Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2: Farrick Adams, Mayor of New York City, Mayor, we have
Speaker 2: a ton to get through. Thank you so much for
Speaker 2: taking the time. You know you're quite busy. Want to
Speaker 2: start on the topic of immigration in particular, New York
Speaker 2: City is a sanctuary city. Does that get reversed anytime soon?
Speaker 2: So the NYPD can help deport immigrants and.
Speaker 3: It is so important that term has been thrown around
Speaker 3: without any real understanding and meaning of it.
Speaker 4: Of the Centuary, part of it is to stay too.
Speaker 3: Immigrants, undocumented and whomever that utilize our services. Have your
Speaker 3: children educated in schools, call law enforcement. If you're a
Speaker 3: victim of a crime, you have a right for medical care.
Speaker 3: That is what we believe in. And what the problem
Speaker 3: was is that this was in place since may Mayor
Speaker 3: Bloomberg of but the changes that were made under the
Speaker 3: previous administration that prevent a law enforcement and any city
Speaker 3: agency for collaborating with ICE for deportortation.
Speaker 4: Reason.
Speaker 3: I just don't believe that those who commit serious violent crimes,
Speaker 3: we should collaborate with ICE to make sure they are
Speaker 3: not on our streets committing threats and dangers to migrants
Speaker 3: assimum seekerts in everyday New Yorkers.
Speaker 2: Okay, so, Mayor, that's a yes to revamp the sanctuary
Speaker 2: laws if I'm hearing that correctly. Now, you met with
Speaker 2: Trump's Borders R last week. If I'm also remembering correctly,
Speaker 2: what have you both discussed? What is the roadmap going
Speaker 2: forward to collaboration.
Speaker 3: I've stated it from the beginning. I was talking about
Speaker 3: this even prior to the election. It's about public safety
Speaker 3: to me, and we're going to sit down with our
Speaker 3: team and his team and broke out the plan of
Speaker 3: dealing with those who are dangerous and should not be
Speaker 3: in our city or country.
Speaker 1: When we talk about though, the methods that will be used.
Speaker 1: There was a lot of hay, of course, made about
Speaker 1: your meeting last week with Tom Homan, the cooperation that
Speaker 1: you will have to have one way or another with
Speaker 1: the Trump administration. As you know, Mayor, a lot of
Speaker 1: the issues with the first Trump administration and the way
Speaker 1: that they dealt with undocumented immigrants wasn't so much the
Speaker 1: kicking them out, but it was a lot of the
Speaker 1: methods used to round them up. Here will you be
Speaker 1: cooperating on the roundup part of that?
Speaker 3: Well, I think that the borders are would articulate exactly
Speaker 3: what their methodologies are and how they're going to operationalize
Speaker 3: what they want to do in the city. We're clear,
Speaker 3: and I want to take all the anxiety away from
Speaker 3: our migrants, asylum seekers and undocumented individuals continue use the
Speaker 3: service that your tax dollarists are paying for. I am
Speaker 3: zeroing in on those who are committed repeated violent crimes.
Speaker 4: I say this over and over again.
Speaker 3: And let's be clear, the American public have communicate caterd
Speaker 3: loudly and clearly.
Speaker 4: We have to fix our border.
Speaker 3: We have to keep dangerous people out of the country,
Speaker 3: and that is why they voted for this president to
Speaker 3: do so.
Speaker 1: They certainly did, But according to a Siana poll, a
Speaker 1: lot of those people also voted not just to deal
Speaker 1: with the violent immigrant rents, but pretty much all and
Speaker 1: some of that has to do with the budget pressures
Speaker 1: on this city as a result of all those folks
Speaker 1: coming in, almost seven billion dollars spent just since mid
Speaker 1: twenty twenty two on shelters, tens of thousands and hundreds
Speaker 1: of thousands of migrants still in this city using city services.
Speaker 1: Can New York City afford that.
Speaker 3: No they cannot, like you indicated, six point five billion dollars.
Speaker 3: You know what I've could have done with two hundred
Speaker 3: million dollars of that, I could have gone after those
Speaker 3: chronically absent young people. Hundreds of millions of dollars we
Speaker 3: could put into our older adults. These were taxpayers dollars
Speaker 3: that were used for a national problem.
Speaker 4: The White House only gave us roughly a lootle over two.
Speaker 3: Hundred million dollars as six point five billion dollars. And
Speaker 3: we can't look at what's happening to Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles,
Speaker 3: all of these big cities that had to take on
Speaker 3: this crisis. It was wrong and we need to make
Speaker 3: sure that it doesn't continue to happen.
Speaker 1: Did you have to take in all those my grants,
Speaker 1: mister mayor there with a lot of questions, particularly on
Speaker 1: some of those migrants being either bussed here or shipped
Speaker 1: here rather than them coming here voluntarily. I mean, there
Speaker 1: were some mechanisms in place where you could have turned
Speaker 1: those folks around. Why didn't you?
Speaker 4: No?
Speaker 3: And I'm so glad you said that, because that was
Speaker 3: one of the most misunderstood. People would stop me every
Speaker 3: day on the streets and say, wait a minute, what
Speaker 3: are you doing to us, Eric. I had no authorization
Speaker 3: to stop the buses from coming in. That would violate
Speaker 3: federal law. I had no authorization not to give them
Speaker 3: a place to sleep three miles and the other amenities
Speaker 3: that's against local laws. And I had no authorization to
Speaker 3: allow them to work that would violate federal law. I
Speaker 3: couldn't even allow them to volunteer and give them a
Speaker 3: stifen to.
Speaker 4: Clean streets, remove graffiti, and other services.
Speaker 3: The federal government said, no, you cannot, Eric, So no,
Speaker 3: we did not have any of the choice.
Speaker 4: We were successful though.
Speaker 3: Out of those two years and twenty thousand, one hundred
Speaker 3: and seventy thousand, we were able to allow them to
Speaker 3: go on the next step of their journey. They're no
Speaker 3: longer in our care, they're no longer being paid for
Speaker 3: a tax is dollars because we took the right steps.
Speaker 2: So let me just clarify for a second. So, when
Speaker 2: we were talking about the New York City sanctuary laws,
Speaker 2: that would be for undocumented criminals, right, But then what
Speaker 2: about these people that we're talking about who are busted in,
Speaker 2: who are still on a New York City payroll. What
Speaker 2: happens to them.
Speaker 4: I didn't quite understand your question.
Speaker 3: You said the cent you ever law is for anyone
Speaker 3: that's in this city that's not documented, stating you have
Speaker 3: the right to use taxpayer services. When an undocumented person
Speaker 3: walks in the store and buy a loaf of bread,
Speaker 3: those taxes he's paying, if he's documented or not, So
Speaker 3: you should have the right to use the services that
Speaker 3: your tax dollars are paid for. What I am saying,
Speaker 3: those who are committing repeated violent acts of they should
Speaker 3: not be in our city to be released on our
Speaker 3: streets to continue to carry out those violent acts against
Speaker 3: long standing New Yorkers and migrants and asylum seekers.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I guess my question was a term was distinguishing that
Speaker 2: versus like the families that I see in the subway
Speaker 2: who are undocumented but clearly not a harmed to society.
Speaker 2: What are you going to do about them?
Speaker 4: We want to give them the services they need, but
Speaker 4: we can't.
Speaker 2: Afford it, right, But you just said we can't afford
Speaker 2: those things.
Speaker 3: No, we want to give them the services they lead
Speaker 3: and show them the next step on the American journey.
Speaker 3: Like other immigrants, immigrants have come to this city for
Speaker 3: hundreds and hundreds of years. I don't care if it's
Speaker 3: the early Irish that built our subway system, the early Italians,
Speaker 3: the early Caribbeans. Immigrants have always come to this city,
Speaker 3: but they found their way. And that's what we did
Speaker 3: to one hundred and seventy thousand microso into silence seekers.
Speaker 4: The city cannot pick up that tab.
Speaker 3: We need to put them on a pathway to find
Speaker 3: their way to pursue the American dream.
Speaker 1: All right, mister mayor, I do have to ask you
Speaker 1: about the federal investigations and the indictment against you. First
Speaker 1: and foremost, do you plan to follow through on running
Speaker 1: for re election?
Speaker 4: Yes, I am. I made that clear over and over again.
Speaker 3: People stated that, you know, Eric stepped down those small
Speaker 3: number of people.
Speaker 4: I stepped up.
Speaker 3: Look at the numbers, and we've accomplished in this city,
Speaker 3: particularly for someone like Bloomberg Station. We have more jobs
Speaker 3: in the city's history. We brought down crime of our
Speaker 3: office employees of back to work. We continue to break
Speaker 3: records after recus I could do my job.
Speaker 4: My legal team is going to handle the case.
Speaker 1: Well, okay, they'll handle the case. But is that not
Speaker 1: a distraction? And what if you lose the case.
Speaker 3: Look at the you said it's not a distractions. Look
Speaker 3: at the number people said it was going to be
Speaker 3: a distraction. I'm moving forward and I'm going to continue
Speaker 3: to deliver for the people of the City of New York.
Speaker 3: We just passed the most comprehensive housing reform in the
Speaker 3: history of the city. And I'm not going to speculate
Speaker 3: because I'm not going to lose because I did nothing wrong.
Speaker 3: I got a great legal team and they're going to
Speaker 3: handle the legal proceedings.
Speaker 1: What does the team around you, I'm not talking about
Speaker 1: your legal team. What does your administrative team look.
Speaker 4: Like right now?
Speaker 1: You've lost a lot of folks. You had another top advisor,
Speaker 1: Ingra Lewis Martin, resigned today, with her lawyers saying that
Speaker 1: they think that she will be indicted as well. You've
Speaker 1: had to dig deep into the bench to find a
Speaker 1: new police commissioner. I mean, who's left around you that
Speaker 1: is competent, that is capable, that can see out your
Speaker 1: vision if you are reelected.
Speaker 3: Well, let's first look at what we have done that
Speaker 3: shows our level of competency. As I indicated, from our
Speaker 3: employment to our housing success to bringing down crime.
Speaker 4: We didn't have to reach deep into our bench.
Speaker 3: We had a large number of people who wanted the
Speaker 3: covenant job of being the police commissioner, and I picked
Speaker 3: the right person based on all that we have.
Speaker 4: All of my deputy mayor is but one left.
Speaker 3: So when you talk about large number of people, we
Speaker 3: have over three hundred thousand city employees that are getting
Speaker 3: up every day doing their job. There's some sensationalism by
Speaker 3: those who decided that they wanted to move on with
Speaker 3: their lives. But when you look at my deputy mayor
Speaker 3: and williams Isisam's mayor, Josie, my chief of staff, they're
Speaker 3: still in place doing the job that we ask them
Speaker 3: to do. Difficult times come, but what could you do
Speaker 3: to overcome them and continue to move the city forward?
Speaker 4: And let's face it, we have been doing just that.
Speaker 2: We heard today from President like Donald Trump at a
Speaker 2: mar A Lago press conference that he would consider potentially
Speaker 2: giving you a pardon. Can you confirm that your lawyer
Speaker 2: has been in contact with the Trump administration on that.
Speaker 3: No, I cannot confirm that my lawyers handling the case.
Speaker 3: You know, the President also stated that he felt that
Speaker 3: was unfairly treated. President Biden stated that his Justice Department
Speaker 3: has been politicized. President Trump said that, I said that
Speaker 3: a large number of Americans who have been a victim
Speaker 3: of this politicized and of the Justice Department.
Speaker 4: We have adults in.
Speaker 3: This country that were placed on the FBI watch list
Speaker 3: because they were advocating for their children and families. So listening,
Speaker 3: I'm just reiterating what President Biden stated about his Justice Department.
Speaker 3: So my lawyers will look at every avenue to ensure
Speaker 3: that we get justice.
Speaker 4: I should not have been charged.
Speaker 3: I did nothing wrong, and I'm going to continue to
Speaker 3: lead the city.
Speaker 2: So just inferring here, if you are offered a pardon,
Speaker 2: you will take it.
Speaker 4: There's no I was very clear in my response to you.
Speaker 3: I have an attorney that's managing ensuring that I got
Speaker 3: the justice that I deserve, and he will handle that.
Speaker 3: And if you have any questions, you should give those
Speaker 3: questions to him.
Speaker 1: All right, mister Marra, one final question for you, and
Speaker 1: this is really just about the health of the city.
Speaker 1: Of course, we all remember just how hard the city
Speaker 1: was hit by the pandemic. Anyone walking around, particularly in Manhattan,
Speaker 1: you can see it's come back in a big way,
Speaker 1: but it's not quite there. We've been having a lot
Speaker 1: of conversations with economists, with business leaders, with Wall Street,
Speaker 1: with real estate developers, all saying that there still is
Speaker 1: a lot more work that needs to be done to
Speaker 1: get this in New York City economy back to where
Speaker 1: it was pre pandemic. What types of assurance is or
Speaker 1: promises can you give to some of those folks here
Speaker 1: that we are on that path.
Speaker 3: And that's a great question. You know, it's difficult for
Speaker 3: people to believe. We're probably just two years out of
Speaker 3: COVID where the city was shut down completely, two years
Speaker 3: more jobs in the city history.
Speaker 4: Those who determine.
Speaker 3: How well the city is being managed, we call them
Speaker 3: bond raiders. They raised my bond and then they double
Speaker 3: down on the fact that it should remain. Raise of
Speaker 3: You're seeing business leaders across this city talk about the
Speaker 3: relationship they have with city Hall and the collaboration we
Speaker 3: have together, and we're going to continue to do so.
Speaker 3: So within two years of coming over the city being
Speaker 3: shut down, we have returned to the greatness that we
Speaker 3: looked at. Fourth lodgers, tourism in the history of the city,
Speaker 3: continue decreasing crime. What our business leaders have told me, Eric,
Speaker 3: we need to have jobs up, crime down. That's what
Speaker 3: we've done. Case closed. We're moving in the right direction.
Speaker 1: All right, Eric, We have to leave it there. We're
Speaker 1: going to catch up with you next year and see
Speaker 1: if some of that still stands. Of course, Eric Adams,
Speaker 1: he is the mayor of the financial capital of the world,
Speaker 1: right here in New York City.