The Breakfast Club - INTERVIEW: Mayor Eric Adams Talks Mayoral Election '25, Trump, Zohran Mamdani, NYC Crime, Media Criticism +More

Episode Date: September 25, 2025

Today on The Breakfast Club, Mayor Eric Adams Talks Mayoral Election '25, Trump, Zohran Mamdani, NYC Crime, Media Criticism. Listen For More!YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@BreakfastClubPower1051FMSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. I'm Jorge Ramos. And I'm Paola Ramos. Together we're launching The Moment, a new podcast about what it means to live through a time as uncertain as this one. We sit down with politicians, artists, and activists to bring you death and analysis from a unique Latino perspective.

The moment is a space for the conversations we've been having us, father and daughter, for years. Listen to The Moment with Jorge Ramos and Paola Ramos. on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Jay Shetty, and I'm the host of the On Purpose podcast. Today, I'm joined by Emma Watson. Emma Watson has apparently quit acting. Emma Watson has announced she's retiring from acting.

Has anyone else noticed that we haven't seen Emma Watson in anything in several years? Emma Watson is opening up the truth behind her five-year break from acting. Watson said she wasn't very happy. Listen to On Purpose with Jay Chetty on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Introducing IVF disrupted, the Kind Body story, a podcast about a company that promised to revolutionize fertility care. It grew like a tech startup. While Kind Body did help women start families, it also left behind a stream of disillusioned and angry patients. You think you're finally like in the right hands.

You're just not. Listen to IVF Disrupted, the Kind Body Story, on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The murder of an 18-year-old girl in Graves County, Kentucky, went unsolved for years, until a local housewife, a journalist, and a handful of girls came forward with a story. America, y'all better work the hell up. Bad things happens to good. people in small towns. Listen to Graves County on the IHeart Radio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And to binge the entire season ad free, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Every day I wake up. Wake your ass up. The breakfast club. We're all finished or y'all's done?

Morning, everybody. It's DJ. NV. Just hilarious. Charlemagne Nagar. We are the Breakfast Club. La Rosa is here as well. We got a special guest in the building. Yes, indeed.

The mayor of New York City, Mayor Eric Adams. Welcome. Good to be here. Nice to be here and talk about the city. How are you feeling, brother? Good, man. You know, Ivan, I took my hand off the steering wheel a long time. Let go, let God.

Turn on my GPS. My guard position is satellite. Got me here. He's going to take me the next level. You know the question everybody keeps asking. Are you dropping out of the mayoral race? And you know what? I answered that a hundred and one times.

And no matter how I answer it, they come back with the same. Seven weeks ago, when they first raised that, I had something at Gracie Mansion and said, listen, I'm here to the end. They wrote that he's dropping out. They say, then he's going to Saudi Arabia. I said, no, I'm not. Then they wrote, I was going to be HUD. No, I'm not.

I was going to meet Donald Trump at Yankee Stadium. No, I did not. What people don't understand, when you run for mayor, One of the most important aspects of running for the mayor is raising the money. People couldn't beat me at the polling site. And so they orchestrated and organized to really undermine my campaign. When you hear that the mayor's dropping out over and over again, your funders are gone. Now I'm in court with Campaign Finance Board.

They owe me $4 million. They don't want to give it to me. I spent $8 million the last time I ran. I'm down to now half of that now. So they have undermined my ability to get my message out by making sure they cut off all the ways I could raise money to get it done. So now, I'm in the point now when I'm meeting with my fund is they say, Eric, they keep telling me you're dropping out. So our goal is to finish this race, but we have to win this court that's in case that's in court right now to get out $4 million. I do have a question.

When you first came in office, it seems like the city loved Mayor Adams, right? They loved you. They loved the fact that you were touching the people. you were outside you were doing things that a lot of mayors wouldn't like you were you were on 42nd Street giving away food you were doing a lot for the city you were popping up in Harlem in Brooklyn and Queens and then it became a turning point where people started to to not like mayor Adams or start to dislike why did that happen do you think it was an orchestrated thing why do you think that's a great question that's a great question think about it for a moment where do people

get their opinions from they pick up the papers they start reading the papers and they start saying, okay, this is what's happening in the city. When I go to town halls, when I'm at 40 projects, when I go out to Astoria, and I start sharing what we have done. People say, what? I didn't know that. There was, when I won mayor, here's the inner story that a lot of people don't know. When I won mayor, you can't win citywide in this city without winning. It was called the New York Times Belt, Upper West Side, Park Slope, Cow Gardens, Brooklyn Heights. I lost all of that. The everyday person in the street say this guy is one of us and from day one go look at how I was covered people don't know I build more housing in the city than any mayor in the

history of the city in my individual years they don't know that low-income New York is no longer pay income tax because of me 19 billion dollars in black and minority-owned businesses that I put in they don't know what I'm doing for foster care children paying their college tuition giving them life coaches until they 21 they don't know what we're doing about homelessness putting people to permanent housing nobody knows my story So that's a question. If they don't know, then if they don't know, then is it really getting done? Because if the people should be the one that's impacted about what you're doing. So why wouldn't they know? Right. Well, here is, there's a couple of things. People who go through it knows it all the time. They write at me. They stop me in the street. They tell me about the housing they got my universal after school program, what we're doing about dyslexia.

Folks on Rikers, I've been on Rikers Allen more than any man in the history of the city speaking with the inmates giving them the services they need. So those who are receiving, recipient of it, they know. But when you pick up the paper, the average day person that's sitting down reading, all they know is that, hey, this guy's out all the time party. No, I revitalized our nightlife industry. A by yourself? Multi-billion dollar, multi-billion dollar industry. Multi-billion dollar industry. Before I became man, they were closing down these industries with black and brown people were opening their own businesses. They were closing them down. That stopped under me. I said, we no longer going to go in and close down

the heart and soul of how these businesses start and how they employ 100,000 people who are getting jobs through it. So what you do now during campaign, you take your campaign money and you're able to go over the media

and speak directly to people. I don't have the money. Over the past weekend, you didn't attend any public event while a lot of your, the rivals were out campaigning. and people use that to fuel more speculation that you're preparing to drop out. So how do you respond to that?

Sick of my de Charlemagne, no matter what I said, they did it anyway. We were sitting down behind the scenes, sitting down with funders, sitting down with the campaign team, figuring out our strategies to go. I'm outside all the time, brother. I can be outside running around the city all the time,

but anyone that knows how to build their institutions, know there's a time for you to meet with your team and strategize what the next steps are. Just running around the city is not how you win the campaign. And they don't have day jobs. I do. I still got a day job. I had the U.N. coming, a major security issue that we had to make sure it was correct.

I had the high holiday. I had the Rosh Hashanah coming, making sure we did with threats. So I still have to run the city. It's not just about running around shaking hands. I had a job to do, and I got to build my strong campaign. And that's what we're doing. I'll give you credit for that because, you know, they were giving you flag

for not being at the African-American Day parade, but I've seen you at events like the Heaven Up in Harlem event that O.G. Daniel did. Right, right, right. That wasn't like a schedule thing. You were just there. Right, right.

And listen, there's never been a man in history of the city that's been among the people like I have. You know, I'll drive through Brownsville and all of a sudden I see a closed barbershop or closed hair salon, people sitting in the back, smoking the cigar. I'm popping in there, talk of them.

How are you feeling on the ground, folks? What's happening on the ground? You know, I can walk through any community in this city, and you see from the Upper West Side to Harlem to Brooklyn, people see that, you know, Eric is among us, and I've never stopped being among us. That's nothing special about me. You know, I never come across that.

Listen, I'm the ma'am special. No, I'm the same dyslexic. South Jamaica, Queens, holding your sneakers, carboys in the bottom. I'm the same person, brother. Same person. And they never had a mayor like me, and they never want to see that mayor do it again. What we did for black and brown people in the city is amazing. Think about this for a moment.

A lot of people only realize this. So who are the victims of shootings in the city? Black and brown. 23,000 illegal guns off the street, the lowest numbers of shootings and homicides in the first seven months of this year in the history of the city. Who is street homeless? Black and brown. We removed 3,500 people off our streets into permanent houses. permanent housing. Who's in our Department of Education? Black and brown. Other ethnic

groups are in, but predominantly black and brown. And we have improved education in our city, outpaced the state and reading the math, universal after school programs, 150,000 children into pre-K. Who is summer youth employment? Black and brown. 100,000 summer youth employment that we've done. Never been done before. So what I'm saying is when you pick apart my success and my policies, you have to say to yourself, this guy has gone after those who ignore for years. I agree with you. But, you know, the thing that we talk about all the time is we hear all these numbers and stats, right? Yes. And we talk about, we hear about crime coming down, but a lot of times it doesn't feel like that. Right. And maybe that's what we hear in the

story is like, you know, I'm driving in today. Police officer punts in the face and knocked onto the train tracks and pulled out, you know, shooting here, shooting there, shooting there, it doesn't feel as safe as the numbers would say it was. Why do you say that is? And that's a great question, brother. Think about this for a moment. 5.6 million people ride out subway every day. 5.6 million. We have an average of five felonies a day on our system. With 5.6 million.

I mean, those numbers are astronomical. And so when you, a city of 8.5 million people, when you take the worst thing that happens in that city that day and you plaster it on the front pages, how are you going to fail? When I inherited the subway system when I became mayor, No one wanted to be on the subway system. We put police officers on there.

We went down to make sure we got people with severe mental health off our issues off our system. We removed the encampments. People were living on the side of highways. They were leaving in boxes and tents on our streets. And so, no, people don't feel that way because it takes a lot of time before your perception viewed a reality.

Sometimes people are living in the past of what they felt before. So when you put more police presence on the subway, it bought the crime? It was a combination of things we did. When we did an analysis, we saw that a lot of people say, we went to police walking through our trains. That's not where the crimes were happening.

The crimes were happening on the platforms. And so we did a combination. Number one, put our visible presence on a platform. Number two, going after those with severe mental health issues and getting them the care that they need. A thousand people we took off the streets. And so you're right, brother, when you say, okay, you're giving us the numbers.

But when you run a city, you have to run it based on indicators. You have to run it based on something to determine if you're moving in the right direction. Because when bond raters determine, are we going to tell people to invest in your city? We need to see these indicators. The bond raters raise my bond.

They said this guy has gone through COVID, 237,000 migrants and asylum seekers, lawfare where they hit him with some bogus federal charges. Out of all of that, this guy has still moved the city forward. Unprecedented levels. You know, so the numbers don't lie. You know, I can say whatever I want. But when you analyze, here's where the city was.

Here's where the city is. We have more jobs in New York in the history of the city. I broke the record 11 times. More small businesses in the history of the city. When I came into an office, black unemployment was four times the rates of white unemployment. We dropped it by 20% in the black and brown community. We turned this city around. Now, when people are pissed off at, look who I did it with.

first black woman to be a first deputy mayor first black woman police commissioner a first Hispanic male to run the department of correction first black to be a chief advisor first a Dominican in the history of the city to be a deputy mayor first Filipino to be a deputy mayor first Indian to be a deputy mayor I changed the landscape of the city

Do you feel like that's the reason why you're being attacked so much because you've done so much I think some money minorities on. I think it's a combination. Someone told me one time, they said, listen, Eric, you don't have enough gray-haired white men around you. You looked at my administration, brother. My administration looked like us.

And so what did they do? They say, you know what? Let's start just tackling him in his community. This is the same thing happened with David Dinkins. Go back and look at the stories at David Dinkins and see how they had the community start saying, well, you know, David Dinkers is always dressing up in a suit. He's not, he's, you know, he's not one of us anymore. And they eroded his base of support.

So our folks just stayed home. You know, they just did it just enough to have him, to have our folks stayed home. This is, you know, I'm the second black mayor in over 30 years. We have not had a black man in 30 years. And I learned from David, who, Mayor Dinkas, who tutored me and told me, and I said, I'm going to go in with a clear agenda of how do we help those who have been underserved for years. And we did it. The record is clear. But a lot of your criticism comes from black people, though. Yeah, but why? Tell me, tell me why. Where do they get their opinions from? I keep, I think we're underestimating the power of the media in this city. Where do they get their opinions from? You think that you think it's white media shaping narratives negatively about

you? Well, I, no, I don't think, you know, you can't say only the white media. Just media in general. Right. Look across the country. Look across the country. Look at the black males across the country. And look what they're doing and bring it down crime across the country. And I give you credit to you were the first person that at least put that on my radar. Last time you was here, you said there was an attack on black men. On black men. So look at under the previous administration, a lot of people want to talk about it. Under the previous administration, the migrants and asylum seekers went to Chicago, went to Los Angeles, went to Houston, went to New York. What was the same in all of those cities?

They were all black mayors. And check this out. This is the thing that a lot of people don't realize. They said, okay, Eric, the migration assignment secret issues over. Everything is fine. No, it's not. Of course, it's $7.2 billion. That is $7.2 billion that I could not put into $500 million into chronically absent children.

A billion dollars into senior housing. $500 million into more programs who are used, formerly incarcerated. That money is going to have. a long-term impact on our city. We're going to see the byproduct of what that previous administration did to us. We're going to see the byproduct of that for years to come. But a lot of that is democratic messaging fault because, you know, you created sanctuary cities and you said that those people were welcome here. So what a lot of those Republican governors did was put those people on planes and buses and send them to those so-called sanctuary cities. And then when y'all got

overwhelmed, y'all was like, whoa. Let me give you my version of it. Let's understand what sanctuary city is because a lot of people conflate sanctuary cities um what we say as sanctuary cities when somebody buy this bottle of water they pay taxes on this bottle of water those taxes allow you services so if your child needs to be educated they should be allowed to go to school if you're a victim of a crime you should be allowed to call a police if you need medical care you should be allowed to go to the hospital because you're paying taxes you don't walk into a grocery store and someone say you're undocumented so I'm not going to give you the tax No, you are allowed to get those taxes.

When we tell people if you come here, we're going to treat you with respect. We're going to make sure you get the services that your tax dollars are paying for, and we're going to make sure you're treated with dignity and respect. It was the federal government responsibility to seal the border. So people can say what they want about the current administration. When they sealed the border, we stopped getting the flow. I was getting $4,000 a week. And the federal law says, you can't stop the buses from coming in, Eric.

you can't even allow them to work. You can't even allow them to volunteer and give them a stifit. And the city law said, you're going to feed, house, clothes, and educate the children. So I'm following the law when they came into the city.

I don't control who comes into the country, but I have to make sure while you're here your children are in school. If not, they're going to be the victims of abuse by staying home. I got to make sure if you need medical care, you can go to the hospital. If not, you're going to overrun my emergency room.

And people will pray on you knowing that you can't call the police if you're a victim of a crime. So it wasn't that we said, whoa, whoa, I was always saying, whoa, control the borders. Don't put this on cities. The cities are having to fulfill the obligations of federal government. And in spite of that, we moved the city forward. You know, people will tell you, you know what, the guy didn't move the city for it. You know, the guy did turn it around of the city. The guy did improve employment, improve housing, I had the city say, we got it, we got it, you know.

But you know what? He's too close to Trump. But nobody tells you, I took this administration to court more than any mayor in the country. They sued me, you know, more than any mayor. And when we needed the administration, we were able to get the call them to get the things done. So it's not like I'm not under anyone's thumb. I'm running my city. I'm fighting for my city because I know the impact it has on those.

community what do you say yes what do you say to people that have given up on council all together because I know you use you talk about the numbers and everything you see numbers don't lie but a lot of people they're not paying attention to the numbers they paying attention to what they're going through yeah you know what I'm saying they see their life it ain't safe for them no crime is down I mean crime is up to them right they're not making no money they you know without a doubt listen is it expensive to live in New York you're darn right

You know, you're darn right. Jordan, my son tells me all the time. He's like, Dad, you know. But think about for a moment. What I said in 2023, a year in office, I sat down with the team, I said, listen, I don't have any control on the price of bread, but I could put bread back in the pockets of New Yorkers. We put $30 billion back into the pockets of New Yorkers. What does that look like?

Free high-speed broadband for NYCHA and other homes. That's $159 a month. We dropped the cost of child care. If you have two children in schools, we dropped the cost, in child care, we dropped the cost of child care from $22, $20 a month to less than $20 a month. That's another $200. We're paying off medical debt. If you're a low-income New York and you have medical debt, we're paying that off for you.

You're not long going to have to pay for that. Of universal after-school program for free. Paying the college tuition of our foster care children. So when you start picking apart our programs, it comes to a, a total of $30 billion. So why are those actual actions not resonating with people, but Mondani's messaging of affordability is? Because if you actually already are putting more money back in people's pockets,

why is it not resonating, but his messaging of affordability is? Without a doubt, brother, think about for a moment. Because what he has done successfully is says, I'm going to identify the pain that people are feeling. Yes, Eric is addressing it, but you're not learning about that. I'm addressing it because they're not being covered. We need to be clear on that.

And so what he has done successfully is said, I'm going to identify the pain that people are feeling. I'm just going to tell them anything that they want to hear. But it shouldn't be no pain if you're actually addressing the issue. But going back to what all you said, perception is reality. Think about it for a moment. He's putting out a proposal saying, I'm going to freeze your rent. I'm Jorge Ramos.

And I'm Paola Ramos. Together we're launching The Moment, a new person. podcast about what it means to live through a time as uncertain as this one. We sit down with politicians. I would be the first immigrant mayor in generations, but 40% of New Yorkers were born outside of this country. Artists and activists, I mean, do you ever feel demoralized? I might personally lose hope. This individual might lose the faith, but there's an institution

that doesn't lose faith. And that's what I believe in. To bring you death and analysis from a unique Latino perspective. There's not a single day that Paola and I don't call or text each other, sharing news and thoughts about what's happening in the country. This new podcast will be a way to make that ongoing intergenerational conversation public. Listen to The Moment with Jorge Ramos and Paola Ramos as part of the MyCultura podcast network on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Jay Shetty, and I'm the host of the on-purpose podcast. Today, I'm joined by Emma Watson. Emma Watson has apparently quit acting.

Emma Watson has announced she's retiring from acting. Has anyone else noticed that we haven't seen Emma Watson in anything in several years? Emma Watson is opening up the truth behind her five-year break from acting. Watson said she wasn't very happy. Was acting always something you were going to do? I was using acting as a way of escaping to feel free. My parents, it wasn't just the divorce. just like the continuing situation of living between two different houses and two different lives

and two different sets of values, the career and the life that looks like the dream. But are you really happy? Fame has given me this extraordinary power. It's also given me a lot of responsibility. Listen to On Purpose with Jay Shetty on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. All I know is what I've been told, and that's a half-truth is a whole lie. For almost a decade, the murder of an 18-year-old girl from a small town in Graves County, Kentucky, went unsolved, until a local homemaker, a journalist, and a handful of girls came forward with a story.

I'm telling you, we know Quincy Kilder, we know. A story that law enforcement used to convict six people and that got the citizen investigator on national TV. Through sheer persistence and nerve, this Kentucky housewife helped give justice to Jessica Curran. My name is Maggie Freeling. I'm a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, producer, and I wouldn't be here if the truth were that easy to find.

I did not know her and I did not kill her, or rape or burn or any of that other stuff, They literally made me say that I took a match and struck and threw it on her. They made me say that I poured gas on her. From Lava for Good, this is Graves County, a show about just how far our legal system will go in order to find someone to blame. America, y'all better work the hell up. Bad things happens to good people in small towns.

Listen to Graves County in the Bone Valley feed on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to binge the entire season ad-free, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I started trying to get pregnant about four years ago now. We were getting a little bit older, and it just kind of felt like the window. could be closing. Bloomberg and IHeard podcast present. IVF disrupted, the Kind Body story, a podcast about a company that promised to revolutionize fertility care.

Introducing Kind Body, a new generation of women's health and fertility care. Backed by millions in venture capital and private equity, it grew like a tech startup. While Kind Body did help women start families, it also left behind a stream of disillusioned and angry patience. You think you're finally like with the right people in the right hands and then to find out again that you're just not. Don't be fooled. By what?

All the bright and shiny. Listen to IVF disrupted, the kind body story, starting September 19 on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. He can't. You can't freeze nitreate. You can't freeze Mitchelama rent. You can't freeze market rate rent.

You can't freeze affordable housing rent. You could only freeze, and he can't even really freeze it. The board has to freeze it of the rent guidelines board has to freeze it if you're part of one portion of housing in the city. So now everyone is running around the city that's in NYCHA, that's in Mitchell, that's in Machuilama, that's in market rate, say, okay, he's going to freeze our rent. So he's selling dreams? The guy is a snake's oil salesman, man.

And not only that, think about this also for a moment. You got a daughter. Of course. I have two. I got four, excuse me. Right. How do you feel if your daughter, I don't know if she's an athlete or not, your daughter is an athlete, she plays volleyball, she goes into the locker room and, you know, after the

game, take a shower. His mindset is that a male that thinks he's a woman can walk inside that shower with him and take a shower with him. I don't rock that way. Think about that. No, I'm laughing. But that feels like an old play now, Eric Adams. Like that, Adam, that feel like an old play that you just ran.

Like that felt like something out of the Trump playbook from a year ago. No, I agree, but I'm just shocked that you went there. No, but not like that. How about decriminalizing prostitution? You know what process? I just cleaned up prostitution over the city by connecting sisters and people who are victims of sex crimes. I've given them the services and support they need. decriminalized prostitution he wants to decriminalized prostitution oh yeah did he would agree with that

no shut up man so why is mom donnie bad for the city why do you think he shouldn't be a couple of tell us the reason why because right now it seems like he's winning in the polls and like sholomey said people are really standing behind him people come on cut people i heard it man when you when you think about all the movements across the globe in history how people when they're in pain how they resonate those who give them these false harm. I'm promising. This is not new. This is not new.

I understand what you're saying, but why are they in pain if you are telling us you've done all of this stuff to relieve their pain? Is it a perception of reality? I'm confused. A lot of it is perception, number one. A lot of is frustration. You know, remember, brother, I was man for three years in eight months. Three years and eight months.

A lot of this stuff is systemic, you know, not doing dyslexia screening to address our brothers and sisters who was going to Rikers, 30% of them are dyslexia. I'm doing dyslexic screening now. Not dealing with mental help. You know, people are walking past people living on the street. We're taking them off the street. So a lot of this is systemic. You know, you have a man when three years and eight months that had to go through COVID, go through a whole city dropped in our city, and in spite of that, we've addressed the issues of people that were needed. And so, is it going to happen in one term? Three years in eight months?

You know, really, we're talking three years. We turned around. Is it going to happen in one term? No. So you've made progress as well. Exactly. But you haven't relieved everybody's thing. No, no, we have not.

Okay. No, we have not. What about reports, though, like, directly, like, go against what you're saying, right? Because I saw an article in the New York Times, and they talk about the 60% increase in police. There was a surge in misconduct. Yeah, a surge in misconduct reports, right? Against NYPD officers under your time. Yes.

And, but you talk, or you. You speak positively of putting more police in certain places and what that is done for people. But they're saying that there are these numbers and the reports that people can go and read themselves that counter that. Like that's not perception. That's people actually dealing with something. So what do you attribute that increase? Okay. First of all, remember how I cut my teeth. You know, remember how I got into this game in the first place.

I started 100 blacks in law enforcement who care. I was arrested. I was beat by police officers as a child. Reverend Herbert Doortry told me to go into the police department to fight against reform. police abuse and misconduct is not new, you know, in the department. While I was in the department, I was fighting against police abuse. And many people believe when they shout out my car windows because of my advocacy as a police officer. So this is what I've always fought for to make sure that we could have safety and justice at the same time.

And when those police misconduct cases come up, we want to go in and make sure we take out those police officers who are abusive. and abusing their authority is not new this has been a long fight to do so and while we're taking out those officers who are abusive we're not forgetting morin river you know two young officers assassinated while they're doing the job we're not forgetting detective dillard who was shot on the streets we're not for think thanks so much i was going to ask for same thing we're not forgetting you know those who out there taking 23 000 illegal guns off our streets so there's a balance those who are abusive as i've always done in policing we need to target them and we need to get them manager department if they are suitable to do so.

But we trust me, every town hall I go to, every older adult center I go to, every community group I go to, the first thing they say, Eric, we're our police. We want our police on our subways. We want them on our corners. We want our police. I have never been to one town hall meeting where people say we want our police out of the community. Well, question, when it comes to the rise and misconduct complaints against NYPD officers,

what do you think led to that increase? Is it more public scrutiny? Is it changes in reporting? Is it changes in behavior of the officers? What is it? A combination. People, it's easier to make a report now. You have some younger officers on that have to really get acclimated to what it is policing.

So it's a combination. If you were to look at all of those rivers that are feeding the sea of Ms. Konda, you need to dam each river. And also keeping them an account, and I don't know if that report showed that the number of interactions that police have it. the number of interactions with the public, you know, how you interact with the public, how many times you're being called for service. And so each one of those cases must be investigated and it must be carried out to do a proper investigation. If somebody did something wrong, they must be held accountable.

So what immediate reforms would you push to to address the rise? Expedited the investigation. Before it was taken too long, it was taking years. somebody make a complaint. It was taken far too long. We believe you need to expedite so you could identify what officer should no longer be suitable

to be a police officer or if somebody needs to retrain it. You know, all of the person should get an infraction for their action that took place. This is what I advocated for as 100 Blacks and law enforcement who care, as a police officer,

going all the way through the process. Like, I didn't read about Diallo. I know the Diallo family. I didn't read about Abna Luema. Abna Luema came out and endorsed me when I ran for office. These people know I've been side by side

with police reform nationally. I'm known nationally for what I have done around police reform. So I'm not going to become the mayor and all of a sudden betray what I have committed my life to doing dealing with police reform and misconduct. Now, I also have been always strong

on public safety. I can't tell you how many times I'm in these hospitals, man. talking to these mothers. I spoke to the mother of a young 16-year-old girl the other day who was shot in the head just playing in the park, you know? Or, you know, that young girl, 14-year-old shot

that young 16-year-old girl, they were sitting in the school. I'm in these hospitals' rooms. I don't just say, okay, it's a shooting, let me get lost. No, I'm going to visit these family, man. This stuff is traumatizing when you see the over-proliferation of violence in our streets. And so just as we are fighting hard to stop a place, abuse we got to step up and talk these young people down man these they get the shooters are getting

younger and younger i don't think anybody thinks that you're not outside and that you don't do those type of things i mean that's one thing i say that people know that mayor eric adams does but there's things that always pop up in the press that make you look a certain way even if it's not right so that's why i love that you hear so the one of the biggest thing was when when donald trump they dismissed your federal corruption charges right and they did it without prejudice because because they said they leave it open that they can file charges later on, right? And the press put it as, well, that makes him, excuse my friends. Donald Trump's puppet.

Exactly. Where, you know, he can be used any which way. So what do you say to those people in that media? People that really believe that you're lining up with Trump and that might not be what people align to, especially in this election. So think about this for a moment. It was dismissed with prejudice, meaning it can't come back. It was dismissed with prejudice.

Oh, they said without prejudice. No, that's what they wanted. but the judge said it's dismissed with prejudice. So many people never read my indictment. And I keep saying that over and over. People need to read the indictment. I was indicted for calling the fire department and asking them to do a building inspection.

And all the text messages are there. I said, if you can't do it, let me know, and I'll manage their expectation. This is done every day. They took that and said, well, you know what? You got free upgrades. You paid for your flights, but you got upgrades when you flew. flying as the borough president I was allowed to get up grades

they said you got free upgates grace which was not a gift they said we're going to tie that and say it was it was bribery it was bribery and so I'm facing 33 years in prison for this you know and so people say well if you didn't do anything wrong why would they come at you ask Brian Benjamin I think all your callers should Google Brian Benjamin high is ranking black high is raking black in the state

they indicted him also the judge dismissed his charge is also when he looked at, they saw how bogus it was. Biden said the Justice Department was politicized when he parted his son. You know, Trump said it. So the president on the campaign trail, I never knew the president. I never met the president. He was on the campaign trail saying, look what they're doing that man in New York. You know, that's wrong what they're doing to that mayor in New York.

So when he got in, he told his Justice Department, you know, I need to look at that case. When they looked at the case and they saw some of the emails in Texas, messages that the prosecutors were doing, they said, we're going to dismiss this case. That's part of the justice system. The DOJ, they do it all the time. This is not new. This was not special for Eric. They do it all the time. They look at cases and they make a determination, do we want to proceed for it? That was the determination they made. And my attorney sat down and say, look at this case, folks, and what they're doing to this mayor. They got pissed off because I was not a good

Democrat and I started voicing this is wrong what y'all doing for our city that this is costing us too much money this is hurting our folks they basically said you need to be a good Democrat you know they put you in your place right there you go so listen you're polling

in fourth place right now yeah what makes you think you can still win as I as I stated where was Madani what was Zoran this distance out from the race He's pulling at 1%

I said No He was Andrew was beating him by 20 something percent Oh in the primary Yeah In the primary

At during the During the primary Day before the primary There was a poll out Andrew was up by 12% The day before the primary He lost by 14%

And so what I must do In these campaigns Because I've done it before Remember the only one That's only one That's running for mayor That has ever one mayor Is me

You know, I beat an impressive field the last time. Andrew Yang was beating me by 14 points. You know, what I must do is I need my money. I have to be able to have folks come home, open up their mail, and see my story. I have to be able to have my field team on the street that I have to pay for and my volunteers so they can talk about my story. I need to be able to do my radio ads, all the things that go with telling your story. Right now, I'm dependent on my print media.

to tell my story, which they made clear they're not going to tell my story. And the social media, which is terrible, by the way. I don't know who the hell doing your social media. If you don't get ready with these and... I'm sorry? It don't look realistic. That was a video that was going viral of you,

like getting ready to go out to like an event or something like that. Yeah, and I mean, I think it gets younger people wondering who you are and why you're doing it, but it just doesn't add well to the conversation. Yeah, it just doesn't add well to the conversation. I've always wondered what's the strategy behind that? Like, why do you do that? Yeah, you know, and this is very interesting.

that you know you have I'm not a social media expert I don't know I'm the person to tell you all nothing about on social media but a lot of people are talking about the role of young people in the election the only consistent voter in the city are 55 plus older people they're consistent everybody thought that Obama everybody thought that young people were the ones who got Obama elected you're seeing a more and more engagement of young people but Obama was it you know Obama got 65 percent of the young people vote, but it was only 8%, 18% of the total vote. You know, your grandmother and your mom, those are the ones that come out all the time.

So it's, and they're not on X. You know, they are on probably Facebook, and they still get that old-fashioned television ad, mailing, et cetera, and that's what we want to focus on. So with that said, why he'd be doing those ridiculous videos on social media? Listen, like I said, I don't know social media, brother. You know, we have a team of folks that we put on. they create what the social media is, I don't know it. You know, I know what I know, and I know what I don't know, you know,

and I would love to, you know, you want to come on board? I think you should just scream because you'd be outside. But listen, the narrative is, I know, we got to get out of it. The narrative is if you stay in the race, then you and Cuomo will be taking votes away from each other, and that'll make it easier for Mondani to win. Okay. And so let's look at the facts of that.

The ballot is the ballot right now. You can't change the ballot. you know so no matter what happens you can't change the ballot there's going to be five people or even one of the candidates jim walden tried to get off the court said no you can't so the ballot is ballot is a ballot what people need to focus on and ask themselves is what direction do they want the city to go that's what we have to ask ourselves we've come so far do we want to go back do we want to go back to the running off running out millionaires and saying that you don't billionaires in the city who pay 50% of our taxes that's how we have teachers

and firefighters in our streets paid do they want people who want to destabilize our local supermarkets by saying you have been government run supermarkets I've been to Venezuela and Cuba I don't want those type of supermarkets here and I don't want to hurt my bodegas my Dominicans my Chinese supermarkets do you want to legalize prostitution in our city and go back to people standing around street corner he says yes no shut up man you came to the city yes did he wants Prostitution is legalized. What's wrong with you, man?

It's true. It's just a quality of life. You know who hurts the most, brother? Our communities. Our communities can't hire private security. Our community can't go into making sure that some homeless person is not defecating on their street corners or sitting in their school yard. Our communities will be impacted by these policies that idealism collides with realism. So I'm not in favor of defunding our public safety apparatus.

I'm not in favor. We have 7,400 people on Rikers Island. He says right away, he wants to get $3,000 off. I'm not in favor of that. I'm not in favor of putting them back in the communities that they prayed on. Give them the services they need, like what we're doing with our credit program and training people to have their CDL license so they can be gainfully employed. But what we must do is not take our communities back.

And that's the question. And if people look at... You say, what, we must not take our community backwards, I mean. Okay, got you got. And people do an analysis and say, listen, hey, Eric, we heard you. We saw what you done. But this, we want to rock with this guy. Be careful for what you ask for.

You know, and then look at his supporters. Look at his supporters. You know, these are the same, his heart and soul of his community at those same church fires that moved us out of our communities and are disrespectful in our community that is the heart and soul so we're buying into a concept of a person what do you mean about it when you say look look look at his supporters those are those are the same his supporters that mean spirit pocket those are like indians i'm sorry what do you mean no no no no no when you look at Harlem best eye other parts our community when you saw the change of our demographics you saw

gentrification coming to our to into our communities those are that's the heart and soul of his supporters. That's the heart and soul of them. Other people have brought into the message and started growing, but the heart and soul of his supporters are those same people that came in and gentrified our communities in the first place, won't patronize our restaurants, wanted to change. Rich white people? Because they're not black. What? No, not, it's not even justification. You got to be specific when you say that. What do you mean? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Justification to me is not an ethnicity. Ethnicity is a mindset. When you come in and you cannot incorporate yourself into a city, that's a mindset, you know, you could, you could be of any

ethnicity, but if your belief is that, hey, I'm going to come and complain about the noise that's coming from that building on the corner. That's the church, folks. That church has been here for such a sudden for years. That's what I'm saying. That mindset of displacing those long-term folks from communities is at the heart and soul of his base of support. My last question because we got to get out of here. They're going to lock the streets down because the UN's in town. What is Mondani doing better than you?

Selling a lie. You know, selling the lie. You know, he was in assemblymen for four years. He missed 50% of his votes. Like, where is his record? The reason you're able to critique me is because I have a record of over 40 years. Over 40 years of doing this.

You can't critique him. You know, and he's just selling the lies. When he was asked the other day, what is your policy? you know, decriminalized prostitution. I haven't figured out yet. Figured that out yet. He's going to sell a lie until he gets into office

if he were to win. So the reason you can sit me on the show and say, okay, here's what you've done. You know, you can't do that with them. You don't know who, we don't know who we have. You know, we have a person that's a good actor, good communicator, and knows how to tell people whatever they want to hear

to get elected. All right. Well, ladies and gentlemen, Mayor Eric Adams, we appreciate you for joining us. Thank you so much. How do you donate to your campaign? Eric Adams, 2025. Make a donation to make sure I can communicate with you. All right.

There you have it. Now we've got to get a bat out here because they're about to shut these streets down so we're going to follow you out. It's the Breakfast Club as Mayor Eric Adams. Every day I wake up. Wake your ass up. The breakfast club.

We're not finished or y'all done. I'm Jorge Ramos. And I'm Paola Ramos. Together we're launching The Moment, a new podcast about what it means to live through a time as uncertain as this one. We sit down with politicians, artists, and activists to bring you death and analysis from a unique Latino perspective. The Moment is a space for the conversations we've been having us, father and daughter, for years. Listen to The Moment with Jorge Ramos and Paola Ramos on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Jay Chetty and I'm the host of the On Purpose podcast. Today, I'm joined by Emma Watson.

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