New York City Mayor Eric Adams took questions from reporters about President Trump's federalization of Washington D.C.'s police and deployment of the national guard, as well as NYC mayoral race polling after announcing mental health support investments.
00:08So President Trump yesterday said he's going to have federal takeover of D.C.
00:15and said he was going to look at New York City.
00:18What does that mean to you?
00:20Did you have any conversation with the Trump administration about this?
00:23Well, the NYPD, particularly the Deputy Mayor of Public Safety, Cass Dautry, is in continuous communications around public safety,
00:37particularly around coordination with our federal partners.
00:41And, I mean, the numbers speaks for themselves.
00:47Those, you know, record number of decreasing homicides in the shootings in the first six months, in the seventh month,
00:54lowest number of shootings victims and shootings in the city, all the major crime categories are decreasing in the subway system.
01:02We are realizing crime is at the lowest this year, outside of two years of the pandemic.
01:08And so what happens is that sometimes when you come off a shooting that happened at 345 Park Avenue where we lost Officer Islam and three other New Yorkers,
01:22when you have those high-profile shootings, it sends a signal sometimes across the country that we're dealing with a crime issue in New York.
01:32And we're not.
01:33You know, those headlines give the wrong impression.
01:35New York is moving in the right direction in public safety.
01:39And if the federal government wants to assist us in really navigating some of the laws around easily accessibility to automatic weapons,
01:51I mean, you know, this person who shot up 345 Park Avenue, he drove across the country with an automatic weapon.
01:58And he had a history of dealing with, you know, mental health issues.
02:04So there is some assistance we can get from the federal government.
02:07We should deal with stopping the access of these guns.
02:12There are more grants that I think our federal partners can get.
02:15And so I'm not part of the group that says we don't want to work in coordination with the federal government.
02:23But we don't need anyone to come in and take over our law enforcement apparatus.
02:27We have the finest police department on the globe.
02:28So people come here to be trained.
02:31And people speak with us to get assistance.
02:34And so if the White House wants to help us in what we're doing to continue our success,
02:40and if we can help other cities, municipalities, they may want to ask us to come in and help other cities.
02:45We're willing to go into other cities and help them as well.
02:48But we don't need anyone to come in and take over.
02:52We got this under control.
02:54Morgan?
02:55Hi, Mr. Mayor.
02:56How are you?
02:56Yes, how are you?
02:57Good.
02:58So I just wanted to get your take.
02:59There's a new Santa College poll out that has you behind Andrew Cuomo and even Curtis Lewa.
03:06I know polls are polls, but I wanted to get your take on the poll.
03:11It even has your favorability, unfavorability lower than Cuomo's, or favorability lower than Cuomo's.
03:18So I just wanted to get your take on the poll.
03:20Is there anything that you're going to be doing in terms of your strategy, how you're going to be messaging to people?
03:24Okay, first, if I don't recall, that's a statewide poll.
03:31Statewide.
03:32I'm not running for governor.
03:34I'm running for mayor.
03:35And I don't quite understand what's the purpose of doing a statewide poll on the mayor's race.
03:40You know, I've said this over and over again, you look at the candidates that are running, they have spent millions of dollars telling their story.
03:50Millions.
03:51You know, I think Andrew spent about 30-something million.
03:53Same with Zohan.
03:58He has spent a substantial amount of money as well.
04:01When you have millions of dollars spent to tell your story, you know, that's what you're going to get.
04:07Now is our opportunity.
04:08I could tell my story now.
04:10The money that I raised, I could use to tell my story.
04:14You do your TV ads.
04:15You do your flyering.
04:17You put your information out.
04:18So now it's campaign season.
04:20And so a poll that judges the state, even if they indicated that my unfavorabilities have gone down, people are starting more and more to see what we are doing.
04:33And so we have to, you know, you just got to stay focused in these races.
04:36If not, you'll be distracted by polls and comments and all of that.
04:41Remember, at this time, during the primary, at this time, Zohan was at 1%.
04:48At this time, he was at 1% from the time that it was out from the election.
04:56And from 1%, he won the primary because he was able to get his message out.
05:02And Andrew had a poll that showed him the day before the election.
05:06He was up 10%, 10 percentage points.
05:09He lost by 13 or 14.
05:11So if there is no better case to talk about how these things shifts and changes, I think that's a perfect example.
05:19You have a person who's at 1%, won the primary.
05:23A person who was at 36%, lost by 13 points.
05:27I mean, is there any better example of why you just have to stay focused?
05:33What he did, he being the primary winner, he stayed focused.
05:37He heard me say, stay focused, no distraction, and grind.
05:40And I guess he did it also.
05:41You know, you got to stay focused in this stuff.
05:44Do you feel like you haven't really ramped up your campaigning yet or your message?
05:47Do you feel like you're just getting started or like you're still in kind of, you know, messaging mode?
05:52Or what do you feel like is kind of next for you?
05:54Do you feel like this is just the beginning?
05:56In the next month or so, we're going to see a lot more from you, a lot more campaigning.
05:59What do you think?
06:00Well, I think you see a lot from me now.
06:03I'm in the streets.
06:05I'm speaking with people.
06:06And I enjoy doing this.
06:08You know, to me, this is not campaigning.
06:11This is not campaigning.
06:12Probably to a lot of people, it's work and it's campaigning.
06:16It is not.
06:17I love being around people.
06:20And I'm going to love being around people, ordinary, everyday, working class people.
06:26I get energy from everyday people.
06:28And so, you know, to others, it's like, you know, oh, I got to get up and I got to go talk to these people.
06:34No, I'm like waking up and saying, man, I'm getting ready to go hang out in the Bronx at a clubhouse.
06:38I'm excited about this.
06:41So this is not work for me.
06:43Someone once said, when you're doing what you love, you're never having a job.
06:48I'm going to, what I'm doing right now, no matter what I do, I'm going to do it.
06:53I've been doing this for 40 years, you know.
06:56So I just enjoy doing this.
07:00And I'm going to continue to do it no matter what capacity I am in in the city.
07:06NJ.
07:07Yes, Mayor, good morning.
07:09Two topics, if you don't mind.
07:10Yes.
07:11One is a real success story here in the city.
07:13And that is the increase in English and math test scores in public schools.
07:17Yes.
07:18What do you attribute that to?
07:19What is working?
07:20Well, it's a combination.
07:22Hats off to the chancellor.
07:25I spoke with her, must have been about six months ago.
07:31And I told her that we need to identify children who are struggling.
07:37And I need her to come up with a plan on that.
07:39And she did.
07:40We would check in periodically.
07:43You know, every few weeks, she would give me an overview.
07:46And what they did, they went after those struggling students.
07:49And they zeroed in on them.
07:50They had plans on giving them the support that they need.
07:54And it's a real positive story on her part, how, as a former teacher and principal, she understood how to turn around a school.
08:04If you know how to turn around a school, then you could turn around a school system.
08:08And I was impressed each, probably every two weeks, she'd come back and say, here's what we're doing.
08:13Here's how we're identifying those children who are struggling.
08:16They were doing quizzes and tests during the time.
08:19Remember, we changed the reading curriculum to a phonic-based reading system.
08:25And it made a huge input.
08:28And now, we're not what we want to be.
08:30You know, I want to be clear on that.
08:31When you look across the country, it is embarrassing when you see what children, what grade levels they're reading at, particularly black and brown children, across the country.
08:41This is a real call for action for our country.
08:45But we are moving in the right direction.
08:47And hats off to her, a Bronx girl that understands how to take care of children in the city.
08:53And second topic, yes, sir.
08:55Can you just elaborate on your answer a moment ago?
08:57You know, the poll shows you in fourth place behind Curtis Slewa.
09:01I'm wondering, you know, what do you need to do to win?
09:05And what are you going to do next month?
09:07And Paul, I'm going to ask you to drop that.
09:09Okay, first of all, I already won.
09:12I'm a mayor that grew up.
09:15You know, I don't think people really understand.
09:20You know, and that's, I think, you know, that's one of the challenges that people have in life.
09:26They judge themselves by what people think of them.
09:29I already won.
09:31I'm the mayor of the most important city on the globe.
09:34Growing up in South, South Jamaica, Queens.
09:38You know, and I say it over and over again, and one day people are going to hear it.
09:44You know, growing up in South Jamaica, Queens, dyslexic, arrested, rejected.
09:50Now I'm elected to be the mayor.
09:52I mean, you know, so, I mean, God is good.
09:56And so if I wake up every day and say, oh, my God, I'm a failure because somebody think of me this way.
10:03Someone gave me the finger.
10:04Someone yelled at me.
10:06Someone, I mean, no, I have already won.
10:09They are trying, they are trying, they are trying to get what I have.
10:16Let's understand that.
10:18Let's understand it.
10:19There were, what were they?
10:20There were 13 people, 13 people running to be mayor.
10:2513 people wanting to have what I have right now.
10:2813 people.
10:30Either I'm going to get it or someone else.
10:33But those other 12 will never get what I am.
10:38You know, I'm the mayor right now.
10:40And so, and so, I'm going to do what I have to do to be reelected because of what we have done while we're in office.
10:49All these broken promises.
10:51You know, we have, what, five people that are still in the race.
10:55Three of them don't have any record at all.
10:58No record.
11:00One of them, he's running from his record.
11:02I'm the only one that has a record.
11:05I'm the only person in the race.
11:07And that's why you can critique me.
11:09That's why all of you can ask me questions.
11:11It's because I have a record.
11:13My expansion of clubhouses.
11:15What I did was scout.
11:16More jobs in the city history.
11:18Drop unemployment.
11:19Brought down crime.
11:20Remove thousands of guns off our streets.
11:23No more taxes for low-income New Yorkers.
11:28No more taxes for low-income New Yorkers.
11:30Drop the cost of child care from $220 a month to less than $20 a month.
11:37Earned income tax credit increase.
11:39Paying off college tuition for foster care children.
11:41High-speed broadband for NYCHA residents for free so they can have access to it.
11:46I mean, so, so I, let me finish my flow.
11:52Let me finish my flow because, you know, I'm flowing right now.
11:55I want to, I want to, I want to feel flow.
11:58So, no matter what happens, I improve the lives of working class people.
12:04That's what I said I was going to do when I was running.
12:06I said I was going to improve the lives of working class people.
12:08I did that.
12:10Now I want to complete doing that.
12:13And so if the people of the city say that, you know what, we want someone else to do it,
12:17I mean, that's life.
12:18I can't sit back and complain.
12:20I ran.
12:20I sold my, my, my vision to the city.
12:23They said this is what we want and I'll have to get out there and sell.
12:27This is what I'm going to do for you in the next four years.
12:30But the people of the city is going to make that determination.
12:32They're going to hear me and they're going to say,
12:35do we want to continue after we heard you, Eric?
12:38And then I make a decision.
12:39And it's, and it's all cool.
12:41But given the variety of polls, given the variety of the polls and where you are in the polls,
12:48given the variety and the consistency of the polls,
12:50what is going to be your breakthrough moment or announcement to jump up in the polls or get beyond?
12:59Yeah, yeah.
12:59Okay, what we, what we, what we agree on this, I want us to agree on this.
13:05When Mandani was 1% in the poll, many of you would have told him, you're 1%, get out.
13:15Should he have listened to you?
13:16If he would have listened to you, he would not have won the primary.
13:20He was 1%, 1%.
13:22And many people said, you're 1%, get out of the race.
13:25So that's what I want to say to the people here in the clubhouse.
13:29Don't listen to the haters.
13:30Let them be your waiters.
13:33You know what I'm saying?
13:35You know, so think about it.
13:36I don't, I don't even see how y'all not even factoring this in.
13:40If he would have listened to everyone that told him, hey, you're 1%, you don't stand a chance.
13:45You're 1%.
13:46If I were to listen to people who said, listen, you're dyslexic, you don't stand a chance.
13:51You got to stop listening to people, you know, because those people who are telling you to drop out, they dropped out.
14:00They gave up.
14:02They surrendered.
14:03And they're looking at you upset, you know.
14:07Darn it, you didn't surrender when COVID was here.
14:10You didn't surrender when migrants and asylum seekers were here.
14:14You didn't surrender when they indicted you.
14:17You didn't surrender when they called you names.
14:19You didn't surrender.
14:20So they're looking at me, and they're seeing what I am, and they're upset, you know, because they're saying, if I were you, I would have given up.
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