Transcript: Mayor Adams Calls for Unity With Faith and Political Leaders

July 14, 2024

Reverend Al Sharpton: Okay, good afternoon. Let me begin by saying that on this morning I communicated with Mayor Eric Adams that I felt that it was time that the faith leaders and those that deal in this space of these issues, particularly from a spiritual point of view, no matter what religion we practice, no matter where we serve and minister, to really come out and deal with the normalizing of political violence and to really say in the hometown of former President Donald Trump that we in no way condone or support any violence against him, his family, or his supporters.

There is no secret that I've been an adamant opponent of him on many issues and he and I have debated and fought for 35 years. Violence is wrong no matter who you oppose. We must have a nation that celebrates the diversity of our views and the democracy of our decisions. We cannot settle our political differences with bullets. We settle them with ballots. That is why we wanted to come across different lines of worship, different political lines. We're not going to agree. That's what makes the country work. If he had been of a different party and a different race, I would have called the mayor, it is a test on all of us, if we're real faith leaders, when we can do it with people we oppose, but saying that we oppose becoming like the people that we've shown opposition and behavior in the past.

I remember in 1991, and the mayor remembers this, he was a policeman then, I was stabbed leading a peaceful march in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn. I, when I say I pray for the former president's recovery and his family, I know what the trauma is of tasting your own blood. I don't care who you are in public life, your family's traumatized. It will not end with everybody just saying words. This is something you will never ever get over.

Today, people approach me at airports or places saying I want to take a selfie and I jump because I still have in me this man coming in front of me plunging. So this is more than politics. This is whether or not we make this country where people don't want to practice getting in the political process, because we've normalized violence. We denounce it from his hometown. We will fight on the issues, but we will not fight about having the safety from the political arena that all of us should have as we participate. I know no one that has stood for that longer and stronger than our present mayor of the City of New York, Mayor Eric Adams.

Mayor Eric Adams: Thank you so much, Reverend Sharpton. Yesterday, I was clearly trying to find a way we can properly express what we're facing as a country. As faith would have it, Reverend Sharpton reached out. And in the spirit of those who are standing behind me and beside me, we are coming from the same place.

I think these elected leaders, as well as the religious leaders, are a fair representation of what we are feeling in our country on the whole. When a bullet leaves the barrel of the gun, it does not discriminate. Not only seeks to harm the target, but as we saw yesterday, innocent people are also severely injured and lives are taken.

There's so many questions that I believe is lingering over us. What happens when a 20-year-old reaches a point where they believe the only way to settle their political differences and disputes is to use an AR-15 or AK-47 or any other form of handgun or weapon? That sends a terrible message. It only mirrors the poll that I have been quoting for the last few months, that only 18 percent of 18 to 34-year-olds really love America.

We have watched our children [be] radicalized to a place to be anti-everything. The extremes have basically hijacked what we feel as a country and what we stand for. I cannot thank Councilman Borelli, Minority Leader, enough for understanding how significant this is. We could line up on political lines, but he's a dad, like I am a dad. He loves this city like I love this city. He believes we should raise healthy children and families like I do. Good, healthy debate is part of the democratic process and what it represents.

Then when Rabbi Potasnik and the imams that are here and other faith leaders that are here, every day in their houses, worship, we want to send out a clear and loud message on how do we live together as members of the greatest race alive, and that's the human race. It was a chilling visualization as I watched what happened yesterday, inches away from the former president losing his life. It's unimaginable that his children would have to experience that, his wife, those who love him and his family, and those who are politically aligned with him. To watch that in horror, to see the history of what bullets have done, how it has reshaped our past, and it could reshape our future.

Ever since Abraham Lincoln, Dr. King, Ronald Reagan, the families of the Kennedys, both senator and President Kennedy losing their lives, Medgar Evers losing his life, we're watching how the destructive power of a bullet can change the entire direction of our entire country. I am troubled by some of the responses we saw on social media on so many different levels. We have to ask ourselves, what are we doing to our young people and our families, and how do we regain that? I believe it's by doing the accumulation of people who are here today, to start with this small group, and really put in place a letter that we're going to send out and ask everyone to sign on to it, to stop this toxic violence that we're seeing.

Political violence is not how we settle, how we peacefully transfer power in this country. We have been a living example for the entire globe on the success of this country in its hundreds of years, as we're on the eve of the 400th year celebration of how we have managed, even during difficult times, to show who we are as Americans.

That's why I'm here today, and I'm so pleased that Reverend Sharpton reached out and was joined by other leaders who are saying the same thing. We must live together, we must start the process of healing not only our country, but healing our young people. A 20-year-old was in possession of an automatic weapon and was willing to use it to take the life of someone he had a political difference with. That is not acceptable, and it's not who we are as a country, and it's not who we are as an individual, and it's not who we believe our children should become.

There's no place for hate in our city or our country. I'm going to commit myself to those who are standing here today, and those who are not here because they could not make it because of short notice, to state we will move our country in the right direction. It starts with us. It starts with us. Again, I want to thank everyone for joining us today as we dam every river of the toxic violence that we're seeing so it does not continue to spill over into a sea of violence. We can do it together. Thank you, and I want to call on now Reverend A.R. Bernard and followed by him would be the minority leader Councilman Borelli.

Reverend A.R. Bernard: Thank you, Mr. Mayor, Reverend Sharpton, my colleagues, elected officials. I'm here as a clergyman. Religion brings a moral value consensus that is necessary for justice, concord. We speak sometimes with a prophetic voice. As we look at what unfolded yesterday before our eyes on national television, international television, I couldn't help but think in terms of a rebuke to our nation for its political idolatry.

We have so-called religious identified people who evoke the name of God as their personal savior and worship politics as their social savior. We've got it wrong. We must restore our moral compass, which is the anchor for the soul of our nation, the soul of our communities, the soul of our families, and our personal souls.

Because without a moral anchor, we have nothing to protect us from who and what we become when our humanity runs out. We're seeing it play out before our eyes. When our humanity runs out, we're given to fear, aggression, violence, and greed. We must re-establish that anchor for our souls individually and the soul of our nation.

Our prayers go out for the families affected. Regardless of who you want to win this presidency, we must elevate this to the life and dignity of every human person. We cannot allow ourselves to diminish ourselves as human beings. I'm grateful for Reverend Sharpton, the mayor, to call a press conference like this, to be that prophetic voice. We must change now. Our future depends on it. Our children depend on it. Thank you.

Councilmember Joseph Borelli: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you, reverends, imams, rabbi. Two years ago, I had heard that Mayor Adams was interested in getting the DNC to come here to New York City this year. As soon as I heard it, the first thing I did was I called up Mayor Adams. Actually, I texted him. I called up some of his people. I said, make me a part of this. I want to be a part of this. People said, well, you're a Republican. Why do you want this? Because when things are good for our city in terms of its economic viability, and when things celebrate our democracy, that's something I want to be a part of. Sometimes people criticize me for that. I've heard the criticism that as being an outspoken conservative, why do I get along with Democrats so good? I'll tell you why.

The truth is, the worst thing I want to happen to them is to lose elections, to lose their jobs. That's real. I want to beat them. But that's the worst thing I want to happen to my political opponents. That's anger. I hear things that my political opponents might say. They bother me. Sometimes I think that they'll have a bad impact on my family, our safety, our wallets. Yes, those things anger me. Anger in and of itself is not a bad thing in politics. It's what motivated me to go hang flyers and knock on doors as a volunteer. It's what motivated me to run for office. People who are angry at the system are not the problem in politics. Hate is the problem in politics. The dehumanization of your political opponents is the problem of politics.

Anger's been around. Look at the Federalist Papers, number 10. Talks about factionalism, how broken and divided we are. That's anger, not hate. Hate is what causes someone to be so desperate, so desperate to prevent things that they see happening from happening, that they'll fire at a man who's a grandfather, a father. They'll stop an election by causing that person to die. They'll fire indiscriminately into a crowd of people with children, families, people who are just there because they like the candidate, and rallies are kind of fun.

That's the difference. That's the difference between hate and anger in politics. And when you focus on just using your anger productively, and running for office, and bettering the community that you want to be a part of, those are positives. I'm just so thankful that we have a mayor and religious leaders here. Look, I'll level with you. It's easy for me to denounce this attack. I support Donald Trump. It's more difficult for other people to do that. I commend anyone who's willing to come out and say, enough is enough. The rhetoric has got to cool. The rhetoric has got to cool.

Let's use our anger and our political differences as the founders intended, by having debates, by standing on our soapboxes, by offering different ideas, and by encouraging people to vote. When Trump raised his fist, I would encourage you, many of you who I imagine don't particularly like him or may not vote for him, I see his raising his fist as a defiant gesture against, not his political opponents, but of people who would use violence to silence our democracy. He came out today and said, unite America. That's what I believe he meant by shaking his fist and saying, fight. We have to fight for this democracy. We'll see who wins in November, but we should all fight to preserve our democracy. Thank you.

Rabbi Joseph Potasnik: Thank you. Mr. Mayor, I want to thank you for always reminding us that we can believe in our different faiths. We also belong to one human family. When I was growing up, I must confess, I never saw a police car in front of a house of worship, but now I do. When I was growing up, I never saw armed officers in front of a house of prayer, but now I do. Inside our houses of worship, we would always proclaim, love your neighbor. We didn't say love your Democratic neighbor, your Republican neighbor, or any other adjective. It was love your neighbor.

Now I see outside there are those who proclaim, you have to hate your neighbor when you disagree with that person. And very often after hating a neighbor, you have to harm your neighbor. When I was growing up, I remember, as many of you do, we used to say, sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me. Now I realize that's wrong. That's not true. Because words often become weapons. Hatred in the heart becomes hatred in the hands.

The psalmist said, guard my tongue from evil and my lips from speaking guile. He was right then, and he's right now. Every week in our respective houses of worship, we pray for the country. We say we pray for the President of the United States, no matter who that president is. Today we pray for President Trump's full recovery. We pray for a person who lost his life. We pray for two people who are critically injured. We pray for the Secret Service, the FBI, all of the protectors who are ready to sacrifice their lives to save lives. History has taught us that tragedy often happens when we are silent instead of shouting. We have to shout as loudly as possible so that we see a day, a day, as the prophet said, what we say on the inside of that sanctuary is what we see on our streets. Thank you very much.

Bishop Chantel Wright: Grace and peace. Thank you, Mayor Adams, for convening us here today. I represent the C3 Initiative, where we're walking the streets, and we're praying for our communities, and we're speaking against the onslaught of gun violence. The commandment was given to us that you love one another. We are all created in the image of our maker, and whether we like it or not, we're all equal in that wise. Today I stand because that could have been one of my students as a 38-year veteran teacher. That could have very easily been one of my students who found themselves eating alone in the cafeteria, or being ostracized, or being set aside, and being so isolated and lonely that the only recourse was to take out a gun and shoot somebody.

Our responsibility is not just to say I'm Democratic or Republican, but to say that I am God's child, and my responsibility is to love. Is Donald Trump my favorite human being? Absolutely not. The things that come out of his mouth sometimes are inflammatory, but he still is God's creature, and I wish him no ill. As we come together as a nation and as a people, my prayer is that if there be no rain, my people who are called by my name would humble themselves and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways. Then will I hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin, and heal their land. We pray for a healing in the land.

We pray for a coming together. We pray for unity, and we pray for strength. As we teach our children, we teach our children either to love or we teach them to hate, and that is our responsibility. I pray that in our country, this beautiful America, the United States, that we teach our children to love and not hate one another, and we who are the cup bearers, the armor bearers, the gatekeepers of hope, that we have a message of love and unity. Thank you.

Imam Ahmed Ali Uzir: Good afternoon, Assalamu Alaikum, peace be upon you all. I want to start by thanking Mr. Mayor Eric Adams, who is showing a true spirit of a New Yorker that attack on anyone is attack on all of us. So we are taking this attack on former President Donald Trump as attack on all of us. Mr. Mayor, and all the elected officials and related officials, thank you very much for your Mr. Mayor, and all the elected officials and religious leaders. Sir, I request you all to make sure that any attack happen on anyone should be taken attack on all of us.

This is a way we all have to live in New York, and we have to show to our children that we are one nation under God, under the flag of United States of America. May God bless former President Donald Trump, his family to come out from this painful situation, and may God protect our beautiful country, United States of America, and all of the world. thank you so much.

Question: I have two questions for you, Mr. Sharpton, for excuse me, Reverend Sharpton, and for the politicians. To what extent do you plan to change your rhetoric, political rhetoric, and for the mayor, in protection for the emergency management commissioner, to what extent do you think the public's access to politicians will change in the aftermath of this?

Reverend Sharpton: I think I can say for me that I think not only am I going to be even more guided with my rhetoric, and I've tried to do that since I was a victim, but also to denounce rhetoric even of those that agree with me if they get out of bounds.

I think that you cannot throw a match into gasoline and not say you were not responsible for the explosion. I think I respect the fact that we not only must say it, it's easy to tweet it, it's harder to stand up and say it publicly with people that don't agree. I respect the minority leader for coming. He would be attacked for being in the same building with me, but the principle is more important than our not setting a tone, that's why I think today was important.

Mayor Adams: I believe that Councilman Borelli's comment of the difference between anger and hate is so significant because anger is a motivator. There are many moments in my life where I was angry by how the betrayal of services in the city for a countless number of working-class people, but it should never turn into hate, and I am starting to see the normalizing of hate that is playing out in general in the city and country, but specifically that's targeting our young people.

These algorithms, and you've heard me talk about them often, these algorithms that are drawing our young people into dark places, these algorithms that are showing violent actions, as the bishop talked about with violence, we're seeing young people in our streets, and how you take that anger and manifest it into constructive ways of doing things. I was angry when I was arrested and assaulted by police officers, and Reverend Herbert Daughtry said, take that anger and have it manifest into something positive, and so I think Councilman Borelli's comments are dead on. It's very clear. That clarity is important of how do we show people to take your anger, take your pain, and turn it into purpose.

Hate allows you to stand on top of an elevated structure and point a gun in the direction of an individual, and not only threaten his life, but the lives of those who also understand. That was an indiscriminate way of saying I have the right to have my hate and take the lives of innocent people. That bullet could have gone outside of that stadium, that area. It could have hit anyone walking down the block that may have subscribed to the same political views, so when hate gets in the way, it makes you do things that are extremely harmful, and I think when it comes down to protection, I came from the school of being among people.

I'm probably one of the most challenging elected officials to have a security detail for. I don't want my team around me. I don't want them smothering me. I want to be among the people, and I think that even when Reverend Sharpton talked about the day that he was stabbed, he did not want his people smothering him, and said there are those of us that never want to live in fear to be in a bubble that you can't interact and show your authentic self, and so the team is going to do their analysis on what needs to be done, but I'm not going to stop who I am.

I want to be among the people who elected me to office, and it is going to be the job of the team to, be more visual, more vigilant, to look after, some of the threats we receive. You see what happens. I'm sitting on a plane. Someone can walk up on me and, use vile languages, and those vile languages can turn into action, and it happens so quickly. Those of us who are in a public life, it could happen so quickly. You could just be walking down the block, and someone can see you, and all of a sudden, they display a level of violence, and we just have to be prepared for that and make sure that we act accordingly, and it impacts our family. Every, I'm sure, the councilman's family reached out to him. I got a number of calls from my family members of just please be careful. It wasn't only, that bullet not only impacted the life of Donald Trump's family. It impacted the lives of all of us.

Even the speaker talks about some of the threats that she received, during her time in office. We get these threats, and we know that some of these threats can turn into real action, and that is what we have to be prepared for.

Question: Are you talking about your political enemies in any way as a result of what happened this year?

Mayor Adams: There's, you will never be able to find a quote where I will call for any harm to come to any political person that I disagree with, and I don't call them enemies. We disagree. I'm protective of the city, and anything that's done that is to get in the way of safety and ensuring that our city continue to thrive, I'm going to critique that, and if I believe the actions of my political opponents is doing something wrong, I'm going to talk about it, but it was just last week.

I don't know if you remember, or two weeks ago, we was at the press conference, and someone wanted me to respond to an action. I think it was the bill on reviewing who our commissioners were, and I was very clear. I'm not engaging in this. I'm fighting for New Yorkers. I'm not going to go back and forth. We need to instill a little bit more compassion into politics, and I said that if you were to replay the tapes, I said it then, and I'm going to continue to say it.

The days of going back and forth on political banter is in my rearview mirror. I need to fight for New Yorkers. That's what I was elected to do, and I think for two years now, I've been pulled into fighting on some of these issues. That is just not what New Yorkers need. New Yorkers need to live in an affordable city, a safe city, educate our children, and raise healthy children and families, and that's my vision for the future.
Councilmember Borelli: Thank you. I'm always very careful about what I say, even though it appears I might be speaking off the cuff sometimes, and I also genuinely don't believe harm should happen to my political opponents, so it's not something I feel I need to do, but I think politicians and the media have a dual responsibility to be cognizant that we have influence over a mob mentality.

Everyone knows what a mob mentality is, where someone sees someone doing something, and the next person goes a little farther and farther and further, and it gets worse and worse. We don't have to be in a mob in some park somewhere. We're in a mob every day when we're sitting on the couch on social media, and when we say things that are insightful, yes, perhaps they're even taken out of context when the original person spoke to them, but it's too easy on social media for them to be compounded into something horrible.

Question: Mayor Adams, I have a question. If there have been any threats to any local Trump-owned properties in the city, and also when you were running, you were talking about carrying a gun. Has that re-entered your mindset again?

Mayor Adams: First, there has not been any threats, known threats, to the property, and the Intelligence Division Commissioner Weiner, would give a briefing to let any incoming-you get a lot of incoming that's taking place over and over again, and as I said on the campaign trail, as a former police officer, I'm licensed to carry a weapon, and if it ever reaches that level that I believe I have to, then I will do so.

I have a good team, a security team right now. They're doing their job, and I have a lot of confidence in them. I don't feel the need to do so, and so there's not a purpose, but I think that's something you said, councilman, that's important that I hope people didn't miss, that these algorithms and these stories play on the most extreme level of us. The more volatile you are and the more hate you put out, the more likes you get, the more it feeds into the darkness of us. All of us, we have the good lion and the bad lion in us. Right now, we feed the bad lion all the time. I think it's time to feed the good lion.

Question: Thank you, Mr. Mayor and Councilmember Borelli, and Reverend Sharpton. Is there any particular political rhetoric that you have heard in the past 24 hours since this happened that you would like to take this opportunity to condemn, that you feel is an example of something inappropriate, out of line at this time?

Reverend Sharpton: Let me say, I think there has been some in the national scene that have started the blame game. Out of respect to the councilman, I won't get into that. I would just say that all of us need to be very careful what we say. We have the Republican convention starting tomorrow, and we should not- One of the things I think that we should be very careful of, and I said it on my show this morning, is that we cannot encourage or participate in these conspiracy theories.

You have people that have come up with all kinds of conspiracies on what happened yesterday. We should all support a very thorough, real investigation, and not chase or distribute conspiracy theories that somebody gets on TikTok or social media and has all of us avoiding our responsibility in not normalizing this climate.

Question: Reverend, my question is for you. You acknowledge that you have been a critic of Donald Trump, and that there has been so much divisiveness in this country in recent years. Now, I don't know where you were last night when the news broke, but I was with friends last night. I had them over, and we were watching it on TV, and one thing they were saying was, this moment of unity, it felt so unfamiliar. For you, standing here today, does this moment of unity feel unfamiliar to you, or does it come naturally, considering what you have been through?

Reverend Sharpton: It comes natural because of what I've been through. Because you cannot, I came out of, as a kid, Martin Luther King's movement in New York, the chapter of his organization. Dr. King used to say, we cannot become like the things that we are fighting.

I think it was natural for me that when I got up early this morning, I work out, I went back and text the mayor that we need to do this, because if it's not us, who's going to do it? We need to set a contrary tone. Then reaching out to Reverend Bernard and others, I thought it was important. Then you have people like Bishop that walks the street and the imams. All of us have different roles. All of us do things differently, but none of us should be silent in the face of the climate that we're looking at now. All right. Thanks, guys.

Mayor Adams: Okay. Thank you. Thanks, all.

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