During the 20-minute, wide-ranging interview, long-shot Adams said a Marist University poll released Tuesday showing him having just 17% support in the race from Jewish voters is hogwash.
The embattled mayor said he hasn’t received, doesn’t expect, and doesn’t want help in the race from President Trump.
The moderate Democrat boasted about how his administration drove down crime and helped bring New York out of the pandemic, but admitted to making plenty of mistakes — including having poor judgment backing key hires that spurred a now-closed federal corruption probe and allegations of the NYPD being run like a “criminal enterprise.”
He insisted his rival, socialist frontrunner Zohran Mamdani, is a phony who “mastered the art of saying anything” — including lies — to win over voters.
Q: There’s been reports you are dropping out of the race, which your camp has denied. Do you commit to being in this race and campaigning until the end, and is there anything that would change it?A: That’s my desire, and I’ve tried to be as communicative as possible. I was just talking about the assassination [of conservative pundit Charlie Kirk] that took place a few days ago. Tomorrow’s not a promise to us, you know. I can only tell you my desire. My desire right now is not to see our city go in the wrong direction and to continue this run. And I’ve stated it over and over again. People say, well, you know, you were offered the job as ambassador [to Saudi Arabia]. That’s just not true. I was not offered to go to HUD. That’s not true. I didn’t go to Yankee Stadium to meet with Donald Trump. That’s not true. So, no matter what I say, it seems like in the universe people have made up their opinions. So all I can say is my desire, as we sit here today, is to run until November 4th.
Q: Polls . . . have you ranked fourth. Why do you feel that’s the case? What can you do over the next six weeks to change that?
A: Polls change often … I think about Mark Green and Michael Bloomberg. I think Mark was up 14 points [in the 2001 mayoral race, but he lost to Bloomberg]. I think about my [2021 race], being in third place. I think about where Andrew Cuomo was [in the Democratic primary]; 87% of the polymarketers had him winning the race … So these polls change.
I was at an event the other day. I had a fundraiser, and the person said, ‘They told me you are taking the job in Saudi Arabia.’ All of this noise out there has really eroded the facts. Now, if we just focus on the policies, people won’t have that assumption. So I think how I’ve been covered, which is really unique in comparison to all the other candidates, I think it has really become a sixth opponent. You know, I’m not only running against the people who are running. I’m running against this other noise that’s out there.
Q: Can you clarify? I covered Bill de Blasio’s time as NYC mayor. The Post and other media outlets were critical of him.
A: Yeah, [they’re] supposed to be.
Q: So what do you think is different between you and de Blasio?
A: I think it’s totally different. When I’m out in the streets . . . ‘Eric, you’re leaving to go to Saudi Arabia.’ The public is reading that. The public is not going in depth. When they hear over and over again, it’s a foregone conclusion that Eric is no longer in the race, that’s going to impact them. That’s No. 1. Number 2: I never had a chance to get my message out. …The CFB [Campaign Finance Board] is controlling who the voters can vote for and whose message they’re going to hear. That’s just not how the system should work … Four million in [anticipated public matching funds] is lost. …That’s money that’s used to get your message out. That’s how you win races — when people can get your message out. My message has never been told.”
Q: Why do you think you’re polling behind Andrew Cuomo and Zohran Mamdani with Jewish voters right now? That is supposed to be one of your stronger bases.
A: I think it’s totally different. When I’m out in the streets . . . ‘Eric, you’re leaving to go to Saudi Arabia.’ The public is reading that. The public is not going in depth. When they hear over and over again, it’s a foregone conclusion that Eric is no longer in the race, that’s going to impact them. That’s No. 1. Number 2: I never had a chance to get my message out. …The CFB [Campaign Finance Board] is controlling who the voters can vote for and whose message they’re going to hear. That’s just not how the system should work … Four million in [anticipated public matching funds] is lost. …That’s money that’s used to get your message out. That’s how you win races — when people can get your message out. My message has never been told.”
A: Let’s be clear on something: polls normally go to ‘likely voters.’ I think this is going to be the highest election [turnout] in probably the history of the city. I think we could get up to 2 million people to come out to vote, and many of them are going to be Jewish voters. I hear from some of my Yeshivas that are now telling their parents when you drop your child off to register for school, you have to fill out this voter registration form. And so these are new voters; these are first-time voters, and I think there’s a population of voters that no one is polling — like they missed . . . those young voters that came out [for Mamdani] in the primary. And so I believe I’m going to get the overwhelming number of Jewish votes. They supported me as senator, [Brooklyn] borough president, and mayor. I don’t think that’s going to change.
Q: Is there anything that as mayor that you can do [to make Jews feel safer]?
A: Yeah, we have. We were very clear on many levels, but one specifically with the Jewish community. . . . We put in place a Mayor’s Office to [Combat] Antisemitism. We focused on ridding our city of hate, what we’re doing over at the [NYPD] hate crimes unit, and then we send the large national message. You know, for someone to state that a national, international leader comes to our country, and you’re gonna arrest them [referring to Mamdani saying he will direct the NYPD, if mayor, to arrest Israel Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he visits NYC]? First of all, you don’t understand the laws. Diplomatic immunity is in place. You don’t have the authority to do so, but the symbol you’re sending out; you’re sending out that hate … He didn’t say that to the leader of Sudan, where you’re seeing real wars, or Yemen. No, he targeted a group – [after] being unwilling to say it was wrong to say ‘Globalize the Intifada.’ You know, this stuff starts to add up, and it’s no longer coded messages. It’s clear messages. And if you are a Jewish resident, you have to be alarmed by some of these positions.
Q: There’s been multiple corruption allegations swirling around your office the past three years – including the since-dropped federal indictment involving your campaign, and former Police Commissioner Thomas Donlan claiming you had him run the NYPD like a criminal enterprise. What is your message to voters who have serious concerns about this?
A: Listen, we make mistakes. I say it over and over again: 65 years of living; you make a ton of mistakes in 65 years (laughing). There are things you want to do differently. There’s things that you would probably say, ‘maybe I should have brought on this person to handle the job’. That’s it. All I can tell voters is, ‘Listen, sorry for any inconvenience, sorry for the distractions, but I never stopped working for voters.’ We preserved, built, and zoned our city for more housing than 12 years of Bloomberg, eight years of de Blasio combined, in three-and-a-half years. What we’ve done in crime . . . safest big city in America. What we’ve done for low-income New Yorkers — we put $30 billion back in the pockets of New Yorkers. People are talking about affordability. We made it happen from no income tax for low-income New Yorkers paying off medical debt; all of these things that we have done. And so what I want New Yorkers to do, what I’ve never had an opportunity to do is tell New Yorkers, ‘Yes, here’s mistakes I made, but look at what I’ve done for our city.’ I got us out of COVID; 237,000 migrants in asylum seekers, overproliferation of guns. We took almost 24,000 off our streets. I delivered for New Yorkers, in spite of all the things that were happening around me, and in fact, I never broke a law. I never did anything that violated my oath of office. And anyone who read that indictment, even scholars, walked away saying, ‘What the heck is this?’ A sitting mayor of New York? You’re going to indict him and put him in jail for 33 years for leg room and calling the Fire Department?
Q: What do you consider other big successes of your administration?
A: Universal after-school program, so important. First time ever — 100,000 summer youth jobs was crucial. High speed broadband in NYCHA for free, so they could do telemedicine and remote learning. Paying the college tuition for foster care children. As I say to build more housing … More jobs in New York in the history of the city. More small businesses are operating in the history of the city. When you start to look at how we turned around the economy, brought down crime, cleaned the city, even my favorite topic: rats, rat complaints are down … This city is not coming back. The city is back.