Transcript: Mayor Eric Adams Appears Live on MSNBC’S "Morning Joe"

April 17, 2023

Mika Brzezinski: The Republican-led House Judiciary Committee will head to New York City today for a special field hearing meant to discredit the prosecutor leading the criminal case against Donald Trump there.

It is exactly the top of the hour. In Manhattan, committee chair Jim Jordan, says he plans to highlight the "Pro crime anti-victim policies of District Attorney Alvin Bragg." Bragg has become a top political target of Republicans for his decision to charge Trump with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records this month after a grand jury voted in favor of indicting the former president.

Last week, the DA filed a federal lawsuit against Jordan over what he says are, "Brazen and unconstitutional attempts to interfere with a state-run investigation." Despite focusing on Bragg, the Judiciary Committee has not invited him to testify at today's hearing. I wonder why.

Let's bring in the mayor of New York City, Eric Adams. By the way, what do you think of this field hearing in your city about crime?

Mayor Eric Adams: I think it's the highest level of hypocrisy. We know that cities all across America are dealing with the issues around public safety, particularly the criminal justice system. And right in the largest city in Ohio, it was reported today in one of the tabloids, the murders are up over 50 percent in the first quarter. And so, while crime is going down, homicides are going down here, shooters are going down here, some of the major crimes, you're trending in the right direction. Our subway system crime is going down. So I think coming here and highlighting DA Bragg is just really a political stunt.

Brzezinski: The DA has been taking it from all sides with Donald Trump going after him right before the indictment. And now, Trump is being very careful with his words. But the heat that he's getting still exists and yet he is fighting back and suing even.

Jonathan Lemire: District Attorney Bragg has been very forceful in rebutting these Republican efforts. And Mr. Mayor, of course, some of these threats from those close to former President Trump, we know that a letter with suspicious powder was sent to the DA's office two weeks ago, has of course called for a greater NYPD presence. I was down there, near the courthouse, a couple of weeks ago when the former president was indicted, it was locked down.

But talk to us about that. The strain this is putting on the city right now as this trial... We've had one moment. And when the former president comes back in the months ahead, what is that going to do? Are the Republicans simply making your job harder?

Mayor Adams: It's the duality of what's happening on a state level, where Attorney General James is also carrying out her investigation. And then, you have not only the threats. We are going to make sure that DA Braggs has the proper protection around him, but each time the former president comes to the city, he has a tendency to bring those who are coming from outside, trying to disrupt our way of life. But the New York City Police Department is always prepared, and we are going to make sure this trial goes off without a problem.

Reverend Al Sharpton: Mr. Mayor, I might suggest that maybe the reason the congressman, Chairman Jordan wants to come to New York is it's safer than if he did it in Columbus, Ohio, where the data shows it's much more dangerous, not to minimize the challenges we face here.

But talk about how you are working with other mayors now and civil rights leaders to set a national agenda. We talked last week at National Action Networks' Conference, where you chaired with a couple of other mayors the need to now start dealing with gun violence and violence in our urban communities in a collective, national agenda. Because what we are saying is that we must go from the noun of progressive to the adjective, what is progressive?

Mayor Adams: So true.

Reverend Sharpton: There's nothing progressive about letting criminals go and there's nothing progressive about bad police or bad policing policy. Talk about this national drive that you want to involve people, including people that may have been in need of a second chance to know how to deal with these issues.

Mayor Adams: So true. And I think a real reflection of where we are now as a nation is what happened in Chicago. A thousand young people went downtown. And we have to make sure, as I say, intervention and prevention. You cannot have the cities disrupted. Our goal is to bring together mayors across the entire country and partner with civil rights leaders and business leaders of coming out with a real blueprint for these cities in our country, an urban agenda that we want to make sure deals with how do we prevent these issues from happening and how do we also make sure we make our cities safer.

Brzezinski: And you know what, it's not just cities now in terms of mass shootings, it's everywhere. Cities are dealing with it predominantly but listen to this latest... And by the way, it's practically daily when it comes to mass shootings. Alabama police are seeking information from the public after a mass shooting at a sweet 16 birthday party. Four people were killed. And get this, 28 people were injured. NBC News correspondent Priscilla Thompson has the latest.

[Segment begins.]

Priscilla Thompson: What began as a sweet 16 party celebrating life ended in a massacre.

Victim: It's very horrific for the children, probably traumatizing. Plus, it was her 16th birthday party.

Thompson: The tragedy taking place inside a small dance studio in Dadeville, Alabama. The tiny town just 60 miles northeast of Montgomery.

Michael Taylor: Honestly, I was hoping it wasn't true. I was hoping that somebody was shooting some fireworks outside and scaring the kids because, you know, we don't have any gun violence here.

Thompson: Investigators say a gunman opened fire Saturday night, killing four, and that 28 others were injured.

Michael Taylor is an assistant football coach at Dadeville High.

Taylor: We're going to have to really be a family now. Some counseling for kids, because it is going to take a while for them to kind of recover from this.

Thompson: Investigators providing few details about how the shooting unfolded and declining to say whether they have identified or arrested a suspect, confirming only that the investigation remains ongoing.

Sgt. Jeremy Burkett: We've got to have information from the community. So if you are at home right now or you know somebody that has any information, we absolutely need you to share it.

Thompson: Authorities say there is no active threat. Dadeville is the latest community to be shattered by gun violence. The shooting there happening within hours of a deadly mass shooting in Louisville, Kentucky. Police say two people died and four more were rushed to the hospital after shots were fired into a crowd at a park.

Donna Purvis: I'm so tired of this, and I can't make any sense of it.

Thompson: That shooting just days after a mass shooting at a bank in the same city left five dead. More prayers, but little solutions.

[Segment ends.] 

Brzezinski: So Elise, Jordan, in this shooting, just like all the others, the stories are unfathomable, a 16-year-old is celebrating her sweet 16. And among the victims, her brother, young people. And politically, young people are taking up this issue and they're beginning to say, "We have to worry about ourselves because no one else will."

Elise Jordan: That's just heartbreaking. And in such a small, deep south town.

Brzezinski: Were they even prepared? Think about the question you raised.

Jordan: Was there a hospital with a large trauma unit and surgeons readily available for that volume of victims coming in?

Brzezinski: 28 injured, four dead.

Jordan: It's just heartbreaking. And I think sometimes about how I want to move home to Mississippi and I think about schools, now that I have a child who's going to be going to school in a couple of years.

Brzezinski: It's a real thing.

Jordan: There are many reasons I don't want the child to go to a New York City public school, I'll be honest, or any…

Brzezinski: Big city.

Jordan: I'm from the south. Any big city school. But there's never been a mass shooting at a New York City school, which is perhaps the most attractive aspect. And it's sad that that has to be first and foremost.
Can you talk about, what are the policy choices that New York City has made that have made the schools overall fairly safe?

Mayor Adams: No, and I think you raised a good point. When you see a sweet 16 turn into a bitter reality of violence, it just really traumatized our entire country. That bullet, when it hit the bodies of individuals, the emotional pathway didn't stop. It is ripping apart anyone that's a parent. And when you look at what we did here, we have not had a shooting on school grounds at all. Mass shootings or not. We've confiscated weapons from young people who carry them into schools, and it's a combination of our school safety officers and our police officers. What's interesting is that many were calling to remove school safety officers at the schools, and I stated when I ran for office, that will not happen as long as I'm the Mayor.

Brzezinski: You know what was also a really safe place to be? The NRA convention because they had metal detectors there and couldn't have guns in there. So if you want to be safe, go to an NRA convention and what you'll find, Reverend Al, as you pointed out in our last hour, is their guns. There'll be kids taking pictures, holding guns, people allowing kids to hold guns and taking pictures of that. I'm not going to do the shock opera because it's heartbreaking, because it's ripping our country and our children apart.

Mayor Adams: It's so true.

Reverend Sharpton: Now, to have little children holding guns, to normalize it at that age is just sinful. But you know, Mr. Mayor, when I was growing up in Brooklyn, I read this book by John Kennedy, Profiles in Courage. Leadership is courage. And one of the things you are doing and other mayors that are hearkening to your call, is showing courage. Enough courage to stand up to the extremists on the left and the right because people are dying. And we need courageous leadership at this time rather than these daily reports of, "Oh, the mayor's shooting now moved here. Oh, it's here. Oh, do you have a camera there?" I mean, this is insane.

Mayor Adams: And it's this co-conspiratorial behavior of the far, far left and the far, far right. The American people are caught in the middle. The far, far right is saying everyone should have a gun and the far, far left is stating that those who use a gun, nothing should happen, no repercussions. As American people we're caught in the middle of that madness.

Brzezinski: No. And then you think about this field hearing, this is what they should be talking about. And instead... We should be having a massive collective national conversation on how to prevent mass shootings. 

I mean, every Republican out there who's so extreme on this issue and there are way too many, a mass shooting is going to come to a town or a city or a neighborhood near you. And I don't say that with joy. I don't say that like, "Gotcha." I say that like, "Are you crazy? Do you really want to live like this? Do you want your children and grandchildren to live worried that they are going to die just leaving their homes?" Jonathan Lemire. And yet this field hearing, picking at Alvin Bragg. I mean, they're lost.

Lemire: Yeah. We should note the priorities of this Republican Congress right now. This field hearing with Alvin Bragg and Hunter Biden and the laptop, no work on guns, no work on other issues that'd be paramount to the American people and frankly not even on the looming debt ceiling fight, which the White House should be urging them to do.

Mr. Mayor, we'll switch gears and get you to talk about another thing that's become a bit of a personal crusade of yours lately. Rats.

Brzezinski: Oh my gosh.

Lemire: So you've appointed a rat czar.

Brzezinski: Yes. That's a good idea. Washington, D.C. needs to do that too.

Lemire: So there's New York City, home to many of us, has a rat problem. Tell us what you're trying to do about it.

Brzezinski: Yeah.

Mayor Adams: And it's what we found, first of all, I don't know if people really understand the fact that I hate rats.

Lemire: [Inaudible] right here, you hate rats.

Brzezinski: You definitely do.

Mayor Adams: And really this crusade started when I was borough president. A group of mothers came in showing me photos of their babies being bitten by rats and no one cared. They lived in public housing. And we started to look at how do we go about dealing with this. Number one is, it's an emotional issue as well as a health issue. Can you imagine starting your day and a rat jumps out at your cabinet? It just traumatized you. 

So we are hiring a czar that is going to coordinate all of our efforts. It was a disjointed effort where we had the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, Department of Sanitation, Department of Parks, Department of Education, all operating separately, and now we are coordinating the effort. We found an amazing young lady. At 10-years-old, she did a petition on her block to get rid of rodents.

Brzezinski: This is a really good idea.

Mayor Adams: Yes, yes.

Brzezinski: This is so important. I think other cities need... I definitely know, having spent time in Washington, that it's very difficult and you really have to have an entire entity and a person on top of it.

Mayor Adams: You do.

Brzezinski: Listen, the end of an era in New York City, Phantom of the Opera.

Mayor Adams: Yes, yes.

Brzezinski: You gave Andrew Lloyd Webber a key to the city. Talk about that.

Mayor Adams: Well, mainly because of his great play, Cats, I want him to bring them back to get these rats.

[Laughter.]

Lemire: There you go. Nicely done.

Brzezinski: You need it. You need it.

Mayor Adams: But Phantom of the Opera, just so many. Evita, we all know the tune Don't Cry For Me Argentina. I mean those songs and plays just really shaped our lives and 50 years of commitment and dedication. He has a new play. We are really excited and we wanted to give him the key to the city.

Brzezinski: Lovely. Andrew Lloyd Webber, by the way, is going to be on the show this morning.

Mayor Adams: Oh, great.

Brzezinski: All right. New York City Mayor Eric Adams, thank you very much for coming. We appreciate it.

Mayor Adams: Thank you so much. Great to be here.

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