Transcript: Mayor Adams Appears on PIX 11's 'PIX on Politics'

September 6, 2024

Dan Mannarino: And Mr. Mayor, thank you for being here on the first nighttime edition of PIX on Politics. Good to have you here.

Mayor Eric Adams: Thank you.

Mannarino: I want to begin, obviously, with the investigations into your staff and really the why here and what you know about this. Do you know why top members of your administration, why their homes were raided, why phones were seized?

Mayor Adams: No, I don't. And I think that the Southern District that's conducting this review, they can answer those questions. But what I must do, as I've always done as a former law enforcement officer, is follow the rules, follow the law, and anything we can do to assist, we're doing.

Mannarino: We laid out the full list of all the members of your staff that are part of this investigation, right? Do you have full confidence in all of them that they can continue in their roles with this swirling around?

Mayor Adams: Yes, I do. Anyone that would tell you when you are the mayor or the top staff or the top team, there's always things happening in the city, and they know we have to continue to deliver for New Yorkers. And we've done that, since nine months ago, when we first heard of the Turkish investigation. We continue to produce over and over again, and that's what we have to do.

Mannarino: The reason I ask about the optics and if they can handle their jobs and responsibilities is because the optics do not look good when there's an investigation going on, right? And for example, the Schools chancellor, David Banks, he had the first day of school. He was supposed to be in this very seat talking to me right now about the first day back, answering some important questions from parents, but he canceled because of this investigation. So the optics, you understand that it just doesn't look good.

Mayor Adams: Well, let's be clear. A million students, 40,000 homeless, and the largest of them are migrants and asylum seeker children, went into our school system. We have one of the smoothest operations on the first day of school. I was out there with him, and he had to make sure that every one of those schools opened and his team was able to execute. And so David is a class one act when it comes down to running our school system, and I'm happy that he's there.

Mannarino: But he's not here answering the questions from families. That's the point, right? And that's where I go with the optics, canceling on an interview, talking to me. Now I know you're here and we appreciate that, but the optics of leading and answering important questions from families.

Mayor Adams: Well, I would rather… I thought you would like to have me here.

Mannarino: Yeah, of course.

Mayor Adams: If I'm here, no… But seriously, David had to make sure the school system was open and there'd be other times for him to come in and do an interview. First day of school, he should be focused on getting those children, the buses running on time, doing the job. And there are many times that he'll be here to answer questions. He answers questions to families all the time. He's one of the most successful chancellors that we've ever seen.

Mannarino: The New York Post editorial board came out today saying that it's time to let Police Commissioner Caban go, given that he has to work and have relationships with the FBI. And so they basically went on to say, how can he effectively do his job as the police commissioner when he has to work with the FBI and now they're investigating him? City Councilmember Bob Holden came out and said he should resign. Do you think he should step aside or resign?

Mayor Adams: Think about this for a moment. Commissioner Caban has driven down crime in our subway system. You take the two years out of COVID, it's the lowest in 14 years. August, which is normally a hot month for shootings, we had the lowest number of shootings in recorded history of our city. What he's doing, even when you look at J'Ouvert, which is a normally violent event, he was able to execute the right plan. Commissioner Caban could continue to do his job. And being the commissioner or the mayor or the chancellor of this city, you better be prepared for all the incomings that could happen. It is part of the job.

Mannarino: Yeah. So you have full confidence in him.

Mayor Adams: Yes, I do.

Mannarino: Have you spoken to him? Is he here in the city right now?

Mayor Adams: He was on a long-planned visit with his family. That's what he's currently doing.

Mannarino: And the question about the deputy mayor, Sheena Wright, because her name came up in this as well with her phones taken. Was she at work today?

Mayor Adams: She was working remotely.

Mannarino: And will she continue to work at City Hall while this is going?

Mayor Adams: Yes. Yes. No reason not to.

Mannarino: What do you say to New Yorkers, I guess, Mr. Mayor? And I've always been straight with you. What do you say to New Yorkers whose confidence in you may be wavering? I know your famous phrase. You often say, no distractions and grind, right? How can you stay focused?

Mayor Adams: And stay focused.

Mannarino: Stay focused. No distractions. How can you stay focused when this is a big distraction?

Mayor Adams: Well, think about it for a moment. Remember what I always say. No distractions, stay focused, and grind. Look at what we've done from nine months ago. Nine months ago, when we first heard about [an] investigation, our job numbers are through the roof. Safety continues to be shown in the city. Our subway system is safe and opening our schools, stopping the hemorrhaging, over $600 million in the gaps in our educational program.

You look across the board and you're seeing that a mayor is not going to be distracted. I'm going to deliver for New Yorkers, and that's what I was told to do. Now Dan, let me tell you something. I would love to answer every question that's possible. Trust me, no one likes to sit back and not being able to answer questions, but you have to allow the process to take its course.

Mannarino: I understand, but there's a trust factor and a transparency factor, and that's where my job comes in, in talking with you, because people say, how can he not know? How can he not know what's going on? How could he not know that so many members were involved potentially in something, right? And that comes down to the trust factor in you, handpicking so many of these members. How can a New Yorker who's looking at this and saying, okay, well there's half a dozen people or more now that are being investigated, trust that he has the right judgment, meaning you, to pick the right people to be in these positions?

Mayor Adams: But New Yorkers also believe in something else that a lot of people forget. They believe in due process. Let the process play out. That's what's important here. New Yorkers that reach out to me, they state, Eric, keep doing the job you're doing. And we believe in due process. That's the system that we wrap ourselves around, due process. Let the review continue.

Mannarino: I want to move on to other topics but how do you see this ending, right? How do you see this investigation ending? Do you see it kind of going, poof, it's all gone? Or do you make changes in the administration? How do you see an end to this?

Mayor Adams: I don't make those determinations. I believe the information I turned over, whatever was asked of me is going to reveal I did nothing wrong. I continue to live the life that I've lived as a public servant. Follow the law, protecting the people of this city, and being able to move the city in the right direction, which we successfully have done.

Mannarino: Since July, in those subpoenas, you have not been contacted by the FBI?

Mayor Adams: No, I have not.

Mannarino: Since July. Okay, Mr. Mayor, thank you for talking about that. You want to talk about other topics? You mentioned it, you alluded to it as well. The NYPD reporting August was the lowest number of shootings since record-keeping began.

Mayor Adams: Yes.

Mannarino: That is great. Then came the West Indian Parade and that shooting, and that kind of put a damper on all of that celebration of August, right? So take a look at the parade for a second. Any closer to finding a suspect?

Mayor Adams: We still are conducting an investigation. We're going to find the person that's responsible, but let's be very clear that we had an amazing J'Ouvert. You remember how you covered J'Ouvert? And you know what has happened the day after J'Ouvert. Didn't happen this year. And you removed that one idiot that shot five people, you would have had an unbelievable successful West Indian Day Parade as well, and it's unfortunate when you have these large number of guns. 25 guns were removed from that area. All of them were loaded. Ten on the parade route. NYPD did one heck of a job.

Mannarino: So when you look at that, right, and you see that, that's great, but do you shorten the parade route? Do you make any changes for next year so you don't even have that one?

Mayor Adams: Well, we made a lot of modifications during J'Ouvert. Remember, it used to be all night. We said, wait a minute, there's no reason for that. And we shortened that, and we're seeing the results for that. Each year, we're witnessing a successful modification. And that route is a route that has been in place and we think it's not the route. It is continually to do the partnerships that we've carried out, crisis management team, clergy organizations, non-profits, that we're producing a good product.

Mannarino: When you look at some of the crime, there's been some reporting on migrant crime and how much of the crime overall is migrant crime. And those numbers have not been put forth. So I guess the question is why and how much of the crime is migrant focused?

Mayor Adams: Great question. Well, we're not allowed to report and keep stats based on migrants' crime, non-migrant crime, based on a person's status. We're not allowed to do that, of my understanding. And what we try to do is look at the particular areas. And if we see patterns, particularly gang behavior, one of these dangerous gangs that are part of the migrants and asylum seeker population. But let's be clear, the overwhelming number of migrants and asylum seekers, they're here to pursue the American dream.

Mannarino: Someone who is a migrant and in a shelter and commits a crime, are they allowed back in the shelter?

Mayor Adams: It depends on what the crime is. We have rules with the shelters, inside the shelters. So it depends on what the action is. If they steal something from a store, it's treated differently if they carry out a violent crime.

Mannarino: Understood. And when you look at the numbers overall, I've heard you and Deputy Mayor Anne Williams-Isom talk about how there's been a reduction in some of the migrant population. And so there is this plan in place of closing some of the shelters. What does that look like? What is the strategy here? How many are going to be closed?

Mayor Adams: Well, we're doing, first we did about 125 number of migrants and asylum seekers we moved off the Randall's Island location. Our goal is to create smaller sites and not these large sites. The challenge becomes is that just about every community is saying, we don't want a migrant and asylum location here, but we want to sort of downsize, we want to decrease the population. That's what the 30-day notification is about, the 60-day notification is about. We have to decrease the population and other initiatives to do that.

Mannarino: Okay. I want to talk about schools for a second. It was the first day of school yesterday. There's been this big topic about the cell phone ban, right? And some reporting that 350 schools are already enforcing restrictions, that principals are kind of planning their own way to not allow students to have their cell phones in the class. So I guess the question is, why allow the principals and schools to kind of experiment with this rather than just come out with an overall policy?

Mayor Adams: Because we want to get it right. We saw what happened the other day in the school in another municipality. We had a shooting and children were texting their parents, calling their parents. They were afraid and parents had a level of uncertainty. And so when we take this action, we want to make sure we maintain a method for communication with parents and also make sure we don't have to go backwards. It has been tried twice and had to be reversed. I don't want to do that. We're looking at the best practices in those schools who are already doing it and we're looking at how we can modify that so we can get it right.

Mannarino: So timeline would be what?

Mayor Adams: We're looking to do it next year, but we are…

Mannarino: …Not this school year at all?

Mayor Adams: No, not this school year.

Mannarino: Next school year, next September.

Mayor Adams: Exactly. We want to spend an extensive amount of time looking at those hundreds of schools that's already doing it. We want to get feedback from children, feedback from parents, and this way we can roll it out together that we all embrace it.

Mannarino: Ok, Mr. Mayor, and I want to end on this, which I think I already know the answer to. But looking ahead to the next, you're running for reelection?

Mayor Adams: Yes, I am. But right now I'm focused on being mayor right now.

Mannarino: Gotcha. Ok, Mr. Mayor, thank you for being here.

Mayor Adams: Thank you.

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