The Tucker Carlson Show - Eric Adams on His Attempt to Fix New York and How Democrats Weaponized the Law to Stop Him

00:00:00.000 Get groceries delivered across the GTA from Real Canadian Superstore with PC Express.

00:00:05.800 Shop online for super prices and super savings.

00:00:08.660 Try it today and get up to $75 in PC Optimum points.

00:00:12.360 Visit superstore.ca to get started.

00:00:15.240 Mr. Mayor, thank you very much for having us to Gracie Mansion.

00:00:17.440 Thank you. Thank you. Historical place, you know.

00:00:20.100 And you live here.

00:00:21.120 Yes. Upstairs there's a residency, but, you know, I was getting back to Brooklyn from time to time.

00:00:27.180 My place of love.

00:00:28.960 I kind of like this.

00:00:30.540 I read through the indictment today on the way here.

00:00:33.340 I read it the day it came out. 0.98

00:00:35.380 I have no reason to suck up to you. 1.00

00:00:37.400 I thought it was ridiculous. 0.99

00:00:39.680 It was flimsier even than I remember. 0.87

00:00:41.860 You were indicted for accepting upgraded flights and for allowing the Turkish president to occupy his own building in Manhattan.

00:00:53.460 The whole thing's crazy, actually, if you read it.

00:00:55.360 What was your reaction when you found out you were being indicted?

00:00:58.420 Well, I know how I live my life.

00:01:01.800 You know, a former police officer.

00:01:04.360 The one rule, my staff will always tell you, he says all the time, follow rules, follow law, follow law.

00:01:11.320 And so when I heard of this investigation, I was like, what?

00:01:15.800 You know, what could I have done that would cause what I was seeing?

00:01:21.840 And then when I read it, I was like, where the bags of cash?

00:01:24.780 Well, that's what I thought.

00:01:25.420 You know, where were these, you know, the secret stash somewhere.

00:01:29.480 And what many people did not read, they saw the presentation that was given.

00:01:35.000 And it was, you walk away with saying, oh, my God, what did this guy do?

00:01:38.840 But when you read it and you saw that I didn't open the consulate, I asked the FDNY, can you look into the inspection to get the inspection done?

00:01:50.780 And so it's-

00:01:52.800 So just to be clear for people who haven't read the indictment, you are accused of being bribed by the Turkish government to allow the Turkish president or prime minister, pardon my not remembering.

00:02:04.420 To allow the council general-

00:02:07.160 The council general, my apologies.

00:02:08.580 To get an inspection to determine if they could pass a fire inspection.

00:02:14.160 And if they couldn't do it, you see in the indictment, I clearly stated, to manage the expectation if it couldn't be done.

00:02:21.280 So you get a call from the Turkish government and they say, Turkish officials want to occupy their own consulate, which is being built in New York, hasn't received a fire inspection yet.

00:02:29.740 You call FDNY and say, hey, can you do the, you know, the government wants to occupy their own building.

00:02:34.800 Can you, I'm the mayor, is another country, they want to occupy their own building, can you go ahead and do the fire inspection?

00:02:40.840 There's no evidence that the building was a fire trap or out of compliance with any fire regulation.

00:02:45.780 Am I, is this correct?

00:02:46.540 Exactly.

00:02:47.200 Right.

00:02:47.960 So it's, that's a weird thing to be indicted for.

00:02:51.600 No, no, no, and not only where to be indicted for, when you look at, you know, being a former law enforcement person, pushing public safety, living your life a certain way, it was painful.

00:03:08.120 It was extremely painful to go through this, you know, millions of dollars in legal bills and just not being able to response.

00:03:18.820 You know, the hardest part about this for me, anyone that's followed my career, they know I'm a straight fighter, you know, and this is the first time in my life that you have to sit here and be punched on and you have to allow your attorney to fight the fight.

00:03:34.980 I know how to fight and I like to fight to defend myself and not being able to do that is hard as hell.

00:03:41.940 Well, the weird thing is, from the Washington perspective, where I'm from, is that you're under indictment for allowing foreign governments, Turkey, not North Korea, by the way, or Iran, but like a member of NATO, allowing them to upgrade your flights.

00:03:57.900 Pretty much every member of Congress takes, almost every single 535 House and Senate takes flights to other countries hosted by foreign governments and are given, in effect, tens of thousands of dollars of goods and services by those governments every single time.

00:04:11.520 Upgrades, upgrades, police protection, motorcades, no one's ever been indicted for that.

00:04:18.980 That's less than what you did.

00:04:21.020 Are you aware of that?

00:04:22.340 Yes, yes, I am.

00:04:25.160 And I believe that I have a great attorney and I cannot tell you how, you know, there's a desire, again, of just want to push back on this, the narrative that has been put out there.

00:04:39.580 Yeah, I mean, I think anyone who reads the indictment will come away confused.

00:04:42.940 And that's kind of why I was so anxious to talk to you.

00:04:45.240 What was this?

00:04:46.980 I mean, you're a Democrat, lifelong.

00:04:49.560 You are mayor of the biggest city in the United States.

00:04:51.380 It's an overwhelmingly Democrat city.

00:04:52.760 You're one of the most important Democratic officials in the country.

00:04:54.580 You were invited, indicted by Joe Biden's Justice Department.

00:04:58.500 What was that?

00:04:59.840 Well, many people would dismiss when we stated that we felt we were a target.

00:05:05.220 They wanted to dismiss that.

00:05:07.040 And then you heard the president state that his Justice Department was politicized.

00:05:12.240 You heard the incoming president stating that it's politicized.

00:05:15.600 I think that there were those who were in that orbit that felt I was not a good Democrat because I watched my city, the city that I love, go through an onslaught of the migrant and immigration policy, a fail, a border policy.

00:05:35.740 And after 10 trips to Washington stating that this is a problem, it was costing us a great deal of money, $6.5 billion that went out of our tax dollars.

00:05:47.620 And I think that there were those who were just angry about it and thought I wasn't a good Democrat.

00:05:52.100 Because you complained about allowing tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of illegals from foreign nationals who have no right to be here to come into your city and you have to pay for it. 0.97

00:06:03.120 And you complained.

00:06:04.160 And this indictment was punishment for complaining.

00:06:06.340 Is that what you're saying?

00:06:06.820 That is clearly my belief and based on several aspects of it that I can't go into detail.

00:06:14.900 But there are other aspects of it that shows me that, you know, I was targeted because of that.

00:06:20.740 So if we could just walk through and leave out the parts you can't talk about, of course.

00:06:24.820 But this happens at the beginning of the Biden administration, which is close to the beginning of your administration.

00:06:32.800 All these foreign nationals start showing up in New York.

00:06:35.200 They have no money, they have no jobs, they have no place to stay, and you have to deal with them.

00:06:38.660 And the taxpayers here have to deal with them.

00:06:40.420 So you go to Washington.

00:06:41.540 What were those meetings like?

00:06:43.140 Sharing with them that this was a problem.

00:06:45.280 Who did you speak to?

00:06:46.400 I spoke with Julie Chavez, who's one of the personnel, Perez, another personnel.

00:06:55.180 I spoke with the president himself.

00:06:57.080 I spoke with the president first.

00:06:59.020 Then the president came here to New York City.

00:07:02.420 The governor and I sat down with the president, and I said, Mr. President, I'm not sure what they're telling you about this problem.

00:07:08.880 But this is a terrible problem that's playing out on the ground that we need to fix our border.

00:07:14.480 And we need to just stop allowing people to come into the country with no destiny. 1.00

00:07:19.180 We don't know what we're doing with them.

00:07:20.680 And there were some that were coming here that were almost six months to a year, in some cases two years, without any work authorization.

00:07:29.120 Like, what do you do with someone that cannot provide for themselves for that long period of time?

00:07:34.780 Well, what do you do?

00:07:35.960 We have to, we have to, we have to, we have to feed, close, house, educate 40,000 children, hold them into a shelter system.

00:07:47.060 The complete package of what you would do for an adult that can't take care of themselves.

00:07:52.220 And so you tell the president and his aides this, and what do they say?

00:07:57.080 Basically, be a good Democrat, Eric.

00:07:59.740 Be a good Democrat?

00:08:00.420 That was the basic overall theme.

00:08:03.760 You know, one of his aides told me that, listen, this is like a gallstone.

00:08:09.200 It'll pass.

00:08:12.500 It's like a gallstone.

00:08:13.980 It'll pass.

00:08:14.620 Yes.

00:08:15.160 It'll hurt now, but it'll pass.

00:08:17.000 Well, you pee it out then.

00:08:18.620 Why do you have to?

00:08:20.600 Well said.

00:08:22.600 And then what many people didn't understand, because people believe that, okay, you're down 170,000.

00:08:29.100 We were able to cycle out of our care.

00:08:31.160 We still have about 52,000 that are in our care.

00:08:33.860 And they said, well, okay, you know, the damage is behind you.

00:08:37.100 That is not true.

00:08:38.600 We took $6.5 billion out of paying for chronically absent students.

00:08:44.900 We could have paid $200 million for it.

00:08:46.760 We could have paid for housing, older adults.

00:08:49.080 The long-term impact of what's happening to New York, Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, Houston, the long-term impact has yet to materialize what this crisis has done to our cities.

00:09:03.420 So what do you think the damage looks like long-term?

00:09:06.940 It's a combination of things.

00:09:08.500 We're facing, after COVID, we're dealing with a severe mental health issue just throughout the entire country.

00:09:16.120 But specifically here in New York, we have a substantial number of chronically absent young people who were just traumatized from COVID and other things.

00:09:25.660 And they just stopped coming to school.

00:09:28.100 If I had $200 million that I can go out and go find those young people and place them back on the correct course, I'm preventing the long-term problem. 1.00

00:09:38.300 If you don't educate, you're going to incarcerate.

00:09:40.440 That's the common denominator in all of our prisons, the lack of education.

00:09:45.020 I could have put hundreds of millions of dollars in what I'm doing around dyslexia screening and other learning disabilities.

00:09:52.720 So those $6.5 million that I didn't put into housing, I did not put into senior care, we're getting ready to excuse medical debt for New Yorkers that are dealing with severe medical debt.

00:10:03.300 All of these dollars could have gone into dealing with the long-term fixes that we were projecting to correct.

00:10:09.920 And did you tell the White House that?

00:10:12.000 Over and over again, over and over again, the impact of what these dollars-

00:10:16.780 And they didn't seem to care at all.

00:10:18.200 It appears to me that there was a bigger focus on the national election and not what it was doing to the cities.

00:10:27.860 And we started to build a coalition of other mayors because when I was standing alone talking about this, it appears as though that, well, Eric, why are you complaining?

00:10:38.280 And no one else is complaining.

00:10:39.620 And then other mayors started to see what was happening in their cities.

00:10:43.880 And I started meeting with the mayor of Chicago and Denver and other mayors and said, we have to be uniform around this issue.

00:10:52.420 It sounds like they treated you with contempt.

00:10:54.460 Again, I think they used the terminology, you are not being a good Democrat.

00:11:02.260 I think that was their philosophy, that I was supposed to silently watch what happens to this city.

00:11:09.000 And I love this city.

00:11:10.220 This is a city that I gave my life to protect.

00:11:13.680 And I was watching the erosion.

00:11:16.060 We were getting almost 8,000 migrants and asylum seekers a week, 16,000 every two weeks.

00:11:22.380 And we were being compelled by the Legal Aid Society to find them housing within a short period of time until we had to go back to court and fight that this humanitarian crisis is not what is normally someone has the right to have shelter within the city.

00:11:40.120 And they were coming in 1, 2, 3 a.m. in the morning.

00:11:43.280 It was a constant overturn.

00:11:45.680 I'm just confused by why that's the responsibility of the taxpayers, the citizenry of New York, and your responsibility.

00:11:51.140 Someone comes into our country illegally from another nation, not invited, here in violation of our laws, and it's your responsibility to make sure that they're dealt with? 0.99

00:11:59.540 How does that work?

00:12:00.380 Where did that responsibility come from?

00:12:01.660 I have no idea.

00:12:03.200 It's a national problem.

00:12:04.720 It should be a national price tag.

00:12:06.720 They wanted to give us $138 million to a $6.5 billion price tag and wanted to reimburse us for a hotel room at $11 per hotel room.

00:12:19.760 You can't get a doorknob in New York City for $11.

00:12:24.060 It was just unrealistic.

00:12:25.960 And it really, to bring people into the country without knowing where they are going to and what is their role, that's not a plan.

00:12:36.280 That's chaos.

00:12:37.320 And that chaos started to really cascade throughout our entire country.

00:12:42.060 Was there ever a conversation in your 10 trips to Washington where anybody said, you know, really sorry for doing this to you?

00:12:48.640 Never.

00:12:49.900 Never?

00:12:50.540 Never.

00:12:51.980 Never.

00:12:52.940 Do you say I'm the mayor of New York?

00:12:54.240 It's the biggest city in the country?

00:12:55.760 You can't treat me like a servant?

00:12:56.900 We deserve more.

00:12:59.980 I said this over and over again.

00:13:02.140 The city deserves more.

00:13:03.620 We're the economic engine of this country.

00:13:06.640 And we deserve more.

00:13:08.300 And we should not stymie the future of people in the city.

00:13:12.780 We had a clear plan on how we were going to move this city in the right direction.

00:13:16.620 We started to see the decrease in crime.

00:13:18.640 We started to see the city turn it around.

00:13:20.920 And in the midst of this, this gets dropped into our laps.

00:13:26.420 And then part of the problem was we were getting Venezuelan gang leaders that were coming to the city, creating crimes in the city. 0.99

00:13:35.100 My hands were tied.

00:13:36.100 I could not allow to stop the buses from coming in.

00:13:38.340 I couldn't give people authorization to work.

00:13:40.400 I was required to give them housing.

00:13:42.820 I couldn't even allow them to volunteer and give them a stipend for picking up garbage and removing graffiti and doing some of the services.

00:13:49.840 They said, no, you can't do that either.

00:13:51.620 So they had to sit there idle and then.

00:13:53.940 Think about that.

00:13:54.640 Yeah, think about that.

00:13:55.500 You know, idle mind.

00:13:56.900 Yeah, no, it's totally right.

00:13:57.960 Idle hands.

00:13:59.120 All right.

00:14:03.580 After, was it after your 10th trip that you got indicted when you started complaining about it in public?

00:14:07.900 It was after the 10th trip.

00:14:10.100 And on the, on the, one of the trips, I was headed down to Washington, D.C. to meet with leaders about the, with other mayors.

00:14:20.240 And on the plane ride down, one of my fund, my fundraiser had a house raided.

00:14:29.280 While I'm on the plane.

00:14:30.880 On the way to Washington to meet with other mayors about immigration.

00:14:33.740 A lot of symbolism.

00:14:36.640 Did you know it was connected?

00:14:38.120 No, I had no idea.

00:14:41.180 I had no idea what it was about.

00:14:42.780 And I, when, when I returned to the city and I started hearing Turkey, I was like, what is this? 0.92

00:14:49.000 What is this?

00:14:50.440 I, you know, I, I follow the rules.

00:14:53.420 I follow the law.

00:14:54.380 And this is the most bizarre thing that has ever happened to me in my life.

00:15:02.640 And, you know, Tucker, it's one of the most painful things.

00:15:05.680 You know, you cannot imagine how it feels to watch your life unfold like this.

00:15:13.380 You know, I said it over and over again.

00:15:16.440 The only benefit of all of this is that, you know, mommy's not alive to see this.

00:15:20.800 It would, it would have broken my heart for her to have to watch us. 0.52

00:15:24.940 You know, you hear that with a lot of people who've been successful.

00:15:27.300 You know, you get to this place that you never thought you'd be.

00:15:29.640 And you realize you don't have as much power as you thought you had.

00:15:33.000 And when you disobey, you get crushed.

00:15:34.840 Right.

00:15:35.560 Right.

00:15:36.240 Just like that.

00:15:37.340 Just, just like that.

00:15:38.460 Have you spoken, the Biden people are gone now.

00:15:41.220 Trump's getting inaugurated.

00:15:42.820 But did you, between your indictment and the end of Biden's term, talk to anyone at the White House and say, hey, you indicted me for complaining?

00:15:50.220 What's this?

00:15:50.620 Well, they wouldn't allow the president to communicate with me.

00:15:56.760 Oh, because you're an indicted person now.

00:15:59.400 You know, for whatever reason, there was little or no communication.

00:16:04.340 And, you know, Tucker, listen, if it means fighting for this city, I'm going to fight for this city.

00:16:11.940 And I was clear on that.

00:16:13.040 I never told anyone I was going to do anything other than that.

00:16:16.300 I was going to fight for this city.

00:16:17.740 And I saw the long-term impact.

00:16:19.780 Remember, what inspired me to run for office was watching an 11-year-old boy arrested several times for robbery and just to learn that he was not in school for months and no one was checking up on him.

00:16:30.440 His dad was in jail for a serious crime.

00:16:33.140 His mother was on crack cocaine.

00:16:35.060 And he was 11-year-old boy sitting inside my precinct. 0.99

00:16:37.620 I said, damn it, I'm at the end of the line here. 0.97

00:16:40.140 I need to go to the top of the line. 0.98

00:16:42.380 I was seeing that again when we were not able to provide services for the people of this city.

00:16:47.960 Millions of Americans are still clinging to their New Year's resolutions, but some goals transcend the flipping of the calendar.

00:16:53.960 Being prepared should always be a goal.

00:16:56.920 When a crisis hits, the last thing you want is to be scrambling for something basic like medication.

00:17:03.080 And that's why the Jace case changes the game.

00:17:05.980 The Jace case is your personal emergency supply of life-saving medications, antibiotics, critical prescriptions, things you're actually going to need when pharmacies are not available.

00:17:15.900 The Jace case's protection is totally necessary.

00:17:19.200 So as you're planning for the rest of this year, make emergency preparedness a top priority.

00:17:24.300 We don't know what's coming next.

00:17:25.740 We do know preparation beats panic every single time.

00:17:29.180 So with the Jace case, you'll have peace of mind knowing that you are ready for whatever happens.

00:17:33.340 Go to JaceCase.com, enter the code TUCKER to make sure you have the right meds on hand when you need them.

00:17:40.080 Which is usually the moment when you can't get them.

00:17:42.580 Jace.

00:17:42.960 Hillsdale College offers many great free online courses, including a recent one on Marxism, Socialism, and Communism.

00:17:51.040 Today, Marxism goes by different names to make itself seem less dangerous.

00:17:55.400 Names like Critical Race Theory, Gender Theory, and Decolonization.

00:17:59.580 No matter the names, this online course shows it's the same Marxism that works to destroy private property

00:18:05.000 and that will lead to famines, show trials, and gulags.

00:18:08.860 Start learning online for free at Tucker4Hillsdale.com.

00:18:14.880 That's Tucker, F-O-R, Hillsdale.com.

00:18:29.600 As we welcome in a new year, it's time to focus on what matters most.

00:18:35.300 Creating healthier habits, enjoying more moments with family, and spending less money on going out to eat.

00:18:41.280 GoodRanchers.com is here to help you turn those resolutions into solutions.

00:18:45.880 During Good Ranchers New Year New Meat Special, you can subscribe to any box of their 100% American Meat and Wild Caught Seafood.

00:18:52.900 And if you use code TUCKER at checkout, you'll get $25 off and your choice of free ground beef, chicken, or salmon in every order for an entire year.

00:19:02.940 By shopping with Good Ranchers, you're supporting local farms across the U.S. and avoiding the chaos of grocery store imports.

00:19:10.420 Most importantly, you'll enjoy stress-free, delicious meals that let you focus on what matters.

00:19:15.660 Quality time with loved ones.

00:19:17.580 Start 2025 with better choices, better meals, and better moments at home.

00:19:22.140 Claim your free meat for a year plus $25 off with code TUCKER at GoodRanchers.com.

00:19:27.840 American Meat Delivered.

00:19:29.120 Bet mode activated.

00:19:32.040 The Scorebet app here with trusted stats and real-time sports news.

00:19:35.420 Yeah, hey, who should I take in the Boston game?

00:19:37.480 Well, statistically speaking.

00:19:39.020 Nah, no more statistically speaking. I want hot takes. I want knee-jerk reactions. 0.99

00:19:43.500 That's not really what I do.

00:19:45.660 Is that because you don't have any knees? Or...

00:19:48.040 There's a way in which this is, like, incredibly unfair to New Yorkers.

00:20:08.340 So you're from Brooklyn. There are a lot of American-born Brooklyn people, a lot of Caribbean people, you know, hardworking, not making much money.

00:20:16.820 They're not getting free hotels.

00:20:18.720 All set.

00:20:19.480 They're not getting housing vouchers or free cell phones or free airplane tickets.

00:20:24.220 Illegal aliens are getting them. 1.00

00:20:26.860 What... I mean, what's their perspective on this?

00:20:29.740 And it's so funny you said that. I was at a meeting the other day with a group of Jamaican immigrants. I was at a... They were having a reception. And it was at the same time that the correction officers killed a young man in upstate one of our jails, one of our prisons.

00:20:49.020 The correction union came out immediately and said, they're not one of us. Those correction officers don't represent us. And I said that to the Jamaican immigrants who were in the room. And I shared with them, you come here to pursue the American dream. Many of you stay with your family members. You leave loved ones at home. You fight hard. You're willing to do whatever job that's possible.

00:21:12.100 So I need you to stand up and say, those who are committing crimes, those who are part of gangs and being violent, they're not one of you. You know, you know, this is a country of immigrants. That's who we are. Build our bridges, our roadways from early Irish or early Italians and so on and so forth.

00:21:31.800 So the issue is, how do you properly allow people in the country with a secure border and know what their destiny is when they get here?

00:21:41.300 That is what we don't have right now. This is a free fall and it's the wrong thing to do.

00:21:46.500 I got to admit, I'll just admit it. I thought it was pretty funny when they started trucking illegals here because I don't live in New York, so I have to deal with the consequences because it is such a liberal city, but mostly because it's a sanctuary city.

00:21:57.900 Right.

00:21:58.560 Which is basically committed an act of insurrection against the federal government by ignoring federal law, kind of what the Confederates did at Fort Sumter, except even more outrageous.

00:22:06.680 And so isn't there a sense in which New York kind of deserves this? It was a sanctuary city.

00:22:12.560 And many people don't really get the sanctuary city part.

00:22:17.160 Yeah, like me.

00:22:19.660 So here's what the sanctuary city states.

00:22:23.780 John, who is from a country, is in New York.

00:22:28.380 He goes into the store, he buys a loaf of bread.

00:22:30.840 He's paying taxes on that.

00:22:32.480 Right.

00:22:32.700 He buys gas, he's paying taxes. Sanctuary city says that as long as you're here, you have a right to get the services your tax dollars are paying for.

00:22:41.900 Your children are being educated. If you need police services, you can get it. If you need medical care, you can get it.

00:22:47.700 That's what sanctuary city says, and that you should not be afraid of getting those services because your tax dollars are paying for them.

00:22:55.520 But I mean, you could say that of anybody breaking federal law.

00:22:58.260 I mean, there could be someone indicted on terror charges or a murderer on the lam.

00:23:03.600 Right.

00:23:03.800 And if New York harbors him, it's harboring a criminal. It's violating federal law. And that is a form of insurrection, right?

00:23:10.280 You're saying we're not following the laws of the United States of America.

00:23:14.340 So, like, why shouldn't Washington send troops here, like, immediately and make you obey, as Eisenhower did to Central High School in Little Rock in the 50s when they ignored Brown versus Board?

00:23:24.220 You can't be out of compliance with federal law without getting the 101st Airborne, don't you think?

00:23:28.900 Well, my conversation with Tom, who's coming in as our border czars, one place here and I totally agree on, those who violate their rights to come here by committing crimes, they need to leave our country after they serve their time.

00:23:46.380 We're on the same page with that.

00:23:48.060 And that immigrant family who's trying to get a pathway into becoming a citizen, living out this amazing American dream, I don't think they should be rounded up in the middle of the night and say, we're going to move you out.

00:24:01.180 Well, then why isn't it fair for the states that are, you know, still part of the United States and are obeying federal law to send all of their illegals here?

00:24:10.140 Because you guys welcome them. I mean, and you can pay for it.

00:24:12.820 No, we're not welcoming them. We've been very clear. We're not welcoming everyone. 1.00

00:24:16.560 Everyone, no, everyone's sin. We say when they're here and they're following the rules and they're paying their taxes, they're doing the things that people are supposed to do.

00:24:27.660 My focus are those who are harming innocent citizens.

00:24:31.500 But you said it was a minute ago. I mean, I get what you're saying.

00:24:34.300 And I think it sounds good, but I think we just discovered why it's not good, because it's the volume.

00:24:41.680 Like, I think probably 99 percent of the immigrants who are wrecking your city are great people who have good, you know, they're not bad people, but they're just too many of them and you can't afford it. 1.00

00:24:52.000 Right.

00:24:52.400 Right.

00:24:52.980 And how do you address that?

00:24:54.840 That's what I'm saying. Maybe not be a sanctuary city. Maybe just say we're going to follow federal law like everybody else.

00:24:58.960 Well, there's a couple of things to that. I think you address it by controlling our borders.

00:25:02.760 Yeah.

00:25:02.920 And we've allowed the immigration issue to control us instead of controlling it. 0.78

00:25:08.460 Because this is what I'm getting from my other mayors.

00:25:10.340 Yeah.

00:25:10.420 My other mayors are saying across the country, Eric, we need workers.

00:25:13.940 We have places in our city where we have population problems.

00:25:17.160 We have places like in Kentucky, they need backstretch workers. 1.00

00:25:20.620 Here, I need nurses. I need other professionals. I need food service workers. 1.00

00:25:25.100 We are in dire need of workers in this country.

00:25:27.960 Now, if we would have said, when you come into the country, you're not going to go where you want to go.

00:25:34.700 You're going to go to the city where we need you. Stay there for three years, four years, and then you could decide to go anywhere.

00:25:41.160 Like indentured servitude.

00:25:42.460 No, no, they can. They're working.

00:25:44.560 Well, so do the indentured servants. 0.92

00:25:46.880 They're not doing it for free, you know.

00:25:48.680 And if you want to come, if we control the border and make sure prior to people coming in that you know where you're going and what you're doing and not this free fall that we're seeing right now.

00:26:02.280 That is where the crises lie.

00:26:04.440 Real immigration reform is securing our borders. 0.90

00:26:07.620 And I said it over and over again.

00:26:08.980 Yeah. And I know you always hear that about the lack of workers, and it's clearly true.

00:26:13.240 I mean, there is a labor crisis in the country.

00:26:14.920 Obviously, every employer says it, and it's real.

00:26:18.600 On the other hand, there are a lot of Americans who aren't working for whatever reason.

00:26:23.400 And among native-born African-Americans, young men, the number is like over 50%.

00:26:28.780 Right.

00:26:29.380 It's awful.

00:26:30.520 So rather than just say, well, we're just going to import people from Honduras or Paraguay or whatever, why don't we say, let's get our people working instead?

00:26:39.660 That's exactly. Here in New York, we've cut unemployment in those communities that you're talking about by over 20% because you're right.

00:26:49.440 We need to make sure while we're filling those jobs, we need to make sure that we're looking after those who are in this country for whatever reason have barriers to employment.

00:26:59.520 We have been removing those barriers to unemployment, and it's still not filling the demand that we have in need of workers, not only here in New York.

00:27:09.580 You go across the country in those cities where you have a population problem, we need workers.

00:27:14.880 Well, because the more immigration you have, the smaller the percentage of Americans who work.

00:27:19.300 I mean, that's true in every country with mass immigration.

00:27:22.340 The native population stops working when you flood the country with foreigners. 1.00

00:27:26.320 And I don't know why that's not obvious to everybody, but it is true, and it's particularly true for African-Americans. 0.98

00:27:33.220 And I just think it's weird that nobody seems to notice or care.

00:27:36.360 Yeah, no, well, I definitely care.

00:27:38.420 I care about the employment.

00:27:40.680 I care about when I sit down with my business leaders, and my business leaders are saying, Eric, I have to close down a restaurant because I can't get workers.

00:27:48.300 Yeah, that's real. I know it is.

00:27:49.380 Right. You know, so I believe that there's a solution and answer that starts with securing our borders, real immigration reform, removing those who are committing serious violent actions in our country, and continue the pursuit of the American dream.

00:28:05.900 So what I see the conflict, like big picture, I know you feel this every day, I don't know if you'll admit it, is the conflict between the people who pay for everything in politics, not just on the Democratic side, by the way, also Republican side.

00:28:17.060 But they're all rich white liberals, just to be honest.

00:28:20.020 And then everybody else.

00:28:22.500 And it does seem like the values are just in conflict.

00:28:25.480 Like the people who pay for campaigns, not just yours, but everybody's, could care less, like what the subways are like.

00:28:31.540 And they could care less about the downstream effects of education.

00:28:34.180 Like public schools, they don't send their kids to public schools.

00:28:35.780 They don't care.

00:28:37.000 Do you see that maybe this isn't a coalition that can continue?

00:28:40.180 No, no, and I like that.

00:28:41.420 I like that because people looked at particularly the real estate industry that was extremely supportive of my campaign.

00:28:48.860 They said, okay, listen, these are just rich real estate guys.

00:28:51.440 No.

00:28:52.200 When I walked in the room and I explained to them that if we don't fix our school system, the first thing someone will do when they go to buy property, they ask two questions.

00:29:03.620 How good are the schools?

00:29:04.840 How safe is the community?

00:29:06.220 Yeah.

00:29:06.400 I ran on better schools, safe communities.

00:29:10.240 And so, yes, maybe that affluent real estate owner is not sending his child to public school, but no one wants to bring their company here if you have bad schools and unsafe communities.

00:29:23.460 And so there is this symbiotic relationship, even as they're not directly connected to it.

00:29:28.640 They need safe streets, good schools in order to bring in those employees, those workers, those renters, those buyers.

00:29:35.900 And that is what I stood for.

00:29:37.400 Or they could just go to Florida.

00:29:38.720 I mean, I was in Miami last week, which is, you know, it's totally transformed if you haven't been to Miami recently.

00:29:45.900 It's like everyone you heard.

00:29:46.680 I was with New Yorkers actually there because they were all there for years.

00:29:50.860 And a lot of them live there now.

00:29:52.740 And they're bringing their finance money down there, which is the single largest private sector employer in your city, of course, is banking.

00:29:59.440 Right.

00:30:00.040 And by far.

00:30:00.660 And they're moving out.

00:30:02.280 And so, like, how do you pay for a city of 8 million people if an increasing percentage of the population is poor, if the rich people are leaving, which they are?

00:30:12.580 Like, how do you do that?

00:30:13.620 And we're very tired.

00:30:15.520 First of all, we have to stop that far-left rhetoric that wants to demonize success.

00:30:21.640 And far too often we do that.

00:30:23.620 We want to be difficult to business.

00:30:26.080 We want to demonize success.

00:30:27.360 We want to do things that impact the quality of life in cities.

00:30:31.100 Like, how do you legalize public urination?

00:30:34.940 We did everything to get encampments off our streets.

00:30:37.780 And I'm back in court fighting with those who want to allow people to—

00:30:41.080 Why are you going to court?

00:30:41.940 Why don't you just send the cops?

00:30:42.960 Get off the street.

00:30:43.840 It's not your side.

00:30:44.420 You don't own the side.

00:30:45.240 What are you going to do about it?

00:30:46.520 I'm with you, Tucker.

00:30:48.540 No, but I'm just saying, like, I'm not saying—

00:30:50.100 But we're sued because of it.

00:30:51.420 Yeah, but so what?

00:30:52.060 No, we're still doing our job.

00:30:53.880 Don't give me—

00:30:54.280 No, but just make—what are you going to do about it, Mr. Legal Aid guy?

00:30:58.400 You ban guns.

00:30:59.420 Like, only the cops have guns.

00:31:00.440 And we're not allowing people to live on the sidewalk or self-fentany all the kids. 1.00

00:31:03.460 Like, sorry, it's up shit. 0.99

00:31:05.160 Why don't you do that? 0.99

00:31:06.360 You're good, Lord.

00:31:06.880 Kind of go full fascist a little bit.

00:31:08.680 People would love you if you did that.

00:31:11.080 So here's what—

00:31:11.400 You've thought about that.

00:31:13.340 Here's what we have done.

00:31:15.540 When we first came into office and we stated that we were not going to allow people to sleep on our streets, 1.00

00:31:20.040 we did just that.

00:31:21.340 Yeah.

00:31:21.440 I don't want to hear all that noise.

00:31:23.060 People are not sleeping on our streets.

00:31:24.660 And we were able to move our city from encampments on the sidewalks, on the highways, in our train station.

00:31:31.880 You don't see that anymore in this city.

00:31:33.980 And because of that success, you now have those that are suing us, but we're still carrying out the job.

00:31:39.280 But why don't you put the junkies in their houses, Ms. Legal Aid lawyer, if you're so— 0.99

00:31:43.860 Like, how many junkies do you have living in your house?

00:31:45.940 Zero.

00:31:46.660 But you expect taxpayers in Queens to pay for shelter for junkies?

00:31:49.940 Like, what?

00:31:50.620 And that's the disconnect.

00:31:51.320 Who are we serving here?

00:31:53.060 That's the disconnect.

00:31:54.060 You know, the loudest don't represent the majority.

00:31:58.760 I hear from everyday New Yorkers that say, thank you for taking this encampment off our street.

00:32:04.140 Thank you for making sure that our communities have the quality of life issues.

00:32:09.140 But the professional loudest that really are not speaking on behalf of everyday New Yorkers, I hear everyday New Yorkers.

00:32:18.660 And I know that we're in the right direction.

00:32:20.500 I still hear people saying, everyone says New York is getting better, you know, low bar.

00:32:26.340 But it's still—the subways are scary because there are a lot of crazy people on the subways.

00:32:31.260 I saw a picture today of people waiting for a train, and they're all standing with their backs against the walls so no one pushes them.

00:32:37.400 Daniel Penny tried to save a man's life.

00:32:40.080 He gets indicted for doing the right—obviously doing the right thing.

00:32:44.960 What do you do about that?

00:32:46.400 Like, what—

00:32:47.700 Here's what we're going through in the city.

00:32:51.640 What's overshadowing our success is how people are feeling because of random acts of violence.

00:32:58.260 Yes.

00:32:58.920 You have to go back to 2009 when you take out the two COVID years to see our subway system safer.

00:33:04.100 We have over a billion riders, 4.5 million a day.

00:33:08.740 We have an average of six felonies a day out of those 4.5 million a day.

00:33:12.700 But none of that means anything when someone is burned to death on your subway system.

00:33:16.400 That's exactly right.

00:33:16.740 Or someone shoved you to the subway track.

00:33:18.920 But when you do a correlation of what's causing that fear, that anxiety, it's those with severe mental health issues.

00:33:27.480 We have been fighting with our state lawmakers as well as those advocates, again, that are trying to stop us from taking those with severe mental health illness off our streets.

00:33:38.600 And we have been successful in doing that.

00:33:40.560 8,000 people with mental health illness, we were able to remove off our subway system and put them into what we call a safe haven.

00:33:49.440 So the real battle is dealing with the anxiety that people are feeling.

00:33:54.040 But this city has recovered.

00:33:55.460 More jobs in the city history, second largest tourism in city history.

00:33:59.360 Our subway system is safe back to the 2009 days of 20,000 illegal guns removed off our streets.

00:34:05.760 Our cops have stepped up, no matter how bad they've been treated by some, they've stepped up and they've produced for the people of the city of New York.

00:34:13.160 But the prosecutors don't, I mean, I keep reading, you know, some guy gets picked up, he's been arrested 47 times for violent crimes, not prosecuted.

00:34:21.760 Like, that's not sustainable.

00:34:24.820 Like, civilization can't exist under those circumstances.

00:34:26.860 Well said, you know, when I talk about it all the time, the criminal justice system is not just police.

00:34:32.000 Everyone will see the police, but it's more than just the police.

00:34:36.080 We need to have our judges on board, our prosecutors on board, our lawmakers on board. 0.69

00:34:40.680 We were just showing stats today.

00:34:43.020 People who were arrested three times in a year for the same crimes, the numbers are unbelievable.

00:34:49.780 For robberies, for assault, for burglaries, for grand larceny.

00:34:54.360 These guys are being, it's a revolving door system.

00:34:57.840 And it's not only here, if you go across the country, you will see it's the same stats, the same small number of people are repeatedly committing crimes.

00:35:06.460 Of course, always.

00:35:06.940 Yes.

00:35:08.040 So, how is it that those people don't get put away?

00:35:11.880 They keep doing it.

00:35:13.020 Well, you know, we have to, like I said, every aspect of our criminal justice system must do its job.

00:35:18.620 I mean, you know who they are.

00:35:19.480 You've got some of the worst prosecutors in the country.

00:35:21.520 George Soros paid for them, as you know.

00:35:23.280 And why not just call them out and say people died because of that prosecutor?

00:35:27.600 What we do is sit down and really try to show our lawmakers, our prosecutors, where the numbers are, where the results are, and how we can turn this around.

00:35:37.160 And one of the bills is what's called the Discovery Bill, which has caused a great deal of refusal or failures to prosecute.

00:35:46.060 We sat down with our district attorneys.

00:35:47.860 They seem now to be aligned with us as we go back and sort of alter some of these changes that we've made that's impacted on public safety.

00:35:58.080 Idealism, I say, collides with realism.

00:36:01.000 The laws we make must ensure that we don't make our city unsafe.

00:36:06.100 Yeah, and why do you let people smoke weed on the street here?

00:36:09.640 It smells like a slum.

00:36:11.380 Why not, if you want to smoke weed, just go to your apartment and watch TV or whatever.

00:36:14.340 But why do you have to, people are blowing weed on your face on the street.

00:36:17.400 Has that made anyone's life better at all?

00:36:19.180 Yeah, you know, it's so funny.

00:36:20.540 When I ran for office, that question came up about legalization of marriage. 0.60

00:36:24.100 Just go smoke in your apartment, you know.

00:36:26.000 Cannabis.

00:36:26.820 And I was at a press conference, and I said, I smell weed everywhere, you know.

00:36:30.840 And we need to manage how we're dealing with the cannabis issue.

00:36:34.780 Yeah.

00:36:35.080 And you know what my teachers are telling me?

00:36:37.760 What?

00:36:38.360 Our children are high all the time.

00:36:39.600 Of course they are.

00:36:40.800 They say they're high.

00:36:41.820 So a small number of people run all the weed supply chains and the retail, and they're making a ton of money.

00:36:48.320 And everyone's invested in it.

00:36:49.800 Private equity's all up in it.

00:36:51.180 I'm sure they're handing out money to politicians here.

00:36:53.060 They are everywhere else in the country.

00:36:54.900 But it's clearly hurting people, and it makes the place smell like Islam. 1.00

00:36:58.360 I mean, it's disgusting. 0.99

00:36:59.240 And everyone knows that.

00:37:00.380 And, like, why can't anyone do anything about it?

00:37:02.360 Well, one thing we did, we were having, after the law was passed to legalize cannabis, we were having illegal shops open everywhere.

00:37:11.500 And we had no power to close them the way we wanted to.

00:37:15.140 We went back to Albany.

00:37:16.100 This is where our state government is, as you know.

00:37:17.940 We went to Albany, and we stated, we have to get this under control.

00:37:21.880 The governor gave us the authority.

00:37:23.860 We've closed down over 1,300 of these illegal shops, almost $67 million in illegal cannabis we took off our streets.

00:37:32.360 And now the legal cannabis business is thriving.

00:37:36.000 But what we must do, now we need to go back and say, listen, where should we be smoking?

00:37:40.640 How we should manage this even more?

00:37:42.920 And I'm with you.

00:37:43.840 I think there's too much open cannabis being smoked on our street.

00:37:47.420 We need to really carefully decide where you can smoke cannabis.

00:37:52.460 And I'll go with you on that also.

00:37:54.660 Smoke at home.

00:37:55.560 Are you ready to make getting a good night's sleep your New Year's resolution?

00:37:59.600 It's a worthy resolution.

00:38:01.580 Cozy Earth completely transformed the way we sleep, and it's made the difference.

00:38:05.560 Everyone on our team agrees.

00:38:07.600 They got bamboo sheets set.

00:38:09.640 It sounds weird, but it's awesome.

00:38:11.700 Ask anyone who works here.

00:38:12.820 They love them.

00:38:13.620 Cozy Earth sheets made from 100% premium bamboo derivatives are soft and breathable, and they get better with every wash.

00:38:20.760 Again, sounds weird until you try it, in which case you are hooked.

00:38:25.360 Cozy Earth also prioritizes quality and care with a 100-night sleep trial.

00:38:28.980 So that means you try their sheets for up to 100 nights.

00:38:31.240 If you don't love them, you send them back for a full refund.

00:38:34.160 We're not going to ask what they do with those sheets, but you get your money back, so there's no risk.

00:38:38.340 A good night's sleep is essential.

00:38:39.820 Visit CozyEarth.com slash Tucker.

00:38:41.960 Use our exclusive code Tucker for up to 40% off.

00:38:44.920 And if you get a post-purchase survey, mention you heard about Cozy Earth from this show.

00:38:49.840 We'd be grateful.

00:38:51.300 Breaking news happens anywhere, anytime.

00:38:54.060 Police have warned.

00:38:55.080 The protesters repeatedly get back.

00:38:57.240 CBC News brings the story to you, live.

00:39:01.000 Hundreds of wildfires are burning.

00:39:02.860 Be the first to know what's going on, and what that means for you, and for Canada.

00:39:07.800 This situation has changed very quickly.

00:39:11.180 Helping make sense of the world when it matters most.

00:39:14.340 Stay in the know.

00:39:15.440 Download the free CBC News app, or visit cbcnews.ca.

00:39:20.080 We'll be right back.

00:39:50.080 And make your investing steps count.

00:39:51.760 Plus, enjoy 1% cash back.

00:39:53.600 Conditions apply.

00:39:54.360 Offer ends January 31st, 2025.

00:39:56.460 Visit td.com slash dioffer to learn more.

00:40:04.760 So here's, tell me what you think of this vision.

00:40:07.440 This is a liberal vision.

00:40:09.280 You want to do weird stuff at home.

00:40:10.980 We're not going to bother you.

00:40:11.880 We're not going to ask any questions, but it's kind of up to you because it's your life.

00:40:14.220 Right.

00:40:14.680 That's kind of the liberal idea.

00:40:16.260 Don't do it on the street.

00:40:17.520 You want to have a parade? 0.99

00:40:18.640 Put your junk away. 0.99

00:40:19.520 The Pride Parade. 1.00

00:40:20.380 Don't have sex with people in ATMs.

00:40:22.000 Don't smoke weed on the street. 1.00

00:40:23.760 If, you know, you're a violent, crazy person, you know, don't bark at people on the subway 0.95

00:40:27.440 or push them in front of trains. 0.97

00:40:28.300 Like, just keep it indoors.

00:40:30.280 Why can't New York arrive at that?

00:40:33.120 And you would not have one argument with me.

00:40:36.120 Don't publicly inject yourself with drugs.

00:40:38.540 Don't publicly urinate on the street.

00:40:40.360 Yeah.

00:40:40.420 Don't smoke in front of somebody's house.

00:40:44.360 Smoking your cannabis.

00:40:45.500 If you want to smoke cannabis, do it at home.

00:40:47.520 Yeah.

00:40:47.900 If you want to urinate, go use the bathroom.

00:40:51.260 So you're not going to get a debate. 0.61

00:40:53.200 You won't get a debate from me. 1.00

00:40:54.680 But you, like, wonder, like, is that far right to say, go do your weird shit at home? 0.99

00:41:00.160 Like, I don't think that's far right, is it? 0.99

00:41:02.400 No, you know what?

00:41:03.160 You know what has happened in our country?

00:41:05.840 We've reached a point where any and everything goes.

00:41:09.680 And, you know, the most bizarre it is.

00:41:11.880 The most people think it's acceptable.

00:41:13.280 But it's not to everyday working class people.

00:41:18.060 That's what people don't fully understand.

00:41:21.340 Everyday working class people don't believe in any and everything goes. 0.99

00:41:26.700 I totally agree with that.

00:41:28.660 I mean, I'm, just for the record, I'm kind of against all immigration right now. 1.00

00:41:32.520 We have too much of it.

00:41:33.600 But I will also say, I've never seen an African immigrant do anything like that. 1.00

00:41:37.480 Like, they're not marching around with their junk out in parades or whatever.

00:41:40.740 Like, we've buttoned down people coming into the country.

00:41:43.940 And the longer they stay here, the more they decide, like, I got to do this stuff on the sidewalk.

00:41:47.240 I mean, it is, it's a very specific affluent liberal culture that promotes doing all that stuff in public.

00:41:54.380 And I'm wondering why, like, why are they in charge of everything?

00:41:58.120 Have you ever wondered that?

00:41:59.000 Well, you know, what happens is that if you push back on that that's the norm and that's what working class people want, you get demonized.

00:42:09.680 Or indicted.

00:42:10.900 Right.

00:42:11.300 For upgrading your flight.

00:42:12.540 You know, and that's exactly what you happen.

00:42:15.580 So people often say, well, you know, you don't sound like a Democrat.

00:42:19.860 And, you know, you seem to have left the party.

00:42:22.260 No, the party left me and it left working class people.

00:42:25.520 And our conversations that we should be talking about are not the issues that everyday people that are in power are talking about.

00:42:33.540 People are concerned about the future of their families.

00:42:36.920 And that should be our focus.

00:42:38.380 And that's the focus of this administration.

00:42:40.040 It does seem that way.

00:42:41.440 So you're being challenged supposedly, I think it's true, by Andrew Cuomo, the former governor.

00:42:46.260 What do you make of that?

00:42:47.280 Well, he hasn't he hasn't announced and I'm a firm believer.

00:42:51.220 I'm not running against anyone.

00:42:52.700 I'm running against myself.

00:42:54.380 You know, Andrew Yang got into the race the last time.

00:42:57.040 He was 13 points up in the poll.

00:42:59.380 And the team, we were very clear, we have to run our race.

00:43:02.880 And so no matter who's in the race, I'm going to run my race and I'm going to sell to New Yorkers what we did with this city in the reversal of where we were where we were headed and where we're going now.

00:43:13.660 So you were here in the 90s when the city reached peak crime.

00:43:20.060 Ninety two, ninety three.

00:43:21.460 Then Giuliani comes in.

00:43:23.160 Everyone hates Giuliani now and he's being destroyed by lawsuits.

00:43:26.080 But the truth is, crime just went right off a cliff.

00:43:28.240 You were there.

00:43:29.400 And the idea was pretty simple.

00:43:30.780 It's like we're just not going to let quality of life crime slide anymore.

00:43:34.600 And if you'll commit a small crime, you're more likely to commit a big crime.

00:43:37.060 That was the idea.

00:43:38.260 Jack Maple and the whole you were there.

00:43:40.640 Yes.

00:43:41.060 Why not do that?

00:43:42.560 Well, no, that's exactly.

00:43:43.880 And you're right.

00:43:44.780 And I policed during that era and Bill Bratton, who I have a great deal of respect for.

00:43:49.680 And Jack Maple, as you mentioned, many people don't know that name, Jack Maple.

00:43:53.060 But we owe a debt of gratitude to his commitment.

00:43:56.080 And that whole model of just not accepting any and everything goals, I know how successful it is.

00:44:02.960 And that is a methodology that I believe and I live by.

00:44:06.220 Because I police when you allow any and everything goals.

00:44:09.140 I was in the subway systems and I saw what our subway systems look like.

00:44:13.260 And so you have to go to the method, as Bill would say, you have to reclaim the city so that you can make sure it's doing the right thing for New Yorkers.

00:44:22.960 What are you expecting with this indictment?

00:44:29.300 Do you think, I mean, is there going to be a trial?

00:44:31.960 When is that going to be?

00:44:32.920 What is the penalty that you're facing?

00:44:35.020 How does this play out to the extent you can explain it?

00:44:36.980 I have a great deal of respect for my legal team.

00:44:40.320 And they're going to exercise every avenue to get justice for me, whatever that avenue may be.

00:44:47.140 Alex is a great attorney.

00:44:50.500 Spiro.

00:44:50.920 Yes.

00:44:52.540 He's heading my defense.

00:44:55.600 And he's going to exercise every avenue to get justice for me.

00:44:58.680 What's the potential penalty hanging over you?

00:45:00.800 Oh, no.

00:45:01.120 This is real time.

00:45:02.620 You could do 20, 30 years.

00:45:05.440 You could do 30 years for taking flight upgrades?

00:45:08.320 This is real.

00:45:09.460 Do you wish you'd flown coach in retrospect?

00:45:12.360 Look, you know, you can't live, you can't live like.

00:45:15.380 Just bring your own food.

00:45:17.340 You can't live life in the rearview mirror.

00:45:20.760 You got to live life in the front windshield, you know.

00:45:23.780 Have you talked to Trump?

00:45:25.720 Yes.

00:45:26.460 Yes.

00:45:26.780 How'd that go?

00:45:28.180 Very well.

00:45:28.940 We talked about he loves the city.

00:45:31.400 Yeah, he does.

00:45:31.940 And we talked about, you know, how do we do things to work together to improve the city?

00:45:37.980 And as I told everyone, I'm not here to be warring with the president.

00:45:42.260 I'm here to work with the president.

00:45:43.880 And everyone should do that.

00:45:44.840 And the mayor of Washington reached out and said the same thing after that.

00:45:50.700 The governor did the same thing.

00:45:52.740 People realized that you can't spend the next four years fighting.

00:45:57.640 We need to spend the next four years listening to the American people.

00:46:01.180 The popular vote, the electoral vote.

00:46:04.600 We can't be bigger than the American people.

00:46:06.960 And the American people are saying we need to do something about our borders.

00:46:10.200 We need to do something to make it easy to do business in the city.

00:46:12.920 We need to do things differently.

00:46:15.900 We need to be open to do that.

00:46:17.820 And, you know, we need to be clear with even an incoming president is talking about with the new visas of getting some of the intellectual talent into this country.

00:46:29.720 I think there's some great opportunities and we need to find out those areas of agreement.

00:46:34.320 But you're not going to let those people drive into the city without paying a big tax.

00:46:37.920 No, no.

00:46:38.940 Why don't I let people drive in your city?

00:46:41.880 Okay, here's my take on congestion pricing.

00:46:44.320 This is the bicycle lobby from the west side who doesn't believe in cars in the first place, exerting undue influence once again on the mayor's office and shafting the people in Westchester, the outer boroughs, just want to drive their minivans into the city to do a day's labor.

00:47:00.440 You know, and I always tease people when I'm at the town hall of a guy came up to me one day and said, you know what, I'm getting a divorce. 0.99

00:47:08.900 It's your damn fault, mayor. 0.99

00:47:10.700 Everything that happens wrong in the city, people look at the mayor. 1.00

00:47:13.680 We had nothing to do with congestion pricing.

00:47:15.300 That's the governor's in MTA.

00:47:16.700 Were you involved with his wife at all?

00:47:19.820 No, I mean, you don't have to answer.

00:47:21.160 You know, listen, the people think the mayor made that decision.

00:47:27.880 The MTA made that decision in partnership with Albany that made the decision in the federal government.

00:47:36.220 The mayor did not make that decision.

00:47:38.180 And if it was up to me, we would have more waivers if we had to do it because we have to think about our firefighters, our police officers, our teachers.

00:47:46.300 We were able to get some waivers.

00:47:47.620 We were able to get $100 million for the environmental communities that would be impacted.

00:47:53.300 But this was a decision by the MTA.

00:47:56.040 The environmental communities?

00:47:58.240 Places like the Bronx because people would be parking their cars there.

00:48:01.460 They would be trying to reroute themselves.

00:48:03.660 And some communities have a historical problem with environmental issues because of the Cross-Bronce Expressway and other issues, you know, that they had to deal with.

00:48:12.800 Now you're getting into deep New York stuff.

00:48:14.300 Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:48:14.760 I'm drowning in it.

00:48:15.620 I don't even understand what you're talking about.

00:48:16.780 But can we both agree that people who ride bicycles should have no say in governance in the city of April? 0.90

00:48:20.840 No, they should have say.

00:48:22.260 Minor, minor say.

00:48:23.300 They shouldn't have control.

00:48:24.460 They shouldn't have control.

00:48:25.560 Yeah, they shouldn't have control.

00:48:26.500 And so you have some communities where we attempted to force bike lanes and other items in their communities.

00:48:34.940 And we said, no, we have to communicate with those long-term community residents.

00:48:38.460 We never should get so far ahead of those long-term community residents and what they desire their communities to go for.

00:48:45.540 Amen.

00:48:45.980 I agree with that.

00:48:46.800 But if you're going to, basically, this MTA rule will force people onto public transportation buses and particularly the subway system, biggest in the country.

00:48:54.900 Isn't it fair that the subway be, like, perfect?

00:48:58.680 It has to be.

00:48:59.240 You're going to force people to take the subway.

00:49:00.740 There should be zero crime.

00:49:02.400 Zero crazy people barking at you.

00:49:04.320 You stare at someone in the eyes.

00:49:05.400 He punches you in the face.

00:49:06.160 You can't have that.

00:49:07.160 If you don't have that in Tokyo, why have it here?

00:49:08.980 The goal is to use the money from congestion pricing to improve on our subway system.

00:49:15.540 We have to have a first-rate subway system.

00:49:18.260 And that is the goal, to use the money to make sure we improve our subway system.

00:49:23.520 We have to do just that.

00:49:24.500 By improving, do you mean make it safer?

00:49:26.860 Yes.

00:49:27.440 That's the prerequisite to prosperity is public safety.

00:49:30.140 People should be able to ride our subway system any time of the night without fear of harm.

00:49:34.960 And you can't do it by allowing people to stay on a system that are harmful to themselves and harmful to others.

00:49:42.160 That's why we took $8,000 off the system to give them the care that they deserve.

00:49:46.120 Why are there so many mentally ill people all of a sudden all around? 1.00

00:49:48.720 That's a great question.

00:49:49.380 That's a great question.

00:49:50.400 I don't know the answer.

00:49:51.440 Yeah.

00:49:51.860 Well, you know, we made a mistake years ago when, because of the way our psychiatric wards, the draconian practices of those psychiatric wards,

00:50:02.820 advocates came in and stated that it's wrong for people to be kept in these locations.

00:50:10.320 When we shut them down, we put them in the street.

00:50:13.740 No one thought through, well, what do we do?

00:50:15.820 Because, listen, we have to be honest with ourselves.

00:50:17.820 They are those who cannot take care of themselves.

00:50:20.800 They need complete care.

00:50:22.640 51% of our inmates at Rikers have mental health issues.

00:50:25.700 I believe it.

00:50:25.920 20% have severe mental health issues, yet we're closing the jail, open four new jails, just to create four more smaller Rikers.

00:50:34.520 I say let's turn one of them into a state-of-the-art mental health facility for outpatient, inpatient treatment.

00:50:42.120 This way we can deal with the population the way we should be.

00:50:45.460 But does it, there does, I'm not an expert, but there does seem to be an absolute rise in severe mental illness, not just anxiety disorders, but disassociative, you know, schizophrenia, stuff like that.

00:50:57.340 And I don't know, I don't, I don't, you know, Tucker, I don't know if it was from COVID, you know, people were traumatized through COVID.

00:51:03.540 You know, I lost a lot of good friends through COVID.

00:51:06.560 And, you know, some people lost loved ones and family members who took care of them when they were going through severe problems.

00:51:12.640 Some families were destroyed.

00:51:13.880 Anyway, I see an increase after COVID or during COVID.

00:51:18.080 I don't have any empirical data that can state that, but we do need to look at it.

00:51:22.500 It's a national problem.

00:51:23.740 When I go across the country, I'm seeing the same problem, and there's no real attempt to address it as much as I believe we should be.

00:51:31.660 What about all the people who were hesitant to take the vax, who didn't know enough or who were aware of, you know, previous incidents of the government lying about public health?

00:51:41.240 And a lot of them lost their jobs.

00:51:44.160 At the very least, they were yelled at and scolded by the Biden administration and by public health authorities here in New York.

00:51:50.360 Aren't they owed an apology, at least, those people?

00:51:53.460 Brady to mind, we inherited.

00:51:55.060 The mayor had a rule in place already on what happened with those who did not take the vaccine.

00:52:03.340 Those conversations are still being played out in court to determine what should happen with them.

00:52:08.760 But we had to make sure we were dealing with a severe public health emergency, and we had to make sure that we addressed it as soon as possible to make sure we could get it under control.

00:52:19.200 Those were some real troubling, scary times when we were dealing with COVID.

00:52:23.500 But when you have a scary time, what you can't do is isolate a vulnerable minority and blame them for everything, which is what they did. 0.57

00:52:30.320 We should never do that.

00:52:31.200 We should never isolate them.

00:52:32.020 Right, I mean, I feel like we've seen a lot of that through history, and maybe it's a bad idea at this point.

00:52:35.500 We shouldn't do that.

00:52:36.540 You won't get a disagreement.

00:52:38.180 Right.

00:52:38.780 So the next time there's a public health crisis or any kind of crisis, when you see public officials say, it's these people's fault.

00:52:45.420 Mm-hmm.

00:52:46.100 American citizens with jobs and families, they did this.

00:52:49.420 Maybe we should call that what it is, which is bad.

00:52:52.200 Yeah, and I think that, you know, your love of history, that I think that sometimes when you're dealing with emergency, how we respond, we look back later and say, hey, could we have done things differently?

00:53:03.520 Yeah.

00:53:04.120 You know, there are so many lessons of that in history, and we always want to do it better.

00:53:09.940 Now, there was some question about what happened to de Blasio.

00:53:13.320 We were mentioning the mentally ill on subways. 0.80

00:53:16.560 Is he one of them?

00:53:17.760 What happened to him?

00:53:18.800 Do you know?

00:53:19.360 Who's that?

00:53:19.780 Who's that?

00:53:20.100 Bill de Blasio, the former mayor.

00:53:21.380 He lived here, actually.

00:53:23.080 Yes, yes.

00:53:24.780 I believe he's teaching, you know, from time to time.

00:53:29.440 What would he be teaching?

00:53:30.860 I believe he's teaching at one of our Ivy League schools.

00:53:33.860 I'm not sure.

00:53:34.960 What would he teach?

00:53:36.960 Like, what would be the class?

00:53:39.300 Bill de Blasio on what?

00:53:41.220 Do you have any idea?

00:53:42.160 No, no, I don't.

00:53:43.980 You know, we'll touch.

00:53:44.840 He'll send me, you know, good luck, you know, some tips from time to time.

00:53:48.980 But I'm not sure what he's doing professionally right now.

00:53:51.360 I don't know what happened to the afterlives of mayors.

00:53:55.700 What do you think?

00:53:56.340 What does happen to mayors?

00:53:57.520 You know, that's a good question.

00:53:59.460 Have you thought about that?

00:53:59.900 I'm not going to find out this time because I'm running for re-election and I'm looking

00:54:03.460 forward to winning.

00:54:06.980 Mayor Adams, thank you very much for having us.

00:54:08.720 No, real, real pleasure to spend time with you as well.

00:54:13.920 Thank you.

00:54:17.140 Thanks for listening to the Tucker Carlson Show.

00:54:19.080 If you enjoyed it, you can go to TuckerCarlson.com to see everything that we have made.

00:54:23.700 The complete library.

00:54:25.920 TuckerCarlson.com.

00:54:26.960 We'll see.

00:54:27.580 Bye.

00:54:27.960 Bye.

00:54:28.880 Bye.

00:54:30.780 Bye.

00:54:31.120 Bye.

00:54:31.620 Bye.

00:54:31.780 Bye.

00:54:32.320 Bye.

00:54:32.800 Bye.

00:54:33.180 Bye.

00:54:40.060 Bye.

00:54:40.180 Bye.

00:54:40.720 Bye.

00:54:45.440 Bye.

00:54:46.860 Bye.

00:54:48.260 Bye.

00:54:48.940 Bye.

00:54:50.540 Bye.

00:54:51.640 Bye.

00:54:52.060 Bye.

00:54:52.880 Bye.

00:54:53.280 Bye.

00:54:54.040 Bye.

00:54:55.840 Bye.

The Tucker Carlson Show - January 22, 2025

Eric Adams on His Attempt to Fix New York and How Democrats Weaponized the Law to Stop Him

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript