Higher Learning with Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay - Addressing the Corruption Allegations With Mayor Eric Adams. Plus, Is Dark Money Funding Democratic Influencers? | Higher Learning | The Ringer

Episode Date: August 29, 2025

Rachel and Van start the show off with some “quick hitters,” including the return of Cracker Barrel’s old logo and Taylor Swift’s engagement. Then, they react to the developing story of an alleged dark money group secretly funding high-profile Democratic influencers. Later, they are joined by NYC Mayor Eric Adams as he addresses corruption allegations, his non-relationship with Trump, and how he feels about his competition, Zohran Mamdani. 00:00 - Welcome! 1:32 - Cracker Barrel scrapped the new logo 07:37 - Taylor is finally engaged (to Travis Kelce) 24:15 - The Nina Turner response 25:19 - Dark money is allegedly secretly funding Democratic influencers 43:51 - The raw milk story and a quick vaccine debate 51:26 - A quick message from Van before the interview 52:42 - Mayor Eric Adams joins us! 1:25:19 - Thanks for watching! Hosts: Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay Guest: Mayor Eric Adams Producers: Donnie Beacham and Ashleigh Smith Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Yo, yo, yo, thought warriors. What is up? Higher learning is on is Ivan Lathan. And it's me and Rachel. Rachel's mad at me. I'm mad at you. You just had Eric Adams on. And you guys are going to love it.

You guys are loving this stuff. And you know what? Our audience will love Eric Adams being on the show because landlord. Landlord loves them. They'll love what Eric Adams says. We don't really get into all that just a little bit. Rachel feels like that.

Well, they'll listen. They'll see it. that it was too much Van versus Eric Adams. It's crazy. What did you think about the interview, though? What did you think about Eric as a candidate for a New York mayor? You can vote for him?

I mean, I don't have the ability to vote for him, but he definitely had an answer to every single question you ask. Which he loves it. He loved it. He was like, I love being questioned this way. He probably won't come back, but if he did, we'd have to get him for an hour. Yeah, we didn't have enough time.

We didn't have enough time. And I just tough. You know, you turned it. One point of you go, I'm sorry. But I did. I said, I'm sorry because. You turned out of one point of you go. I'm sorry.

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It's time for quick hitters. We got to get into Eric Adams. We don't have as much time. But Donnie, you picked the quick hitters and pick them at random. All right. Randomly. The first quick hitter. We hit on this a little bit earlier in the week.

Or was it last week? Cracker barrel. It said, never mind. days ago after announcing the redesign and following the widespread backlash, they released this statement. We thank our guests for sharing your voices and love for Cracker Barrow. We said we would listen and we have. Our new logo is going away. Our old timer will remain.

Gray. I have nothing. I mean, let me just ask you, before they went back, did you know they were going to go back? Once the backlash happened, you know, we saw the woman come. on. She was so excited. She said, everybody loves the new logo. Everybody's so excited about it. They changed the

store. They changed the logo. And then eight days later, they say, thanks, we heard you. We're going back. Who do you think they got the biggest pressure from? The Trump administration? It's Trump. Donnie, put a picture of the Cracker Barrel

CEO right here. Put the picture right here. This is from Central casting, the woman that has been disappointing us for the last four to 10 years. This is a picture of the 53% the woman that's been disappointed, disappointing us. I have a thought.

This entire thing was a publicity stunt. This whole thing was a publicity stunt. Okay. Before you go into that, did they do any, they showed what the new Cracker Barrel would look like. Did they put any money into an actual store and redesign it? Even if they did. Then I would push back against them.

Even if they did, even if they did, this entire thing was a publicity stunt. Cracker Barrel was mainstreamed in a way that it has not been mainstreamed before. This whole thing was a publicity stunt. This is why we got to make sure that when we go into the woke wars, we're picking the right battles. Because this was a brand that people in the South had understood that people from certain points of the, at certain points in the country had understood, but no one else gave a fuck about what Cracker Barrow had going on. And this entire thing was a way to take Cracker Barrow,

put it all the way up to the top of people's minds, get the president to weigh in, get the right to weigh in, and then reinvigorate Cracker Barrel as a brand. I am 100% convinced that this lady right here, the CEO of Cracker Barrel, had a nefarious master plan

to get billions of dollars worth of free advertising and essentially do a commercial for Cracker Barrow that reached from C to Shining C and if it ever got hot, they knew that they would resort back to the old stuff

and do the whole thing. They got the best thing that they could get, which is free advertising for a middling brand. I wonder how much that trance. Well, see, they have such a loyal base. So I wonder how much that translates to actual dollars is my thing.

Because for me, we sat on here, we talked about it. I was like, I'm still going to go to Cracker Barrel if I ever get a chance to be around one because I like the food there. I like it. I wonder if this is a situation where the minority is just louder, and this really doesn't even translate at all. Okay, so Cracker Barrel's top of mind. You were upset.

Now you're happy that things have gone back. Is that really going to bring money about? I don't know. I'm not disagreeing with you. I could absolutely see. I could absolutely see that. And you're probably right. I don't know if this is really going to translate to anything.

I think the people who always went to Cracker Barrel are going to go to Cracker Barrel. I don't think they got any new customers just attention. Doesn't matter. It does if it doesn't translate to money. No, it doesn't. You make a commercial for something as an advertising to get people to come somewhere. You don't know. There are metrics and stuff.

You don't know whether or not the commercial is going to work. You don't know whether or not the commercial is going to have an effect on people. You don't know if anything is going to have an effect on people. The only thing that you can do is do the thing and hope that the awareness translates to business. You have no clue how it's going to work. If people only made commercials that were super impactful, the way that they made them would be different. But what you do know is that getting people talking about your, brand is the only thing that you can control.

The only thing that you can control is if people know what it is you doing. Do you know how many times I hit people up? I don't know what's going on. I don't know what we're doing wrong. Do you how many times people see me? And they go, hey, man, like, what are you up to now? What are you doing? And I'm like, what?

And they're like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. We love you. We fuck with you and all that stuff. I see you on hip-hop homicides. I see you on CNN sometimes. But what's the normal thing? and that's because what I should do is get on the podcast and show my dick. Please.

If I was to show my dick on the podcast right now, then people would be like, oh, Van, hire learning and he showed his dick. Or if I threw up or if I did something crazy. You got it wrong. Do not go into advertising. What I'm saying is, that would be marketing that we could use. That would actually work against us. People would be talking about us and that's what we would be known for.

They would say, remember, oh my God. If I show up that dick. I'm saying that people, there's all kinds of things that people would be, they would be like, oh, it's Vans. Look at the, you know. Oh, my God. Donnie, give us the next one. See?

Yeah, let's talk about. Whenever we start dipping into the HR, we got, Donnie, that is your cute. There should be no HR. This is podcasting. That should be, we don't. We don't think we have it. Clearly we don't. Donnie, that is your clue to just jump in.

Save him from himself. Just real quick, just talk about it in the comments. If I was to show my dick. Yeah, Taylor Swift and Travis Kelsey announced that they are engaged. It's official. They've released this five photo joint post on Instagram with the caption. Your English teacher and your gym teacher are getting married. That's all anybody's talking about.

That's what their caption said? Yeah, that is. I don't understand. I don't get that. She does words and he does like physical stuff. That's their, that is. So, okay, the engagement is great. Good for them. Happy for them. Love to see people find each other and find love. I wish you had left out the caption. It's whack. What the fuck? I can't get past it. It takes away from everything. That is so lame. Not them getting engaged, but this, it's corny. It's corny. I'm sure this will be some lyric. or maybe it is a lyric in her next album that she announced.

I don't know. This is what I fear about this. Again, I love seeing people find each other and, you know, building a life of happiness. I wish them well. I just don't want to see it. And I'm so bracing myself for what is to come and to come and to come. Oh, my God.

Dad, Dad, Dad, Daddy. I heard it. Three times. I heard it. Oh, my God, Donnie. I heard it. Don't you, come on, man. Don't you dare give me.

Hold on, hold on. Y'all, come on, man. Like, y'all, y'all going to get on me. I know the dick thing was a big much. But y'all, Rachel just went to come and to come and to come. I'm like, God, damn, what the fuck is happening? Like, yeah, I know I know I'm immature, y'all, but come on. Y'all all saw that.

I hate that the action went with it. But I don't, but I'm, don't do it to me. Don't do it to me. Don't do it. Yeah. Come on. man. It was too much.

I'm supposed to, okay. That was a lot, Ray. As soon as I said the third one I said, I saw, I was like, damn. Because I knew I knew I was going like this and I was like, oh, no. But I'm upset. I'm frustrated because I know what's about to happen. There's the word I use. What's about to happen?

We have been inundated with so much content when it comes to them just when they started dating and then they're off season, on season. football, concerts, music, all of it. Now they're engaged. We're going to be subjected to every single detail of this engagement leading up to the wedding, preparing for it. Then they're going to get married. We're going to have to deal with that.

We're going to have to deal with children, them growing a family. And I just ask, what I ask of them is to be as private as you possibly can. I would imagine that you two, I would imagine that you two are probably very annoyed with all of the media attention. You can't do anything without cameras and write-ups and podcasts, all of it. I beg of you. Please be private. All right. I have one thing to say as well. This is my only request. I have a request and an observation. First of all, I don't know why Taylor Swift being happy makes me happy. I don't know why I like Taylor Swift. I like Swift. Because we've seen her do go through so much heartache with albums and songs. I like Taylor Swift.

So it's nice to see her in a happier air. So I fuck with the music because the music is, she got some songs that are like, that style song makes me so happy. I like that record, right? But I fuck with Taylor Swift overall. You know, Taylor, she, she kind of undercover gangster in a way. That's a reach. Maybe. But like, at a time when a lot, lot of people were playing it safe in terms of politics and all of that. Taylor kind of took a stand a little bit and was like, this is what I'm about. And I kind of respected that a little from her a little bit. I kind of respected that.

I did too. I wore a T-shirt. My only hope is that they, just no plantations, don't try to do it. And just don't go to South Carolina and get married at some plantation. Okay, just don't do it. No Nashville plantations, no anywhere. Don't get married at no plantation. because that's the next thing, the big fucking controversy.

They got married at Nottoway. The ashes is a not away plantation or anything like that. Just don't do that. Everything else will be, I know that it's not going to, there's no chance that this is going to be private. So I know that it's going to be public. So don't get married at any plantations and stuff like that. Just spare us, please. We can't handle the cultural war right now.

It would rip the fabric of America and too. Travis Kelsey did something very important. He just got to the top of the pyramid. What pyramid? The white vacationer's pyramid. There's a great. group of people, white people, who vacationed as Negroes for a time, until they went back white.

And when they went back white, they got untold riches in doing this. This is the pyramid. Yeah, who else is on it? So at the bottom is Post Malone. Post Malone who came up, it's my guy, this white eyes. a son. And then a couple of years later, Post Malone was like,

rap is not real music. I was like, God damn! That's a white pyramid shift. Post Malone came along, it's my man, it's uncle, it's your kid, it's your nigga, I'm your nigga, and they want to fun. And then all of a sudden, rap wasn't real music. Very,

very, very, very powerful white vacationer by Post Malone. Went alternative, did the whole thing is cool. Miley Cyrus One of the best White, black, white again Okay

Molly Cyrus Went from Nickelodeon or Disney or whatever it was It was Disney she went from Disney Then all of a sudden Molly Cyrus was throwing ass And being down with Mike Will made it She had the Jordan

She was she was She vacationed with the niggas She had a villa with the niggas. She had a villa with the niggas. in Turks, no, in Toulon. She was a top flight black culture vacationer. Okay. Loved it.

One day, all done. That music really doesn't have very much value. Miley, what? You got your little edge from us. We gave you the edge. No, Miley's thing felt like a crisis. Yeah, she, oh, oh. Hers never, it wasn't the same.

It's like, with Post, he came out that way. So we were like, oh, okay, this is what he's about. She went to the thing. We're going to get to a couple of more. Justin Bieber. Big time. Now, Justin Bieber has basically almost come back with the last album where he all of a sudden doing R&B again. They're saying he's ambiguous now.

Yeah, he's kind of, he biracial. They're saying that he's reached a point where he can be anything. So why that's a biracial. He might be at the top of the pyramid with that. The top of the pyramid was, it's easy. It's easy to figure out. But now it's turned to have his counsel, but it's easy to figure out. But Justin Bieber came along.

It's a lonely girl, lonely girl. The next thing was like, my nigga, my nigga, my nigga. And then he took it further because he actually started getting in trouble. Like Rick Ross and the rest of these guys giving Justin Bieber lean. And then Justin Bieber actually fucking the whole lean situation up. Because because he made lean into what it is, they then took the activist off the shelves. And you had a whole bunch of black lean heads that I know. from see the shining sea going now.

How the fuck we let Justin Bieber sit lean with us? Oh my God. The lean was everywhere. Justin Bieber became, he was, Justin Bieber was terrorizing, what's my man? Number one pick from USC, wide receiver.

Love this guy. You know who I'm talking about. Oh my gosh. Cordell Stewart, not Cordell Stewart. Kishon Johnson. Kishon Johnson. Shout out to Cordell Stewart. I don't know we were going that far back.

Justin, he was in the fucking neighbor. neighborhood terrorizing Kishon Johnson, like not directly Kishon Johnson, but driving around, fucking up the neighborhood, the whole nine, getting arrested. So he was rolling around with the cup. Rolling around with the cup. He was rolling around with young money doing the whole thing, Justin Bieber. But that's not who Travis Kelsey overtook. The number one white vacationer of all time before Travis Kelsey just got to the top.

It's Patty Hurts. You guys have never heard the story of Patty Hurst. They've heard the story of Patty Hurst. Patty Hurst, heirs. Thinking like a musician. No. Patty Hurst, heirs to the William Randolph Hurst fortune. Okay.

Joins a black liberation group. Yeah. Yes. Yes. Yes. Donnie. It's a great pull. Joins a black liberation group and is living with them, having sex with them,

robbing banks with them. This picture of Patty Hurst, Buret, fucking machine gun. Like she, at the bank doing the thing. Has her whole little deal, freaks out, has the deal with the Black Liberation Group. Well, Donnie, look at it up, what was the

Syrianese, Symbionese, Liberation. Liberation Group. Has the whole thing, and then says I was brainwashed by these niggas. All these niggas go to jail. Right? And then Patty says,

Patty says, I was brainwashed by these niggas. These niggas took me and I was captive by them and I was brainwashed. I didn't really want to do that shit. I don't know what you guys are talking about. I was brainwashed. And then she goes on being Patty Hurst. They, what happens to them is the same thing that happens to black liberation groups. Okay.

She was number one. But Travis Kelsey is over her. Travis Kelsey is over her because. he was, he once again came out, he was black. He was, he had the whole thing. Travis Kelsey had the haircut. He had the swag. He had different black ladies.

You know, and he was a part of the chain. He kind of had a little bit of a black scent too at one time. Had a, didn't have a little bit of a black scent. He had the full fucking black scent. The whole nine, he saw Taylor Swift and went white again. right away. It was like he saw her and she imbued the white back into him

and guess what? It worked because he didn't come up. He's about to have come up more than Patty, Miley, Post Malone, Justin Bieber combined. He got Taylor fucking Swift. And by the way, I'm happy for him. I'm happy for her. I'm happy for him. The rest of these people,

they pissed me off when they did it. And this is another reason why Travis won. The rest of these people, they pissed me off when they did it. They pissed me off. Patty Hurst, obviously, you know what I mean? Miley Cyrus, shit it on rap. Post Malone, shit it on rap. Justin Bieber kind of did and pissed me off because he kind of, whatever. But Travis Kelsey did it, and I'm happy for.

And committed. He committed for it. So you don't think he shit on anybody on his way to vacation? Can't say that. There were casualties. Leave that there. so it's not all good however

I think you could argue that those casualties are par for the course in relationship building or relationship exiting and more matters of the heart than they are actually shitting on a whole culture

which is what some of these other people did when their vacations with black culture were over they shitted on everyone they were like fuck rap it sucks I can make an argument that there was a short vacationer Tommy Richmond the fucking million dollar baby guy? He had to go back. There are other people.

There are definitely other people. Pink. Pink. Not to my knowledge she shit on them. I think she had a bad relationship with with the label and L.A. Reed, but pink. So this is my only thing about pink though. I do shoot pink a little bell because I don't think pink wanted to be that. Okay. Okay. That's fair. So pink. But she did it. You'll be a pop star. All you have. to change.

So I don't think she did it. She definitely did it. But I don't know that pink ever. People thought she was black. People thought pink was black. All right. So I'm saying it's like, Travis Kelsey now there was a clear, and now Travis Kelsey is at the top of it.

I totally agree with you. There's some, keep the pyramid as a thing. Because as, as time goes on, there will be other people we have to put in it. I'd say somebody who's about to jump in that pyramid, Jack Carlo. They're going to be more people. Now, I don't think Travis is going to be dethroned,

but there will be other spots for more people on this pyramid. Can I say something about Jack Harlow, though? Mm-hmm. I feel like Jack Harlow is a little different. Go ahead. So Eminem's not in the pyramid. Do you know why? He's been the same.

Eminem's authentic. And Eminem, for whatever you would say about Eminem, and there's some stuff in his history, you know, whatever it is. Yes, yes, yes, yes. We've heard the records. But Eminem has kind of stayed consistent. Jack Harlow kind of has people behind him that I trust a little bit. That's all I'm going to say.

Okay. Well, you know. But I can see you saying it. When he did the vanilla baby, people were kind of like, then there was the clip of him, Donnie put it in, where he was with the orchestra singing Elvis. And people were like, it's happening. Maybe.

I can't help all in love. It's happening. If Jack, Charles does. Elvis, Elvis. Elvis is one too. If Jack Harlow does, we got to put a

moratorium. We got to start laying them to rest. Yeah, because what we've never done, what we've never done as a culture has been like, you know what? For 18 months, no white people in the culture, man. Just so we can vet it.

Just a moratorium on it so we can like kind of look at the bona fides. We've never done that. And if Jack Harlow comes, out one day and Jack Harlow is like, you know, he got tattoos all over himself and he starts, you know, doing alternative music and he goes like, fuck, rap, rap is stupid. It's a stupid genre. It's a stupid art. Whatever. Then we might have to go, okay, for a second, we got to get back to the fucking roots of this shit. We got to kind of whatever. Because once again, it's not the

cultural participation. That's the problem. The problem is when you exit and just leave it and it was just a phase. That kind of. Chaps people's hide sometimes. But Travis Kelsey, number one, he's number one, because nobody else got to the levels in this that he was able to get to. And it's going to keep going. Going to keep going. Did you know about one in three people with plaques psoriasis may also develop

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Glazer the week is, it'll be back Monday. We just haven't had time for Glazer the week, and it's a shame. We got a lot going on. We brought you all some good stuff. Well. It might have upset some of you, but we brought some good stuff. Are you talking about Nina Turner? Yeah, I've only been able to see the, because I haven't been on the Reddit,

in forever. And it's just... No, the way people were blowing me up about it. Well, they were pissed. They were like, who is this? They don't like them. I enjoyed our conversation.

I'm not saying I agree. I just enjoyed the back of it. Now, we had a conversation also with Rokana. Yes. That will be Monday, though. So the Rokana conversation will be Monday.

Eric Adams is on the show today to continue the run of guests that you guys just love, people that you guys really admire that we want to bring to you here in higher learning. And just so you know, know, as we said at the top of the show, we had a limited amount of time with him to be fair,

because I don't want people to be like, I mean, yeah, I was annoyed I didn't get a lot in, but I also, I understood why you had to press and I don't want people to be like, you know, Rachel doesn't say anything. We had a very limited amount of time and there was so much to cover. I do want to cover one topic, though, in lieu of glazer the week. I want to know what you think about this. Donnie, get us into this, because I want to know what Rachel thinks about this. I want to know what people think about this.

According to journalist Taylor Lorenz, an initiative by KORIS, the nonprofit arm of a liberal influencer marketing platform, they're offering influencers up to $8,000 a month to push a certain party line. This is pretty, like, new. Let's dig into this a little bit. It's funny, when I see Taylor Lorenz, I think about Tray Lorenz. Remember him? No, who's that? Man, Tray Lorenz, to me, the guy bought a lot of stock in back in the day's R&BC. singer he was with Mariah Carey.

He could really sing. Remember Trey Lorenz? Oh, he sang on I'll be there. He was the back, he was the one who had the back and forth. Yeah, he would have the back and forth. And I'll use, like, wow, I never knew his name. Eventually, eventually, it's like the guy who sang backup

for Alicia Keys. Oh, on, on I, yeah, I see, great. Where's here? Everyone was like, I'll sing her. He was the first winner of the voice. the first season of the voice he won. I want to say his name. What's his name? And I haven't seen him since. Your secret is safe with me.

It's safe. I like, I fuck with him. I used to like, what? Okay, wait, maybe that wasn't him. See what I'm saying? Is that him? Who cares about the backup singers? If you're a backup singer,

how are I learning is your podcast. Okay. We're kind of like backup singers. Now, Rachel, essentially this story is can be boiled down to the fact that the headline was there dark money groups that are funding

leftist podcasts and leftist content creators giving them like eight grand or whatever it is and stuff like that or whatever and some people that we know I'm not going to name any names just because read the article okay no I mean tell people read the article well yeah you read the article I'm not going to name any names because it seems like petty to name names but I guess

That's the overall gist or question that comes from this article is. Do you think that there should be moneyed interests in opinion creating in cultural and political spaces? No, no, no, no, no, no. By the way, his name is Jermaine Paul and he won season two. Season two, the voice. You know what you were talking about. Shout out to Jermaine Paul. You got to, you did sing because, you know, I know why you was out singing it because it was a fool.

You're a fool. Do I agree with this? No. I feel like we kind of talked about this at one point last year when we were talking about Biden and Kamala Harris in their campaign. Because I remember saying maybe it was the time that I went to Washington, D.C. to have a dinner with the vice president. We were kind of talking about that. And you were saying you would never take pictures with politicians and stuff like that or presidents. I, when Biden was running, I was offered money.

I was offered money the first time. The first time he ran in like in 2020, I was offered money. And I was the second time. And I needed it because I was going through the divorce. And I still was like, no, because there is something. I don't feel like I could sit in this seat and be on this podcast and hold this mic and do what I do. And genuinely talk about what I believe and why I believe it. while also getting money in my pockets from a political party.

Like, throw the whole podcast away is my opinion. Now we should say something. Go ahead. There are differences in these two scenarios. Go ahead. When I was offered money, the money was coming directly from the campaign. That is different to me than having a group, give money a group with a certain ethos, give money to content creators.

Mine was not from the campaign. Now, it could have been a group. The way it felt like it, it was a group that was working on behalf of the campaign. Let me make sure that I'm clear about this too. It was not the campaign. It was a group that they, you know, hire to seek out whether it's, you know, to get people to campaign, to get people. So it was a third party group, but they were affiliated with the campaign. Let me clarify, because that's the same situation.

This was not directly the campaign, like somebody from the campaign because you can't even I'm not sure if you can even do that. So I don't see the difference between this and that. But this was somebody that was working on behalf of the campaign to get me and other people like me to message very specific things to represent a group of people that they feel like they didn't have a lot of traction with, which is black men. So, and by the way, there was a meeting about this that I attended. But when I attended that meeting, I thought that that meeting was about how we message to people. Sure. I did not want to be paid for that messaging.

Yeah. Right. I cannot be paid for that message. So I think those are the same things. So it wasn't the campaign for me. Right. So I don't want to say it was directly the campaign. I'm saying that there were people that were going, hey,

if we're having a conversation about, if we're huddling together as brothers as black men, and we're having a conversation about how do we reach black men about what we feel like is in the best interest in them and the best interests of their communities, I'm there to have that conversation because the conversation could be a conversation on a spectrum where everybody has. different takes. I'm not about to get paid to give messaging for a political.

Exactly. But this is not, it doesn't seem like it's exactly that. Donnie, maybe I'm wrong. It seems like what this is, is a group that is paying people that they agree with. Now, we should say. No, because they control some of their message. They have to get approval on some of their messaging or some of their interviews or activities. It's important that you said that. And I'll tell you why. I read this article. There are people that were involved in this that are saying that's not true. that are saying that they directly. According to reporting, she said she saw a contract. Okay.

If that is true, if they're being paid to control the messaging or control what it is, you say, then that's always a no go for me. But there are people that have been involved in this that have come out and said that this reporting isn't true. And they've given examples of things that they've said and guests that they've had and things that they've done that are directly. contradictory to what's in the article. So question then, why pay them?

If you're not, if you don't have any kind of say in their messaging, why pay them? Okay. I'm glad that you said this. And this is kind of the pain point here. You pay them so that they'll keep doing what it is they're doing. And I... It's a form of control. Well, it depends on how you look at it, right?

So turning point USA is a massive, massive organization, right? And Turning Point USA is funded by directly funded by all kinds of different billionaires. Part of the reason why the right ecosystem is as successful as what it is is because of the money that is behind it. the money that is behind that are essentially people who have a say in these organizations do not get me wrong, right? They have a say in these organizations, but say, hey, Charlie Kirk is a young right firebrand that we know needs access and money and then can influence young people on the right. We need to make sure that Charlie Kirk is resourced. We don't want Charlie Kirk to have to stop doing what he's doing and go get a, job because we realize that in order to advance our cause, Charlie Kirk needs resources.

He needs to be able to do this full-time turning point. He needs to be able to do college tours. They need to be able to go to Florida State and Arizona State and doing all of that. And his success is better for us because our messaging is getting out there. What I wonder is whether or not it's untoward that that would exist on the right, on the left, whether or not it's untoward that somebody would say, you know what, we like what this person is doing. We like what this person is doing.

We like what this person is doing. Let's invest in them. Let's give them resources. Let's make sure that this voice or this person isn't doing this today. And maybe it's not catching fire on the internet like it should be. And then like two weeks a month from now, they're not doing it anymore. If there's any type of level of control over what that person is saying, then obviously we're not going to be with it.

People might be asking, man, why didn't you? Why didn't you? Would you do it? The answer is no. Why? Okay. There's a, hey, hey. Why?

There's a scene in the wire. I'm sure you've watched the wire. I've seen the wire. There's a scene in the wire. Marlowe Stanfield walks across the street. Or actually, he's watching from across the street. As Chris Partlow. Fucking angel of death, Chris Partlow.

It's just giving kids money. for their school supplies. He had not a $100 bills, right? And he comes to Michael, played by my man, Mac Wilds. Mac Wilde's putting together a great career. I want to say something right now, man. I know I get on these long runs.

And shout out to Mac Wiles, who is a fantastic singer, a fantastic actor, and also like a great family man. Oh, Mac, you haven't heard the music? No, no, sorry. I'm stuck on Marlowe. I thought Marlowe died before season four.

No, no, no, no. The season four is... Season four is with the kids. I know. So during season nine, Marlowe, Marl never died. Marlowe said to him? Then he got out. Okay, okay, okay, okay.

He didn't actually go to jail. Like, Marlowe went to jail, but remember Marlowe got out. Marl actually survived the game. Then at the end, he kind of is at the end, taken over corners by himself. Marlowe is a, he's a fiend for the game. Also, shout out to Jamie Hector. Shout out to these people that I know. Jamie, I'm still.

working on that script. But he goes over to Mike and he says to and they're handing out money and he gives Chris goes to gives Mike some money. And Mike says, nah. Nah. And, you know, Marlowe checks Mike over it and he sees that there's a little something with Mike

the way Mike looks at Marlowe and see. And Mike says something that is key to me. Mike says they ask him why he can't take the money. Mike goes, I don't like Owen niggas. I don't like Owen niggas. Well, what does that mean? But that's me. I don't like owning niggas, especially when it comes to something as,

when it comes to something as essential to me as the conversations that we're having here. And that doesn't mean that sometimes I don't get captured by my friendships. Sometimes I don't get captured by my associations. We've talked about it here before. If you know someone, a lot of times you have a different frame of reference from where they're coming from. You know them a little bit differently than the rhetoric of the way people might orient themselves to what it is that they say publicly. So I'm a person, I'm a human.

But as far as having an organization to pay me, that's not something that I would do. But I don't know that it's entirely wrong. Like, investing into the ecosystem of left-leaning content creators, I think probably is a good thing. But if they're already doing it, right? I feel like it taints the message.

Yeah. If I, there's a reason, that they don't want their names affiliated with it. There's a reason that, you know, like the companies like you signed and you're in secrecy, the people who are funding it because of the public perception of it. And I think the public perception of it is valid. If I know that you are being financed now for your messaging, then how do I know that your messaging is legit? Because the way I read the article, and I could be wrong, is that if you're not, you can't change it.

So let's just say you disagree with something. with the messaging. Can you then disagree with it? The way I read the article, you are not allowed to do that. That's what the article is saying. And that is a problem to me. So it takes away your,

they're vacationing. Oh, damn. Like when I bring it back to what you said? I love you. They vacation. Okay. So,

and we should say that this also comes on the hills of there being, uh, reporting, I think last year or early last year, about the Russians, allegedly being involved in, a lot of right-leaning content creators

through a Shell Corporation is essentially what the story was this is there were a right-leaning content creators that were getting paid from Russian assets and there was a middle man or middle woman to these payments

and you know they had alleged that guys like Tim Poole and Benny Johnson and I think Dave Rubin that they were receiving money whether they knew it or not from Russian interests to promote propaganda

that was super right-leaning and I mean some of the money involved in that was fucking astronomical. Now some of the people involved in that said, hey, we didn't know that this was coming from this. Other people goes like, how are we supposed to know? We're getting paid from this person

that had some sort of reputation on the right. Then there was talks about, well, how to fuck you're going to know that this money isn't coming from a nefarious place when it was so much money that some of this was hundreds of thousands of dollars since people were getting paid. This doesn't seem to be that much money,

but it's like $8,000. It's like not nothing, right? So I guess the difference is in... And it varies, as we should say. $8,000 is the most that was... $8.000 is the most, yeah, you should say. I guess a difference in form and function. I'm okay with organizations investing into media,

into left-leaning media. I'm okay with people having resources to be able to grow their platforms and I'm okay with that investment. I think I'm more okay with the investment if it's a business arrangement and not a rhetorical arrangement. If you're investing into someone, you know, but if it's a rhetorical arrangement, if there's anything that you can't do or can't say or anything that you're supposed to say, obviously I think that that's probably something that's fucked up.

Although I did see that right away the reaction on the left about this was that it was wrong. like right away before even like actually litigating it. Well then we need to follow the story because the way I'm reading this right now, it's in direct contrast to the things that we've been talking about. We want independent thinking. We want free thinking. Who which is this fund that's allegedly behind this. What are their beliefs?

Are they a part of the establishment? Are they a part of people who are actually trying to change some things and do some of this independent thinking that we're talking about? We don't know. We don't know if, if with everything they're saying in this story is true. And it is rhetorical. Well, I know some of the people that are on the list.

Okay. And they've told you that that's not the case. No, no, no, no, no. I haven't talked to them about this. But some of the people that are on this list, some names I was surprised that. Some of the people that are on this list are people that I follow and watch and I greatly enjoy their content.

Now, if I start to hear that there are certain things that these people are not allowed to talk about, like you, like, was alleged in the article, we should say, or that they are moderate on certain issues and these issues are harmful to people. Like, for example, I would wonder what the line on Israel would be in something like this or what the line on healthcare for all would be. If there are certain things like that, then obviously you have a problem.

Yeah. But there does need to be money that not for us necessarily. I mean, we have corporate overlords. Sure, sure, sure. But there does need to be money that is invested, particularly into independent content creators on the left. I guess the question is how you do it, but I do think that there needs to be money

invested into that. So when I saw it, I was trying to get all the information about it. I think the best thing would be to have somebody on to maybe... For sure. Last thing I'll say about this, do you think that there's a difference? Because when you talk about you think there should be money that's invested, and I get the difference between rhetorical

versus business. Would it change your mind if the money was going to a business, like a media company versus an individual. Well, an individual is a media company to me. Okay. Because a lot of these people are independent media. And independent media to me is just such an important.

Now, independent media needs investment. You need investment because a lot of times you can't develop what you're doing at scale without somebody putting a little money into it. What you do, what you need is different types of investment, investment that understands that the autonomy and independence of the thought that you're putting out there is why people are fucking with you. They're fucking with you because you're not in the shiny studio with a suit on trying to wedge societal change in between commercial breaks.

That's the reason why they're fucking with you. So because that's the thing, then the most important thing is that you can say what it is that you want to say. And if people want to invest in what it is that you say and what it is that you do, there's nothing wrong with that. But if this is, like you said, like you're kind of getting just another means of corporate control or money to control over opinions or manufacturing consent, then obviously is fucked up. I just don't want to throw the baby out with the bathwater.

Like right away, I don't know any of these people that are on the list. I've met a few of them. But most of them, I look at them as pretty valuable content creators. It's like I get information from some of them. So I don't know. I think that, I don't know. I don't know. Okay. Well, we'll follow the story.

And by the way, we just put this story in because it just broke. I do want to say one thing before we move on to Eric Adams. We've got to move on to Eric Adams. I saw a story, and you about to be mad at me. I saw a story about this woman that she was feeding herself raw milk. You see this? And what happened to her? She got fucked up.

She got fucked up. She got fucked up because she says that raw milk sickened her and her toddler. Okay. She was doing the raw milk and it made her sick and it made the toddler sick because it stopped up their shit. Okay. If you guys don't know, you know, raw milk is. part of the alternative health craze that people are doing stuff like this. And raw milk, no vaccines, all of that stuff.

Raw milk is unpasturized, right? It's unpasturized milk. Yeah, my ex used to drink it. Who? Who at, who at L. Oh, my God, nigger. Rachel, you can't be leaving shit out. Well, we just started talking about this subject.

I know, but you got to let me, you know what the fuck, Rachel? Come on, man. I can't be playing basketball with raw milk niggins. Thankfully you only did it once. I know, but like now it makes sense about why the game didn't go like I thought it was going to go because he was fueled by raw milk. It's like I have no problem with people doing to do whatever you want to do, right? But I do have a thought about this. You know, they're taking away Medicaid and that's affecting rural hospitals and clinics.

I think that if you not getting the proper medical. stuff. And if you're not following established science, then we should be able to tell you that you can't turn to the science when you get fucked up. I'm sorry. I wish health and prosperity on everybody's body and minds. But if we tell you that we got 150, 200, 300 years of evidence,

that you should pasteurize the milk before you drink it and feed it to your kids. And you say no, man, it's kind of getting how you live in these modern day times. You know what I'm saying? Like right now. Haven't there been things where people have not been able to trust that like whether it was from an administration like the FDA and they had ulterior motives. So there's this pushback of, and I'm not one of these people. I do what they tell me to do.

I'm not one of those people who veer. So I want people to understand. understand something. And I think this is one thing that that COVID fucked up. There's a difference between the government and science. A lot of people say that science feeds the government. The government feeds science and there is capture between the two. Sometimes there is. When you get into governmental organizations, sometimes there are politics involved. We're seeing that right now. However, if you want to, to find scientific consensus on something you can find it without there being any governmental involvement at all. Doctors have organizations, doctors have medical papers, doctors have guidelines that are based upon them communicating with other doctors and not communicating with governmental organizations or entities.

They can just come together as doctors and go, hey, this is what we, you know, we need. found out. We published this medical paper on this. We've published this on this. This is what we find out. We found this out and this deal, right? This is kind of a climate change thing to where it's like there's consensus amongst the climate community or climate sciences that

climate change is real. However, the politics of climate change, as articulated by particularly voices on the far right, make us hesitant and accepting the truth in certain places. This is what I'm saying. We have a measles vaccine. vaccine. The measles vaccine works.

Okay? We've been doing the measles vaccine for a long time. The measles vaccine works. If you get the measles, you should fucking have to itch. What if a child, a child can't control his parent, not vaccinating him. Not child. Okay. The child can't control it. But if you're an adult over 18, right? Because measles, it doesn't last forever. You're putting you. yourself in measlesville or any of these other things. You should have to itch for a little while. I'm just saying you should have to fucking itch, man.

You should have to fucking itch. I looked at the raw milk ladies fucking thing and, you know, and honestly, she had some real serious things that happened to her body. Like she said that the raw milk hurt her toddler and it led to her miscarrying. That's fucked up. That's super fucked up. But what I am saying is also there needs to be some sort of consequence for this rejection of modern science that's happening in the world that we live in that is then having an effect on people in society. Disease is coming back.

Fucking eradicated disease is coming back. People there are not, there needs to be some kind of consequence for this. This is what I think it should be. You get one time. So you're going one time. one time. So this lady, she tried, you're, you're entitled to think freely. You're entitled to reject the system, whatever. You can do that. So she drinks, reject science, drinks the raw milk, gets sick. They fix you. You get healed. Next time, you're on your own. That should be the rule.

Okay. Okay. I'm with, I can get down with that. You want to keep, you want to keep fucking around? Because it's like, it's like, we're creating, you guys, I'm not trying to be draconian about this. or not have a heart. But some of this stuff is so fucking stupid. Like, part of the vaccine debate, I understand people talking about their bodies. I understand the skepticism in the black community and trusting the government with their bodies.

I get all of that stuff, right? But we're also talking about vaccines that have been shown to be safe and effective for a very long time. It's triggering. Like, safe and effective for a very long time. Like, eliminate. smallpox.

You guys, God damn it, man. Ask these questions when you're with somebody because you never know. This nigga was a non-smobile. This nigga, you was married to a smallpox,

nigger? I, obviously, I started finding stuff out after marriage, but like, I was like, what is this? What is this? These are, I never thought to ask,

would you vaccinate the children? These were points of contention. I was like, what the fuck is going on? I got a question for you. I got a question. You tried the raw milk. milk, didn't you?

No, I don't even like, I don't like milk. You tried the raw milk. Well, who we talked about him or the actual milk? Oh, Jesus Christ. Oh, my Lord have mercy. See? But it's okay when she does it, right? So, okay, so we have to get into the Eric Adams interview.

And I would like to say- Is that the lead? Can we please? We have to get to the Eric Adams interview. I want to say something real quick, and I'm being serious about this. I apologize to the listeners. I apologize to Rachel. We got off the Eric Adams interview, and Rachel looked at me like a fuck-nigger and

says, we always need the hour, because I didn't get a chance to ask that many questions. I'm being sincere here in this apology. I'm being serious. No, you turned to me in the interview and say you're sorry. Like, you realized it. I think you looked at me and I was like... Yeah, I got in a personal ego battle with Eric Adams.

It's not like they weren't bad questions or anything. We're going back and forth. And that is not the way it's supposed to go. As a matter of fact, we need to adopt the breaking point strategy of interviews. I really do think that Crystal and Saga do, where Crystal goes for about 50 minutes and soccer goes for about 15 minutes or Crystal goes for a half an hour and soccer goes for a half an hour. I think that works for us, but I really sincerely would like to apologize to the audience or apologize

to Rachel before you guys listen to Eric Adams interview. I also would say I'd like to blame Eric Adams for this, Mayor Eric Adams, because there were times where you would say something, you'd be like, but we're going to move on. And he'd be like, whoa, whoa, wait. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Which I understood. He was like, we got to go back. So you tried to move on.

Yeah. And, you know. But whatever. It's a good interview. but we need a more time. I'll let you guys make the decision on your own about what it is that you think about Eric Adams. Okay.

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to learn more. Restrictions apply. Services not available in all areas. This episode is brought to you by Sweet Green. The day doesn't ask for permission. Lunch window? Gone before you saw it coming. You deserve a break that actually satisfies. Sweet Green's new wraps have got you. Real ingredients? Zero shortcuts. Everything you love in one hand. Think green goddess chicken. Garlic aoli. Crumbled bacon. Corn salsa. 40 grams of protein. Made to keep up with whatever next. New sweet green wraps hit different. Order now at order. dot sweetgreen.com. We are now joined by the 110th mayor of New York City, who is seeking re-election in a very crowded field in New York right now. Eric Adams joins us on higher learning.

Mayor Adams, thank you for joining us. Thank you. Great to be on with you. Thank you. I'm going to get right into the interview. You're seeking re-election. And we've seen your media presence increase as the race has ramped up. I have to be honest with you, there have been a breathtaking number of corruption allegations during your administration, including just recently, your chief advisor, being indicted, and Winnie Greco, a former fundraiser, being accused of handing a reporter cash and a potato chip back. A lot of people are saying that a vote for Eric Adams is a vote for corruption. What do you say to those people? Well, first, I don't know who a lot of people are. New York has 8.5 million people, and sometimes the loudest come across as the majority,

but in fact, the loudest is not the majority. Loudest are everyday voters in the city. We've had competitive races before, and again, now, getting your message to the working class people is important. I've made it clear that I've broken no laws, and I'm going to continue to serve the people. people of the city. And this is not the first administration that had to deal with scandals or deal with allegations. When you have over 320,000 employees, you have various things that come up. And you have to really just move forward and forge your head. If I'm being honest with you, Mayor Adams, I can understand that response in terms of the amount of people that you employ,

but some of these people are people that are very, very close to you. We're talking about advisors. we're talking about people that you've had relationships with in the past. You yourself have been indicted that indictment was dropped at the behest of the Trump administration. Is there anything more substantive that you can give people to believe that Eric Adams is not a corrupt politician? Yeah, I think that the best thing I could do is, if you want to know what a person in life is, look at their life. 22 years law enforcement had 100 blacks in law enforcement that ensured that we had justice and safety in our city, became a state senator, had the leadership of the Crime and Correction Committee, went on to become the first black bar president, then gone on to become the second person of color to be the mayor of the city of New York.

And when one does an analysis of a life and all of a sudden you don't become the mayor, and now all of a sudden, you're corrupt. I had been a history of law enforcement. I didn't become a law enforcement officer to come a mayor and break the law. And when you look at, which I think is so important, people should really read my indictment, not the headlines, but the actual indictment.

I was indicted for calling a city agency to do a building inspection. And there's not one text message, not one communication from me, that called for anyone to do anything improper. It was clear lawfare that I was speaking out against 237,000 migrants and asylum seekers coming to our city. I was not considered a good Democrat back then,

but I wasn't the only one. Look what happened to Brian Benjamin. He was the highest-ranking African-American in the state. He was indicted. His charges were also dropped. President Biden, the Justice Department was political. when he parted his son. President Trump said there's been a lot of things going on in the Justice Department that shows a level of politicizing throughout the years. So this is not new. And now, now, more and more, we're seeing more information comes out. And I just want to leave you with this. The person who indicted me, the former U.S. Attorney in the Southern District, once he resigned, he went on to open a politically appearance website as though he was running for office. And he used to.

use us as his trophy. I just think that's unethical in the process. But time would tell how this turns out. Go ahead. I think the biggest thing for New Yorkers is trust. And whether or not they feel like they can trust you. But I also think it's public perception. Van mentioned something before when he was talking about the federal indictment in Trump.

And I know that previously you once called Trump a complete embarrassment to our nation. And you talked about how he's created a level of division. and then shortly after him winning in 2024, you went to Florida, you went to his inauguration. And I think you say to kind of quickly after that that you wouldn't say anything negatively about him publicly. I think for a lot of people, and when I mentioned trust in public perception is,

how do you reconcile the timing of the change in your opinion about Trump? Because shortly after the inauguration, then in February, those charges were dropped. the DOJ asked the federal prosecutors to drop those charges. How do you reconcile that timing from the opinion that you had before about President Trump to the timing of you changing what seems to be your tune on him and then the charges being dropped? So let's peel that back for a moment. Okay.

First, I don't know President. I didn't know President Trump. We both were from Queens in different neighborhoods. I grew up in South Jamaica, Queens. He grew up in another part of Queens. Never met him prior to his election. my meeting and him meeting with me at what was called the Alfred E. Smith dinner. Never knew him. He started on the campaign trail saying, look what they're doing to that mayor in the city of New York,

because he knew what happened to him. And when I went to Florida, I was the mayor of the city of New York. Any mayor that is refusing to interact with the president of the United States to deliver services to his city, particularly New York, when we were going through a very serious economic challenge with the migrants and asylum seekers that cost us $7 billion under the previous administration. I had a responsibility to sit down with the incoming president. Like Governor Hoku, went to meet with the president several times, and other city officials and other municipalities did the same thing. And so my goal was fighting for New York. And thank God I did that because I was able to return to Washington when there was a stop work order on a

multi-billion dollar project here in the city. I was able to go there and ask the president to lift the stop work order in which they subsequently did. Now, here's a record that nobody really reports. I took the White House to court more than any mayor in the country. Nor the mayor in the country has taken the White House to court. Where I disagree with the president, I have been extremely voice-siparist about that. And where I'm I agree, I have been voice-siparist about that. We needed to secure our borders. When we didn't do that, we decimated city like Chicago, Los Angeles, Houston, New York City.

That is what I was fighting against. And so there's no record of saying that Eric has turned over to be anything different than what I've always has been fighting for the city of New York. I want to clarify something that you said a second ago. the call that you made, the allegations surrounding the call is that that call was made at the behest of a Turkish foreign national to have that fire department inspection happen to put a building on a faster timeline for its completion. And that the reason why that call was made was because you and people in your administration had taken favors from these Turkish foreign nationals. So it's not just a call. It was the call that you made. It was the reason why that you made it.

So I want to make sure that everyone listening to us understands that, that it wasn't just a call that you made to get a building inspection. It was the reason why that call was made and whether or not you were beholding to a foreign entity that you had taken free trips, airplane flights, all of that stuff from. That was the substance of the indictment. I just want to say that before we move on. No, brother, no, bro. We can't move on because that's inaccurate, what you're sharing.

And, you know, we have to be accurate. this. And I couldn't talk about this during the trial or during the indictment because, you know, attorneys don't allow you to speak. And that's why I'm so glad I'm able to speak fluently about this now. No, I flew on Turkish Airlines, paid for my travel. And when I was on the plane, requested an upgrade, which many people do all the time. And what they stated is that because for the years that you traveled on Turkish Airlines, even when I was not a mayor, You know, Boba President. They said because of the years of that

and because you made a call we're charging you with bribery. That was no, that wasn't unprecedented. They were trying out a new form of charge of someone with something, of charging me with bribery. I didn't put it on the fast track. That's untrue. I merely call, you look at the text messages

and it states, can you do a building inspection? Not pass it, just go do in a building inspection. And in the text message, If you can't, let me know and I'll manage their expectation. We do this every day as elected officials. This is what we do as elected officials. We call agencies to inquire. I was not in charge of the Fire Department Commission.

I was the borough president. I had no authorization to compel him, to force him. And he knew I couldn't do that. So this wasn't a tradeoff for doing favors for me. This was me doing my job as a borough president of inquiring with the agencies that we do every day. Right. I don't want to, Barry, I'm going to try your case.

The case has already been adjudicated for whatever reason it was dropped. I'm saying the allegation wasn't simply over a call. The allegation, what I'm saying is the allegation wasn't simply over a call. The allegation was that a call was made because you were beholding to a foreign entity because of favors that you had taken. I just want to make sure that the audience understood that. It's all in the indictment. It's all been reported.

They can read all of that. I want to come back to what we're talking about as it relates. to President Trump. When the officials in SD&Y that dropped your case, they said that they were urged to drop your federal corruption case on behalf of the president so that you could enact his immigration policy in New York City. Okay.

We've seen the president's immigration policy in other cities. We've seen it in Los Angeles. We've seen it all over the place. It involves ICE, marauding around the streets and snatching people off of the streets, putting them in things. taking them away, sending them to places where they've never been to places like alligator, Alcat, wherever. If you were elected mayor, would you enact the president's immigration policy on the city

of New York? Would ICE have free reign in New York to snatch people up in boroughs all over the city? Because that's what the president wants to do. So let's go back because it's important, you know, as I keep saying, who I am is not new. It's who I've always been. prior to election, prior to President Trump become an election, the same comments I made prior to that and for years is what I'm making now.

People are saying that, okay, you reinventing yourself, no, the beauty of Google, that you can go back and see what people are said. I've always had one position. Those who commit dangerous crimes in our city, documented or not documented, should be held accountable and removed from our country. When I coordinate with ICE,

HSI and others is going after those who commit serious crimes. We took down a dangerous gang, Trindey Araga, 27 gang members, who were forcing undocumented women into prostitution, selling guns, shooting at individuals. They need to go. They need to serve their time. They need to be removed. And I made it clear, we do not coordinate for civil enforcement.

I tell my undocumented residents here in the city, If your children, go to school. If you need medical care, go to the hospital. If you are abused and need police intervention, do so. ICE has not been in our schools. They have not raided our shelters. They have not rated our churches. I've been very consistent.

And I managed 237,000 migration asylum seekers. 90% of them have taken a step on their next journey. And national immigrant leaders came to the city and said, no one is doing what Mayor Adams is doing in the country. He should be the model for the rest of the country. So just to be clear, you are against ICE removing undocumented people off the streets of America who've committed no crimes. I am against that.

I think people should allow to go to court to continue their processing as doing so. And brother, I just shared with you. I took the administration to court more than any mayor in the country fighting on that issue when young people were in court going through the processes or families were going through the processes. I made it clear that is wrong. But that doesn't fit into the narrative. See, the narrative that people want to give is that Eric is under the thumb of Trump.

Eric only responds to what Trump says, but the record says differently. And so to perpetuate that narrative is what has been extremely hurtful and harmful because the record does not lay that out. I took the president administration to court more than any mayor in the country. I've been sued by the administration because the city is a sanctuary city. So they took me to court. So I don't know what more I can do to stop dispelling the myth that's been perpetuated to give the image that this African-American mayor has not done the best in handling this crisis than anywhere in the country. I think the perception is that all the things that you named happened before, and please correct me if I'm wrong, before those charges were dropped.

And the perception is that, Mao, it's different since those charges have been dropped. So if you want to address that. Yeah, yeah. And I think that's a good question. But this is not consistent. If you go back prior to the election, my position on undocumented residents of this city that are law abiding is the same. And it's in writing. It's not like I changed the turn after the election. All you have to do is go post-election and say, let's see what Eric position was on undocumented, undocumented residents of the city. And you'll see the same thing. That's what I'm sharing with you. You'll see when I was to say, Senator, what I was saying. When I was born president, what I was saying. And when I was mayor prior to the election, what I was saying. There is no case of Eric changing his position on undocumented. residents. From the beginning, I stated those legal people who are not breaking the law,

not violent, and just going on trying to pursue the American dream, they should have the right to do so. And my commissioner, mayor, office of Immigrant Affairs is a former dreamer. He came here undocumented, and now he's in charge of the dreams of others. And so if one wants to continue that narrative, then there's not much I can do, but tell people, go look at my record. My record has been stellar in this area. Well, I'll say this. I'll say rhetorically, some of the things that you've said about, like earlier in this conversation,

you said that undocumented people, border policy, decimated cities like New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles. I don't think those cities are decimated. I think that rhetorically, some of those things, when people hear some of those things, they hear a mayor or a person in power, scapegoating issues that a city has on a group of people. And they wonder how safe that group of people.

people is going to be, particularly after the proximity that you've had now, that you have now, to the Trump administration because they drop your case. I think the concerns are fair. If you want to say those concerns don't reflect your record, then, you know, people can make that determination on their own. I think the concerns about whether or not they can trust that Eric Adams won't be a Trump puppet going forward, that those concerns are fair, being that he gave you a get out of jail, free card essentially.

So I'll say that. Moving on, I want to talk about Rikers. Oh, brother, you can't. Come on, brother. You can't talk about moving on after you just crapped on me. I'm not crapping on you. I'm telling you how people are. No, Eric, I'm telling you how people are.

I'm telling you. Give me an opportunity to respond. Okay, go for it. If you want to say moving on, say moving on, say moving on, not to say, Eric, great job and bringing down crime and building housing and revitalizing the economy, then let's move on. But if you're going to lay that out of what we have seen across this country. And brother, federal authorities,

targeting black folks, particularly men of color. It's not new, brother. Just ask Malcolm. Just act Dr. King. Just act to NWCP. Ask the Divine Nine. I can give you a list of those of us who have done research and what federal authorities have done the black folks.

Cointel pro. All do respect. All do respect. All do respect. I'll do respect. Yes, yes. Go ahead, brother. The gulf between you and Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr.,

that's actually disrespectful. for you to bring up your, the problems that you've had legally with men who've had their head blown off because what they have, what they've done for black people. The question I was about to ask you is 59 people have died in Rikers Island. 59 people have died in Rikers Island since you became the mayor. That is triumly mount under de Blasio, right? We're talking about a lot of people in there that are black and brown people. If we're talking about other issues of black and brown people in the city, we're talking about rent stabilized units going up. we're talking about, we could talk about a myriad of things, but I want to, I think, I think that if, all due respect, if you want to cast yourself in the same lot as Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr., you might have come to the wrong place because that's nonsensical.

I want to stay. So let me share this with you, brother. Let me share this with you. I do put myself in the same area with those who have fought for the rights of black and brown. people. I do do that. In the police department, you know, I went into the police department after being arrested and assaulted by police officers. I went in. I started 100 blacks in law enforcement who care. An advocacy group of black and brown people. When you look at where I was, when Doris Mons was shot, when you look at where I was, when Arthur Miller was killed,

I fought in the department. You know, someone almost took my life because of my advocacy when they shut out my car windows. And so let's look at black and brown. people in what I have done in the city. Who's in public housing in the city? Black and Brown. And what have I done? Everything from decreasing crime to NYCHA to giving high speed, broadband, and technology and now renovating NYCHA by including them in our housing plan? Who are all foster care children in the city? Black and brown. I'm paying their college tuition and giving them life cultures until they're 21 years old and giving them a stifference so they can graduate in college. Who's on Rikers Island? Black and Brown. I've been on Rikers Island,

down with inmates more than any mayor in the history of this city. I got re-baptized on Rikers Island with the inmates and stop the feeder and ensure we can do dyslexia screening so they don't end up on Rikers Island. Who's a victim of crimes in our cities? Black and brown. I removed 23,000 illegal guns and place justice-involved young people on a pathway to careers. Even yesterday, I announced that we are doing, giving black and brown young people who are formally incarcerated, CDL training so they can have gainful employment. When you look at my agenda, I didn't walk around with Adashiiki, he said Ugaba, black power. I serve black and brown people. First woman of color, a black woman to be the first deputy man in history of this city, first Trinidadian to be a deputy mayor, second woman of color, to be a chief of staff, first woman of color.

to be a commissioner, you could go through the list of what I've done for black and brown people in this city. So I do put myself in line with those who fight on behalf of black and brown people. I've been doing it for 40 years and that's what people knew me for. Mayor, Mayor Adams, do you support stopping frisk? No, I don't, brother.

No, I don't. But I do so. What I will tell you is that stops by NYPD have gone through the roof under your administration. We're talking about 22 23 and 24 all the way up to 25,

25,000 3806 stops by NYPD since stopping for risk was really reintroduced by your administration. If we're talking about Rikers, specifically, it's a mess. The jail population in Rikers has gone up

to more than 7,000 people under your watch. 59 people, triple the amount of deaths. People have died in Rikers Island and they did under de Blasio under your watch. You didn't prosecute misconduct or want transparency that have been staffing shortages there.

By the way, we should say about Rikers Island, it's a jail. So the vast majority of people in Rikers Island are innocent. They are people who have not been convicted

of any crimes. These are innocent people that are there. And it's got markedly worse under Eric Adams. We could talk about all kinds of things. Let's look at that. Let's look at what you said

because you raised some questions. I know how good my record is. So I love responding to questions. Let's first go to Stop and Frist. Brother, I testified in federal court, Floyd versus NYPD, to talk about the abuse of stopping frisk. The federal judge, when she finished the trial, wrote in her recommendation and ruled against the NYPD, she said Eric Adams' testimony and pointed out my testimony. And so when I was doing that back then, we were stopping a million black and brown people a year, a million. That's why I told you tell me the numbers.

Now you're talking 25,000. Stop question and frisk. It's not illegal. It's when you abuse it and use it as a quota system. And now let's talk about Rikers Island, because you just mentioned Rikers Island, so I want to talk about that. 7,400 people in Rikers Island

are not there for just stealing an apple or jumping a turnstile, which we fought against. They're there because extremely serious crimes that are inflicted, for the most part, on black and brown communities, on the most part. 7,400 of those inmates are there because of serious crimes that they have committed in black and brown communities. And if you do an analysis of the deaths, when before taking office as the mayor, you were seeing assaults go up on inmates, assault goes up on staffers, inmates, staffers on inmates, you don't see that anymore.

People are dying for a medical reason. And you have to do an analysis of those numbers that you just gave and saw while they died. Often people, by the time they get there, brother, there's some serious medical care. And they get free care, but some of them are dealing with some real health care issues. That is where the deaths. The deaths are not based on officers' action. The deaths are based on suicides, overdose to fentanyl that's been smuggled into jails, and actions that are not what we saw previously.

And so this is not something that we're creating. We're showing just the opposite of how we've been doing a level of benevolence in Rikers Island. I know that you have a heart out. I want to ask a question about Mundani because you're running against him in November. You recently called him a communist, which is interesting because that's something one of Trump's attacks when he references Mundani as well. But he's not. He's a democratic socialist. So I'm wondering, since you called him that, how exactly is he a communist?

And in what ways do his proposed policies for the city of New York demand full control of the economy as a communists would? Yeah. So let's peel back his policies and how harmful they are. And in some cases, I think they're anti-women. He wants to get rid of all misdemeanors. Some of these misdemeanors are forcible touching and others that are very harmful to women. He don't want police responding to domestic violence. It's one of the number one or closer one of the top jobs that's dangerous for police officers.

He wants to get rid of prostitution. I was a police officer. I saw a young boy standing on the corner selling their bodies. I don't want to walk out my door and see young girls sex trafficking or the victims of the violence that come to a prostitution. I don't believe in that. He wants to empty out Rikers Island, 7,400 of the most dangerous inmates in our city. He wants to empty that out. Where they going?

They're going back to communities of color. So when you look at his policies and his attitude, I don't want any billionaires in New York. They pay 41% of our taxes. That's why we have teachers, firefighters. That's why we have paved streets. That's where those dollars come from. His failure to understand a $15 billion budget and the ecosystem, the financial ecosystem that allows cities to run is disruptive.

Everything from government run, grocery stores, I've been to Cuba and Venezuela. I know what they look like of broken promises. I grew up in poverty. And I know what broken promises they would do to those who are in poverty. I know we're living on verbiage of homelessness. When you look at my policies, moving more people out of homelessness into permanent housing in the history of the city.

What we have done around education, our children grade scores are now increasing and the levels that they should be increasing, you're looking at policies. that they have definitely impacted the quality of life for people in the city. And we can't go backwards with someone that was a rapper, an assemblyman, and now mayor. This city is too complicated for that. I'll let Mandae come on if he wants to litigate his record with us. He can do that. I'll say this about Rikers.

What you said about the overdoses and the suicides and the deaths there, they're indicative of neglect, neglect of. the prisoners at Rikers and sort of the structural damage that a lot of people say your administration has done, staffing shortages, things like that, that lead to those types of deaths at Rikers, and they've gone up since you've been the mayor. Okay, brother, let me come on, come on, man, you got to let me touch on it. Go for it. Go for it. Go for it. Go for it. Brother, we've been, we have been hemaging correction offices because we have disrespected them.

They're overwhelmingly black and brown. Almost 40-something percent of them are black women and brown women. And we have really not showed them the respect that they deserve. And that's why I go to Rikis to speak with them and the inmates. And so when people say it's due to neglect, they cannot point to any specific neglect. And I really challenge you to Google the correction commissioner. That sister is a solid sister that has brought unbelievable programs into Rikers Island. to help those who have gone through periods of mental and emotional trauma.

Do you know, brother, almost 50% of the inmates of Rikis are dealing with mental health issues, 18% are dealing with severe mental health issues. And what I'm saying, let's stop putting them on Rikers Island. Let's build a state-of-the-art mental health facility so we can give them the care that they deserve. That's what I'm saying. And that's why I go on Rikers and speak to these inmates. And so I challenge you saying that these officers, black and brown officers, are neglecting inmates, that they are doing things that are harmful.

That is just not true. It's unfair. And I challenge you to come with me on Rikers and walk through and see what these inmates are how they've been treated and what these correction officers and staffers are doing. Well, last question for me. Last question for me. The people that I've talked to have that they've gone to Rikers a lot, but we can get off Rikers right now. You said what you said about Maldani and the way that he's, what do you attribute the success to?

The success, what do you attribute to success to? That's a great question. The success of Mundayne, he's talking about affordability. He's talking about access. He's talking to people who aren't billionaires and it's resonating with people in a way that very few politicians can't. No, and without a doubt, it has resonated because cities are extremely expensive to live in. But, brother, I put $30 billion back in the pocket. as an American-class people. That's what to be.

$30 billion. So let's look at what Zohan is saying. Johan is saying, I'm going to give you free buses. And he's going to get $3 billion from the state to get the free buses. Mayors don't control that. Assemblyman controls that. That's what he is assemblymen. He also

stated he wants to freeze rents. He can freeze. He doesn't have the authority do that. A committee determines our freezing of the rents that's beyond the city's control. He doesn't control that. In that case, that committee should not be in place.

And if you freeze rent completely, you're going to decimate small property owners, which... It's gone up 9% under your administration. I'm sorry. Rint-sabled units have gone up 5% under your administration, and you have not froze the rent, yeah, so...

Good thing about it for a more brother. De Blasio froze rents and rent still have gone up. When you have a rent role that you have to pay for taxes repairs, utilities. If you freeze rent for small property owners, that mom and pop that own a 13 unit building, you freeze their rent,

they can never increase their rent. Brother, who's going to pay the increase in taxes? Who's going to pay the increase in utilities? Who's going to pay the increase and repairs of the building? That's what happened in the 70s when people were walking away from their properties because the rent rolls were not equaling the cost of the upkeep of buildings.

We have black and brown homeowners, where all their wealth is tied up in, they're losing their home. So something may sound good, but when you actually implement them, you have to understand what's the impact of them. And so, yes, he's dealing with the pains that people are feeling. But growing up in poverty, brother, nothing pissed me off more than people promising things that they couldn't deliver. What did I do with $30 billion?

No low-income New Yorker in this city, brother, is paying income tax anymore because of what I've done. Reduce fares metro car. My 19th resident, they save $139 a month, real money in their pockets because they no longer paying high-speed, speed broadband fees of what I've done with medical debt. If you are low-income New Yorker and you have medical debt, the number one cause of bankruptcy, I'm excusing your medical debt. Reshaping the college tuition for people, college student loans for people, saving them $3,000 a month, and if it's higher degree, $7,000 a month. So when you do an analysis of the affordability, I like to say I can't put bread in. I can't reduce the cost of bread, but I put bread back in the pockets of broken class people, brother.

And that's real. That's not broken promises. That is real of what we have been able to accomplish. Your people are letting us know you have to go. You've been generous with your time already. Mayor Adams, thank you. Thank you. I said your people are letting us know you have to go.

You've been generous with your time already. Thanks for let me be on. Mayor Adams. You can be on again. Yeah. Yeah. We hope you've joined us on Ireland. Higher learning.

All right. Gotcha. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Take care. All right, bye-bye. All right, guys, that's enough. Rachel, Rachel's headed out. Rachel's got to go. She's checking bags, which is fucking insane. I'm going to be gone for 10 days. You're checking bags? It's impossible for me.

What sizes do you wear? What's the size? What do you mean? It's close? Yeah, like small? It's not even, yeah. Like, I'm a small, like a 2-4. There you go. Put it all in the goddamn carry-on. But it's, I normally can. Like, I'm really good at that summer. But I'm going to New York too.

So it's like I need boots. I need hills. I have multiple things. I'm going to a wedding. I'm going to be in the south. Then I go to New York. It's a little bit more trendy. So I need different outfits.

Doing U.S. Open. Check me out. Blue carpet. Women's final. Oh, you on the carpet? UTSA? Yeah, they started the blue carpet last year. Blue car.

And I'm working for UTSA. Okay. That's dope. I saw two people getting in the fight. We don't have time to talk about it. I saw the ladies getting the fight on there. Oh, yeah. Yeah, we're team Taylor Townsend regardless.

Yeah. She looked formidable. Like she could fuck her up. I saw her, I was like, shit, man. She's coming through with the fucking shoulders. What? She's an athlete. She's a athlete.

She's coming through with the shoulders. I thought she was about to get, she said, take the L. One of my most embarrassing moments on the basketball court before we go is shout out to, you know, my homies. I can't remember that name is from L.A. community. the LA Athletic Club League, we was losing. And I did a douchebaggy type of thing.

I rarely do it, but I did a douchebucky type thing. Maybe I told this story on the podcast before, but we losing the game, you know, and niggas talking shit. And I said something like, yeah, nigga, whatever with this game. I'm on TV every day. I don't give a fuck about this. I did, I did.

I said that shit. I looked at me, picked up the ball. He was like, van he was like that ain't you nigga exactly he was like van take this L and try to get it back next week don't do like that and then he passed the ball and he was literally disappointed and I was disappointed in myself I'm glad he called you out I like him

was very funny very funny all right that's enough take thing caps off and I do not stop learning I'm valenton junior I'm rachel lindsay I'm rachel lindsay