Transcript: Mayor Adams Holds In-Person Media Availability

March 11, 2025

Watch the video here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxAylNAw7bI

Mayor Eric Adams: It is so good to see some of you, and some, you know. Busy time, you know. I remember when I first said that, when I first got elected, I said that this is going to be the most exciting time for many of you. Many of you are making your careers off of me. You know, no one even knew your names, and now you are popular, popular folks who are getting interviews.

Somebody wrote a book the other day about me. So, many people are just enjoying the ride. Your Twitter accounts went up. You know, you should be now going to your newsrooms and negotiating raises. You know that this is your time, because you know I’m for working people. And you are working people, and since you are making so many increases in your tweets and Instagrams because of me, they need to give you all a raise. I'm going to go in front of all your news buildings and protest with a sign, give the reporters a raise, you know, because you deserve a raise.

So good morning. Every day, you know, we believe in just making the city a place where we can raise healthy children and families, and that's what we're doing. Nothing personifies that more than what we did yesterday with the Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch. 1,000 guns removed off the streets since the beginning of the year, and 40 of them were ghost guns. And when you look at the numbers, three straight months of double-digit decreases in crimes on our streets and two straight months of double-digit decreases in crime in our subway system, the city is just coming back.

I was out last night walking down Madison Avenue, and I was blown away, how many businesses are there, how restaurants are opening and thriving, and we're just really proud of that. And it's all about public safety. Public safety and justice is the prerequisite to prosperity, and we will continue to say that throughout this entire administration. And so those 1,000 guns off the streets since the year 2025 started is a real symbol to what the men and women are doing to keep our city safe. And that's a total of 20,700 guns removed off our streets. Every gun has the potential of destroying a life and a family, and we're going to double down on that to make sure we continue to do the work that we know that's possible. And during the first two months also, shootings in 2025 are at their lowest level in recorded history.

In major crimes citywide, they're down almost 15 percent overall. Hats off just really to the men and women of the New York City Police Department. In the area of affordability, we hear that often. I think public safety we hear first. Second is affordability. We, under Deputy Mayor Maria Torres-Springer, the HBD Commissioner Adolfo Carrión, we have been successful in finding ways to build more housing, and we're doing that every day, breaking records. And we know we're going to continue to break records in the year to come.

But one of the exciting projects we have is at 100 Gold Street, there's going to be a conversion where I talked about in my State of the City address where we will add 100,000 new homes from Manhattan over the next decade. We have a generational housing crisis, and we must be smart in how we accomplish that task. And 100 Gold Street is one of the projects. We will transform a city-owned site into a residential building, creating more than 1,000 mixed-income homes, 25 percent of these homes required to be affordable housing. They're going to be just a few blocks away from me so they can come and visit me at City Hall whenever they like. This project will also redevelop the building's existing older adult center into a new updated facility for residents. And this is just part of the plan. We're doing some stuff in Gansevoort Square, 600 units of mixed-income housing, and our Midtown South mixed-use plans that will create 10,000 new homes.

And to help these families just get started as they move into their new place, I was really proud of this announcement. Deputy Commissioner Mark Stewart has been doing baby showers throughout the city. Thousands of people received those baby supplies. Anyone that has a newborn know how difficult it is to get all of those little items. And we're expanding on what he has done, and we announced our baby boxes initiative, another promise kept. This year, State of the City addressed three boxes containing supplies and parenting resources, including diapers, wipes, bathing, and feeding supplies, sort of giving them that start of kit. We believe 7,000 babies will benefit from this. And so with that said, why don't we open the floor and do a few questions. Marcia, how are you?

Question: I'm good. How are you, Mr. Mayor?

Mayor Adams: Good, good.

Question: So I have two questions. The first has to do with the ICE arrest of Mahmoud Khalil, the Palestinian protester in Colombia. My question is this. I wonder where you come down on the ICE arrest, whether you come down on the side of people who praise the First Amendment rights to protest in America, or those like President Trump who say foreigners in our country who spew hate speech should be deported. Your position?

Mayor Adams: Well, first, I cannot say this clear enough. And federal government deals with immigration. That's who deals with immigration. I've said it over and over again that free speech is important. And actually, this country advocates for that. But when it comes down to the determination of the status of who stays in a country and who doesn't stay in the country, that's the federal government.

We made it clear we do not collaborate with civil enforcement, and we don't. But I am going to collaborate every day with [law enforcement]. And the crimes that are committed won't be on our streets. And ICE is a law enforcement entity. People fail to realize that. ICE is a law enforcement entity. And I'm going to collaborate with law enforcement, every federal, state, and city agency in doing so. But specifically with this individual, that's not my job.

The federal government determines who will be deported from this country, not the mayor of the City of New York, and not any mayor determines that. I'm sorry?

Question: Don't you have an opinion about it?

Mayor Adams: Listen, I got [an] opinion about a lot of things, you know? But my opinions cannot govern the public safety of this city. I must make sure the city is safe. And I cannot say it enough. ICE handles who's deported and who's not deported, not the mayor of New York and not the mayor of this city. And we also don't control who comes into the country and what rules based on that. I critiqued the previous president about the number of people that came into the country and made their way to New York. And I'm going to continue to say that the federal government makes this determination.

Question: It has to do with affordability and the rising price of energy, electricity, and gas in New York. Because of the tariffs that have been put on Canada, Ontario is threatening to put a 25 percent surcharge on energy deliveries to New York, which is important for you because there's a new pipeline coming on board that will provide electricity for a million apartments in New York City. Are you worried about that? That the power that they're going to provide is going to become unaffordable to people in New York because of the tariffs?

Mayor Adams: Anything that impacts New Yorkers concern me. And I'm going to always advocate to keep the costs down. We put $30 billion back in the pockets of low-income New Yorkers. And so anything that is going to impact taking money out of the pockets of New Yorkers, I'm going to always talk about that and advocate for that.

Let's be clear. That's the negotiations of tariffs. I don't know if you looked at my charter position and what my abilities are. I don't negotiate tariffs. I do believe we need to secure our northern borders, just like we have to secure our southern borders. And I've said this over and over again. You can't have people on terrorist watch lists make their way across our border.

Our country must be safe. That's at the top of the agenda for me.

And when you talk about tariffs and who's going to decide the tariffs and a war that's going to go back and forth on the tariffs, that's the role of the federal government. I don't control that. And I think that the federal government must make the determination on how that plays out.

J.R., how are you?

Question: I am well. How are you, Mr. Mayor?

Mayor Adams:  Good, good. You've got an event coming up.

Question: Yes. The Reset Awards. Mr. Mayor, with New York City mayor's race heating up right now, the focal point is public safety.

Mayor Adams: Yes.

Question: You're on record saying that you don't get enough credit for nonviolence. Could you expand on that?

Mayor Adams: Don't get enough?

Question: Credit for reducing nonviolence. Correct myself.

Mayor Adams: People said that. Did I say that? Did I say I don't get enough credit? I don't recall ever saying that. And if I did, I would continue to say the police officers don't get enough credit. And New Yorkers do give me credit. People who are politically motivated, they're going to come up with their soundbites to make it appear as though that they can do what I've done. I call on all of you to look at what their platforms are. It's Eric Adams' platform. They realize what New Yorkers believe is important. And they weren't running on this before.

They were running on defunding police. They were running on allowing recidivism to continue to come on our streets and create crime and violence. They were running on a whole different agenda. Now they realize and woke up that public safety is a prerequisite to our prosperity. Now people have different soundbites.

We've done it. They're going to say what they're going to do. I'm going to be able to say what I've done. Murders are down 21.5 percent year over year. 2022 was the highest murder clearance rate since 1998, and the third highest clearance rate in 32 years. Shooting is down 21.4 percent. Overall index crimes are down 14.4 percent year-to-date compared to last year. I mean, these are numbers. So noise cannot displace the numbers. And I got a record to run on.

Question: Secondly, New York City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, she has joined the race.

Mayor Adams: Yes.

Question:  Is she going to shake up the race in any which way, especially with ranked choice voting?

Mayor Adams: I said this over and over again, come one, come all. But what one can't do is they can't run in the shadows. They have to be in the town halls, take the tough questions, meet the New York City journalists. They have to answer the tough questions. You can't campaign through tweets and videos and only be in this little confined place. Come out here and [ask]

tough questions.

There are going to be more people in the race. And this race is going to go through so many twisted terms, you're not going to be able to imagine it. So I can't go in depth in the race because I'm constantly reminded by my team. I wish I could talk about this all day and give you my analysis, but I can't. But I'll see you on the campaign trail, and it would be easy to talk about all this good stuff.

Question: Hey, mayor.

Mayor Adams: What's happening? How are you?

Question: Good. Back to the ICE arrest. To this point, no charges have been filed. This person remains in custody. I know you're not going to give your opinion, but what would you tell a group of pro-Palestinian people who want to protest and don't intend on causing any harm or violence? What would you tell them if they're scared now, seeing what has happened, where there's, to this point, no evidence produced of a crime here? What would you say to people who are afraid of protesting in your city now because of what happened?

Mayor Adams: No, it's our city. And a lot of New Yorkers are concerned about some of the terminologies that are being used. Someone burned the American flag the other day, and they said the only American flag that's a good flag, something like that, is one that's burnt. My uncle defended this country, and I don't believe that. And many Americans don't believe that. And those anti-Israel protesters, I saw some of the pamphlets that were on Columbia University ground calling about the destruction of America. I saw some of the antisemitic terminologies that are being used.

And so we will always have to stomach comments like that, because that's what this country is. But we don't know the full scope of this investigation. And as a former law enforcement person, I know that there are parts of an investigation that's beyond our understanding. Let the process take its course. That's why the federal government is in charge of deportation. And they should be in charge of deportation. I believe that.

Question: Hi, Mr. Mayor. How are you?

Mayor Adams: Good. How are you doing?

Question: I'm fine, thank you. I'm wondering, now that the independent lawyer who is named for the bill.

Mayor Adams: I'm glad you brought that up.

Question: You are? Is the answer, call Alex? I'm just kidding. Sorry. [Crosstalk.] No, I'm still trying to get ahead of it. So the question I have is, if, in fact, the judge takes the advice of this adversarial position, which actually agreed that the case should be dismissed, and your case goes away with prejudice, which means it can't be held over your head, how does that change your standing and your view? Is that a help to you? That people would no longer be able to say that you're beholden to President Trump?

Mayor Adams: Okay, first of all, you've got to call Alex. But I did nothing wrong. And so there was never a time or moment that I felt as something was held over my head. That was a narrative that was created by the same people who were attacking me from January 1, 2022. It's the same chorus. The chorus didn't sing. They are singing off-key. I did nothing wrong. There was never a time that I felt that something was holding over me, one can say. There's others who say, if Eric doesn't do A, we're going to do B. I did nothing wrong.

But what was most significant for me is that I cannot move, the judge is going to move based on his timeline. His independent court-appointed person, there were several things he said in his review. And I agree with him. But what was surprising to me was the emails, texts, and communications that came from those who were on this case. It was in contrast to what they said publicly and how little you guys covered it. Every leak that came out on me, there was full-page stories and leaks and what have you. But these guys, in their own words, talked about what I said.

This was politically motivated. And in their own words, they alluded to that. But it wasn't covered. It was just little passages. I thank God for the New York Post, you know, who was willing to cover it. Why aren't we talking about that? Why aren't we talking about, in their own words, their own emails, their own text messages, you're hearing about the potential that this was politically motivated?

This happened to an American. So I think that the case will speak for itself. And to have the Department of Justice say that best, this was extremely aggressive, questionable behavior. DOJ released these internal texts. Go find out what the term gymnastics means. They use gymnastics. Come on, folks. Come on. We got to be honest to cover this stuff. They use just gymnastics to get the indictment.

Question: Yeah, Mr. Mayor.

Mayor Adams: What's happening?

Question: It's not much. I guess the De Blasio administration estimated there were 600,000 legal residents like Khalil, Mr. Khalil, [inaudible]. So that's a pretty large group of people. And so what we saw in the federal government's response was that he was a radical, foreign, pro-Hamas person. And there was no trial. And you have now spent a considerable amount of time on due process. And appropriately, you claim to due process. And you count on due process to redeem America, right?

What I don't understand is he was removed from this city, the city that you are in charge of, taken to Louisiana, requiring a habeas corpus petition, and there has been no actual due process. Could Mr. Khalil be victimized by the same kind of political justice that you say you've been dealing with since the start of your tenure?

Mayor Adams: The immigration, deportation, how that's carried out is the federal government's job. That's the federal government's job. And the federal government will do their job.

Question: You have a number of people in Mr. Khalil's situation. You don't feel that as the mayor of New York that you have any obligation to make sure that the federal government is living up to its obligation? Because you had a situation here with the Department of Justice, duly constituted, right, that clearly fell off what you say is their requirement. Couldn't that be happening now in the Trump administration? Or is Mr. Trump somehow inherently morally superior to Mr. Biden?

Mayor Adams: Well, you know, what I'm finding surprising is the level of support you are displaying, but I didn't see that support for me, even after we saw the emails and text messages that there's a potential that this is politically motivated.

So if you're about justice, don't be inconsistent in your call for justice. Cover those text messages that shows that it was potentially politically motivated. That same enthusiasm I'm getting for you, we should be enthusiastic for everyone. And again, the federal government does immigrations and they're doing the investigations, and we need to make sure that it is done in a fair way that it's done.

Question: Hello, Mr. Mayor.

Mayor Adams: Yes, how are you?

Question: I'm very good, thank you. Mr. Mayor, I have two questions. The first one is statistics on public safety, but you also always say that it's about the feeling, how people feel safe.

Mayor Adams: Yes.

Question: Talk about it in terms of the race for the mayor. Many of your, many of other candidates, they run on public safety, telling people that the city is not safe. Do you think they make disservice to the people of this city? That's the first question. You wanna answer, or should I ask the second one?

Mayor Adams: Well, first of all, I said yesterday at our 1,000 gun removal off the streets, I talked about  how insulted it is for the men and women who are doing the job. I think what we did to the men and women at Department of Correction, it was just wrong. The difficult job of managing custody and control of people who committed violent acts, for the most part, in our city, and yet we don't hear any positive stories about what they've done. They were there under COVID. We weren’t even giving them masks under COVID.

Some of them were doing triples, not going to their family members. And these are human beings that are saying we're willing to put our lives on the line to protect the city, and the same for police officers, probation officers, school safety officers. I can go down the line. And so when you start saying that the city is in chaos, what the numbers don't match, you are really telling these men and women who place, they place their lives on the line every day, sacrifice for the city, watching their colleagues in some cases assaulted, and in some cases we lost the officers due to violence. I always think about Mora [and] Rivera, who we lost, and so many others. And so you are insulting them. They have done their job. And so I think it's wrong to do so.

And I think that if you want to attack the mayor, fine, attack the mayor. But in your sentence, talk about the men and women who have done the job. In spite of some of the actions of some of them, in spite of the how many stops laws, in spite of that we instituted laws that say you cannot handcuff inmates when they're moving to and from court and other procedures, in spite of the revolving door practices, in spite of all of that, these men and women have stepped up and kept our city safe.

Question: Thank you, and Mr. Mayor, you mentioned before that you think that the Democratic Party left the working class people, that they abandoned them. I want to go back to your hearing in Washington, D.C.

Mayor Adams: Yes.

Question: Do you feel abandoned by the Democratic Party after what you've been through there from the side of the Democrats?

Mayor Adams: The Democratic Party uses a term, it's called the big tent. There are many different people and beliefs and philosophies under that tent. And so the loudest and who's covered the most, they do not make up the majority. And I saw that when I ran for office. When I ran for office and sat down with folks and told them my platform was going to be public safety, people said, Eric, you can't run on that, and you are a Democrat.

And I said, no, that is not true. And I leaned into public safety and it separated me from the other eight or nine candidates that were in the race, that some were even talking about taking guns away from police officers. And so I was very clear on my message. And so when you talk about the Democratic Party, I believe that many Democrats didn't leave the party, the party left them. And I'm going to continue to run on those blue collar issues that are important to New Yorkers.

Question: So the Deputy Sheriff's Association just endorsed your competitor, the ex-governor, Andrew Cuomo. As you know, they're one of the people who went in to shut down illegal cannabis stores. So I just wondered, are you frustrated at all having, you know, seeing some people like this endorse Cuomo, saying this never would have happened, having all the illegal cannabis stores, if he were mayor?

As you know, it required a legislative fix to fix the bill so you could actually go in and shut down the stores, a bill that he signed. You had to negotiate and push for bail reform changes, discovery reform changes. Those are all bills he signed. So are you frustrated at all to see, you know, you cleaning up maybe some of his mess and seeing people endorse him?

Mayor Adams: Go back to 2022 and see how many of these folks endorsed me. You know, just take a look. And so it doesn't frustrate you. This is politics and you just got to stay focused, no distractions and grind. That's the same message, you know?

And I think that when you see how successful we've done in the city, the voters are going to speak for that. And so, you know, again, I don't want to go into the deep political strategies. You're going to see me on the campaign trail. I'm going to talk about all this stuff on the campaign trail.

Question: Do you feel like you're cleaning up his messes up?

Mayor Adams: I feel that on the campaign trail, we're going to really show the origin of a lot of things that we had to go through in the city.

Question: When are you going to be starting on the campaign trail?

Mayor Adams: Soon and very soon.

Question: Two questions. Can you clarify your comments yesterday about Khalil? Were you confused? Like, did you think that he had a gun or did you have reason to believe that he had a gun?

Mayor Adams: We were at a gun press conference. My team said on topic, the question was raised about this case after asking the case about [inaudible]. And I said, if he had a gun, he should be deported. The focus was on guns. And that's what I was responding to.

Question: And number two, is it painful for some of your allies to be endorsing Cuomo, Ruben Diaz Jr.? I've heard that Rodneyse is going to endorse Cuomo this week. Is it painful for these long-time allies of yours to endorse him and have you asked them not to?

Mayor Adams: No, it's not painful at all. This is politics. I don't know if you guys, that have been covering politics for a long time, it's politics. Things happen in politics. So one week, someone can say, or one year someone should say he should step down as governor. Next year, they're standing up saying that he should be mayor. And so that is what politics is.

Some people in the game have reasons for doing what they're doing. It's all part of the process. You can never take politics personally. That was the advice that Mayor Bloomberg stated to me when we were talking once. You can't take this stuff personally. You gotta just, you gotta move with it, do what you do.

And I said it before and I'm gonna say it again. Out of that whole field, I think we're up to 10 people now, and there are going to be more, trust me. Not one of them has ever won the mayoralty, but me. And no matter what happens, my picture is going up. I'm gonna put my picture right next to room nine.

Question: I wanted to follow up on that question, about your campaign. You don't have an official campaign spokesperson. You mentioned that you're gonna start on the campaign trail. You haven't reached out to some groups about endorsements. You see your allies getting these endorsements that you had before.

So how should New Yorkers believe that you're actually truly running, other than you saying that you are running for reelection? None of your actions are coinciding with the words that you're saying.

Mayor Adams: Okay, I've been doing this for a little bit, and I don't recall at any time that there was a predetermined list that indicates if someone is actually running or not. So my timetable, I know what I'm doing. I've won before, and I'm going to put the chess in place, the chess game in place, and it's not on anyone else's timetable. It's not because you want to see an indicator or someone else wants to see an indicator. No, I must put the strategy together just as I did the last time. I know what I am doing.

Just as I stated, we were going to deliver in Albany, and many people say you'll never get what you need out of Albany. We got everything we requested out of Albany, just about. Just as I said, we're going to bring down crime, we brought down crime. Just as I said, we were going to build housing units, we broke records in housing units. Just as I stated, we're going to make the subway system safe, we made the subway system safe. Just as I said, we were going to make sure we put money back in the pockets of New Yorkers. We put $30 billion back in the pockets of New Yorkers.

All the things that I say, how many times I got to do stuff that I said I'm going to do before you guys finally say, well, maybe this guy knows what he's doing. I know what I am doing.

Question: And I wanted to quickly follow up on the Khalil situation. I know you're not going to give your opinion, but what is your communication with ICE at all in that situation? Did they let you know that they were here in the city? Did they let you know that they're on the Columbia University campus? Is there any communication happening at all?

Mayor Adams: When we strategize with local law enforcement officials about crime and public safety, we're not going to go into the details of that, but we've been very clear. We cannot collaborate with solely deportation cases, cannot. I've said that over and over again.

Question: You just said that in order for you to run, it's important not to have distractions, and although we have to wait for the judge's timeline, is there any indication as to when can the judge come back and say something like, I need another recommendation. Or do you think this will be solved in the next couple of weeks, so you can start actually your campaign? Because this is like a cloud on top of you.

Mayor Adams: For the last 15 or so months, with all that has been happening, I'm still waiting for the piece that someone writes, that with all that has been going on, this mayor has stayed focused and moved the city forward. And if you go back to the day that the indictment was put in place, I stood in the rotunda and spoke to all of you, and I remember one reporter in particular that talked about how devastating it is.

I talked about my faith in God and how I was going to continue to work for New Yorkers, and that's how I'm going to get through this. Working for New Yorkers gave me the therapy that I needed to get through this, and my faith in God made me strong enough to withstand all that was going on behind the scenes of people saying political motivations that those texts revealed.

That is the same thing I'm taking from this step forward. It worked then, it's going to work now. Working for New Yorkers is my therapy. My faith in God will get me through no matter what I have to encounter.

Question: So you brought up these text messages repeatedly during the press conference that we didn't cover in the media enough. So would you call on the DOJ then to unseal these documents? Because the reason why it wasn't extensively covered besides being dropped at 7:45 on a Friday night was also that all the exhibits were redacted, which had the details of this, as you say, the political motive.

I don't know if you saw with your attorney, Alex, but will you call on the DOJ to release these in full since, as you said, it exonerates you and shows that this is a politically motivated case.

And just secondly, you've spoken extensively about mask bans, but I guess in the wake of these next round of anti-Israel protests on campus, are you pushing the state legislature to ban masks and protests? And is that part of your already agenda issues?

Mayor Adams: First of all, remember they were banned until COVID, and we need to go back to that. I think that you would see a lot less cowardly actions if people were not able to hide behind masks. And not only protesters, but people who are committing crimes, going into stores, robberies, some of the assaults that we're seeing.

The mask and being able to cover your face is allowing people to be emboldened. And I think it's imperative that we go back to what was in place, and that is that you are not allowed to wear the mask. Those medical reasons, it’s understandable. But, the countless number of people who are wearing masks that we're seeing, like we saw on the Columbia campus, the wearing of the mask, the covering of the face, it emboldens people when they are able to wear the mask. And I think we need to go back to not allowing people to wear the mask.

And answering your question specifically, the judge got to make that decision. You know, he has to make the decision on what is going to be released and not, and the main justice makes that decision. I have to respect it, the fact that they do so. But I do want to point out the leaks that they were doing on me, people were not looking for full explanations. They were not justifying that, maybe they took Eric out of context. They weren't doing that. They were writing the stories as though it was factual.

And so you can't have it both ways. All of a sudden, we're justifying these texts that came out and maybe were taken out of context and maybe saying that it was politically motivated, they didn't really mean that. Yeah, we don't need you guys to interpret what folks meant, because no one did that for me.

Question: That's what I'm saying is if we don't want to interpret them, we just want to see them in full. Because in this sense, they're snippets. They're just like cherry picked, if you will, or little small snippets of the text message. All of the exhibits have been sealed. So would you want those to be released?

Mayor Adams: Well, I think that if you look at the snippets that you're talking about, there's some real problems with those snippets. And we should be reporting on that. There's some real problems when those who are conducting the investigation believe that it's politically motivated.

They have an obligation to stand up and say, we can't use our office as political motivation. And then when you depart, and you are saying one thing on your departure, but privately on your texts and your communications, you're saying something totally different.

Question: I have two questions. One, you've spoken on Adrienne Adams running for mayor, but how will this impact the budget negotiation process with both of you now running?

My second question being, the governor made it clear that it was important for you to right the ship and instill some type of confidence in your administration after the indictments had come down, resignations were piling on. A large part of that was bringing on Maria Torres-Springer as first deputy mayor.

She's now gone, along with other key members of your administration. Was the governor a part of the process for appointing the new deputy mayors? Is she advising you on your first deputy mayor choice? Have you landed on an appointment? Are you planning to announce?

Mayor Adams: The governor's position back then to right the ship, she didn't tell me who to appoint. I don't know if that was lost in the conversation. I rebuilt the team, put the team in place, and we continued to execute.

We did not miss one stride. Because if you are the mayor of the largest city in America and you can't continue your stride no matter what happens, then you're not prepared for this job. And I don't know if it came from my days of law enforcement, of sitting on the desk in a precinct and seeing things happen, and that's one time.

But you have to have the ability no matter what comes up. When I wake up in the morning and I place my feet on the floor, I don't know what's going to shape me. And sometimes I get a call in the middle of the night that something is going on. You have to be able to shift and adjust and rebuild if needed. And you saw me do that.

You saw me rebuild, put the team in place, and even after we lost four of our deputy mayors, we're back in stride. We're back in stride. I have a job to do, and we're never going to be distracted no matter what comes up.

Rudy Giuliani did not know two planes were going to fly into the Trade Center and we were going to see those large numbers of people that died, but he had to still manage the city. Bloomberg came in and continued the process. That's the beauty of our democracy. You have to continue the process, and not one person is bigger than the process that moves forward.

So we have a deep bench in the city and in our city agencies, and I'm happy to see the new deputy mayors that are coming on board. I was sorry to see the four that left, but people make decisions in life, and I respect those decisions.

No, we're going to land a plane. We said this before. We're going to land a plane on the budget. We're professionals. We're going to land a plane. We’re going to do what we have to do with this budget. We'll sit down with her team, and we'll land a plane. I've said that over and over again. We will land a plane.

Question: Revisiting earlier questions about some of your key allies endorsing Cuomo in this race, who are you looking to to support your campaign? Are you reaching out to any unions? I know you interviewed with 32BJ. Are there others who you've been speaking to?

And then separately, in his motion last week, Paul Clement, the independent attorney appointed by Judge Ho, he said that part of the reason why, or kind of the main reason why he wants the case to be dropped with prejudice is because he doesn't want the appearance that it's hanging like a sort of Damocles over you.

So that appears to back up the idea that there's a perception that Trump would be using this to kind of control you. What do you make of him putting that in his motion?

Mayor Adams: Listen, he is a wise, wise constitutional attorney. He's very impressive. When I read over when he was first appointed, I read over his documents. And I was impressed with his legal career. And I think he laid out what his thoughts are.

The judge picked him. And I assume the judge picked him because he realized how deep his knowledge is on this topic. And so the judge will make the determination. This is now in the hands of the judge to make the final determination. And many people have different perceptions.

People stop me all the time. Eric, we know you've always been independent in what you do and how you act. All the time, people have said that. And let's not misunderstand that a lot of the perception people have, this has been inundated in the public arena. Some of your articles, some of the things people read, it is hard for people to think any differently.

But it's amazing to me that out of all of that, when I'm seeing everyday New Yorkers, people know me from the Police Department. They say, Eric, you were in the Police Department. Those guys paid your salary. And you were the leading voice on police reform in the Police Department.

I've always been an independent voice. But if you're seeing everyday people pick up reading your papers that, he's under control, he's under control, he's under control, and then you say, well, why do people feel that? Damn it, they just read it for three weeks in a row. At a deference to Judge Ho, he will manage this situation.

Question: And the question about your allies, who are you looking to for support in this election?

Mayor Adams: Oh, I like that. The people, the voters, the people who voted me in. That's who I'm looking for support. Endorsements don't win races. Knocking on doors do. And the people matter. Long as the people, I'm gonna get out there and do what I do well. I'm a solid, solid campaigner. I know how to articulate a message that's clear and crisp. And that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to enjoy every moment of selling my product to the people of this city, how I made life better for New Yorkers. That's what I'm going to do.

Question: On the economy, another rough day on Wall Street. New York is particularly impacted when we have bad financial years, something like $5 billion, according to a recent comptroller's report, on the income from the financial industry going into city coffers. The possibility of a recession, which the president himself did not rule out over the weekend. His staff has doubled down on that statement. Are you concerned you're going to be facing tough budget choices, PEGs, cuts to city services? Is that keeping you up at night right now?

Mayor Adams: Always, always, you know, and it's probably keeping Jacques Jiha up even more because anytime you attempt to cut anything, there's an advocacy group who wants to fight against it. And, you know, I take my hat off to those four independent agencies that leaned into our bond rating.

You know, always talk about it because anyone can criticize us, but there are professionals that are out there that are saying this guy is managing the crisis. These are professionals. They're not opinionated people. They're not people that have no degrees in finance. When you look at Moody’s, S&P, and the others are saying, in spite of all that's going on, we trust Eric at the wheel. That is very important. And so we're going to have to shift and adjust.

It was crucial for me to do those pegs. Out of all the noise, I say, I have to put money in the bank for us because for the unforeseen future, it was crucial to have almost $8 billion in our rainy day dollars. I knew that the uncertainties, we better be prepared for it. And so we have to face these uncertainties. And, you know, the council is going to have to sit down with us based on the economic outlook and make the smart decisions to balance our budget. And that's what we're going to do.

Question: Have you had any preliminary conversations with your teams about like somewhat immediate upcoming expenses, for example, spending on Summer Youth Employment or upcoming recruiting classes? Have you gotten that specific yet with things New Yorkers would notice pretty readily?

Mayor Adams: No, great question. Great question. We are not going, as we did with our PEGs and as we did with some of the other exercises we had to do when we lost that $7 billion, you know, from the previous administration. We were able to save those much needed institutions.

We're not looking to take money away from the Summer Youth Employment. When you think about the fact that I was the first mayoralty that had 100,000 Summer Youth Employment, we're going to still lean into our Summer Rising Program. We're going to still do those things that low income New Yorkers need to get through this fiscal crisis. And so it's going to be a challenge, but we're going to do everything possible to hold people that are in need.

Question: I wanted to quickly follow up on Henry's question. Last week, Jacques Jiha was testifying in the City Council. It was like the first of the budget hearings. And in his remarks, he was mentioning some of the potential federal funding cuts, Medicaid, SNAP, immigration funding, that have created uncertainties in the budget. And he talked about tariffs and how those could have an adverse effect on the economy and energy prices.

I'm wondering, have you spoken with the president about any of these things that could have a direct effect on New York? And do you have, I guess, thoughts about them that you-

Mayor Adams: No. No, I haven't had those conversations with him about these.

Question: You know, your opponents will say that your reluctance to criticize the Trump administration prevents you from standing up for the values that New Yorkers hold dear, and the values that they want to hear their mayor stand up for. Now they're going to say that your reluctance to criticize the Khalil arrest is further proof of that. What's your answer?

Mayor Adams: I want you all to go back and do an analysis of did any one of them criticize the Biden administration when we lost $7 billion? Did any one of them? Do any of them say that this is wrong, Mr. President, what you're doing to us? Did any of them say this is wrong, that you're allowing people to come into the country with no place to stay? Did any of them stand up for our city when the previous administration was over, or inundating us with this crisis, and we lost $6.9 billion?

I'm consistent. I'm consistent. Are they consistent? I couldn't even get them to go to Washington and fight on behalf of our city. And we can never, we cannot erase that from history, folks. They were unwilling, based on their politics, to go and fight for New Yorkers. And I don't know why we're skipping over that. They were absent when $7 billion left our city, and none of them have been on record to fight for New Yorkers. I've been on record to fight for New Yorkers.

Question: One more question, sir, if I may. Is Andrew Cuomo getting under your skin?

Mayor Adams: You know, it's so funny you say that, you know. It must have been four weeks. I'm gonna take a picture and tweet it out. About four weeks ago, I was finishing an article, and Tracey said, “Eric, I want you to try something. Don't read the papers. Don't listen to the news. Have your team just brief you on things that are important.”

Four weeks ago, I stopped reading papers. I stopped listening to the news. People would stop me on the street and say, you know, I'm sorry what happened to you. I said, what happened to me? I said, is something happening, you know, that I don't know about? I sleep so much better. I just feel so much at ease.

I didn't realize that it's like almost if you eat junk food every day, you're going to get physical obesity. I was going through mental obesity. I got a stack of papers in my office that Gladys puts in, and three months from now, I'm gonna read and hear all that y'all said about me. But right now, he can't get under my skin because I don't even know what he's saying.

Question: You felt it necessary yesterday, sir, to single out those people who are saying New York City is out of control. We all know he's the one who's saying that.

Mayor Adams: Now, there's been a couple of people that have said that, but the teams give me little blips of, you know, there was a comment that New York City's out of control. I said, New York City's not out of control. So they give me enough for me to understand without me having to digest all that junk food, you know?

And I am just so at peace, you know? You know, and y'all should try that. Stay away from that. Months from now, I'll read over all this stuff, and I'll look in our lab, and I'll say, well, I can't believe they were saying that about me. But I don't have a clue what you guys have been writing for the last four weeks.