Transcript: Mayor Adams Appears On ABC’s "Up Close With Bill Ritter"

August 18, 2024

Bill Ritter: Mr. Mayor, it's good to see you. Welcome to "Up Close" again.  

Mayor Eric Adams: Thank you. Great to speak with you.  

Ritter: Alright. Let's talk about what's going to happen this next week starting tomorrow. That's Monday, the Democratic Party convention in Chicago. What's your expectations of it? What are you looking for? What do you think is going to happen? 

Mayor Adams: Well, I am extremely excited. This is the second time I am a delegate. The first time was under President Barack Obama. And now to be able to do this under who I believe is going to be the next president of the United States, V.P. Harris.  

And there's so much, I believe, we as Democrats must discuss. But at the top of the agenda is affordability and safety. That is really the prerequisite of, to be able to enjoy our cities across America. And I'm going to meet with some immigration leaders to talk about what we have done here in New York and how we can duplicate across the entire country.  

Ritter: I do want to talk about what you've done in New York and the migrants who have come here and what's happening this last week in New York. As soon as we get over the political parts of all this, someone, you said you said earlier this week somewhere that you thought, you never thought you'd see a Black president. And now here you are working to have the second Black president. 

Mayor Adams: And it's just a real testament of how this country is a country of opportunities. I say it over and over again. There's no place where dream is attached to its name. There's not a German dream, a French dream, a Polish dream. But there's an American Dream.  

And when you could have Barack Obama, whose dad was from Kenya, still rise to be the leader of this free country. And then you could have V.P. Harris with the Indian origin as well as Caribbean and African-American woman is able to be now on the cusp of being the president of United States. That says a lot about not only those individuals, but it says a lot about our country. 

Ritter: You know, but the way this is going so far, there's just so much vitriol and anger. And I'm not going to say from whom or anybody else, but it seems like it's so much of that is vitriol this election. And so little or not nearly as much as it should be talked about the real issues here.  

Mayor Adams: No, so true. And it was interesting. A reporter stopped me the other day and say, “Why aren't you hurling negative comments about Donald Trump?” And I've stated several months ago, you know, I had to do some deep reflection and we are contributing to just this nasty atmosphere as we try to not only fight for our city, but fight for our country.  

I think we should tone it down and focus on the issues. The issues of making sure we're going to create a country where every child has the opportunity to succeed. And I think if we stick to those talking points and show why we have a good product, America is going to appreciate that. 

Ritter: You know, I think a lot of people are just sort of tired about saying, you know, well, someone's stupid. Well, that's not the issue here. The issue is who's going to be best for the country. What are the issues and what are the key politics that are going to be important to people's lives every day?  

The money they make or don't make, the housing that they don't or do have, the housing they can't afford or can't afford all those questions. You know, you run the biggest city in the country. So all of that is what people want to hear about.  

Mayor Adams: So true. And I could not have stated it better. Hurling insults at each other, I think is a way of covering up one's ability to lay out a clear plan. We must be extremely disciplined and the level of clarity that's needed. What is the plan of moving our country forward as we deal with some real challenges?  

You know, we're dealing with economic challenges. We're dealing with public safety challenges. Guns are proliferating in our cities and you're seeing similar violence across the entire country. And we're dealing with the affordability issues. Americans are concerned about the affordability and we need to show how we're going to place the country on the pathway of economic recovery and stability. And I think the president has done a great job with V.P. Harris and now it's time to show how we're going to extend that. 

Ritter: Let me take a look at what we were at four weeks ago on this Sunday. Four weeks ago, the president said, I'm not going to run for re-election. I'm getting out. And then he backed his vice president, Vice President Harris, to run for office.  

You at the time said, and a lot of people backed you, said, hey, we should wait to go to the convention. Let's make this work. And we've seen what's happened to your party in the last month. It has been something extraordinary. And to Vice President Harris, how she has really sort of, you know, come to the fore about all this. Because I don't think she had that kind of energy publicly during the first, last three and a half years.  

Why did you change your mind? And what were you thinking of? What were you going for when you first came up with that saying, hey, we got to wait to the convention? 

Mayor Adams: Following my party and the direction they wanted to go, I communicated with Jay Jacobs, who was the county leader here in New York State. And he stated that we want to show a unified force after all the uncertainty that we experienced. And I stated, listen, I am a soldier. And I believe when you are with the right group, stand with that group as we move forward. And I did not want anyone to believe there was a level of dissension.  

I was supportive in 2020. And I believe that her background and what she brings to the table, V.P. Harris, clearly is the authentic leader that we need. Now think about for a moment, she worked in McDonald's, for God's sake. How do you get more authentic than that? When you see a person who has gone through a lot, former prosecutor, when you've gone through a lot, you need to help people who are going through a lot. And instead of going through all of that, she's now going to lead us out of it. 

Ritter: Let's talk about grit and turn it to New York City. Let's start first with crime. What happened in Central Park this last week, the Police Department moved pretty quickly on this, but they were young or other problems as well. What happened on Randall's Island?  

I want to get your opinion. And before I do, one of the, one of your chiefs told one of our reporters this week, it's impossible to know how much crime would be down at the city. If it weren't for crimes, be committed by people living in migrant shelters and others who have come here in this way. Do you agree with that? 

Mayor Adams: Yeah, it's a real analysis. When you look at some of the crimes and some of the individuals involved, as I stated, I sent the deputy commissioner of Intelligence and the first deputy commissioner, Tania Kinsella down to Colombia to look at this dangerous gang that has made his way into our country. And we're concerned about that. And we have to respond to it no matter what the challenges are with the finest Police Department on the globe.  

And we have to be able to pivot and shift based on the threats that we meet. So there is a small number of migrant and asylum seekers that are participating in illegal behavior. The overwhelming number bill, I cannot say it enough. When I go to the humanitarian relief centers, they want to work. They want to contribute to the American Dream. And we need to be sure to go after those who are dangerous and allow those who want to work, to participate. 

Ritter: Keeping on the New York theme here. I wanted to just ask you about what happened, what was reported in the New York Times on Thursday that you and your staff campaign staff have received subpoenas in their federal investigation. Can you talk about it? What did you get subpoenaed for and what's the status of the investigation? 

Mayor Adams: You know, like previous administrations that had to go through subpoenas, you participate, you cooperate. I made it clear, [as a] former law enforcement officer. I've stated over and over again. I held myself beyond a reproach. And when you receive a subpoena, you respond. We're going to cooperate fully with all the reviews that are taking place.  

And I think at the end of the day, it's going to show that we did, there's no criminality here and our team is going to take whatever information the federal government is looking for. We're going to turn it over to them in appropriate fashion. I've said that from the beginning and we're continuing to carry out that process. With all due respect, Mr. Mayor, the subpoenas were issued in July and no one found out about it until the times broke the story. You know, here are the first two weeks of August.  

Mayor Adams: Tell me about that question that you're asking, cause I'm not getting it.  

Ritter: Well, the question is you didn't make it public when that happened, that you had gotten subpoenaed. It happened in July. We're just finding out about it, you know, middle of August. 

Mayor Adams: Well, you know, this is a few days later. Um, you're talking about it happening. I think it was late July. Now we're in the middle of August. The goal is to cooperate and participate with every review that takes place and we want to make sure we do that.  

We get a countless number of FOILs, hundreds of thousands of FOILs we get from all over the city. We don't broadcast each one we get and that's the same thing when you get a subpoena. You respond to it appropriately and accordingly and that's exactly what we're doing. 

Ritter: I want to end this on another note because no one will ever doubt that you don't have any great optimism about this city. I think that oozes out of you at every place. But do you have fears? Do you have doubts about how New York City is recovering, especially after the pandemic that we had? Are we where we should be? Are we where you thought we would be when you became mayor? 

Mayor Adams: Well, I think that you can answer that better and I think that Fitch and the other economic experts that raise our bond rating, well, we have more private sector jobs in the history of the city. More small businesses are operating in the city, in the history of the city. We financed more affordable housing in one year in the history of the city. We moved more people from homelessness into permanent housing in one year in the history of the city. Crime, I inherited a 40 percent increase in crime. We're down double-digit shooters and homicides, 17,900 guns off our streets. We have a 30 percent decrease in unemployment among Black and Hispanics.  

You look across the board, we're leading the state in reading and math. You'll see this city is thriving, 63 million tourists. So we're exactly where I believe we were supposed to be. And I know we're going to move us further, even with 212,000 migrants and asylum seekers. You don't see this city looking like other cities when you can't misalign in our highways and our roads. You're seeing good governance. And I think when people look back on this administration, they're going to see that this is one of the greatest economic turnarounds in the history of the city of New York. 

Ritter: And very quickly, just before we say goodbye, you're planning to run for re-election, I take it? 

Mayor Adams: Yes, I am. But the focus is right now, I think every Democrat should be focused on one thing, and that is ensuring V.P. Harris is the next president of the United States. Everything else can come after that. My election is after November, not before November. 

Ritter: Mr. Mayor, thank you for the interview today, and good luck at the convention this next week.  

Mayor Adams: Thank you.