Full Show: Stephen A. has a one-on-one sit down with embattled New York City Mayor Eric Adams.

What's up, everybody. Welcome to this edition of The Stephen A. Smith Show, coming at you over the digital airways. With YouTube and our Heart Radio, we've now eclipsed over one point zero six million subscribers. Can't thank y'all for the love and support enough just on that alone, let it on the millions of downloads that we received over the last few months off of our Heart Radio as well. Thank you so much. Got a lot of stuff to get into, so I'm gonna get into it real quickly.

Want to start first.

Okay, first things first, in terms of pardoning folks from the riots capital, you know, in the US Capital, January sixth, twenty twenty one, I do not agree with that decision by the President of the United States. I do believe that a lot of folks should have been pardoned, etc. But when you bring up Proud Boys and the Oathkeepers and considering the charges that were leveled against them, anybody, and I'm just using that as an example, anybody that

I'm friends with Sean Hannity and Mark Levin. I know these people. Okay, let me be very very.

Clear about what I want to say about when it comes to diversity, equity, inclusion.

That's making me very very uncomfortable.

I'm sick and tired of folks on the right, and I'm not talking about those individuals.

I'm just talking about the right period in general.

I'm sick and tired of folks bringing up DEI as if it's a bad thing to bring up, Like everybody who got a job under DEI must not have been qualified. They got it because of diversity, equity and inclusion policies implemented at a corporate American beyond stop stop. The reason DEI existed to begin with was because there were an abundance of qualified individuals from minority communities throughout this country you didn't give a second look to because they didn't look like you.

I can come with it from a world of sports.

When you look at the Rooney Rule, there were black coaches that were interviewed and ultimately got jobs. Why was the Rooney rule necessary? Because they were qualified black coaches that were being ignored. And if you're being ignored, then not the opportunity to prove that you're worthy, if possibly more qualified and more competent than a white counterpart, then rules and legislation need to be implemented to ensure fairness. So why you want to right preaching and speaking about

Not a left might have came about and handled it all wrong.

And been a bit excessive in their behavior and elevated the level of cynicism that comes attached with DEI. But you don't get to forget what role was played that provoked the existence of DEI to begin with.

That's all I'm saying.

I'm an independent, as we have articulated on this show on numerous occasions, I'm not sided with any side definitively.

I just want to make the point that fair is fair.

There's a lot of problems that I have with and we'll continue to have and will continue to express and articulate about what we witness from the left. But I don't let you off on the right. I'm talking about those of you with mal intent. You've denied plenty of opportunities throughout history to people that come from minority communities throughout this country.

That's why DEI came into existence. That's why stuff like the Rooney Rule is in existence.

That's why you had affirmative action that was in existence. A lot of things are changing in this world. It's a lot of stuff to discuss, but you don't get to forget your role in forcing that stuff to come about to begin with. You can try to gloss over history. It ain't gonna be that easy. Remember I said that, And we'll talk about that in the very near future as well.

Coming up much more on the Trump administration with my next guest.

He is the mayor of New York City who recently spent time with President Trump.

At Maro Lago. That one and only Eric Adams joins me right here in studio face to face with your boy, stephen A. Trust me when I say you don't want to miss this all right, y'all, listen up.

Do you know that the NFL Championship games are right around the corner and that we're smack in the middle of the NBA season. So with all this action going on, The stephen A Smith Show wants to make sure you take advantage of it all. That's why we've partnered the Prize Picks, the best place to get real by the action while watching your favorite sports. You see, with Prozepects, you pick two or more of your favorite players and then you simply select more or less or the projected

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Again, download the app and you codes sas to get fifty dollars instantly after your first five dollar lineup prize pets, YO, run your game. Now, let's look at my picks for today. I'll be making picks for the NFC Championship game, y'all, the Philadelphia Eagles versus the Washington Commanders. First up, we have Commander's quarterback Jaden and Daniels facing the Eagles secondary

Of course he's gonna have more. That's the easy one right there.

Next up, Command is wide receiver Terry McLaurin more.

Or less than sixty four and a half receiving yards.

That's a brother, that's that brother special. I'm gonna go with more on this one as well, make no mistake about that.

He's that kind of dude.

Next up, you have Eagles running back sain Kwon Barkley more or less than one hundred and twenty seven and a half rushing yards less.

What y'all for once, I'm gonna go with less.

See, I think the Washington command is gonna key on this brother. They can't let this man run for two hundred yards. They can't let this man run for four hundred and sixty yards over two games the way he did against the Los Angeles Rams this season. They got to make sure that sain Kwon Barkley rushed for two thousand and five yards this season. Okay was a candidate for League MVP on us could have wanted if he played that.

Last game of the regular season against.

His old team in New York Times, if coach Nick Sirianni had let him play that same Saint Kwon Barkley is going to be the key. You know why, because the Washington a Mans is gonna say, make Jalen Hurts beat us. We know aj Brown is that do. We know Devonte's smith and can ball. We know Dallas gotta can get his stuff done. But the end, if you make Jalen Hurts throw the football, that's our best chance to beat the Philadelphia Eagles because we can't.

Lets say Kwon Barkley continue to run that ball. That's gonna be their strategy. They're gonna load the box.

They're gonna make the Philadelphia Eagles throw, and Jalen Hurts is gonna have to beat you. Finally, we have Eagles wide out AJ Brown up against the Commanders more or less than sixty and a half receiving yards. I'm gonna go with more because I think Jalen Hurts is gonna have to throw the football. If you go and throw the football, you got to get it to that brother, that stud AJ Brown. You dropped a couple of passes last week. AJ Brown, I saw you. I saw you.

The football field and drop passes. You gotta do better than that, bro, which I think he will.

And I think because he's gonna be a focal point because Jalen Hurt's gonna look to get him football because he's a receiver that can run in between the numbers, not just outside the numbers.

I think he's definitely.

Gonna have more than sixty and a half receiving yards in this game. So let's review it right here, right now. More on Jayden Daniels, more on Terry McLaurin, less on sa Kwon Barkley, more on AJ Brown. We ended with more because we like more associated with prizepects.

It's what they do, It's what we love to do. Give more as in as much as we can. Welcome back to the Stephen A. Smith Show.

Joining me now to discuss the new Trump administration in New York City, along with a bevy of other things, is the Mayor of New York City himself, mister Eric Adams, an honor and a privileged How you doing, how it's good.

To see you south side outside?

That's just telling you. We used to come out to Hollis and take y'all short.

Well.

You know what they didn't tell you is that we really didn't want them because we loved the ladies in Cabria Heights and Lawington. It was other areas the Hollands.

So he's like, okay, you do what you do.

You got some nice catscaders, without question, a lot of quality came out.

I grew up with run dmc ll cool.

J was right down the I followed, you know, five minutes away on Farmers Boulevard and you know, you know, joh Rule Fitty.

Said that a whole bunch of gas came from from from the house.

You know, you know what, brother, working class people, working class values. You know, mom work in the daycare center should be up every day, led by example homeowners. You know our you know, many of our values come.

From what we saw and the community raised us.

Right.

It wasn't just appearance as a community. So we're going to get into all of that, mister Mayor. But my first order of businesses is that today, of all days, you are the talk of New York City. Right now, everybody's talking about you. You're stealing headlines and what have you. Because you talked about how you haven't left the Democratic Party. The Democratic Party has left you. That's the court everybody's

Well, and it's out of the theme of the working class people.

And when you stop talking about working class issues and people are hurting, and you having this intellectual conversation and have a philosophical approach of just addressing what are people.

Feeling every day?

And I have never left the streets on the subways. I was stopping the middle of the night when barbershops close down, I would go inside and sit down, smoke a cigar, drink a little hendessy with the people inside and just feel them. And they're saying that the party is not talking to us. And when I say the party, I'm not talking about people who are registered Democrats. I'm talking about those who are putting out the messages of what is important to the Democratic Party and they have

You know, you deal with this and you will continue to deal with this a hell of a lot more than me. I'm just your friendly neighborhood sports reporter the adventures in the other areas of discussion. But I've been taking a lot of heat because of my willingness to call out some of the things that I've seen from

Brother, this is gonna be one hell of a conversation. Man.

People don't even realize what it is to be a man of color, to be in charge of the most important city on the globe. We need to really understand that I'm the mayor of the most important city on the globe, only the second may of color. May Dinkin's was the first, and I'm the second. I inherited a city that was engulfed in COVID twenty and twenty thousand microso and asylum seekers. Crime was through the roof. Unemployment with black and brown people was high. You were looking

More more businesses are open.

Black and brown businesses have received billions of dollars in contracts from the city.

We have outpaced the state and read it in math.

We're doing dyslexia screening so that we won't have thirty percent of our prison population being dyslexic. Like I am of what we have done in the city, paying for college soution for forced to care children. Bond raiders looked at the city and said, we're gonna increase your bond because the way you're managing the crisis. With two hundred and twenty thousand microson asylum seekers dropped in our city without any support.

We've turned around.

This city and there are a lot of haters out there that don't want to acknowledge what this administration have done. But why do you think that is Well, I think it's a combination of things. I was never the chosen candidate. I'm a bald headed airring where in Maya. That's saying that you don't have to have this one stereotypical look to.

Be successful in the city.

And I think that there's a lot of people that want to send the signal that okay, you can't run the city. I'm running the city, and I'm running and navigating us out of crisis, and I'm independent in doing so. You know, there are days at a wake up feeling one way in another way, and we need to be clear on taking these big cities to the next level.

Is that part of the problem, though, mister Mayer, in terms of the you know, the the conflict, the confrontations, the resistance that you may ultimately encounter. Is it the fact that you wake up with independent voice as opposed to being a slave to this binary system that we live in, and it's you either take one side or

Right.

You know, you look at those who want to check off a box, and if you don't fit into all of these items in the box, then you can't be classified as this group or another group. And that's not who we are as individuals and as human beings. We have different beliefs and belief systems, and I focus on that all the time.

And this is not new people fall or realize.

Go back thirty something years when I was winning the police department and one hundred blacks and law enforcement who care.

I didn't want to be a cop.

I was arrested and beat by police officers at fifteen years old. Revn Herbert Daughtry told me, you are going into the police department to fight from within.

Wow, you know.

And when we went in, people call me uncle Tom, sellout nigro. But we went in and started one of the most important human rights and civil rights organization as black police officers. And so there's a long record of looking at my assignment and fulfilling my assignment. Brother, I can't even tell you how painful it was to say I put on that uniform of those who take me and my groin.

Over and over again.

My brother and I we were pissing blood for weeks after being assaulted by those cops in the basement of the one hundred and third precinct.

And before you became a captain, if I remember correctly based on my research, before you became a captain within the police department, you were an officer literally speaking out against racism and prejudice all the time, which I might imagine didn't endear you to your colleagues and contemporaries and boys and blue.

You know, and know.

It was interesting that many people didn't realize that many of those officers would come to me and say, you know, thank you for what you're because they wanted to go home to their families, and they knew that there was a number of cops that were overly aggressive and abusive, and by us talking out it allowed them to not have to get caught up in that whole web that

I'm the same, cap brother.

Listen, listen, well, listen.

If you're the same, more power to you, because to be honest with you, I don't know if you need to be the same. I think you've already proven who you are. You don't really really need to be the same. You can mix it up a little bit. But I'm just looking at some of the things. I'm thinking about crime, I'm thinking about the local economy, I'm thinking about joblessness, all of these issues that have been addressed during your administration.

Jobs have been restored, et cetera, et cetera.

What's been the greatest challenge for you sitting in that seat as mayor of New York City, particularly over the last.

I love that. That's a great question.

The failure to acknowledge the success and our media. That's why this show is so important, our media in the city of the failure every day, if you go back and look at from the time I took office, we've been under fire, and the failure to acknowledge the recovery of jobs, cycling us out of COVID, managing two hundred twenty thousand micros and asylum seekers and one hundred and hundred and eighty thousand on their way of what we're

Talk about it. In our transit system.

When I go into rooms and I say tell me how many crimes you think we have in the subway every day, people say two hundred, three hundred, four hundred.

We have four point.

Six million riders a day. We have six crime fail any crimes a day. But when you read this city from abroad or in another state, you say this is a city out of control. This is the safest big city in America. I just acknowledge today with the police commissioner, we removed twenty thousand illegal guns off our street, fourteen hundred ghost guns of our streets. Shootings in homicides are down, crime is down. This city's the safest big city.

Let me throw this at you. You know what doesn't make sense to me? What doesn't make sense.

To me based on what you just articulated. There was an election that was coming about this past November. We know who won, we know what happened.

Prior to that election.

The media has been accused of being the liberal media.

For the longest time.

So one would think when you consider the imagery that was emanating from the right as they talked about crime in the streets and pestilence and homelessness and migrant crisis and all of these different things, those kind of things that you just articulated, one would think that the liberal media.

Would jump, would pounce at the opportunity to.

Articulate that message to the masses because it would have served their purpose in support of somebody on a left, in this case, Kamala Harris winning the election. Yet you're sitting here saying that did not happen. How do you explain it.

They didn't highlight their message. They didn't highlight the largest city in America. They didn't highlight a person of color as mayor lifting up this city. There was a success story that should have been the talking point for the Democratic Party, a working class mayor, thirty billion dollars back in the pockets of everyday working class people.

King two billion in medical debts are think about that?

Thousand New Yorkers think about that?

Okay, five hundred thousand New Yorkers, We're going to cancel their medical debt. That's the number one course of bankruptcy, and particularly for black and brown people. So there was a narrative here in the city that we could have talked about instead of that. There was a lot of anger because I was saying to them, you got two hundred and twenty thousand micros and asylum seekers coming to the city, and you guys are not being responsible about securing our borders.

I'm thinking about what you just said.

I'm thinking about the fact that when ultimately you indicted by the federal government on fraud and or fraudulently or fraud charges along with other things, you were the first mayor to be criminally charged while in office and the history of New York City.

How much of a role do you believe that played in what.

Wasn't disseminated as it pertains to your administrations.

I think a lot, brother, And you know, many people never read the indictment. Please, and if you read the indictment, you're going to see that, you know, at the heart of this is that I was doing my job of telling the Fight Department, can you do an inspection on the building. This is something when I sit down with my colleagues, they say, Eric, are you kidding me? You know,

Tell you to be quiet, don't say anything.

It's sick, you know, And so it's imperative for me when you're do an analysis of not only would I said have said? Biden said his Justice apartment is political, webinars, webize, weapons, wepinis politicized.

It's all the same size. Trump said it.

And when I saw a Biden's speech and why he impeached his family members, he talked about him, many people didn't read that that when you go through prosecutions like this, it's not only your guilty and innocence, it's the it's the financial impact on it. It's just the embarrassment. I spend two million dollars. Brother, I'm a civil service. What does a civil service get two million dollars from?

You? Know?

You have to you have to be able to have people who believe in you enough to donate to your public support exactly exactly.

And so I'm looking at it and listen, pardon clements, granted clemency. A few folks don't know those kind of things. That's what President Biden has done. And we'll get into that in just a couple of minutes or so. But in light of that, along with campaign finance charges, that that's what they're throwing at you as well, you still have been determined to run for re election in twenty twenty five, like that cases coming up in April re election.

Man.

That's a powerful question because many people are in dark places in their personal lives. And you know, Mommy used to say a dog place is not a burial, it's supplanted. And you know, brother, you know as you know with your parents, you know your dad, and you know, raising the family of family of six, the same family right right, you know, and Mommy loved all of us, but she adored me, you know, same here and brother, I used to walk past Mommy's door and raising us on our own.

It broke my heart.

I'm not even gonna lie to you, but I said to myself and I thought of Mommy. She died and during my election, I said, you know, Mommy never stepped down.

She stepped up.

And with all that we were going through, we still moved the city forward and we knew that had the right team to get it done. And I'm hoping that people who are in dark places right now, if you're a young man and that's sending ryk Is Island in jail, sale, you're gonna say, listen, my mayor was arrested. If you are a young person with learning disability, my mayor has dyslexia. I want people to look and see my life and say, don't ever give up, and don't let anyone defy who

Are you gonna fight like hell or make sure your you win the case or that you are proven to be innocent.

Because there's a difference with the voters.

Right there's I think the pathway to justice come in many different ways, and one should not allow anyone to block their pathway to justice. It's the role of my attorney, Alexpiro to ensure that we pursue every pathway to justice. I did nothing wrong. I should not have been charged, and his his his job to pursue my justice. My job is that I was elected to represent the city of New York and on every area I have never abandoned that responsibility.

You reportedly went to visit President Donald Trump at Mara Lago prior to the inauguration.

What can you tell us about that?

And is it really about what people are saying. It's about you're hoping that in the event something goes down and you find yourself being convicted of this of these allegations, that he's going to parton you.

And think about that twelve moment. This is the president of the United States.

I'm the mayor of the largest city in America that lost six point five billion dollars due to the previous administration inability to finance the micro crisis. Why are people asking is the mayor of the largest city in America going down to meet with the president to talk about how do we recoup some of those losses, and how do we ensure that we move our city forward. It would be irresponsible for me not to go down and speak with the president. And hats off to him. He

It sounds like it makes a whole lot of sense to me, and I don't have any issue with it. But you're gonna have critics out there of Mayor Eric Adams of New York City saying, the primary reason you went down there is because of your legal your personal legal issues, and that that is the priority over the other issues that you just brought up, mainly six point five billion dollars that you're trying to recoup.

To that, you say, what, Let's I say the same thing I say in New York often time, you know, speaking to the media. I have eight point three New Yorkers, I have thirty five million opinions.

That's what it is.

You're not doing anything if you don't have people who are going to be attacking you. So the numerical minority with the largest voices that are constantly consistently from the day I took office, have consistently talked about everything I am not, even though we showed the success. Though the same people who are saying or your critics say, you know what, that's noise, Rather you know, I say all the time the graduates, let your haters be your waiters when you sit down at the table of success.

Let's get specific and talk about the migrant crisis. In this regard, about two hundred and twenty nine thousand migrants came to the city, the city streets of New York.

You had to find shelter for them.

You articulate, I believe during the Tucker Cars, and then if you were the lack of support that you had received,

Right right, And you know, well said, and that's a great question. So let's look at it for a moment. Tunia, twenty thousand migrancy and asybum seekers came to the city, one point five the size of Aubany, So a whole city was dropped in our cities. We were getting thousands a week, all times of the night. We had to provide every service that you would provide to an individual person. We had to do housing, we had to clean clothing, we had to provide food. We had to educate forty

But what is the damage? The long term damage.

I couldn't go after children who are chronically absent from school because we didn't have the money, my older adults dealing with my housing infrastructure. That's six point five billion now way up to seven six point nine billion, that were removed from dealing with the real issues that we wanted to invest into our city. The long term impact to New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Denver, we have not witnessed the.

Long term impact yet. To discress.

So with that being said, are you still still supportive of the City of New York being considered the sanctuary city?

And so that's so important. These are good questions. Brother, people conflate what centuary city is.

Please explain.

A sanctuary city is saying that if you are in New York and you are paying your taxes, then those tax dollars provide your services, your police services, your hospital service, your educational services, and so right here, if you in New York, we're not going to deny you those services. Because you buy a lot of breads, you're paying taxes, You buy gas, your paying taxes. So with those tax dollars, you're paying for the goods and services of the city.

Not allowed to work. Imagine that for six But what about somebody that's looking at you? Because I got to be honest with you, mister Mayor. Yes, I have been on this show.

I've been on the airwaves, and I mean, with.

All of these bills, billions you're talking about, I think I was the loudest critic of the fifty three million dollar prepaid credit card.

I'm losing my mind. I'm like, wait a minute.

I've been black all my life. I've been in New York City for the better part. I'm like, I'd be damn if I ever saw some damn prepaid credit cards coming to the black community then.

And I was bored here.

So I'm like, I'm looking at it, and I'm saying, how could that be?

Support it?

I love that, and that is why it's important to be able to tell your own narrative.

So let's look at those credit cards. Please. Those cards.

We were required by law to feed every migrant and asylum secret that was in our care. Okay, they were being food was being delivered that people were not eating, and a lot of it was being thrown out.

We were wasting money.

And so my former deputy Man, Sheena Wright, first deputy man, came in and said, listen, this is this minority company called Mulchafi. We give people food card with eleven dollars around eleven dollars a day that they can spend for food, and they're going to go to the local bodega's shops and restaurants within the area. So we're gonna recycle the money back into the community instead of a large conglomerate

Seeing of taxpayers dollars.

So we did a pilot to say, let's see how successful this is, and so on first brush, when you see people do it, you say, wait.

Minute, when you're giving these guys crowd outs.

Fifty million prepaid credit cards prepaid Oh, I was hot.

I was hot about that.

So even the editorial boys who responded at first, like the Daily News, here the whole piece and say, listen, this is a smart approach to government because because what many people don't realize. People know of my law enforcement background, they know what I'm doing around health in the in the city, but really people don't appreciate the fiscal management that independent bond raiders who determine how successful you are a manager in the city.

Have raised my bonds.

They say this cat has managed us through COVID, They've managed us through He's managed us through the sylum seekers. He's managing the city and been fiscally responsible.

I want to transition to the issue of crime, all right, because on May first, twenty twenty three, thirty thirty year old homeless man Jordan Neely was killed after being putting a choke hold by Daniel Penny, a twenty four year United States Marine Corps veteran, while riding the New York City subway. He was found not guilty this past December of woman was set on.

Fire and she was sleeping on the f train.

When you think about those incidents as those kind of things that you happen, like you said, the number is considerably lower than people even recognized.

But you know, the visual is what it's all about, you know.

I mean, you see a woman on fire ski you don't want your daughter on there.

You don't want your wife on there, you don't want your mom on there. You're gonna get scared.

You're gonna be a panic mode because you worried about what them it could it be?

You?

When you talk about addressing crime, How do you believe your administration is going about doing it?

And how has it been successful?

A crime is for and actual and where our failure. I tell the team we lost the perception because when you have incidents that overshadow your success, no matter how impressive your numbers are, it overshadows when you have three people stabbed by a person with severe mental health illness, when you have someone set on fire. Those visualizations are real, and I respect how people feel. Now. I don't want to come to people and tell them listen to here, my numbers, this is all well we're doing.

How you feel is important to me.

My success in this city has been overshadowed by three things. Random acts of vinnce, slashing people, pushing people to the subway system, putting people on fire. Those small numbers have a major impact on how people feel.

Second is recidivism.

We have a lot of cats that out coming out, going unbelievable, getting arrested and coming right back out in the streets, sometimes the same.

Day, right right, right right.

We have five about five hundred and seventy five people that were arrested over seventy five hundred times for shopping. We have thirty six people who were arrested over eleven hundred times for a crime.

That's just asking police officers not to do their job on purpose, is certain I'm saying.

And let me tell you the third issue that overshadows severe mental health illness. We have people with severe mental health illness. When I first got elected, I went into the streets January and February and visited people in encampments. I saw human waste, drug path fnlia, schizophrenic, bipolar, and I told.

The team, we can't live like this.

And many people were saying for years, even you know, when we were growing up, when people were sleeping on the street, our families said, listen, just leaving them, Alane, they're crazy or.

What have you.

We closed psychiatric wars like Creepmore and others and didn't give people a landing place.

And now you see them on the streets.

They're doing these these they part of the random acts of violence, a small number of them. And so when I said we're gonna tackle this, my team said, man, you out of your mind, and nobody dealt with this stuff.

No, this is inhumane. We got to stop this.

And when I was out on the street, I met a guy that was living in an encampment who was a retired police officer that just slipped through the cracks, and I said, we're not going to continue to do that.

That has overshadowed our success.

Crime is down, shooters, homicides are down, our economy is back, but it has been overshadowed by those random acts.

Of Well, we gonna talk a little bit more because we're gonna work to not have those things overshadowed with all the good things that you're doing right now. And I just want to throw this out, you know, and it'll please your team, because I man, everybody make sure I have my information.

I have to give them their proper where it's do.

Okay, you're talking about a plan to acts, you know, taxes for the working class family. You're planning to literally eliminate and cut city personal income taxes to for five hundred and eighty two thousand of the poorest New Yorkers.

Anytime you cut taxes, I love that.

I love that.

I love stuff like that.

You're planning to build eighty thousand new homes across five boroughs through small changes and bring the cost of housing down.

You've got an initial that.

Has saved New York as more than thirty billion through city, state, and federal program since the start of the administration. Major major stuff going on, broken Coless, people have it.

That's right.

Having said that, some would say that you still got a lot to worry about because former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is contemplating competing with you for the mayor seed in New York City, and according to the recent polls, he's up about twenty three percentage points on you.

What do you have to say about that?

Deja vu? Go back to February.

Of twenty twenty one, there was another Andrew, Andrew Yang he got in the race.

He was measuring the drapes in City Hall.

I don't know why he never had a chance to get you. I don't know who had a chance to get you.

Poles polls had him up double digit croll with the post double digit post right, And what I told the team, polls don't elect people, elect mayors people do.

We need to stay consistent and that's what we did.

And so I'm going to tell my story and I'm going to let people see exactly what we have accomplished.

And we're looking forward to.

That I'm not gonna tell you what we're gonna talk about next. I'm gonna surprise you.

I'm gonna take a little break, but I promise you where this discussion is going next is right in your wheelhouse and you'll enjoy it immensely. More to Stephen A.

Smith Show with the Mayor himself from New York City one only Eriic Adams back for more.

Mean all right, everybody, listen up with all the big time sports action that's happening each and every day, NFL games, NBA games.

And the college football playoffs. The Steven A. Smith Show wants to make sure you are taking advantage of all of it.

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Welcome back to the CEPN Smiths Joe here with his honor himself, the Mayor of New York City, Steric Adams.

I want to get into a subject and I want to be very.

Very unapologetic and transparent about where I'm going. Black man, a black man, MM about the state of our two party system and what kind of impact you believe that has had on the black community, particularly in recent memory, even compared to a few years ago, to a decade ago, to before that.

Right. Well, the first of all, we should be after the election.

It should be about building up our communities and our cities in our country. You know when people say, well, while you sitting down with Donald Trump, doctor King said, wanted to sit.

Down with Nixon. Y.

You know, uh, when you pulled into purchase something for your family, they don't ask if you're a Democrat or Republican. When a bullet car of a highway of death in your community and it hits someone, it's not a Democrat or Republican of Obama said it right after the election.

We must transform into the United States. The election is an intramural.

There's no reason we're holding these grudges every four year years we say who's.

The one up?

And I'm gonna take my ball and go home.

No, I am very consistent on who I am and making sure that I'm willing to sit down and communicate with anyone.

And I'm an open book.

Brothers, I don't There's never a time, even when you talk to my team, they never would say you can't touch that subject area. I'm an open book. I have an authentic life, and I think as black men, we need to look into who is understanding our issues.

And the gy Just recently, I spoke up on behalf of Snoop Dogg and Soldier Boy and Nelly as well, And the only reason I spoke up for them was on this level. People were going off about them performing at the Crypto Ball and it was supposed to be a part of the inauguration celebration and Donald Trump was supposed to be there, but he wasn't there, And I'm like, so what at the end of the day, you know what, you're making a little paper. Somebody's gonna ain't gonna pay

Am I wrong in feeling now right?

You are dead on?

And that is why we have to find our own space and not allow people to identify our space. And we need to really look at and do something that's really revolutionary. We need to start reading, look at the real data. Don't just look at the headline, don't just flip through the Instagram, the TikTok or the quick Twitter post. Sit down and say, let me do some real research

They look like you and I.

People are making paper off of the dysfunctionality of government, and there's no real desire to change stuff.

There's no really.

You look across the country and see black and brown people who are reading that grade level. Look at the unemployment level, look at the incarceration levels. It's the same across the country. So either we worn with some biological dysfunctionality or there's a profit in making sure we don't change these issues.

I want to hold both sides accountable.

I want to look at both sides and say, you know what has been a bindary system for decades. Both you parties have been in charge of our government, and look at the regression that has taken place within our nation. But then it took a step further, because when we get back to your point about how you never left the Democratic Party, you felt like the Democratic Party left you. I voted for Kamala Harris.

I wasn't excited about it. I'll be the first to admit it.

I just didn't like the divisiveness and the chaos that Trump had in his first administration, and I didn't want to repeat of that in round two. So my thinking was, if you got a Democrat in the White House, but you got Republicans in the House and the Senate, somehow people would be forced to compromise and things could get done. And I look at it in the aftermath of it all, and I'm saying to myself, wait a minute, we saw a president that.

Clearly, I'll say it, there was slippage.

You knew that, but you put them, You avoided the primaries, you made sure he showed up on a debate stage June twenty seventh. He wasn't ready. It was too late for anybody else. So Kamala Harris gets inserted in there. And on judgment Day, which was election day, the voter said, we didn't fall for it.

We didn't fall for it.

And the Democratic Party, to me, is still chirping as if it's the campaign trail, not recognizing that this man is in office and you're going to have to deal with them. How could we expect anybody to deal with Donald Trump if as a Democrat, folks are still out there spewing the same old rhetoric.

In a way, we need to start talking about governing right now.

And then you look at a mayor of the largest city in America that makes a determination I'm going to sit down and not war with the president, but work with the president. And people are trying to figure out why I have a city to run with real issues around affordability and housing.

And we have been successful in spite of what we're going through. Brother.

In year one and year two, we broke records in individual years on how much housing we built, We brought record on how many brought records on how many people we moved from homelessness into permanent housing, of how many people use this vouchers for housing. We've been breaking records after records after records, and with the help of Washington d C, we can go even further.

What about people who say, mister Mayor, you're engaging in an exercise of futility because look at.

This man, he doesn't really care. This is what I'm just saying, not me told their attitude is he doesn't really care. Look at him. He immediately got rid of it, you know, trying to get rid of DEI programs. Look at him.

Look at who he surrounded himself with, these black folks, these minorities that have supported him.

How many does he actually have in his cabinet. Look at him.

It's Elon Musk for X, it's Fred, it is Mark Zuckerberg for Facebook and Matter and all of this other stuff.

It's TikTok now.

So he's insulated himself with media arms or information disseminating arms that can insulate him from the level of scrutiny. Mister mayor, aren't you just wasting your time even trying.

To communicate with this first first of the I'm a Elon Musk got I love the technology, love what he's doing.

I think this cat is gonna put us on Mars before we know it, and all the secrets that are in our universe.

So I believe in what he's doing.

But think about it with saying look at him, and what he's doing is surrounding himself with But then you get a straight up South Jamaica Queen's street cat that's able to sit down, that he's willing to pick up the phone and say let's sit down and talk, and you want to demonize that action. So we can't have it both ways. You can't look at well, he's surrounding himself with a lot of billionaires, and now you get this straight up blue collar mayor. He's saying, Eric, let's

Do you believe Donald Trump is interested in helping New York City citizens?

Yes?

I do.

The President loves New York. He made his prosperity here in this city. I believe he understands how important New York is for the country with an economic engine for the entire country. And I think that this is a great opportunity to look at some of the things that we need to do here in the city. And I'm going to continue to engage with him. I'm going to try,

He was able to appoint in the eighteen and he loved talking to you until your highlight at the migrant crisis and how it was the biliting of New York.

It took ten trips to Washington, d c. So it wasn't as though when he got elected. The same thing I'm doing with this president I did with President Biden. He came to the city to sit down with me in the police department to talk about the issue of the day, which is public safety.

So this is not new. You know.

I have sat down with gang leaders. I've sat down with people who are my staunch critic. If we don't communicate, how the hell are we going to ever hear the other side of issues?

Ho I'm desperate. Does New York need the federal government's assistance?

Brother, It's unbelievable what we need from the federal government. All that you see the billions of dollars we send back to the federal government. There's a lot we don't get back, and it's imperative everything from our educational funding.

You look at many of the grants that allow us.

To do infrastructure building, when you look at our law enforcement issues, of the laws that are coming out of Washington.

We need the federal government.

If you don't have a real partner in the federal government, it is going to make it challenging for you to carry out the functionalities of running the city like New York.

One of the things that Donald Trump is making a lot of noise about out is the executive orders that he handed down. The inordinate amount of executive orders that he's handed down just this first couple of days in office. Which one has stood out to you the most?

All of them we have to still study.

You know, people are questioning me on executive orders or is it And I say, damn it, the ink is not even dry.

Let me read it.

You know, he can sign an executive order, but that don't mean it's gonna hold water. That doesn't mean you're not gonna have to deal with the government in Congress. For example.

They got a lot of stuff to work through, and some may come with lawsuits, some may may come with challenges.

But I think the spirit of what he's saying.

And you know this, and I've been saying this over and over again, this is the greatest country on the globe. You know, all the country has dream attached to his name, but America, the American dream. During the migrants and silence seeker crisis, I went to South America and watched people walk thousands of miles through the dairy and gap, putting their life on the line, or because they wanted to come here, and many, an overwhelming number, wanted to come

Is it perfect? Hell, No, it's not.

But if you were to tell those who criticize this country. Here's a map, pick where you want to go. A whole lot of people won't be going anywhere.

The one thing that one could argue in favor of the right and against the left is that the right has been preaching about how America is the greatest country.

In the world.

Yes, and they've accused the left of doing the exact opposite of that, which is the protest that you pointed to, along with various other things.

Is there any legitimacy to that year.

I think it's extremely legitimate. We have a there are various systems of government. You have communism, you have socialism, you have capitalism. We never say that we were not a capitalist country. It's about compassionate capitalism. It's about coming here as a dishwasher and one day owning a chain of restaurants. It's about growing up in Hollis, Queens and now I'm becoming one of the premiere.

Of talk show hosts. Where else are you going to be able to accomplish that.

It's about being dyslexic and arrested, and now I'm elected to be the mayor of the greatest city on the globe.

The possibilities are endless in this country.

Sitting next to somebody that was I had undiagnosed dyslexia that they found out about and ultimately, you know, this is the kind of stuff I'm sitting here today. I ask you this because when I think about diversity, equity, and inclusion, that has nothing to do with what we're just talking about. Getting back to DEI, I would like you to define the definition of DEI what it should mean when you hear DEI. What should that mean to the average American citizen and the employers out here.

Yeah, we cannot we cannot ignore the.

Fact that there are many people who were passed over based on their ethnicity, and based on their gender, and based on their lives.

You know many of you.

I would talk to some of my Muslim brothers and sisters and they would deny jobs because they had the job. I would talk to some of my Jewish brothers and sisters, and they were law firms and other jobs they could not have.

And African Americans.

I can think about my sister, my oldest sister, how many jobs she would train someone who was junior to her and constantly.

Watch them past over. So we know there were some historical problems.

Now, the goal is how do you give opportunities to people regardless of the ethnicity, their gender, their lifestyle. That's what I believe it should be qualified people getting a given opportunity.

And that's one of the problems that people have when they look at the Trump administration or they look at the Republicans and the Conservatives, because every time you hear DEI, whether it's in the media on the right or from politicians, when you hear DEI, it implicates or insinuates these are

When they talk about DEEI.

To that, you say, well, listen, well said, And I speak with folks of color who are very much associated with the party, and they say, listen, there's areas.

We have to improve upon.

There's a lot of things that I could disagree with people on, but I want to find places on where I agree on and the only way you could get it at the table and talk about allowing that pathway to success is you have to be at the table and talk to people and not yell at people. And that's where folks are. If we're constantly yelling at each other, we would never hear each other. And that is my role as the mayor of the most important city on the clobe.

Before I let you get on out here, just a couple questions. I know this, man, I really appreciate this. September fifteenth, twenty twenty three, you awarded media moguls showing Diddy Combs with the key to the city and.

The clear to day Diddy Day. Rest of all, I want.

To know, I'm curious what goes into determining who gets the key to the city.

I just want to know just what I'm saying.

No, no, you know what's interesting.

I'm glad you said that took my DEI when we did an analysis of who were getting the keys, it didn't look like us, it didn't look like hose.

To somebody that looked like us, And what the hell has he got him? So man, come on, man, come on, but go ahead, go ahead, up.

You can't live life by what's in the front, you gotta know, you know, you go based on what people have done.

And so there's a whole panel committee and what we did.

We broke it up into entertainers as well as those who contribute to the city, and people looked at his contribution, what what he has done and others that we on it. Uh, we knew that we should give him that award. And listen, my heart goes out to him, you know, as he goes through.

His legal struggles.

You know, my heart goes out right exactly, you know, and I you know, there by the grace of God goes out we we we're all going through something.

And so Mahart goes out to him.

The keys returned last year.

Did you ask for it? Back?

The team, the committee, the committee, you know, I'm not.

The individual person determined.

There's a whole committee that sits down and they made the determination because of the highlight of the case and his team was they were cool. They said, listen, we understand what's going on. We respect that. They didn't give any pushback. This is the big boys, Big Girls club. We all know that you have to uh deal with the issues that are in front of in front of the one.

He's not asked because you know, when when Luigi Mangioni, you know, allegedly killed the United Healthcare CEO Ryan Thompson, you were right there when he arrived in New York. I'm asking because you were right there. You know you will be sive, front and center when it comes to issues such as that, no doubt.

Listen, I'm on the ground, man.

I was on the ground when Officer Marin Rivera, two young officers were shot and are killed, assassinated. I was on the ground when eleven year old eleven month old baby was shot in the head.

I was in the hospital with the family members.

I believe that being mayor is both substantive and this symbolism, and we have done a great job and a substantive part of it. But the symbolism of a person who's allegedly committed an assassination and our city with a silencer watching him come back.

In the city.

I needed to look in the eye and many New Yorkers said thank you for being there, because people were traumatized. And if I lose my CEOs in the city, I'm losing employees. I'm losing tax dollars and I'm using the economic stability of the city.

So you sound like a conservative. You understand that, right. Some people don't look at you say you sound like a conservative.

No, but think about us for a moment. You know, you know, I went to the Church of Christ in South Jamaica. Queens our philosophy in the family we grew up in. You know, I'm not sure what your dad did, but I'm sure.

It was hard Way Silver, hard blue ker brother, mother, register nurse, Queen General Hospital.

Think about it.

Think about the core values and principles that they're from. You know, your family, I believe it's the Caribbean come in here. May have left family members behind, aching out their way, not ever looking for a handout, just giving the opportunity to work, you know, for their families and their families just six six children that they were raising.

And so those are the principles that I live by.

What about people who look at the level say they want to give too many handouts? They look at the right and say they don't want to give you a damn thing.

Which way do you go? How does the mayor of the largest city in the United States answer that question?

I love that.

I love that because what happens all the time people want you to be on one side or the other, and it takes a lot of discipline to say, you're not going to pigeonhole me.

I may be have a I may have a conservative.

View on a topic, and I may have a liberal view on a topic, and I'm going to address that based on where I am on the topic.

But devoid of being pigeonhole, devoid of, you know, taking a side per se, because I'm right with you.

I believe exactly how you do. I'm not a politician, though. They say you need that support. In order in order to get support, you need to take a side. How do you answer that?

And I think they're wrong.

I think the numerical minority are at the streams. The overwhelming majority is in the middle. We have to encourage them to come out and vote.

Uh.

I think they are more Americans like you and I that are concerned about affordability, public safety, and making sure they can house their children and have a safe place families in this city. But we've allowed the extremes to hijack the narrative. But I think the overwhelming number of new Yorkers are just like you, and I want to provide for our family and make sure they have a future.

Last couple of questions. When I think about you, now, let's think positive. Yes, let's say these allegations are gonna go away.

Your issues campaign, you know, fraud and campaign finance, all of this stuff, were gonna throw away. With all of that, it's you against Andrew Cuomo for the mayor of New York. I'm a sports guy like competition. I mean, what kind of prediction would you put forth if you got if you had yourself, if you found yourself in a position where you were going up against Andrew Cromo for the mayor, for the mayor's position, for the his honors position in the city of New York.

Well, listen, I think that to me, and this is how I run my life. I'm not running against Andrew Cuomo or any of the other candidates. I'm running against myself play.

My best game.

If I play my best game, it doesn't matter who's in the race, because there's other CANi is in the race. And what I've learned in electoral politics right now, we're in the preseason.

You know, we're not in the playoffs. When you're in the playoffs, your game has to be different.

You could be great, you know, in the season, but when you get in the playoffs, let's see what you're made of.

He's a former governor that may be running for mayor. Yes, you're a mayor. All of this stuff goes away. Gubernatorial aspirations. No, not not at this Why not?

I am focused on running this city and listen of this is the second second most important job in America, and you know, it's a blessing every day being a mayor of the City of New York. And so no matter what's on the next journey, no one can take away the number one tenth. I was one hundred and tenth mayor of the greatest city on the globe. Think about that for a moment. You said second most important job was the first president of the United States, you know,

Did you.

Last question, sir?

As we sit here talking right now, as two individuals from the streets of Queens, New York, and we.

Hear the climate that is out there.

It's subsided to some degree, although there's obvious concerns because the election is over and the people have spoken. Donald Trump won the popular vote, he won the electoral college vote, The Right won the House, they got the Senate.

It is what it is?

What message would you say, particularly specifically to Black Americans out there who have this fear of what he's going to do and the kind of effect that's going to have on our community moving forward. And it's not to alienate any other minority. It's not to alienate White America. It's nothing about that right on a black man from Quez.

Yeah?

And I like that, And I think your success has been because you may be of African ancestry, of you speak to everyone. The guy that's sitting inside the bar that's Italian still can connect with you. The heartbroken person who may be a janitor. Can see how you combine sports and politics. You know, I think that is the gift that you have of that you're able to connect with people. And so I say that African Americans who feel specifically that this is going to impact their lives

You running the show, I'm running the city.

There you go, and we got resolved and honor. It was all mind.

So my pleasure, resolute PRUSSI the Mayor of New York himself, the one and only Eric Adams, I hope y'all enjoyed that conversation. I know I did, and if you listened, no doubt you learned a few things. Until next time, This is Stephen, a son and all. Peace of love everybody,