Transcript: Mayor Adams Appears on MSNBC’S "Inside With Jen Psaki"

March 19, 2023

Jen Psaki: When Eric Adams was elected mayor of New York in 2021, it sent a strong signal that the issue of public safety was top of mind for the city's voters. As a former police officer, Adams campaigned on the promise to reduce crime, and during his first year in office, there was a significant drop in shootings and murders, and that's a pretty big deal. But the city's overall crime rate still increased by 22% due to an uptick in robberies and burglaries. I met up with him in New York City to get a sense of the issues he's had to navigate, his advice for fellow Democrats on the crime issue and to ask him about his weekend routine.

Now, I was with President Biden when he came and he spent the day with you. It was one of his favorite days.

Mayor Eric Adams: Yes.

Psaki: Do you … and I know, you're going to be on his advisory committee?

Mayor Adams: Yes.

Psaki: So, what kind of advice are you giving to him or other Democrats running about how they should talk about crime in 2024?

Mayor Adams: Well, I think it's two different conversations. I think President Biden is a blue collar president, like I like to believe I'm a blue collar mayor, and he's a plain talking producer. He has produced. And it's unfortunate the noise is getting in the way of what he has produced, which has been a president that has navigated us out of the COVID, navigated us out of the infrastructure bill. He just keeps putting up points on the board. He needs to keep doing what he's doing, but he is the key singer. His backup singers need to get on key.

Psaki: His backup singers. 

Mayor Adams: Right.

Psaki: I don't know that every member of Congress likes to be called a backup singer, but it's all right.

Mayor Adams: But they got to sing the same message. What he is doing as the president, we all need to be fortifying that message because he came and talked about how do we put money into our police department. You know, we lost our conversation. It gave the appearance that Democrats are soft on crime. No, soft on crime is the Republicans who refused to put money in his crime bills to make sure that we gave the resources to our police department.

Psaki: Now, you've been very outspoken on the impact of gun violence. You've even had a fashion moment with your jacket, which I really admire.

Mayor Adams: Right.

Psaki: You also recently said that when you take prayer out of schools, guns come back into schools. What do you mean by that exactly?

Mayor Adams: I am so concerned about America, and this is all experiment in lab. It is a hideous experiment, but it's real. If you place a frog in hot water, it jumps out right away. If you place it in cool water, turn up the temperature, it will stay there and boil itself to death. I think that our country, we are boiling ourselves to death, and that the root of that is our failure to embrace our spirituality.

Psaki: So, when people shorthand what you said, sometimes that happens in politics. I don't know if you're aware of that, as you wanting to bring prayer, religion back into public schools.

Mayor Adams: Yes.

Psaki: What do you say to that?

Mayor Adams: Well, the most important thing I had to learn is that don't allow the noise to get in the way of what everyday people hear. Because someone is a pundit, because someone is on Twitter, because someone is on social media. I focus on people on social security. I focus on people who stop me on the subway and talk to me and say, "I'm praying for you." So, you can allow the loudest to get in the way, and all of a sudden you're responding to the loudest. So, if people who took my innocent words of saying spirituality is crucial, then let them be.

Psaki: So, Mr. Mayor Adams, one of the challenges you've been dealing with, you've been outspoken about, is just the number of migrants who've come into New York and trying to deal with that in a humane way, but also in a way that is viable.

Mayor Adams: Yes. Right.

Psaki: ... budget wise. So, what … you've been critical of the federal government, what would you like the federal government to be doing right now to help cities like New York?

Mayor Adams: That's a great question. One, I disagree on what we have been doing this far, and people often try to say, "Well, you know, disagree with the president on this and how the White House has handled it. So how could you be on his committee?" Because you don't agree with everything that people do. I don't agree with everything that I do.

Pedestrian: Hey, thanks for taking care of us. Keep it up.

Mayor Adams: Yes, thank you. Not only we need more money. We need a real strategy with coordination, and it can't just, that is going to just fall in place. No, no. And I know people say, you know, the vice … the VP, this is the one that's doing the coordination. That's just unfair. We need to be honest about that. This is a major issue that one person should be appointed to saying they are coordinating this effort. Bring all of our cities together that's being impacted, reach out to our governors and tell our governors that everyone has to take their share. This is a national problem. This is not a New York City problem, and right now it's just on the backs of New York.

Psaki: Do you feel like home when you're here?

Mayor Adams: Not really. Not really. This is-

Psaki: Brooklyn … your place in Brooklyn is really what feels like home.

Mayor Adams: Yes.

Psaki: I know you've said you thought it might be haunted.

Mayor Adams: No, not … what do you mean thought? It is.

Psaki: How do you know?

Mayor Adams: There are ghosts there. They move around, but they're like Casper, friendly ghosts.

Psaki: Oh, okay. That's the kind of ghost I'd want in my house, for sure. 

We're here at Gracie Mansion. We're making a smoothie, which is a part of the mayor’s morning, daily routine. How did you get to the point of mastering what... There are a lot of ingredients in this smoothie.

Mayor Adams: Yes.

Psaki: How did you get to the point of mastering what's in the smoothie?

Mayor Adams: Oh, it came from, you know, great research, reading, and you know, really, we didn't have an opportunity to talk about, this was not the norm for me. This is not how I ate. It wasn't until about five, six years ago that I went through a real healthcare crisis that compelled me to just start doing my own research on health.

Psaki: Now we have pomegranate, blueberries, celery. I don't want to miss anything. Is that pineapple?

Mayor Adams: That's ginger-

Psaki: Ginger. Ginger.

Mayor Adams: And-

Psaki: Alfalfa sprouts?

Mayor Adams: Yes. Yes.

Psaki: Strawberries?

Mayor Adams: Yes. Yes.

Psaki: Arugula.

Mayor Adams: Look at you.

Psaki: I am a health nut too. It's okay. Are you a coffee drinker at all?

Mayor Adams: Not at all. Not at all.

Psaki: Ever?

Mayor Adams: Never, never.

Psaki: Mayor Adams, thank you for letting me spend some time with you and learn more about your weekend routine.

Mayor Adams: Thank you.

Psaki: And for this delicious, nutritious smoothie.

A special thanks to Mayor Eric Adams for spending some time with us and for the smoothie, which I can tell you, tasted a lot like a very healthy smoothie.

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