← Straight Shooter with Stephen A.
Straight Shooter with Stephen A.
Interview Only: Part One: Stephen A's compelling sit-down interview with embattled New York City Mayor Eric Adams.
00:30:10
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- [00:00]
Greg Rosenthal
What's up, everyone? It's Greg Rosenthal, and I'm teaming up with the king of spring, Daniel Jeremiah. He requires me to say that we're going to be bringing you 40s and free agents, the only podcast you'll need this NFL draft season. From DJs mock drafts to my top 101, free agents will have it covered for you with all new episodes every Thursday, keeping you up to date as we head to the NFL Draft. Listen to 40s and free agents starting on March 6th on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [00:31]
Julie Swerbinks
What's up, everyone? Julie Swerbinks here along with former NHL player Nate Thompson.
- [00:36]
Nate Thompson
We're doing a new podcast together. Here we go.
- [00:38]
Julie Swerbinks
The name Energy Line with Nate and jsb.
- [00:42]
Nate Thompson
Each week, we'll get together and talk about hockey life. All topics are fair game, right?
- [00:47]
Julie Swerbinks
Exactly. And you'll never know who will drop by to join us.
- [00:51]
Nate Thompson
Julia's pretty well connected. She has text threads going that you wouldn't believe.
- [00:55]
Julie Swerbinks
Listen to Energy Line with Nate and jsb on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [01:06]
Stephen A. Smith
Joining me now to discuss the new Trump administration in New York City, along with a bevy of other things, is the mayor of New York City himself, Mr. Eric Adams. An honor and a privilege, sir. How you doing? How's everything going? It's good to see you.
- [01:21]
Eric Adams
South side, we outside. You know, Hollis Queen, I was just telling you, we used to come out to Hollis and take y'all shorties.
- [01:27]
Stephen A. Smith
Well, you know, what they didn't tell you is that we really didn't want them because we loved the ladies in Cambria Heights and Laurelton. It was other areas to Hollis. So he's like, okay, you do what you do.
- [01:38]
Eric Adams
And you got some nice cascades. Yes, we do. Without question.
- [01:41]
Stephen A. Smith
Without question.
- [01:42]
Eric Adams
A lot of quality came out.
- [01:44]
Stephen A. Smith
I grew up with Run dmc. LL Cool J was right down the block, you know, five minutes away on Farmers Boulevard. And, you know, you know, ja rule, 50 cents. A whole bunch of cats came from the Hollywood, from the Queensland.
- [01:56]
Eric Adams
You know what, brother? Working class people.
- [01:58]
Stephen A. Smith
That's right.
- [01:59]
Eric Adams
Working class values. You know, mom worked in a daycare center. She used to be up every day. Led by example. Homeowners.
- [02:08]
Stephen A. Smith
That's right.
- [02:08]
Eric Adams
You know, many of our values come.
- [02:12]
Stephen A. Smith
From what we saw, and the community raised us.
- [02:15]
Eric Adams
Right.
- [02:15]
Stephen A. Smith
It wasn't just the parents. It was the community raised. We're gonna get into all of that, Mr. Mayor. But my first order of businesses Is that today of all, you are the talk of New York City right now. Everybody's talking about you. You're stealing headlines and what have you because you talked about how you haven't left the Democratic Party, the Democratic Party has left you. That's the quote. Everybody's been parading around all over the place right now as we sit here today. How are you feeling about your administration, what you've accomplished, and most importantly, the support or lack thereof you've received from the Democratic Party?
- [02:48]
Eric Adams
Well, and it's added a theme of the working class people. And when you stop talking about working issues and people are hurting and you having this intellectual conversation and have a philosophical approach of just addressing what are people feeling every day? And I have never left the streets. On the subways, I would stop in the middle of the night when barbershops closed down. I would go inside and sit down, smoke a cigar, drink a little Hennessy with the people inside and just feel them. And they're saying that the party's not talking to us. And when I say the party, I'm not talking about people who are registered Democrats. I'm talking about those who are putting out the messages of what is important to the Democratic Party. And they have left the average working class person and individuals. And that is what I'm trying to say to the party that, you know, it's not like I abandoned the party. The party has abandoned what working class people have been fighting for.
- [03:51]
Stephen A. Smith
One of, you know, you deal with this and you will continue to deal with this a hell of a lot more. To me, I'm just your friendly neighborhood sports reporter that ventures into other areas of discussion. But I've been taking a lot of heat because of my willingness to call out some of the things that I've seen from the Democratic Party. And it's almost like there's supposed to be this onus, this level of obligation as black men that we're supposed to have to the Democratic Party. And clearly you're being challenged on that now because of the positions and the stances that you have been willing to take as a black man, not just the mayor of New York City. How do you feel when you hear people come to you with that kind of attitude?
- [04:30]
Eric Adams
Listen, brother, this is going to be one hell of a conversation, man. People don't even realize what it is to be a man of color, to be in charge of the most important city on the globe. We need to really understand that I'm the mayor of the most important city on the globe. Only the Second mayor of color. Mayor Dinkins was the first and I'm the second. I inherited a city that was engulfed in Covid 220,000 migrants and asylum seekers. Crime was through the roof. Unemployment with black and brown people was high. You were looking at our children were not learning. I've been on Rikers island more than any other mayor in the history of the city, speaking to inmates and correction officers who both are overwhelmingly black and brown. And so when you look at what I inherited and then you fast forward to today, with all that we've gone through, we have more jobs in the city's history. More small businesses are open. Black and brown businesses have received billions of dollars in contracts from the city. We have outpaced the state in reading and math. We're doing dyslexia screenings so that we don't have 30% of our prison population being dyslexic like I am. What we have done in this city, paying for college tuition for foster care children, bond rate is at the city and said, we're going to increase your bond because the way you're managing the crises with 220,000 migrants and asylum seekers dropped in our city without any support, we've turned around this city and there are a lot of haters out there that don't want to acknowledge what this administration have done.
- [06:08]
Stephen A. Smith
Why do you think that is?
- [06:09]
Eric Adams
Well, I think it's a combination of things. I was never the chosen candidate. I'm a bald headed, earring wearing mayor that's saying that you don't have to have this one stereotypical look to be successful in the city. And I think that there's a lot of people that want to send the signal that, okay, you can't run the city. I'm running the city and I'm running and navigating us out of crises, and I'm independent in doing so. You know, there are days that I wake up feeling one way and another and another way. And we need to be clear on taking these big cities to the next level.
- [06:43]
Stephen A. Smith
Is that part of the problem, though, Mr. Mayor, in terms of the. The conflict, the confrontations, the resistance that you may ultimately encounter? Is it the fact that you wake up with independent voice as opposed to being a slave to this binary system that we live in and it's either take one side or the other. It's all one way or it's all another way? That's what basically folks have been saying for the longest time. And people like yourself seem to be giving the impression, nah, I'm not down for that anymore.
- [07:11]
Eric Adams
Right. You know, you look at those who want to check off a box, and if you don't fit into all of these items in the box, then you can't be classified as this group or another group. And that's not who we are. As individuals and as human beings, we have different beliefs and belief systems. And I focus on that all the time. And this is not new. People fail to realize, go back 30 something years when I was with the Police Department and 100 blacks in law enforcement who cared? I didn't want to be a cop. I was arrested and beat by police officers at 15 years old. Reverend Herbert Daughtry told me, you are going into the police department to fight from within.
- [07:49]
Stephen A. Smith
Wow.
- [07:49]
Eric Adams
You know, and when we went in, people called me Uncle Tom, sellout negro. But we went in and started one of the most important human rights and civil rights organization as black police officers. And so there's a long record of looking at my assignment and fulfilling my assignment. Brother, I can't even tell you how painful it was to say I put on that uniform of those who kicked me in my groin over and over again. My brother and I, we were pissing blood for weeks after being assaulted by those cops in the basement of the 103rd Precinct.
- [08:21]
Stephen A. Smith
And before you became a captain, if I remember correctly, based on my research, before you became a captain within the police department, you were an officer literally speaking out against racism and prejudice all the time. Which I might imagine didn't endear you to your colleagues and contemporaries at Boys in Blue.
- [08:37]
Eric Adams
Well, you know what was interesting, that many people didn't realize that many of those officers would come to me and say, you know, thank you for what you're doing, because they wanted to go home to their families.
- [08:50]
Stephen A. Smith
Right.
- [08:50]
Eric Adams
And they knew that there was a number of cops that were overly aggressive and abusive. And by us talking out, it allowed them to not have to get caught up in that whole web that we were dealing with. And that's the same energy I took into the state senate, took into being the first person of color to be borrowed president and to now to become the mayor. I'm the same cat, brother.
- [09:12]
Stephen A. Smith
Listen, listen. Well, listen, if you're the same, more power to you. Because to be honest with you, I don't know if you need to be the same. I think you've already proven who you are. You don't really, really need to be the same. You can mix it up a little bit, but I'm just looking at some of the things I'm thinking About crime. I'm thinking about the local economy, I'm thinking about joblessness. All of these issues that have been addressed during your administration. What things have been like for you since COVID and how basically so many jobs have been restored, et cetera, et cetera. What's been the greatest challenge for you sitting in that seat as mayor of New York City, particularly over the last couple years?
- [09:46]
Eric Adams
I love that. That's a great question. The failure to acknowledge the success and our media. That's why this show is so important. Our media in this city. The failure every day. If you go back and look at, from the time I took office, we've been under fire. And the failure to acknowledge the recovery of jobs cycling us out of COVID managing 220,000 migrants and asylum seekers and 170,000, 180,000 on their way. What we're doing around recovering the economy of this city, you don't read about any of that. Do you know? Even when you talk about in our transit system, when I go into rooms and I say, tell me how many crimes you think we have in the subway every day? People say 200, 300, 400. We have 4.6 million riders a day. We have six crime felony crimes today. But when you read this city from abroad or in another state, you say this is a city out of control. This is the safest big city in America. I just acknowledged today with the police Commissioner. We removed 20,000 illegal guns off our street. 1400 ghost guns off our streets. Shootings and homicides are down. Crime is down. This city's the safest big city in the world.
- [11:00]
Stephen A. Smith
Let me throw this at you. You know what doesn't make sense to me? What doesn't make sense to me based on what you just articulated. There was an election that was coming about this past November. We know who won. We know what happened prior to that election. The media has been accused of being the liberal media for the longest time. So one would think, when you consider the imagery that was emanating from the right as they talked about crime in the streets and pestilence and homelessness and migrant crisis and all of these different things, those kind of things that you just articulated, one would think that the liberal media would jump, would pounce at the opportunity to articulate that message to the masses. Cuz it would have served their purpose in support of somebody on the left, in this case, Kamala Harris, winning the election. Yet you're sitting here saying that did not happen.
- [11:49]
Eric Adams
Right?
- [11:50]
Stephen A. Smith
How do you explain that?
- [11:51]
Eric Adams
They didn't highlight their message. They didn't highlight the largest city in America. They didn't highlight a person of color as mayor lifting up this city. There was a success story that should have been the talking point for the Democratic Party. A working class man, $30 billion back in the pockets of everyday working class.
- [12:14]
Stephen A. Smith
People, canceling 2 billion in medical debt.
- [12:16]
Eric Adams
There you are. Think about that, brother.
- [12:17]
Stephen A. Smith
500,000 New Yorkers.
- [12:18]
Eric Adams
Think about that. 500,000 New Yorkers, we're going to cancel their medical debt. That's the number one cause of bankruptcy, and particularly for black and brown people. So there was a narrative here in the city that we could have talked. Instead of that, there was a lot of anger because I was saying to them, you got 220,000 migrants and asylum seekers coming to this city, and you guys are not being responsible about securing our borders.
- [12:45]
Stephen A. Smith
I'm thinking about what you just said. I'm thinking about the fact that when ultimately you were indicted by the federal government on fraud or fraud charges, along with other things, you were the first mayor to be criminally charged while in office in the history of New York City. How much of a role do you believe that played in what wasn't disseminated as it pertains to your administration's office?
- [13:09]
Eric Adams
I think a lot. And, you know, many people never read the indictment.
- [13:13]
Stephen A. Smith
Please.
- [13:14]
Eric Adams
And if you read the indictment, you're going to see that, you know, at the heart of this is that I was doing my job of telling the fire department, can you do an inspection on a building? This is something, when I sit down with my colleagues, they say, eric, are you kidding me? You know, because this is what we do as governmental officials. And I was saying the other day on the other talk show, you know, brother, how hard as it is to just sit back and watch me have to take all these body blows right now and can't defend myself. Something that I always tell you to.
- [13:51]
Stephen A. Smith
Be quiet, don't say anything. It's sickening. It's sickening. But go ahead.
- [13:56]
Eric Adams
You know, and so it's imperative for me when you do an analysis of not only what I have said, Biden said his Justice Department is politicized, weaponized, politicized. It's all the same size. Trump said it. And when I saw Biden's speech on why he impeached his family members, he talked about, and many people didn't read that, that when you go through prosecutions like this, it's not only your guilt or innocence, it's the financial impact on you. It's just the embarrassment. I spent $2 million? Brother, I'm a civil service. What does a civil servant get $2 million from? You know, you have to be able to have people who believe in you enough to donate to you, rally public support. Exactly, exactly.
- [14:46]
Stephen A. Smith
And so I'm looking at it. And listen, pardon. Clement granted clemency to a few folks, all of those kind of things. That's what President Biden has done. And we'll get into that in just a couple of minutes or so. But in light of that, along with campaign finance charges, that's what they're throwing at you as well. You still have been determined to run for reelection in 2025.
- [15:07]
Eric Adams
I like that.
- [15:08]
Stephen A. Smith
Case is coming up in April. Reelection, you know, the primaries in June.
- [15:13]
Eric Adams
Right. Why?
- [15:16]
Stephen A. Smith
What kind of message are you sending by continuing to stay in this race?
- [15:19]
Eric Adams
And I love that man. That's a powerful question, because many people are in dark places in their personal lives. And, you know, Mommy used to say, a dark place is not a burial, is supplanted. And, you know, brother, you know, as you know, with your parents, you know, your dad and, you know, raising a family, a family of six, we're the same.
- [15:37]
Stephen A. Smith
I'm the youngest of six.
- [15:38]
Eric Adams
Right, right. You know, and Mommy loved all of us, but she adored me, you know.
- [15:43]
Stephen A. Smith
Same here, same here, same here.
- [15:46]
Eric Adams
And, brother, I used to walk past Mommy's door and raising us on our own, I would hear in that room at night crying, you know, not knowing if she was going to feed us to keep a roof on her head. But you know what? Every morning, she got up. She got up. And so in the first two weeks of that indictment, people that I had sleep on my couches when they were thrown out of their homes, people who. Their children were arrested and I went down and stood with them. People who I stood in the hospitals with when they were going through terrible times, they were tripping over themselves saying, you need to step down. You need to step down. It broke my heart. I'm not even going to lie to you. But I said to myself, and I thought of Mommy. She died during my election. I said, you know what? Mommy never stepped down. She stepped up. And with all that we were going through, we still moved the city forward, and we knew that had the right team to get it done. And I'm hoping that people who are in dark places right now, if you're a young man that's sitting in Rikers island in a jail cell, you're gonna say, listen, my mayor was arrested. If you are a young person with learning Disability. My mayor has dyslexia. I want people to look and see my life and say, don't ever give up and don't let anyone defy who you are and what you are. I know who I am, and I'm gonna fight like hell to make sure people know that.
- [17:07]
Stephen A. Smith
Are you gonna fight like hell and make sure you win the case or that you are proven to be innocent? Because there's a difference with the voters, right?
- [17:17]
Eric Adams
There's. I think the pathway to justice come in many different ways. And one should not allow anyone to block their pathway to justice. It's the role of my attorney, Alex Spiro, to ensure that we pursue every pathway to justice. I did nothing wrong. I should not have been charged. And his is his job to pursue my justice. My job is that I was elected to represent the city of New York and in every area. I have never abandoned that responsibility.
- [17:48]
Stephen A. Smith
You reportedly went to visit President Donald Trump at Mar A Lago prior to the inauguration. What can you tell us about that? And is it really about what people are saying? It's about you're hoping that in the event something goes down, that you find yourself being convicted of this, of these allegations, that he's going to pardon you.
- [18:07]
Eric Adams
And think about that for a moment. This is the President of the United States. I'm the mayor of the largest city in America that lost $6.5 billion due to the previous admin. Inability to finance the migrant crisis. Why are people asking, is the mayor of the largest city in America going down to meet with the president to talk about how do we recoup some of those losses and how do we ensure that we move our city forward? It would be irresponsible for me not to go down and speak with the president. And hats off to him. He met with me days before his inauguration. You know, that says a lot about his love for the city, and that says a lot of how much respect he had for this administration on what. What we are doing. I had to go down to Washington, D.C. i mean, to Florida, and speak with the President.
- [18:56]
Stephen A. Smith
It sounds like it makes a whole lot of sense to me, and I don't have any issue with it. But you're gonna have critics out there of Mayor Eric Adams of New York City saying the primary reason you went down there is because of your legal. Your personal legal issues, and that that is the priority over the other issues that you just brought up, mainly $6.5 billion that you're trying to recoup to.
- [19:16]
Eric Adams
That you say what I say the same Thing I say in New York, oftentimes speaking Media, I have 8.3 New Yorkers. I have 35 million opinions. That's right. That's what it is. You're not doing anything if you don't have people who are going to be attacking you. So the numerical minority with the largest voices that are constantly and consistently, from the day I took office, have consistently talk about everything I am not. Even though we showed the success, those are the same people who are saying what your critics say. You know what? That's noise, brother. You know, I say all the time, the graduates, let your haters be your waiters when you sit down at the table of success, brother.
- [19:55]
Stephen A. Smith
Let's get specific and talk about the migrant crisis in this regard. About 229,000 migrants came to the city, the city streets of New York. You had to find shelter for them. You articulated, I believe during the Tucker Carlson interview, the lack of support that you had received, et cetera. Nevertheless, you found a way to maneuver your way through this and find yourself in a position where there were so many other things about your administration. There was to apply, crystallize for the viewers out there and the listeners on iHeartRadio as well, the kind of potential damage inflicted upon New York City in light of migrants coming to the city and New York obviously being considered a sanctuary.
- [20:33]
Eric Adams
Right, right. And, you know, well said. And that's a great question. So let's look at it for a moment. 220,000 migrants and asylum seekers came to the city, 1.5 the size of Albany. So a whole city was dropped. In our cities, we were getting thousands a week, all times of the night. We had to provide every service that you would provide to an individual person. We had to do housing. We had to clean clothing. We had to provide food. We had to educate 40,000 women and 40,000 children. And we were told this. It's illegal for you to allow them to work. You can't allow the buses to come. You can't stop the buses from coming in. You can't even allow them to volunteer to remove graffiti, deliver food and services. You couldn't do any of that. All of that was against the law. And out of the $6.5 billion, the government wanted to give us, 200 million and only gave about 125 million to provide for this service, which is a national problem, it's not a local problem. And so what it did was, in addition to the countless number of people who were pursuing the American dream, it brought in a lot of. It brought in A small number of a criminal element that did a disproportionate amount of crime. So we had a public safety issue that we were facing in our city and we had an infrastructure issue because those $6.5 billion people tell me all the time, okay, Eric, you got through it. W, Congratulations. You transitioned 170,000 to go on to the next step of the American dream. But what is the damage, the long term damage? I couldn't go after children who are chronically absent from school because we didn't have the money. My older adults, dealing with my housing infrastructure, that's 6.5 billion. Now we're up to 6.9 billion that were removed from dealing with the real issues that we wanted to invest into our city. The long term impact to New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Denver, we have not witnessed a long term impact yet to this crisis.
- [22:30]
Stephen A. Smith
So with that being said, are you still supportive of the city of New York being considered a sanctuary city?
- [22:35]
Eric Adams
And so that's so important. These are good questions, brother. People conflate what sanctuary city is.
- [22:41]
Stephen A. Smith
Please explain.
- [22:42]
Eric Adams
A sanctuary city is saying that if you are in New York and you are paying your taxes, then those tax dollars provide your services, your police services, your hospital services, your education services. And so, so right here, if you in New York, we're not going to deny you those services because you buy a loaf of bread, you're paying taxes, you buy gas, you're paying taxes. So with those tax dollars, you're paying for the goods and services of the city. That's what the sanctuary city means. What we have been saying, what American people have stated, Donald Trump got the popular vote and the electoral vote. And so the people of the city said, we got to fix our borders. You can't allow people to come in the country with no destination, not knowing where they're going. And then you're telling them you're not allowed to work. Imagine that for six months.
- [23:34]
Stephen A. Smith
But what about somebody that's looking at you? Because I gotta be honest with you, Mr. Mayor. Yes, I have been on this show, I've been on the airwaves. And I mean, with all of these billions you're talking about, right? I think I was the loudest critic of the $53 million prepaid credit card. I was losing my mind. I'm like, wait a minute, I know, look, I've been black all my life. I've been in New York City for.
- [23:56]
Eric Adams
The better part of my life.
- [23:57]
Stephen A. Smith
I'd be damned if I ever saw some damn prepaid credit cards coming to the black community. And then, and I was born here. So I'm like, I'm looking at it and I'm saying how could that be supported?
- [24:08]
Eric Adams
I love that.
- [24:08]
Stephen A. Smith
Explain that to me.
- [24:09]
Eric Adams
I love that. And that is why it's important to be able to tell your own narrative. So let's look at those credit cards. Please do those cards. We were required by law to feed every migrant and asylum seeker that was in our care. They were being, food was being delivered that people were not eating and much, a lot of it was being thrown out. We were wasting money. And so my former deputy mayor Sheena Wright, first deputy mayor came in and said listen, there's this minority company called Mocafi. We give people food card with $11, around $11 a day that they can spend for food. And they're going to go to the local bodegas, shops and restaurants within the area. So we're going to recycle the money back into the community. Instead of a large conglomerate that we're spending, it saved us money and we were able to put money back into the local communities and it stopped the food waste that we were seeing of taxpayers dollars. So we did a pilot to say let's see how successful this is. And so on first brush when you see people do it, you say wait a minute, where you giving these guys credit?
- [25:16]
Stephen A. Smith
I lost my mind. All I saw was 53 million in prepaid credit car. Oh, I was hot, I was hot about that. So I need that explanation.
- [25:24]
Eric Adams
Even the editorial boards who responded at first like the Daily News did a whole piece and say listen, this is a smart approach to government. Cause what many people don't realize, people know my law enforcement background, they know what I'm doing around health in the city. But really people don't appreciate the fiscal management that independent bond raiders who determine how successful you are manager in the city have raised my bonds. They say this cat has managed us through, they've managed us through. He's managed us through the asylum seekers. He's managing this city and being fiscally responsible.
- [25:57]
Stephen A. Smith
I want to transition to the issue of crime, all right. Because on May 1, 2023, 30 year old homeless man Jordan Neely was killed after being put in a chokehold by Daniel Penney, a 24 year old United States Marine Corps veteran. While riding the New York City subway he was found not guilty. This past December a woman was set on fire and she was sleeping on the F train. When you think about those incidences, those kind of things that you have and like you said, the Number is consider considerably lower than people even recognize. But, you know, the visual is what it's all about. You know, I mean, you see a woman on fire, you scared, you scared, you don't want your daughter on there, you don't want your wife on there, you don't want your mom on there, you're gonna get scared, you're gonna be in panic mode because you worried about. Dammit. Could it be you? When you talk about addressing crime, how do you believe your administration has gone about doing it and how has it been successful?
- [26:45]
Eric Adams
A crime is perceived in actual. And our failure, I tell the team we lost the perception because when you have incidents that overshadow your success, no matter how impressive your numbers are, it overshadows when you have three people stabbed by a person with severe mental health illness. When you have someone set on fire, those visualizations are real. And I respect how people feel. I don't want to come to people and tell them, listen, here are my numbers. This is how well we're doing. How you feel is important to me. My success in this city has been overshadowed by three things. Random acts of violence, slashing people, pushing people to the subway system, putting people on fire. Those small numbers have a major impact on how people feel. Second is recidivism. We have a lot of cats that.
- [27:34]
Stephen A. Smith
Are going in and out, going back, unbelievable. Getting arrested and coming right back out in the streets sometimes the same day, right?
- [27:41]
Eric Adams
We have about 575 people that were arrested over 7,500 times for shoplifting. We have 36 people who were arrested over 1,100 times for a crime.
- [27:54]
Stephen A. Smith
That's just asking police officers not to do their job.
- [27:56]
Eric Adams
You don't understand.
- [27:57]
Stephen A. Smith
What purpose is it, sir?
- [27:57]
Eric Adams
You know what I'm saying? And let me tell you the third issue that overshadows severe mental health illness. We have people with severe mental health illness. When I first got elected, I went into the streets January and February and visited people in encampments. I saw human waste, drug paraphernalia, schizophrenic, bipolar. And I told the team, we can't live like this. And many people were saying for years, even when we were growing up, when people were sleeping on the street, our families said, listen, just leave them alone, they're crazy, or what have you. We closed psychiatric wards like Crepemore and others and didn't give people a landing place. And now you see them on the streets, they're doing these. They parted a random acts of violence, a small number of them. And so when I Said, we're going to tackle this. My team said, man, you out of your mind, man, Nobody dealt with this stuff. And I said, no, this is inhumane. We got to stop this. And when I was out in the street, I met a guy that was living in an encampment who was a retired police officer that just slipped through the cracks. And I said, we're not going to continue to do that. That has overshadowed our success. Crime is down, shootings, homicides are down. Our economy is back. But it has been overshadowed by those random acts of violence.
- [29:11]
Stephen A. Smith
Well, we're going to talk a little bit more because we're going to work to have those things overshadowed with all the good things that you're doing right now. And I just want to throw this out, you know, and it'll please your team because, I mean, everybody made sure I have my information. I got to give them their props where it's due. Okay, you're talking about a plan to ask, you know, taxes for the working class family, a plan to literally eliminate and cut city personal income taxes to. For 582,000 of. Of the poorest New Yorkers anytime you cutting taxes, I love that. I love that. I love, I love stuff like that. You're planning to build 80,000 new homes across five boroughs, do small changes and bring the cost of housing down. You've got an initiative that has saved New Yorkers more than 30 billion through city, state, and federal programs since the start of the administration. Major, major stuff going on.
- [29:55]
Eric Adams
Broken class, people.
- [29:57]
Stephen A. Smith
That's right. Having said that, some would say that you still got a lot to worry about because former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is contemplating competing with you for the mayor's seat in New York City. And according to the recent polls, he's up about 23 percentage points on you. What do you have to say about that?
- [30:15]
Eric Adams
Deja vu. Go back to February of 2021. There was another Andrew, Andrew Yang. He got in a race. He was measuring the drapes in City Hall.
- [30:27]
Stephen A. Smith
I don't know why he never had a chance against you. I don't know who the hell. So Jimmy had a chance to get shoes.
- [30:32]
Eric Adams
The polls had him up double digit.
- [30:34]
Stephen A. Smith
Something wrong with the polls. Double digit, something wrong with the polls.
- [30:37]
Eric Adams
Right. And what I told the team, polls don't elect, people elect mayors, people do. We need to stay consistent. And that's what we did. And so I'm going to tell my story, and I'm going to let people see exactly what we have accomplished. And we're looking forward to that I'm.
- [30:55]
Stephen A. Smith
Not gonna tell you what we're gonna talk about next. I'm gonna surprise you. I'm gonna take a little break. But I promise you, where this discussion is going next is right in your wheelhouse and you'll enjoy it immensely.
- [31:16]
Unknown
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- [31:40]
Greg Rosenthal
Auto Parts what's up, everyone? It's Greg Rosenthal, and I'm teaming up with the King of Spring, Daniel Jeremiah. He requires me to say that we're going to be bringing you 40s and free agents, the only podcast you'll need this NFL draft season. From DJs mock drafts to my top 101 free agents will have it covered for you with all new episodes every Thursday keeping you up to date as we head to the NFL Draft. Listen to 40s and free agents starting on March 6th on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.