Transcript: Mayor Adams Calls In For Live Interview On GMGT Live’s “The Reset Talk Show”

July 26, 2024

J.R. Giddings: We have democratic mayor, New York City democratic Mayor Eric Adams with us this morning. We have Democratic Congresswoman Yvette Clarke with us. We have political analyst Deidre Hinds with us. We have the answers for you, everything you need to know. You have it on the Reset. Then of course, we have our powerhouse panel and Pastor Straker, Rabbi Cohen, everything is here. Good morning, Mr. Mayor. How are you?

Mayor Eric Adams: Quite well, quite well. It's good seeing you, Deidre, and congresswoman. It's great seeing you. I know you're busy in Albany, in D.C., fighting the fight, and so we see the good results of that. Great to be on with you, J.R.

Giddings: Mayor Adams, President Biden stepped aside on Sunday, and he endorsed Kamala Harris. It's been a firestorm since Sunday. What is your reaction to VP Harris being the presumptive democratic presidential nominee.

Mayor Adams: We should reflect as we move forward we should reflect on the actions of the president We've seen the highest level of patriotism the congresswoman. I'm sure she will agree. When you spend your entire life pursuing something that you believe you can do great for the country, it's difficult to walk away from that. That's what the president did. He walked away from something that he dedicated his life to doing because he did it because he thought it was the best thing for the country.

Fortunately for us, we have a very able and competent leader that can pick up the mantra and move us forward as a country and continue to work that her partnership with the president put in place. That's why we have vice presidents, because they are spending time watching, learning. They are in the hot spot, and they're able to just take the ball and move it forward down the field. We're fortunate by having Vice President Harris that's there to carry out that role.

I knew there was something special about her in 2020. I endorsed her for president in the primary. I saw her debate. I saw how she had a clear grasp of the issues, and she was unafraid. She was a fighter. She's looking forward to moving us forward as a country. We're a great success. You look at the economy, everyone thought we were not going to be able to cycle out of this economy, public safety. Some real issues that they had to face, COVID, remember that five letter word? They inherited COVID, and they navigated the country out of it. I'm excited about what is happening. I think Deidre really touched on there's going to be some mudslinging, but let's just move forward. I think we need to stay focused.

She has that great combination. She can come at you with the sister girl posture, and she can sit in any corporate boardroom and navigate the most important country on the globe. I am looking forward to this. I think it's exciting. I'm hearing a lot of young people now. I haven't heard this energy since Barack Obama ran. I'm hearing a lot of young people are now being engaged. You're watching some of the young people podcasts and radio shows. They're now talking about politics. I think this is a real important moment for all of us.

Number one, you have someone of Indian background, of Caribbean background, a woman of color, and a woman in general, it just is going to compel us moving the country forward. What should not be lost on all of us is the role that President Biden is playing. He served as the VP under the first Black president. Now he is stepping aside for the next, a woman president and person of color president. He has codified his place in history And people are going to be really reflecting on his role. He should really be proud.

You could do two, three terms. You can do a whole lot of terms and no one will know who the hell you are. When your term, and when you are on the stage and you did something significant that will always have to be talked about, no one will be able to take away his legacy that he participated in.

Giddings: Thank you, Mayor Adams. Once again, I am asking everybody to share the feed, share the link. This is an important day. We have the best of the best here on the Reset Talk Show. This is what separates us from everyone. You're going to be able to make an informed decision about this election come November 5th. Tell a friend to tell a friend to jump on right now.

What I'm going to do right now, Pastor Straker, I know that you want to ask the congresswoman or the mayor something, but being that we have the other panelists, you have to choose one. Who do you want to pose this question?

Pastor Louis Straker: I'll choose our mayor. It's always great to have him with us. Good morning, Mr. Mayor.

Mayor Adams: Good morning.

Pastor Straker: Quick question, I'm going to change gears a little bit concerning the Sonya Massey death. I'm sure you are following this story. I'm sure you've seen the footage. I know we have a National Day of Mourning rally that's taking place here on Sunday at 2:00 p.m. in Washington Square Park.

I just want to know, in terms of what you've seen, and I know you command our police here in New York City, what are your views on the shooting that took place? Then, what are your views about the body cam footage being released to the public when we have police-involved shootings so that there's full transparency to the public so that we can see for ourselves immediately what has transpired?

Mayor Adams: I saw the video, and I thought it was a despicable action. I stand by law enforcement. I don't stand by criminals. I saw a criminal behavior. Of course, he will have to go through the judicial system. What I saw there, there was nothing that I believe will cause the discharge of that weapon. He was clearly nowhere near, even if you want to use the hot water as a reason, he was nowhere near that. She stood up and said, basically, she was attempting to deescalate the situation.

How do you take a simple call and turn it into that vulgar language that was used, just a straight headshot, and to shoot her in that manner, and the terminology that he was using, there was a very hateful action. I think that video is going to be the clear evidence for a jury to come back with a conviction. I think it's important to release a video, but you always want to be respectful to the family also. You want to have a conversation with the family and make sure they're notified and make sure that they're okay as well. You don't want to do anything because you're dealing with the victims, although the person may have losses in her life, you're still dealing with the family. It's traumatizing sometimes for family members to see the video played over and over and over again.

Here in our state, the attorney general could make the ultimate decision [about] what's going to be done and the timing of it. You don't want to in any way impede the investigation. I think AG James has done an excellent job after speaking with the family, doing a preliminary review, then releasing the video at the same time. We try to work in conjunction with her here, but I think it always should be released for people to see exactly what took place.

Pastor Straker: Thank you, sir.

Giddings: Mr. Mayor, I know you have to go, but before you leave, we lost a stalwart in Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee. She was a long time champion of women's rights and racial equality. How do you reflect?

Mayor Adams: The older we get, I'm reaching my 64th birthday in September. The older we get, we start to reckon with the fact that immortality is not part of the contract we had with life. We're all going to transition to the spiritual. If we think that at one time, somebody's not going to be standing over our coffin, giving a prayer, then we're kidding ourselves.

Knowing the feistiness of our sister, and I'm sure Congresswoman Clarke will tell you, she was a real firebrand. She was no joke. She would say to us all, listen, y'all need to do you. I did me. I did my life, I lived it, I was a real fighter for those things that are important for Americans in general, but people of color specifically. She ran for mayor in Houston, although she was not able to succeed in that endeavor, she was able to come back and reclaim her seat as a congressperson.

Everyone tells me she was one of the hardest working congresspersons that was in D.C. And sometimes we don't realize it, congresswomen, but a lot of the great leaders in this country originated from New York, you know. Folks go to other municipalities and you just see that New York swagger that you're able to run, She was from Queens. A lot of people don't realize that. she was from Queens, you look at my brother Byron up in Buffalo, he was from New York City.

You'll see a lot of electeds, I have the mayors here now from across the country. Many of them, their origin was New York City or New York State. She was one of our finest in Queens. She was truly a queen. Every time I met her, I just sit back in awe as she presented something that she believed in. She was just a great leader. On her time on the stage, while she hit the baton, she ran her race. She's handing that baton off to the next person to run it. They should aspire to run it the same swiftness and forthrightness that she did.

I thank her and I'm going to lift her up. She's now among the ancestors. Absent from the body does not mean you're absent from the spirit. I know I read that somewhere, Pastor, and so bear with us spiritually, and we should just now see and enjoy her spiritual presence.

Giddings: Right before you leave, Mayor Adams, the one thing that I want to say is the voices that helped to illuminate this platform, Congresswoman Jackson Lee, she was on the Reset at least three or four times, giving us everything from Capitol Hill with her representation out in Texas.

Of course you and Congresswoman Clarke, you guys are the pillars of this platform and I want to recognize that. I want to thank you for jumping back on because you were on last week and it didn't, it took a lot out of you, I know, I'm sure, for you to be back on this week. How important it was for us to at least highlight Congresswoman Jackson, and you took the time out. Thank you.

Mayor Adams: Thank you, brother. You know from years ago, and I'm sure I'm speaking for Congresswoman Clarke as well, you started this years ago because we were not getting some of the basic information around COVID and other entities, and you pulled together. There are some impressive names of people who have come on this platform, and it just shows what we can do.

I see even your advertisement game seems to be boosting up more. We got to go make sure that those city dollars get to you. I saw your police recruitment ad. I thought it was a real good ad. There's other things that we can do, but I really thank you. You saw a vision, and all we're doing is supporting the vision that you saw. When you call, we will come. You built it, and so we will come.

Giddings: I couldn't build it without you guys. I really couldn't. There was another question, but I know you have to go. I don't want to overstep my boundary.

Mayor Adams: You can shoot it. You got me, so I might as well answer all of them that you have right now.

Giddings: This is a question that came from the audience. I've been getting it for a while. Rikers Island is supposed to be closing. What will happen with all of those workers that will be out of a job? How do we? How do we deal with that?

Mayor Adams: I'm so glad you answer that, the law requires that I close Rikers Island. It was a law that was passed under the previous administration and I'm always going to follow a just law and that's the law So if there's any shift in that is going to have to come through the City Council. The law states that it can never be used as a jail again, and that is what the law is.

We're not going, people are not going to lose their jobs. There's going to be four more jails built throughout the city. Here is my concern with the initiative as it stands. The price tag has almost doubled. We're talking about anywhere from 13 to $14 billion, and the four jails that we're building are not going to accommodate the number of inmates we have there. We did a lot of reform, prison reform, so a lot of people are not going to spend their time in Rikers, and we're doing a lot of things to use electronic monitoring, et cetera.

If you're on Rikers Island, it's because you committed a very serious crime. The real crisis, I believe, is that we closed our mental health facilities because they were, in many cases, they were inhumane. We went from one extreme to the next. We now allowed a lot of people to be on our streets that have severe mental health illness. They can't take care of themselves. When they do something that's harmful, we take them to the hospital, we give them medicine for one day, and put them often back out to the streets until they do something that is a crime, pushing someone on the subway system, random acts of violence, et cetera.

54 percent of the people on Rikers Island have mental health issues. We closed our psychiatric wards, but we turned Rikers into a psychiatric ward. I think what we need to be building is a state-of-the-art psychiatric facility that would give people the decency that they deserve. We've lost a lot of hospital beds during COVID, and they never really came back online. We do not have a psychiatric facility at the level where we can use new forms of treatment. We can help family members. Sometimes family members see a loved one going through a serious psychiatric problem and they just feel so helpless. They don't know where to send them. We can do a better job in that.

When we close Rikers, four more jails, we're going to have about 2,000 people that can't fit in those jails. We're not really leaning into the real psychiatric problem. If we deal with the psychiatric problem that we're facing, we're cutting Rikers Island population in half and that is where I believe we need to be going but it's going to be up to the City Council to do the analysis on how we're going to move this conversation forward.

Giddings: Thank you Mr. Mayor, thanks for answering that question. I always want my audience to know that we're not afraid to ask you the tough questions.

Mayor Adams: You know, I'm like the VP, bring it on.

Giddings: Alright, I think we lost the congresswoman there for a minute. I wanted to ask her, I needed her for a minute, did she pop out? [Crosstalk.] But, oh my gosh, we probably lost her.

Mayor Adams, as we get ready for this election cycle, we need some of those dollars, some of the advertising dollars from the campaign on this platform because we're doing our part.

Mayor Adams: You're doing God's work, brother.

Giddings: Absolutely.

Mayor Adams: Take care all.

Giddings: Thank you. Thank you.

Public link

Please use the above public link if you want to share this noodl on another website.