Adams tells Jewish Star he's in it to win

Mayor Eric Adams slammed his opponents, the Campaign Finance Board and media outlets, during an afternoon interview with The Jewish Star on Friday.

The more people “learn about what Andrew [Cuomo] did to the city,” the less likely they’ll be to support him as the preferred choice against Zorhan Mamdani,” Adams said.

He cited “Andrew’s actions in Borough Park, in Williamsburg and Crown Heights during Covid — 15,000 nursing home deaths” and how his bail-reform led to “a revolving door in the criminal justice system.”

As for Mamdani, “the more people learn about Zorhan’s policies, his anti-police rhetoric, his anti-family rhetoric, his anti-business rhetoric,” the less support Mamdani will have.

Adams shrugged off polls showing him trailing not only Mamdani and Cuomo, but even Republican Curtis Sliwa.

“Let’s think about that for a moment. Seven weeks out from the primary, [a poll] had Andrew winning by 87% — he was beating Zohran by over 25% seven weeks out … and the day before the election, Governor Cuomo put out a poll that had him up by 12%,” Adams said. “He lost by 14%. So why would I trust his polls?”

While boasting that his campaign still has $3 million available, he conceded that his reelection effort “has been undermined” by the Campaign Finance Board which “has taken $4 million from me.”

And that’s where media coverage of purported deals that would remove Adams from the race make matters worse, he said.

“In order for me to raise money outside of the CFB, I have to go to donors — and I have been able to raise about $5 million dollars. But at the same time, every day, rumors are being reported that I’m leaving the race. First they said I was going to HUD, then I was going to Saudi Arabia…”

“Talking about a deal undermines my ability to go to my donors and ask them to contribute to me,” he said.

“I stated I wasn’t going to Saudi Arabia,” Adams emphasized. “That’s never been offered. Even the president said it wasn’t.”

Adams added, “I was very clear over and over again, I didn’t vacillate” about staying in the race.

“History is going to reflect how my campaign was undermined by government and by those in journalism, unfortunately.”

While Adams has plenty to say about his opponents in the mayoral race, he also wants to talk about his accomplishments in City Hall and what he hopes to do in the future.

Asked why he wanted to be mayor in the first place, Adams said it was “because I saw how New Yorkers were being betrayed on so many levels.”

“We were not educating our children correctly,” he said. “Children with special needs were being left behind; we had high unemployment, particularly in the black and brown community; antisemitism was growing, the Jewish community was being mischaracterized in coded language — the black hats, people used to say; I saw that public safety was a real issue in the city.”

“I am happy, and I was blessed to be the mayor of the city,” Adams said. “The voters will determine what direction they want to go in.”

Adams was asked whether the city did all it could to rein in unruly — sometimes threatening — demonstrations in the early days after Oct. 7.

“I don’t think there’s a Jewish New Yorker who would tell you that Eric was front and center,” he said. “There were many incidents where people were protesting and we apprehended them and made arrests. But this is still America, and you have a constitutional right to peacefully protest. Those who assaulted people, those who damaged property, we went after and we apprehended them.”

Regarding streets closed by demonstrators, Adams cited a legal finding that requires the city “to surrender the streets to peaceful protesters — that’s outside my scope.”

“I hated those protesters, hated some of the commentary, some of the statements that were made, but I have to operate within the law or it’s going to cost us hundreds of millions of dollars in lawsuits that we saw in similar protests when we went outside the scope of the law,” he said.

Adams said that four years ago, he ran on public safety — and he brought crime down; he talked about housing — and built more affordable housing; and he talked about helping young people — and he did so.

“I made the promises and I kept the promises,” Adams said. “We have broken more records in all of these areas than any mayor prior to me.”

A video of the 16-minute interview is embedded in this post.

Updated Sept 17, 1:15 pm, to include additional comments.