Sid Rosenberg: MLK Day here in New York and around the country. The late great Reverend Martin Luther King would have been 95 years old today, but of course, he was assassinated back in 1968. April will be 56 years since Dr. King was assassinated. He would have been 95 today, so happy birthday to MLK.

We celebrate today, we've had some great guests, we'll have guests all day long. In fact, my next guest will be a guest twice on this station with me coming up with me next but also with Catsimatidis, Cats & Cosby, at five. He is the mayor of New York City. I just saw him, in fact, last Wednesday night. He looked great as always. So, here he is, Mayor Eric Adams. Mr. Mayor, good morning. How are you?

Mayor Eric Adams: Good morning. Hey, Sid, how are you? You know, happy reflective Dr. King Day. The Sunday on my morning radio show, I had the opportunity to sit down and speak with Dr. Clarence B. Jones. He was a legal counsel, strategic advisor and speechwriter for Dr. King. Vanity Fair called him the man who kept King's secrets. He's now with an organization called Spill the Honey, a foundation dedicated to Black/Jewish relationships. And he's just an amazing man. He's over 90 also. And I really enjoyed my conversation with him.

Rosenberg: Well, that sounds great. I mean, look, you're African American, but you get along with everybody. You certainly care about the Jewish people, I could attest to that as a Jew myself. This is such a lame question, Eric, I know it is. But it's obligatory, and everybody is going to ask you this today, so I hate doing it but I almost have to.

And that is— ready for this? How would Dr. King feel today about where we are with race and blah, blah, blah. So, let me get it out there so I make everybody happy. Mr. Mayor, how would Dr. King feel today?

Mayor Adams: Well, I don't think that is a lame question. I think that is no different than, you know, as we celebrate other days, you know. Thanksgiving, we say, what are you giving thanks for? You know, Christmas time, what is your reflection on, you know, Jesus Christ?

So, I think that question is actually a good question because it makes us reflect and it makes us pause for a moment and don't take the holiday or the acknowledgment as just a day off and sort of bring it back and say, okay, where are we right now? So, I see it a different way, and I'm glad you asked that.

I think he would be troubled by what we're seeing. We're seeing a global shift of human beings that are leaving their homes because of climate conditions, because of wars, because of violence. I think he would be really troubled by the brutal attack that yesterday was 100 days that's passed by and hostages are still not released.

So, I think that he would look at the globe and see that we have made some great strides, and we should be clear on that because just as we acknowledge the troubling spots we have to acknowledge the strides. And we've made some great strides here in the city and across the entire globe.

But the dream is not realized. We need to acknowledge that dream that he talked about. And I think we're getting closer. You know, you look at just the interaction relationship that, you know, we have, if you go back during the time Dr. King was together, that relationship was not so much a reality.

But those Jewish communities and African American community, fought side by side during the civil rights era. You know, even when you look at, Sid, in Mississippi, when many young whites went to Mississippi to fight against racism, 50 percent of them, over 50 percent of them were young Jewish students and young Jewish people, you know. And so I think we may strive, but there's more strides to make.

Rosenberg: Well, I think that's a very, very fair statement and accurate. I mean, just from a political standpoint, not race, just Wednesday night at the Hunt and Fish club, there i was on stage, to my right was a young lady, Jen Rajkumar, a democrat. To my left was a very handsome mayor, also a democrat, and here I am, a Trump supporting republican right in the middle.

So, clear... And we got a long great and we always get along great, so clearly, whether it's race or color political preference we can have that.

But I would ask you this, Eric. I know you're friends with Sharpton, I don't like him. Bad guy. All right? He just wants people's money. I don't like him. You like him. That's fine. Is there anybody in the Black community today— and don't tell me Al— that compares to King? Is there a Reverend Martin Luther King in the Black community today that could explain to, example, Black kids who are picking on, you know, Orthodox Jews all over Brooklyn, that's not the right thing to do.

Mayor Adams: Well, you say, you know, your reason for liking or disliking Reverend Sharpton. You know, I've been in intimate settings with Reverend Sharpton throughout the years, and you know, probably different from the personal...the public persona that people show and how it's reported. And I know the depth of his concerns and how much he is really true to the movement.

But there are many, many more that don't get the same notoriety or are great orators like Dr. King was that are doing it every day, healing. You know, as I mentioned, Dr. Clarence Jones. You know, his organization, Spill the Honey Foundation, is actually dedicated to that, how do you really remind us of the long relationship that African American and Jewish people have had for so many years.

And I think that's a mistake we made. We thought it was going to be an automatic continuation of an understanding of that deep relationship when we did not nurture it. Any relationship, I don't care if it's a marriage or partnership, you have to constantly nurture that.

And that is what I'm calling for in 2024, that we need to nurture those relationships, because you're right. You're right. To stand next to Jenifer Rajkumar, whose mother was born in a mud hut in India, and then I'm standing to the right of you, you know, my mom cleaned houses and what she did. And your powerful story that many people I don't think know.

We are the American dream, and that room was filled with diversity also. You know, that was not possible years ago. We have to nurture these amazing relationships that we have and allow people to see them.
And so what if we disagree? You know, that's what I love about our relationship. You know, you and I would sit down and talk about different policies and you know, what you believe in. But that's the beauty of America. We're not supposed to agree, you know, but we're not supposed to be disagreeable.

Rosenberg: Right. Right.

Mayor Adams: And I think that's what's great about this country. In other places, you can't disagree.

Rosenberg: No, they'll kill you.

Mayor Adams: You're beheaded.

Rosenberg: Yeah, they'll kill you. Exactly.

Listen, I mean, look, the migrant issue— I call the illegal issue— you and I have disagreed quite a bit, and I mean, I will say this, okay? You didn't cause this, Joe Biden caused this. And you have been clear about...I guess, clear, when you blame the federal government, the national government.

But here's why, I'm going to admit, I got upset with you. A couple of weeks ago, you're out there and you publicly support Joe Biden. Eric, I don't get it. You have said time and time again, the federal government, that's being nice. This is Biden, his open border, his policies. He undid everything Donald Trump did well.

Do you know, Mr. Mayor, that in four years, four years, I did this show with Bernard, I never said the migrant word once, not once, when Donald Trump was president. Joe Biden screwed you. He screwed this city. Why are you so quick to support him for the next election? Don't support Trump, that's fine. But Biden? He's the guy that caused all this!

Mayor Adams: I think that if you look at some of the court decisions that were lifted, you know, that were put in place around Covid, of you know, the Band‑aid, I would like to say. You know, we placed a Band‑aid on immigration reform under the Trump years. He was able to limit access to the country because of Covid, and that was a Band‑Aid.

We need real immigration reform, and…

Rosenberg: Hold on, wait, wait. Hold on. In all fairness, Covid came the last six months, Eric, of Trump's presidency. For three and a half years, because his Remain in Mexico policy, and quite frankly, being a tough guy, unlike Biden. It wasn't Covid, that came the last six months of a four‑year presidency.
He had three different...he did have the Covid thing in place, you're right, Title 42. But Remain in Mexico kept these people out of here. That had nothing to do with Covid.

Mayor Adams: And we need to look at, you know, those forms of how do you remain in place, and there were examples of that even under this administration.

But Sid, what I'm what I'm saying is that those were Band‑aids. People were sneaking in across the border at different places. You know, we can't have a Band‑aid approach. Congress and the White House must come up with real immigration reform to address this issue. And no matter who it is, I just cannot subscribe to what I think is anti American dream, people coming into the country and don't have the right to work.

You know, if we're going to parole people in, because people often talk about the illegals, no, we're paroling them in. If we parole people into the country as asylum seekers, we need to expedite it faster, we need to give them the right to work, and we need to have a decompression strategy that it does not impact just local cities and municipalities.

Rosenberg: Well, let's talk about local cities and municipalities, and we'll move off this relatively quickly, but this is the big story. This is in my opinion, Eric, the issue that's going to get you reelected or not. And that is what happened last week when the city decided to house some of the migrants at Madison High School.

Now you know I grew up at 2216 Quentin Road, Eric, which is literally two blocks away from Madison. My mother went to Madison, two of my three sisters went to Madison. My family has a rich history there besides, you know, Bernie Sanders and Chuck Schumer, my cousin Norm Coleman.

And I know a lot of people right there, Bedford Avenue, Kings Highway, and they were furious. You know that. They're like, what do you mean? My kids have to stay home? We already know from Covid that Zoom doesn't work. Staying home doesn't work.

So, now the kids got to stay home because my kids' high school is going to house these people who aren't even here legally yet in the first place? What's your answer to them?

Mayor Adams: Well, first, we need to you know really end the conversation that they're here illegal. They were paroled into the country. They went through the procedure that the government put in place, so that's the first part of it. They're not illegal.

The second part of this, I've been doing is for over 30 years, and I know this and I'm sure you know it, how we use school buildings which are part of community resources. Are we saying if there was a major fire in that community where tenants and housing people were displaced, that we would not open our school building to allow them to be housed?

We did it after the fire up in the Bronx when I first took office in 2022, January. We placed the people in the school building. We do it after building collapse like we did in the Bronx where the building collapsed a few weeks ago, we placed them in school buildings. Major floodings, major catastrophes. We utilize school buildings, gymnasiums and auditoriums to stabilize the situation.

So we cannot say as a country that if it happens, but the children are migrants, we can't allow them to use the same methodologies that we use when we have destabilizing situations. And so to say that, that was not the 500‑plus students that attended their family, and one young girl said it clearly.

She said, wait a minute. We did remote learning for a whole year. We can't do it for one day for other children? That is not who we are as a city, it's not who we are as a country. There was nothing unique about the utilization of a school building that we've always used during the course of crises.

And they weren't there for two days and three days. They didn't even stay the entire night because I stayed there that entire night until they decided to return them to the shelters. So, they weren't there the whole night. The principal made the call. The principal. We didn't mandate it.

She said that I'm not sure if we would be able to get the classrooms open in time, I'd rather the students do remote learning. And you know what else, Sid, that was not reported? Other teachers called her and said, can we come and help you with these students? Because there's some of us in the city that see children as children.

We don't see them as migrants. We don't see them as "those people," we don't see them as aliens. We see children as children because the children today are going to be the leaders tomorrow and they're going to look back on this moment.

I am pissed off and angry about what is happening to our city. And I'm blamed. I'm blamed for the buses. I'm blamed because I don't control the borders. I'm blamed because of the resources [that] hit it. I'm blamed for that, and I got to take that blame because I'm the mayor of this city and I've got to navigate us through this.

But I've got to do it with the level of humanity that we did it in Ellis Island, that we did it through the Ukrainian citizens, that we did it with the Afghani citizens, that we did it with all of us that came to this great country. I've got to live up to that expectation.

Rosenberg: No, it's not easy. Mayor Eric Adams with me right now. Very honest conversation, Mayor.
These four centers you picked— Astoria, Manhattan and Queens and Brooklyn, Stockton— for the curfew. You know where I live...you know where I live, you've been to my house, in my neighborhood.

It's been an issue, the migrants. They have...there's been issues at King's Plaza. There have been issues, traffic incidents, right on the Flatbush Avenue side of Brooklyn. I had one lady call me last week, Eric, she actually runs the Rockaway Republican Club. Her friend came home one night and found two migrants sitting on her couch.

Panhandlers and begging. All this is going on right by that bridge, Gil Hodges Bridge, on my side in Queens and right over the bridge in Brooklyn. And those folks don't understand how you came with the criteria for those four centers having a curfew and not any places by us. What was the criteria behind those four choices?

Mayor Adams: Well, at the beginning of a rollout of the process, I believe that we should have curfews just as we have at the other shelters as part of our DSS, our regular shelter system. We should not allow people to come all times in the night. And we're going to continue to roll out.

Our goal is not to harm communities. I don't know if you recall I said a few months ago that the visualization of this crisis is going to start to be displayed. We have, Sid, we have 168,000 migrants. And probably as we speak we're going to go over 170,000. We're getting anywhere from 2,500 to 4,000 a week, Sid, a week that are coming into the city.

I have no power to stop them because of the laws of this city, state and country. I have no power on this at all. And that's why we're suing Texas for doing this. But this should not even be happening to El Paso, Brownsville. Any city should not be going through this.

Rosenberg: Yes, I mean, that's the point. Your naysayers, your detractors say, hey, Eric, give me a break. You're suing Texas. They're getting 10 times, 10 times the amount that you're getting. Why should they get that? I mean, and you say you don't have the power to do it, but if Abbott is busing out people and DeSantis bussed out people, what stops you from turning these buses around and bussing out people? Get them out of here.

Mayor Adams: Yes, different laws in the state, laws that were put in place long before I became mayor. You know, those laws restrict me from turning over those who commit serious crimes to ICE. The laws don't allow me to do that. The law does not allow me to stop the buses. I cannot stand at the foot of the Lincoln or Holland Tunnel and say no, a bus can't come in.

The state laws don't allow me to do that, and I don't have the power of deportation. And even what they're doing in Texas, in some cases, it may really deal with a legal issue that are you compelling people to leave? You know, that could be determined to be some form of illegal trafficking.

And so we have to really, you can't break the law to try to enforce the law, and that's the problem that I'm having here, Sid. This is too costly, it's not sustainable.

Rosenberg: Yes.

Mayor Adams: And I've been clear from last year. But Sid, here's what people have not acknowledged. I predicted that we were going to have 100,000 that were going to be here. So, I put in place measures to get people out of our system. My prediction of 100,000 were off, we got 168,000.

Do you know over 57 percent of them we were able to get out of the system and stabilized? When we put in the 30‑day rules, the 60‑day rules and other rules, reticketing and other things, we've been able to keep down that 100,000 within our care, we were able to keep that down, and that was how we were able to get cost savings so we could reverse some of the budgetary cuts we made like our police and our schools and others because we were successful in managing this crisis to keep the numbers down.

Rosenberg: One of the other uglier parts of the city— again, not your fault— is after October the 7th these pro Palestinians started to get together, started that big one in Bay Ridge, 5,000.

And I gave you credit the other night, Mr. Mayor, right in front of you. And I meant it, I was very sincere. I love the people you put in place in this city. I'm a big Eddie Caban fan. You know how much I love Michael Kemper, I think he's amazing. I've had other guys on the show, from Daughtry to other folks that are in your department.

And they did a good job last week, they arrested 334 of these pro Palestinian ralliers. But the truth is, it's become a blight on this city. And not because I'm Jewish and I think that they're actually out there, you know, on the side of murder— which they are— but it just doesn't look good when you've got 6,000 people standing in front of the Holland Tunnel or blocking the Manhattan Bridge.
Is there any plan moving forward to limit what these people have been doing almost on a daily basis?

Mayor Adams: Well, it's far from daily. We've had of over 400 and something protests. We had a very peaceful protest that took place last week dealing with the return of the hostages. We have protests in the city all the time. This is a city of protests.

The goal is to do it peacefully and not disrupt the way of life of people. And there they were roughly, last week, we had a handful of people on the Brooklyn Bridge, the tunnels, they wanted to disrupt the rush hour, and we were very clear that was not going to happen. The police went in and took appropriate action.
The settlement took place that allowed people to protest more loosely than it was before. It was a settlement that the courts ruled on, did not permit people to block bridges and tunnels, and we made sure that people are not going to do that.

And when you look at 8.3 million people in this city, the overwhelming number complies with the law and do what is right to do, and so we should not let the numerical minority hijack how well this city is carrying out its business every day. You say, yes, there's 5,000 people in Bay Ridge, that is far from the number of total number of people who are doing the right thing.

I think sometimes we focus on people who are doing the wrong thing, that we ignore the fact that people are doing the right thing.

Rosenberg: So, on the way out, okay, there's a lot of positives, too, here, Eric. I mean, the crime numbers come back and murder's down, shootings are down, to your credit, to your NYPD doing a terrific job. According to my friends in real estate, Suzanne and Corey, that seemingly is on the way back. You talked just last week right in front of me Wednesday about the tourist numbers being back as well.

So, as you go into year three, because you weren't on right after the new year, this is your first appearance in 2024. As you go into year three of your stay as mayor, my friend Eric Adams, there are some things going well. there are some things not going very well. What is the biggest obstacle in your way from having an Aaron Judge Year Number 3?

Mayor Adams: I like that. You look at it really in the spirit of Dr. King, it's about housing. Housing is crucial to me. You know, many people think about. Dr. King's civil rights journey and not, don't realize how much he knew the importance of housing. He fought for fair housing.

And that's what we're doing. When you look at this administration, you just see the success of our housing programs. I mean, you know, we inherited a city where crime was going in the wrong direction, where you saw our economy was in freefall, when you saw Covid was taking over.

And now you look at where we are now. And I know people of, you know, sometimes it takes a while before what you feel equals to what...what you felt equals to what you feel. As you said, crime is down, homicides are down, shootings are down double digit, five out of seven major crimes are down.

We have more private sector jobs in the history of the city— the history of the city. When you look at how well we're doing in managing the city, even with the migrant crisis. We have a AA bond rating. Bond raters are seeing the success that we're doing.

But it's about housing also. You know, Dr. King advocated for the Fair Housing Act passed by Congress in 1968. Here's where we are. Sid, we created the second highest number of new affordable homes in one year in the history of the city. Created the highest number of homes for formerly homeless people in New York in the history of the city. And we connected more people to permanent housing by using our FHEPS voucher program in the history of the program.

As Dr. King was really strong on public housing, what we call NYCHA, we are starting the process of turning around NYCHA by using the land trust, unlocking billions of dollars to deal with the historical broken system of NYCHA.

And so, when I think of Dr. King and I think of what we must accomplish, it's got to be more than just talking about his speeches, it's living out his life, and that is my goal as the mayor.

And part of that living out of his life, the greatest obstacle I believe we're having in the city right now is the continuous flow of migrants and asylum seekers who are not allowed to work, who are not allowed to pursue the American dream. We must fix this in 2024, and I'm going to do everything I can to raise my voice and call on that.

Rosenberg: That's a great job, Eric, seriously. A great conversation. I think we hit on most of the topics New Yorkers care about. I appreciate, as always, you coming by this morning and doing a great job. Happy MLK Day, Mr. Mayor, and I'll see you and talk to you again very, very soon my friend.

Mayor Adams: You, too.

Rosenberg: Thank you.

Mayor Adams: Take care.

Rosenberg: Take care. There he is, Mayor Eric Adams, right here on Sid and Friends in the Morning.

###