Transcript: Mayor Adams Appears Live on “The View”

November 15, 2024

Joy Behar: Last week, as you all know, Donald Trump secured another four years in the White House, but what are the ramifications of a Trump election for blue states like New York- particularly here. Today to give us his specific take is New York City Mayor Eric Adams

Mayor Eric Adams:Thank you. First I want to say congratulations. I hope my son saw the proposal because I need some grandchildren. He needs to get married.

Sunny Hostin:We had a proposal this morning.

Mayor Adams: I didn't think I was on camera, but that proposal this morning was lovely.

Behar: So let's get right to it. You heard us talking about RFK Jr. being the head of HHS. What do you think about that appointment?

Mayor Adams: The executives will nominate and bring in those who they believe will move their vision forward. And everything from the fluoride issue, I believe we should have fluoride in the water based on what my experts are telling me. But let's be clear, we have a real problem with our food in our country. And we need to watch what we're feeding our children.

Behar: And what is the major problem, do you think?

Mayor Adams: It's too much hormones, you know, many people know, I almost lost my sight with diabetes, the doctors told me I would be blind in a year. I was going to lose my fingers and toes, and it was my food, it wasn't my DNA, it was my dinner.

Hostin: But RFK Jr. ate some pork and now he has a brain worm. Is he the person that should be in charge of that? Of our food?

Mayor Adams: Let's understand this also. In all of these agencies, there are thousands of employees and experts that understand these topics and there are rules, there are regulations.

Ana Navarro: Mayor, a lot of them want to resign. When they see some of the people that are going to be on top, I think there's going to be a mass exodus of people who have the institutional knowledge and the institutional memory and DoD at HHS. Who wants to work under our cook?

Mayor Adams: Let me respond to that. If we love our country, then no one individual should take us away from our mission. If you dedicated your life to a particular place, I dedicated my life to law enforcement. So if a new commissioner came in that I disagreed with, I was not going to say I'm going to resign.

Let's love the country. Let's love our cities. Let's get away from the rhetoric of the professionalism that we know. Those are experts in this. They're going to look at his proposal, do a real analysis, and make these decisions. It happens every day.

Behar: Shouldn't he have a background at least? He should have some kind of background in this type of thing.

Sara Haines:Let me just... Okay, so, mayor, when Trump returns to office, he will actually have a lot of power with a Republican-controlled Senate and House. He suggested at times using the National Guard to target the enemy within, and key members of his last administration called him a fascist. But you've defended him. Can you explain?

Mayor Adams: No, I defended the rhetoric that we're using across our country, and what our children are listening to, and what we're doing. We've reached a point in this country where we no longer want to engage in conversation. They were even calling him Hitler. That's an insult to-

Navarro: That was only his vice president.

Mayor Adams: That was an insult to the millions of Jews and others who died. We know what Hitler did. And what I said to our country, when I'm on the streets talking to my young people who are protesting on college campuses, wearing Hamas signs and calling for the destructions of groups.

I said, we have to bring down this rhetoric. We have to start engaging in conversation. You know, Obama said it right, and I agree. This is not the divided states. This is the United States. We're the greatest country on the globe, and people are watching us and calling, name-calling.

Behar: But do you think Trump should have brought down the rhetoric? Because he's-

Mayor Adams: Everybody should.

Behar: Well, let's start at the top, then, because maybe it trickles down.

Mayor Adams: Everybody should, everybody should.

Alyssa Farah Griffin: Mayor, I want to thank you for your remarks after October 7th calling out antisemitism, which has been on the rise in the United States. I thought it was very powerful. Now the country is unpacking the results of the election.

The vice president won New York, but by 12 points as opposed to Joe Biden's 23 point margin. That was a significant move to the right in New York state. What do you attribute the, and you actually stated that you think, you said the far left agenda is backfiring. What do you attribute the decline in support among Democrats in New York to, and what are Democrats getting wrong?

Mayor Adams: Well, okay, first I want to go back to your original comment. I was calling for the dismantling of hate in our country. Our Sikhs who are being attacked. LGBTQ members are being attacked. African Americans, Jews. I say let's dismantle the hate.

And what you saw in this city in this election, when you saw a shift in the city becoming and the state becoming redder, is because we stopped talking about working class people issues. When mom and pops are afraid, I can't pay my college tuition, the rent is too damn high, healthcare is too expensive, we stopped talking to everyday New Yorkers and Americans.

When I'm in the street talking to them, they're not asking me, Eric, tell me about fascism. They're talking about finance. They're not talking about Hitler. They're talking about housing. We need to talk to everyday working class people. And we stopped doing that. And those are the issues that they are afraid of. They're afraid of the future of their children.

Behar: But the Democratic Party was addressing most of those issues with the infrastructure bill, for example, and keeping Medicare and Social Security safe. Why would they vote for the party that will hurt them? I didn't get that.

Mayor Adams: Well, part of the business of campaigning is getting your message out and being clear on your message. Even the experts in their party were saying, get back to the message. What are we doing for everyday people in the country?

And that's the same thing happened in 2022. When I got elected in 2022, I stated that, listen, we need to be talking about crime in this country. They ignored it. We lost the election. During 2023, I said, we had to deal with this migrant asylum seeker issue. It was on the top one or two issues in the country. We ignored it. We have to go back and talk to those issues that people are worried about.

Behar: Okay we have to go back and have a commercial. We'll be right back.

[Commercial Break.]

Behar: We are back with Mayor of New York, Eric Adams, and Ana has the next question.

Navarro: Mayor, you were talking before the break about folks living in fear and one of the things that's causing a lot of fear right now is immigration and what Trump is promising to do. It was a key issue for voters. Trump is vowing to do mass deportations. There's half a million undocumented immigrants living in New York City. Some have lived here for decades. There's Dream Act kids, dreamers living in New York City. Again, some have lived here for decades. What's your message right now for the people in New York living in fear?

Mayor Adams: And we have to be very clear on the role of immigrants in our country and city, going back to early Italians, early Irish, early, the roles of just all the groups, how they have built this country and particularly in New York City. I don't believe in mass deportation. This is a city where we tell whomever is here to, if you're a victim of a crime, call the police.

If your child must be educated, let them go to school. If you need medical attention, allow them to go to the hospital. But Americans have been clear though, we have a broken immigration system. I don't believe in mass deportation, but I don't believe in mass saturation.

220,000 migrants and asylum seekers came to the city, cost us $6.4 billion. I'm not allowed to let them work. I'm not allowed to have them be participating in a tax base of this city. We can't deport those who commit crimes in our city. We are not allowed to connect with ICE. This is a failed system. We need to fix it. And if we don't fix it, we're seeing what's happening in Chicago, what's happening in Houston, what's happening in Denver. This is wrong for cities to pick up this course. They only gave me $200 million out of $6.4 billion that should have gone to everyday issues in our city.

Navarro: On the other side of that coin though, you've got Trump who says that part of his plan is to send troops into the states and into the cities to conduct these mass deportations. Would you let him come into New York City? What's your scenario? What are your plans if he tries to do that in New York City?

Mayor Adams: We have sat down and [done] scenario plannings on all of these issues. And there are a lot of laws, there are a lot of requirements. What we must do is to be prepared to address the issues as they come in front of us. Our team has been there. We looked at all of these issues and all the conversations that are taking place.

The operationalizing of the theories that people want to do is different from the actualization of it. Again, people conflate sanctuary cities with the migrant and asylum issue. That's not the same thing. People who are paroled into the country, the sanctuary city is stating to those who are here that you have the right to access the services of this city because that's how we treat people in New York City.

Hostin: Let me ask you this, mayor. Back in September, you were indicted on charges that allege you accepted luxury travel perks and illegal campaign contributions from a Turkish official who was seeking political favors.

Now, a few members of your inner circle have also been indicted, more are under investigation. I understand you have pled not guilty. You continue to run the city. But critics are suggesting that you have recently embraced Trump, perhaps because you want either the charges dropped or perhaps a pardon from President-elect Trump. What's your response to those critics?

Mayor Adams: Well, you know, I think nothing is more challenging than not being able to defend yourself in public.

Behar: You have the floor.

Mayor Adams: I'm sorry?

Behar: You have the floor.

Hostin: Well, he can't really talk about the case.

Mayor Adams: There you go, former prosecutor, I'm so glad you're saying that.

Hostin:You can't talk about the case. But you can talk about whether or not you believe that your recent embracing of Trump, your critics are saying is because you hope for a pardon or you hope to get some sort of charges perhaps dropped.

Mayor Adams: Listen, I said it over and over again. I did nothing wrong. I spent 40 years of my life, 22 of them as a police officer, protecting the children and families of the city. I'm consistent of that. I live my life the way I expect everyday New Yorkers are supposed to live their life.

I have a legal team, they're going to manage that case. My job is to do what I've done since January 1st, 2022. Make sure crime goes down in the city, record number of housing that's built in the city, turn around our economy, and make sure as you leave this place that you could enjoy the safety of the city. That's my job. I've lived up to that. And the challenges that we face in life, can you continue to do the job that you were elected to do? And the numbers are clear. I'm doing that every day.

Behar: Okay, well, thanks for coming by. Come again if you need to. Our thanks to Mayor Eric Adams, and we'll be right back.

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