The Daily Show: Ears Edition - TDS Time Machine | New York City Mayors

Episode Date: October 26, 2025

Completely normal, and unproblematic, that's what you'd say about these former mayors of New York City! As we anticipate the election of a new mayor, relive the old days with these Jon Stewart and Trevor Noah interviews of Rudy Giuliani, Michael Bloomberg, and Bill de Blasio, and Eric Adams. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ever wondered if that UFO sighting was a secret government project? Not because they didn't go to the moon, but because they seen something on the moon, they weren't supposed to. Or if ancient civilizations really had alien architects. So Roswell, obviously, they think they recovered crafts and beings. On theorist theorizing, wild speculation meets season storytelling. How they dug two kilometers below these pyramids and created all the structures that we're now finding. Join the theorists as they dive into UFOs, cryptids, government cover-ups, true crime, and the weirdest theories the internet and humanity has to offer.

Giza and the pyramids itself being an energy source, you know? It's not a lecture. It's a round table of curiosity, comedy, and what if? Maybe they got tipped off by these U-boats that fled to Argentina, that there was something there. Theorist theorizing. Subscribe now wherever you get your podcast. You're listening to Comedy Central. I guess tonight, a bestselling author and the former mayor of our own New York City. Please welcome Rudolph Giuliani. Sir, come on out.

Could you see you? I'm very good, thank you. You're looking great. So this is it. It's settled. It's Bush v. Carey. Are the juices starting to flow now? Are you getting into campaign mode?

Yes, absolutely. What do you think your role will be? Do you think you'll be on the stump? What is the stump? I'm not even sure I know. I hope that. That sounds like it hurts or something. It is.

It's a small log that politicians are, the last one to jump off. I think I'll be campaigning. I think I'll be campaigning for the president. Sure. I've done it already. I've campaigned in a number of places. I was in Iowa, New Hampshire.

I was in, when I went to Iowa... Well, you're doing great because he's sweeping the primaries. We did very well in Iowa. Very well. We did very well in Iowa. We did very well in New Hampshire. We haven't lost a primary yet. Do you expect this to be, you know, people keep talking about this is going to be a rough one.

There's going to be a... Both sides are going to start snipping each other. Is this one going to be a wild one? Sure, they already started. I mean, it's been months and months of... Right. The whole Democratic primary was who can bash the president the most. I mean, it was sort of like the focus of it.

So I think it's going to be, it's going to be pretty tough, yeah. Right. You think when it, because it's when it down to one guy, it always seems like the candidate tries to avoid besmirching himself with any attacks. He has to send out the other folks. If they say to you, Mr. Giuliani, I'm afraid we're going to have to send you out to knock him down a peg. It's one of those kind, nice, gentle people. I never, you know, get involved in stuff like that.

You're a sweetheart. It's lovely. I'm so young. I have to ask you this. Now, there are, there are rumors that you would actually make for a powerful running. with the president right now in place of the fellow who's there now, who we all know is actually a cyborg who was built in a small, no, this is, you didn't know that? No, he was built in a small lab.

That's the bunker. No, but they talk about, they've talked about you, even if it's not true, it must be very flattering to be considered for this. It actually, it isn't. That's what I meant. I'm a big supporter of Vice President Cheney. He's a good friend of mine, and I'm a big supporter. Yes, I've known him for 25 years.

Really? He gave me the best lecture I ever got on how to be a chief of staff, and I think he's been a great vice president. Then tell me, help me, because I want... You want to get to meet him. Want to see him on the show? That I don't think will happen. But I want to feel his humanity,

and yet I hear so much about the, like, caged duck hunt, like, these crazy stories. And then he talks, and he's always got that, well, we've got to go in there, and we've got to get these guys. Is there another side to him behind the curtain that you see? There's another side to all of us, the public side to us. I mean, some of the ways I was depicted when I was to mayor, I used to, I used to get, I used to cry when I saw myself on television.

Is that true? No, it's not true. No, I knew that wasn't true. I knew you were kidding. Yeah, he's a very, he's a, he's very, very smart, very experienced, helped the country get through the Persian Gulf War back in the early 90s. I mean, this is a man of tremendous experience. Right. And somebody that the...

You believe in this team. You truly do this. I remember... This is not a chore for you. This is not a party affiliation thing. Absolutely not. You do believe in these guys. I believed in the team before, September 11, 2001.

And from that day on, my admiration for how they dealt with the worst attack in the history of this country has only grown. Boy, that's a tough one to make a joke with. Son of a gun. Now, when you look at, you know, do you know Senator Kerry at all? Not well, but yeah, I do know him somewhat. Okay. Actually, we share something in common. We both had prostate cancer and had to deal with it.

And I remember calling him when I found out about it and having a very, very good conversation with him. He's a nice man. He's a good man. And this campaign should not be based on personal attacks. Okay. Both men are good human beings. So we can't lose. You're saying we can't lose.

He's the honest, decent men who have totally different philosophies. And that's the way the campaign should be run. That is an interesting point. I have always found that, you know, there's a lot of bashing on both sides, but I truly believe that the Bush administration, in their hearts, thinks they're doing the right thing, however, obviously, insane it is. And that the Democrats, but I do believe that they care. That this is not, you know, people have a lot of conspiracy theories about, you know,

the evil cabal that does it. I think all these guys really do believe in their hearts. They're doing what's best for the country. You've got two men who love the country, otherwise they wouldn't go through this. It's a bitch. It's terrible. You don't go through running for president unless you have a real commitment to the country and the idea that you can do something, you can make a difference.

The president has his view on how to deal with the war on terror. He's remained very committed to it. I think it's been very successful. Senator Kerry has a different view, right? What's his name? Kerry. He has a different view of how to do that. You know, President Bush.

Hopefully it'll keep it to those sorts of policy decisions. President Bush believes in lowering taxes is a way of... I see where you're going now. Senator Kerry believes in. All right. We're going to come back. We've got more to talk about with Rudolph Giuliani. We'll be back in a minute.

We're back with Rudolph Giuliani. Let's talk some domestic stuff. Right now, the mayor of New Paltz is conducting gay marriages and has now been, I guess, charged with a misdemeanor based on that. I think, what is it called, solemnizing a wedding? I know, I did some crazy. I did 220 weddings when I was. was the mayor.

Okay. About 220. Because I really enjoyed doing them. It was a way of kind of getting out of the... You got to make some money too. You know, I mean, that's... Well, it depended. You want the short one?

You want the short one? The long one? The illegitimate one. You know, we could do all kinds of... We could do all kinds of... For an extra 50, I'll do it in Hebrew. I know what goes on. What do you think about that responsibility?

Is that tough to do? I think you've got to follow the law. Whatever your views are in gay marriage, whether you think it's right or wrong, or you think civil unions are right or wrong, the law in New York is called. The law in New York is clear. Marriage is a man and a woman. And you've got to follow that,

unless you can get the state legislature to change the law. And the mayor of New Paul's, that's what he should be doing. He should be organizing efforts to try to convince the state legislature, try to convince the courts. But it's no different than the principles

that was established with Richard Nixon. You know, the president's not above the law. No, I didn't know he was gay. That's a terrible thing to say. Different principle. That's a different. But the principle of Richard Nixon was the president's not above.

the law right the mayor's not above the law you can't make the law yourself a legislature does that and if he feels strongly about this and he obviously does he should be trying to convince the new york state legislature to change the way uh... some others have now what about as they did in massachusetts in terms of let's say uh... all these white collar scandals and all those sorts of things with you in charge you think you would have gone in there to the new york stock exchange to the s a and and kicked a little uh... i think i just department has done what they're supposed to do i mean they've

indicted uh... The head of WorldCom today. Oh, WorldCom Bernie Edwards? No, that one is before a jury right now. I don't want to say anything about that. Right. One of the things that used to annoy me when I was a trial lawyer were all the comments about a case, you know, by people who knew nothing about it. But the WorldCom case is now an indictment, so.

I'm shocked that you turn on these 24 news channels and they're literally like court TV now. You can't, you know, they're talking about Kobe and Martha and things. Trials are inherently dramatic. I mean, people, think of all the great courtroom drama that's been on broad, Broadway and the movies for years. So now it's kind of translated itself into live television. But this is something people have been interested in. Right. I always thought art

imitated life, not the other way around, but I guess the news organizations have put that on its head. I love being a trial lawyer. There probably was no more pure drama than waiting for a jury. You ever think you come back to politics? I'd like to, speaking about the first part, I would like to maybe

try one more case or argue one more appeal. Can I tell you something that I'm going to do for you because I like you. I am going to commit a crime. But I'm going to have you do it because you're my man. Runez Giuliani! Ever wondered if that UFO sighting was a secret government project?

Not because they didn't go to the moon, but because they seen something on the moon they weren't supposed to. Or if ancient civilizations really had alien architects. So Roswell, obviously, they think they were covered crafts and beings. On theorist theorizing, wild

speculation meets season storytelling. How they dug two kilometers. There's below these pyramids and created all the structures that we're now finding. Join the theorists as they dive into UFOs, cryptids, government cover-ups, true crime, and the weirdest theories the Internet and humanity has to offer. Giza and the pyramids itself being an energy source, you know? It's not a lecture. It's a round table of curiosity, comedy, and what if?

Maybe they got tipped off by these U-boats that fled to Argentina, that there was something there. Theorist Theorizing. Subscribe now wherever you get your podcast. Please welcome back to the program.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Nice to see you. And you. Thank you for having me. We're honored. As a matter of fact, you know, I don't get a lot of sitting dignitaries.

If you don't mind, I just wanted to get just a quick autograph if you could. Just right on the line there, it would be great. I really appreciate that. That's terrific. That's terrific. That'll be great. Don't worry about put my name on it. Okay.

Let me just get that right there. Thank you. Do you see what... Do you see what name I put on it? What'd you put on there? John Stewart! Blumber! I thought I had you on that.

Damn it. What else did you want? Nothing. I want to wait in... Let's wait in immediately on what. what is obviously an emotional, supercharged issue that everyone in the city is talking about, this sliced bagel tax. Apparently, New York State has passed an 8-cent tax.

If you get a bagel regular, a dollar. With a smear. With a smear. But if you get it sliced, they add 9 cents, 8 cents, 9 cents. It's good. How can that be? How can you add to slice a bagel? It's our state legislature.

They can do anything. This is not the craziest thing they've done. But this is clearly, A, anti-Semitic. There's no argument about that. He loves bagels more than us, and B. Penalizing in a terrible way, downstate New York, upstate New York, the bagels, they think, what, the hollabre? You probably can't even get a bagel upstate. That's what I'm talking about. That's why they didn't tax them upstate. They only taxed them down here. Can you fight? Can you, should we...

This is one of the causes I'm going to work on for the next three and a half years. Is that true? It's one of the big things I'm taking on. It's tyranny, I tell you. It is. How are you handling? This, obviously, the mosque, mosque, the Islamic Community Center in downtown Manhattan, has caused an awful lot for fuffle, for lack of a better word.

You have spoken out very eloquently in favor of people being able to do what they're able to do on private property. Is that your feeling? When I went to school, we studied the Constitution. It says you have a right to say what you want to say, which means pray to whomever you want, whenever you want, wherever you want. And it's just not the government's business to take. tell you what to say.

You went on and on about Glenn Beck. He has a right to say anything he wants. That's what's great about America. And people say, well, in Saudi Arabia, can't build a church. Yes, that's the difference being in Saudi Arabia and America. And it's plain and simple that. Whether you like a mosque or don't like a mosque, you don't have to go. There's already another mosque down there within four blocks of the World Trade Center.

There's porno places. There's fast food places. I mean, it's a vibrant community. It's New York. I understand. Why did you have to look at me when you said porno places? Why did you... You know, you're going through it was a very...

I thought it was a very eloquent defense, and then suddenly you looked up like, right? Well, I just wanted to make it relevant to you. Because I was thinking, and again, I don't know if you're going to support this or not, I would like to build a synagogue reform in St. Patrick's Cathedral. I think if you talk to the...

Archbishop. He might be amenable to that. He said that he wants to bring people together. He wants to find another place for the mosque. Maybe he'd find another place for your temple. Did this take you off guard? Now, the sensitivities about that site. Everyone knows, you know, the emotions run so hot, the families of victims, the people that were traumatized throughout it. Everyone in New York, people in the country, how do you bridge that emotional gap by how do you be sensitive to people who feel that site is protected and yet still abide by. Well, number one, New York Times wrote about this mosque a year ago. Laura Ingram did a show about it or mentioned on one of her shows and said she was in favor of it.

This mosque has been operating for over a year. There's nothing new here. The difference is we're in the election season. And this whole issue, I think, will go away right after the next election. This is plain and simple people trying to stir up things to get publicity and trying to polarize people so that they can get some votes. and I don't think that most of these people who are yelling and screaming really care one way or another. The family members, they do care, and the family members that I've talked to,

and I'm chairman of the board of the World Trade Center Memorial, 100% in favor of saying these people, if they want to build a mosque, can build a mosque. The lives of our loved ones were taken because the right to build a mosque or to say what you want to say was so threatening to people. My girlfriend and I were having dinner last week, and this guy comes up. to me and want to talk to you, a big hulking guy. I'm thinking, okay, I don't need this. Well, that's my size.

Comparatively. Right, yeah, absolutely. Yeah, all right. So you're saying, like, he's like 5'9. Yeah, right. And he said, you know, I want to talk to you about the mosque. And I'm thinking, you know, it's gonna ruin my hamburger. I got hamburger and a pickle and a potato chip or something. And he said, let me just tell you,

I just got back from two tours fighting overseas from America. This is what we were all fighting for. You go and keep at it. And that's, I think, really, interesting. I mean, unfortunately, I think the difficulty always is, unfortunately, I'm sure there are veterans who fought over there who feel we shouldn't. I'm sure there are family members, maybe you haven't heard of them, who feel we shouldn't. Absolutely. It's very, unfortunately, you have to divorce emotion from principal to some extent, and that can't always be an easy job for an elected official.

If you were running for re-elected officials, if you were running for re-election, would you feel that you were in a different position? or would have to take a different position. I think I should speak out even more if I were running for re-election because I think the public wants people that, what they want people to say, candidates to do is say what they believe. They want people to be genuine,

even if they don't agree with them. And I think, you know, saying one thing today and a different thing tomorrow is not exactly a great way is to build a career and certainly not good government. Yeah, it's, the way right now, when they're fanning the flames of the fear, right now it was first about the sensitivity of the spot.

Now it's moved to, where's the financing coming from? Who are the people behind this operation? Has that been a concern for New York City? We would not ask that if somebody was trying to build a temple or a church. Plain and simple. You don't want to... And illegality is illegality. If it's people on a terrorist list, they're on a terrorist...

Plain and simple. Whatever it is. Whether they want to build a mosque or a video arcade. Look, there are a lot of people who've said things that I don't agree with. But if I want to be able to say what I believe, I've got to let you say what you believe, even if I violently disagree with. And even if I find it despicable, I thought that... Again, I thought you looked at me, which I thought was interesting.

Well, most of your stuff's fine, you know. I mean, your writers are good anyways. I'm always questioned. I'm question the delivery, but other than that. I understand. It's a little sticky as it goes along. What are you going to do for that? Look, I mean, you got this audience, Buffalo.

No. Well, listen, I appreciate you doing it, and I'm looking forward to, you know, we're having a dinner for your foundation coming up. Good. And you didn't know that? I did not know that. I did not. You're the chairman of the dinner.

Well, yes, you're doing this for us. us. I know. Thank you. I want you to know something. You know how much I know about this? Where's your schedule? Wait, time out.

You are so popular. It's been sold out. Is that true? Absolutely. We don't have any more tables. Which means we underpriced them. Underpriced them. No, we're going to raise a lot of money that night.

It's going to be great. Sir, thank you so much for coming by. I really appreciate the parking pass. Thanks for standing up for what's right. Thank you, sir. Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Everybody, my guest tonight, he is New York City's 109th mayor. Please welcome to the program, Mayor Bill de Blasio, sir.

What are you? How are you? I'm feeling good. I just wish we had done a better job of getting that snow up to the Upper East Side. I know. You'll get it up there. You know, this is, since you've been mayor, it has snowed, what, three times? How many times?

Yeah. I remember Bloomberg, 12 years, never snowed once. What? I think he paid the right guy. That's what I'm, this is what I'm talking about. I mean, he had the money. Has it been overwhelming? It's nonstop.

It's 24-7. It's the ultimate 24-7 job. Right. But I love this place. It's pretty great. And it's endlessly fascinating to me, but I'd like to snow to end. Yes. I've done the snow experience.

I'd like to try something else now. Here's the thing, so you've got, there's a lot of issues that I want to get today. We've got, you know, stop and frisk, you're going to be stopping that. We've got a pre-K education tax policy. We've got the stables situation, but there's one thing in particular that is, I think, many New Yorkers are talking about, and it's, in many ways, egregious, and let's take a look. Bill de Blasio is caught on camera this week eating pizza with a knife and fork. Now, Bloomberg, as you know, used to have his food chewed and then put back into his mouth, like a baby bird.

But this is unacceptable, sir. So, may I, this is from, it's called John's Pizzeria. It's a meal. This is, this is, it's called a, it's a sausage and mushroom from John's. John's is one of the greatest pizza places in the history of pizza. I thought maybe you and I could break bread, we could share a slice.

Would you like a slice? I would love a slice. Would you, with your head? What are you doing? Okay. Thank you, John. I gotta teach you everything? I wanna say, John.

As mayor of Napoli, I mean, New York City. Yes. We are always ready for our pizza. Oh, my God. Don't even... Come on, come on. Talk to me. There's another way?

Oh. Let me show you something. Let me watch. Let me just show you. Oh, that's a beautiful slice of pizza. Hey, Bloomberg's gone, right? Wait. Can you...

That technique... Hold on. You have a soda. Have a soda. You should have a big oak. I put a big ope down there for you. Once you get it out? There's a big up down here?

Yeah. Oh, you got it. Here we go. Wow. Oh, you are gigantic. Wow. Look at that. In his hands, it looks like a regular soda.

Cheers. We'll be back with more than Mayor De Blancho. Welcome back. We're here with Mayor Del Blancho. So now let's talk. So let's talk about the one stop and frisk. There was a challenge. It was ruled unconstitutional.

New York City had proffered a challenge to that. You have ended that. I have. There will be no stop and frisk. We've come to a settlement. What is the settlement? Look. What I've said was you cannot, it's a simple idea.

And our new police commissioner of Bill Bratton, who's fantastic, says it's you can't break the law to enforce the law. It's as simple as that. Well, that's not enough. And what we had for years was young men of color, overwhelmingly, they were the one singled out, treated as suspects, even if they hadn't done anything wrong, stop and frisk in its heyday. We had almost 700,000 stops in a single year. Almost 90% of them were innocent people. And every way, shape, form, no summons, no charge, nothing.

That's not how you proceed in a democratic society. I argue that public safety and civil liberties have to march hand in hand. How frightened are people when you walk in? Because they must think now you're coming in there and turning everything upside down. The uncertainty must be palpable at City Hall. I don't wear the Che Guevara T-shirt. All right. I think that's wise. I've thought about that.

No, look, I'm blessed to have had a very strong mandate from the people to make some real progressive change. And throughout the last year, I talked about the tale of two cities we were living. This was all about acknowledging the inequalities that have become very fundamental and, unfortunately, growing in our city, and going at them, whether it's the inequality of how policing was done or inequality in terms of income or inequality in terms of education. The people of the city are ready to actually take that on head on. And so, yes, there are some bureaucrats and others who are hesitant, but I know the popular support is there. How do you explain that to people who have enjoyed a more absolute position in the city, somewhat unassailable, that that is fairness and justice and not persecution? You know, how do you convince them that the loss of a more absolute power is not persecution? This comes up, for example, with our plan to tax the wealthy for pre-k and after school.

I've said anyone who makes a half million or more pays a little bit more in the city taxes. What does it allow us to do? Full day pre-k for every child in the city, after school, for every middle school student for free. guaranteed would be transcendent in terms of our school system would totally allow us to prepare our kids properly and you know our you and Cuomo are fighting a little about it he says I'll pay for it from the state you say I'll pay for it from the city why can't we go 50-50 on this bad boy you know I like the way you think but you know the because we need to know the money's going to be there

year after year and the only way we're going to get that is if we have a tax that we control here in the city and if we tax those to make a half million or more they can handle it the equivalent for someone between between between a half million and a million dollars is the price of a small soy latte at Starbucks once a day. Let me ask you a question. Can I, if I, because I'm going to end up paying a little bit more, can I go to the pre-K and be like, you're mine?

And so you better get those grades up, because I'm on your ass. We're going to create a program for you. Thank you. I appreciate that. All right. So you, the 50-50 thing, no fly, though. I think we need more reliable money, but let me tell you the question.

Well, the state hasn't offered a specific dollar figure, and they certainly haven't offered the five years we need. This is a five-year $2.6 billion plan to make sure that every child gets a strong start in school. Couldn't Bloomberg just chucked that in as an on his way out? Just threw it into a pot? It could have been a gratuity. No, that's what I'm talking about. Hey, thanks for having me as mayor.

Nice job. Have some pre-cats. It's good. It's something for you, Pat. Right. But here's the thing. When I go and talk to wealthier folks and say, we want you to pay a little more so we can do this some people get upset some people say are you trying to punish success I say we're not trying to punish success we're trying to create more success stories we're trying to get more kids a chance to get a good education

the people that have done very well in the city have done well in this city because of the opportunity that this city and its infrastructure have offered us and I think it is the least we can do to as they say pay it forward and if that is a few you know you're not a create it's this is not you have to give us 95% of your money this is I I think, a reasonable way of looking at it. That being said, the fear is we return to a different time in New York when it was less orderly and things were more chaotic. And how do you tell people that that is not the case, that this is going to be changed but done in a manner that is much more reasonably prescribed?

Whenever you see a progressive moment, whenever you see progressive leaders come into office, that charge is thrown in one way or another. We're going to have a more compassionate society. Somehow, it's going to connect with this order. It's specious. It's not true. And the bottom line is, we know the great threat

to this country is inequality. The great threat to the city is inequality. We have rampant growing inequality. It's going to be unsustainable for the long term. People need a core hope in our society, in democratic society. They can actually get somewhere. They need a core amount of visible opportunity.

And that's been slipping away. So if you want to talk about destabilizing realities in our society, talk about inequality. But progressives can run governments effectively. Progressives can be fiscally responsible. Progressives can focus on public safety, but we're going to do it in a way that respects people's rights. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. All right. I'll have you back in three years. We'll talk about it. Mayor Bill de Blasio. Thank you very much. With MX Platinum, access to exclusive.

Exclusive Amex pre-sale tickets can score you a spot trackside. So being a fan for life turns into the trip of a lifetime. That's the powerful backing of Amex. Pre-sale tickets for future events subject to availability and varied by race. Terms and conditions apply. Learn more at Amex.ca. slash Y-Amex. My guest tonight is the mayor of New York City.

He's joining me to discuss his first six months in office and how he's tackling some of the city's most pressing issues. Please welcome Mayor Eric Adams. You don't realize it, but you just assaulted me with that handshake. I'll try and be a little more gentle next time. Please, please, please. I'll try and be a little more gentle. Welcome to the show.

Thank you, because, you know, you doing that, you could be inside for 24 hours, you know? Let's talk about that before we move on. Like, I heard what you said about Rudy Giuliani. You said that he should actually be investigated for reporting a false crime because if it wasn't for that video footage, that person who tapped him on the back, which, again, I don't condone, but that wasn't assault.

No, it was not. He falsely reported a crime, and the district attorney should take that seriously. That person that he forcily reported spent 24 hours in jail. That's not acceptable. It's not acceptable. And so I'm going to call the DA.

We must be consistent. All of that, the atrics that he did, that's not acceptable. If that tape wasn't there, imagine what would have happened to that man. Yeah. Can't happen. Can't happen.

Many New Yorkers have really. been impressed by your, the attitude you've taken to education. You know, you've come in, you've revamped the system, you're creating a world where, you know, your, your staff is really focusing on getting New York City's education up to where it needs to be. Two parts of the question. Number one, what do you still think needs to be achieved in terms of education in New York? And number two, how do you, how do you remove or fight against all of the segregation that happens in New York City schools? Because you have a city where everyone mixes, and yet in the schools, it seems like the city is still in Jim Crow.

You know, a couple things. Number one, I learned a lot when I was in South Africa. I drove from Cape Town to Port Elizabeth to Joe Burr, and I spoke to a lot of people there. When people talk about segregation, they don't look at the hidden segregation we have in America. Our school system is dysfunctional. And we have acknowledged that dysfunctionality because black and brown and poorer students are the impact of that. Sixty-five percent of black and brown children never reached proficiency in our New York City school system. And we've normalized that. And so what I did, I looked at my journey.

I was dyslexic. I'm dyslexic. From K through 12, I used to walk in the school building. They used to put dumb suited on the chair. I was bullied. And not until I got into high school did I discover it I was dyslexic. There was nothing wrong with me. 30 to 40% of the prisoners that are in Rikers Island, dyslexic.

So what am I doing? as mayor, I'm taking my journey and now helping other children. We have dyslexia screening for every child now, and I'm going to Rikis and screen the prisoners for dyslexia so they could get the services they need.

I'm going to chat to you a little bit more after the break. We're going to be chatting about police, we're going to be chatting about rents in the city, and we'll be chatting about why some people think you're the quirkiest most interesting mayor in America. Don't go away. We'll be right back with more from Mayor. Welcome back to the daily show where we are joined by New York City,

Mayor Eric Adams, Mayor Adams, let's jump into two of some of those pressing issues in the city. Number one, police, which touches on crime, but, you know, it's almost two separate issues at the same time. One of the things you ran on coming into office was, I'm going to bring down crime in New York City. Since you've come into office, crime has skyrocketed. You know, it's only been five, six months, but I'm sure many people would love to know from your perspective, how long do you think that promise will take to achieve? and how do you actually bring crime down? Because every mayor has a different solution

for actually achieving that. Well, it's a unique moment. You know, people that know my history, I was arrested at 15. I was beat badly by police officers. They assaulted my brother in 9 and 103 precinct. I returned back to that precinct when I became the mayor.

I fought against the abuse of stopping frisk. I've testified in federal court. And the judge mentioned my testimony when she ruled against the police department. I can't go backwards. We can't go back to the days when every black and brown child that walked the streets was treated unfairly.

And so we have to have that balance. I like to say intervention and prevention. Intervention is right now. We took 3,000 guns off our street. Shooters dropped by 30%, homicide dropped by 13%. We're moving in the right way, but I'm not gonna allow us to be abusive in the process. Prevention, let's do the long-term things.

Let's lean into foster care children so they have the opportunities and not age out without the support. Let me ask you this then about New York. This city has always been an interesting place where the police unions and the mayors have often had a fraught relationship. You were a really unique mayor in that you were police. You come from police and yet you've experienced police

and you've tried to change police and yet at the same time you go, you have to encourage the police. So obviously you have critics and fans that inhabit both spaces. But I'd love to know this, because I know a lot of New Yorkers have this as a question. When crime is down in the city, mayors will say, well, that means the police are doing their job. We need to give them more money, more funding to the police force, which oftentimes means less funding for the schools, the other services, et cetera, et cetera. But then when crime is up in the city, mayors will say, oh, that means we need to give the police more money because they need more help bringing the crime down.

So what I'd like to understand is, why is it that in that job where the things are going down? well or not going well, the money always increases. It doesn't seem like it matches what's happening in the city. And how do you address that as mayor whilst also acknowledging these are people, these are people in the city trying to keep everybody safe, et cetera, from a mayor's perspective, I understand it? Right. How do you find that balance?

Good question. Well, first of all, the prerequisite to prosperity is public safety and justice. They go together. Historically, people will say you could only have justice, you could only have public safety. And I say no to that. It's not a tradeoff. We could have both. We could be safe. and we could have justice, that accountability is going to be in place.

But let's not kid ourselves. We have been producing an inferior product all across the city. We spend $38 billion a year on education. Yes, 65% of black and brown children never reach education. They've been playing us. We've been getting played for so long. So the problem is not that people dislike me. They say, you know who dislike me?

people who have been eating off of us. All of those people who make contracts from pulling people downstream, you know how much money is made when a child is dyslexic and is not educated and he's incarcerated? You have counselors, you have therapists, you know, you have people who feed them prescription and drugs.

People have been playing us, brother, for a long time. And now I come along and say, listen, the gig is up. So just in case I missed it though, I don't think I did, but how do you then grade whether the police are doing well or not in your city. Combination. We'll never be able to deal with this crime problem with just police. Okay.

We can't police our way out of this. When you have foster care children, an age out of 21, and you know every year, 6,700 of them are, only 5% graduate from high school, only 22% graduate, I mean, 22% graduate from high school, 5% from college. They're more likely to be homeless, mental health, unemployed, victims of crime, participate in crime. So what I'm saying, no, let's let them get support until they're 26, 90% graduate from high school.

Let's open up our trade schools like I did after Brooklyn Steam Center and give these children certifications. Let them go into some of these jobs. Google is here. Facebook is here. Why not have these children fed right into employment be part of the growth of the city? So if you employ, then you won't have to worry about the criminality that you're seeing. By the time a child picks up a gun. We already failed.

We failed already. But then why do you care so much about some of the smaller things? You know, like, for instance, why does the city need to spend so much money on police monitoring who jumps a fair and who doesn't? Like, what is the percentage of money that the city's losing on fair jumping? I like that. I like that. I like that.

Do people really need to go to jail for like, come on, it's, people are going to pay. And the people who don't pay, like, what is that percentage versus everyone else? That's a great question. Here's what we can't do. We cannot send a message that, any and everything goes in our city. Because it starts with, okay, so or someone jumps the fair. And when there are systems, we have a reduced fare metro card program.

If you can't pay enough, we're going to give you the metro card. And there's ways to get on the system if you can't pay. So you can walk into Dwayne Reed and say, you know what? I'm going to take whatever I want off the shelf and I'm going to walk out. Because now Dwayne Reed is going to close down and that low-wage employee who's going to school at night to try to make a living is going to lose his job because you decided you don't want to pay. So we can't have a city where you can do whatever you want.

No, we're going to be a city we're not going to criminalize poor, but we're not going to allow someone to state that their economic status is going to allow them to disrespect what it is to live in a city like New York. I know what it is to be poor, brother. We used to go to school every day with a garbage bag full of clothing because mommy said

we're going to be thrown out and we want you to have clean clothing so you won't be embarrassed when you go to school. But Mommy made sure we're going to always uplift ourselves, fight hard, and we're going to be respectful in the process. I'm not going to allow people to believe because of where they are is who they are.

We're so much better. So let's talk about one of the parts of the city that everyone agrees needs to become better, and that is affordability. Yes. As you said, New York City is not made by the Empire State Building. It's not made by the Statue of Liberty.

It's made by the people. The people feel like they can't remain in New York because they can't afford to live here. And you're seeing this spread. It's going out to Brooklyn, spreading into Harlem. I mean, the main part of the island is almost unaffordable for most people.

For people who don't live in rent-controlled apartments, where there's no recourse. I've heard people's rents jump by 20%, 30%, 40%. It can just do whatever. And you're out. Your life has changed. It becomes unaffordable. Half the places in Midtown are only,

by people who don't even live in the city, never mind the country. What do you do as mayor to prevent that from happening? How do you make it so that the people actually want to live in the city? Because I've seen you say, by the way, people need to come back to the office. I've seen you say, we need to get back in the office. People need to get, you know, the New York City back to life.

And I understand why. But I can also see why people say, well, Mayor Adams, why should I come back to the city when I can go and live, you know, 40 minutes away, 50 minutes away in Connecticut on a train and not have to pay these rents anymore? How do you prevent these people from turning this into a ghost?

What do you do? What do you do? What I must do as the mayor is now create affordable housing, which we're doing, which is very interesting. You have some of the people who are advocating for affordable housing, and I say, okay, great, we're going to build it on your block. Whoa, well, not on my block. You know, you want to up zone on my block?

See, we have to stop the hypocrisy of people, those who are advocating for something, but when it's time to produce it in their space, and convenience them, now they have a whole other conversation. conversation. We want to build safe haven beds. Show me the community that's going to allow me to build a safe haven beds to get wraparound services. So we must get in the business of affordable

housing, but once we build it, we have to put people in the units. We're going to change the game of NICHA, which you know what NICHER residents have been going through for years, and now we're moving in another direction. So the affordability is crucial.

Do you think you can find the balance because as a mayor, you're always responding to business, some of the richest people in the city, you know, you're responding to the people who are annoyed by poor people, as you said, the NIMBY's, not in my backyard, right? They want to change, but not in their backyard, and you're responding

to the majority of the 8 million people. Yes. What do you think you're going to be able to do in the short term? I understand the ideas behind it, but what's a concrete thing you can say to New Yorkers where you go like, hey, this is what I'm actually going to do for you in the short term. Right, and we're doing that right now. First of all, the affluent New Yorkers,

Do you know 52% of our taxes are paid by 2% of New Yorkers? I can believe that. If we lose those 2%, we lose our teachers, our firefighters, our cops. So for me not to engage those high-income earners, that's foolish as a man. And I'm not going to do that. I want them to pay their taxes. I want them to volunteer. I want them to contribute to my museums, to my nonprofits.

They need to be a part of that. And so, when you look at what we're doing right away, child care vouchers for families in the city, you know, people are paying $50 a week, we were able to get them down to $10 a week. We're open so many new seats in child care. What we're doing with dyslexia screening, what we're doing with college fund for our children. When you start out of a college fund for a child, they're four times more likely to go to college by having a child. child care, this college fund. Right. When you look at what we're doing

what's called the crisis management team and how they deal on crisis on the ground for prevention, what we're doing with earn income tax credit. Brother, we send back billions of dollars because people don't know how to fill out the forms to get the resources that they deserve. So we're making it that easier

in streamlining of the earn income tax credit. So we're doing things that are going to put money back in the pack pockets of New York is. So, before I let you go, I'd love to know, real quick. What would you grade yourself as, as a mayor right now? What grade would you give yourself? And I know it's a tough one. I told you, when we spoke earlier,

there's no tough questions for me because I'm going to be me. I'm going to be me. You are, you, definitely. I'll say that about you. What would you grade yourself as as a mayor? I, I, I'm incomplete. I'm incomplete. Oh, interesting.

Yes, yes. That's an interesting one. I'm incomplete. All right. I'm incomplete as a man. I'm incomplete as a man. I'm incomplete as a father. I'm incomplete in my personal life.

I get up every morning. I meditate. I exercise. I pray. I say the pleasure of allegiance. And I get myself ready. Every day? Every day.

I mean, the last one's a bit weird. Every day. But it's not. It's not. I mean, surely the flag knows by now that you, I mean... Yeah, well, you know, we, you know, this country, this country has a lot of issues. Yes, it does.

But I've been all over the globe, and this is the only country where dream is attached to our name. It's not a German dream, a French dream. Oh, the French dream is, but it's a very different kind of dream. Yeah. Thank you so much for joining me. I appreciate the time. I know you're a busy man.

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