Valuetainment - ＂Don't Complain, Do Something!＂ - Eric Adams REVEALS The Crime Crisis That Pushed Him Into POWER

00:00:00.120 You chose to become an independent.

00:00:03.320 When I look at your history with your past,

00:00:05.500 last night I'm at a local Italian restaurant

00:00:08.320 that I go to all the time, Casa D'Angelo,

00:00:10.060 and I'm there and I can't leave the place.

00:00:11.460 Everyone's asking me,

00:00:12.520 I saw you're going to have the mayor on,

00:00:14.360 let me tell you.

00:00:15.700 They were sitting in the entire family.

00:00:18.220 I want to give these guys the right shout out

00:00:21.260 because they'll know that we were talking yesterday.

00:00:23.940 It was the Shortino family, right?

00:00:25.680 Anthony and Michael.

00:00:26.600 And the family's sitting there,

00:00:27.380 the wife, the mother, everybody.

00:00:28.580 Let me tell you, you know, we're Republicans,

00:00:31.660 but this is our, we can't have Mamdani.

00:00:34.240 We're going to be getting behind him.

00:00:35.520 He's a good guy.

00:00:36.160 He's got to do this.

00:00:37.120 Then the other table, New York.

00:00:38.380 Because, you know, South Florida is a lot of New York.

00:00:41.060 And you're seeing this surge.

00:00:42.820 You're seeing this number taking place

00:00:44.440 with the level of interest

00:00:46.200 on what's going to happen in New York City.

00:00:48.900 But Mamdani is the lead today.

00:00:51.260 And when I think about you,

00:00:52.720 and I think about, you know, your past,

00:00:56.180 what you've done, how you came up,

00:00:57.640 and I went and looked up

00:01:00.200 if you were always registered a Democrat.

00:01:02.400 You were a Republican, 95, 97 to 2001.

00:01:05.980 So you were Republican for four years

00:01:08.240 and then you switched to Democrat

00:01:10.160 and then you became independent.

00:01:11.740 And when I ask around,

00:01:12.720 people who know you, who like you,

00:01:14.600 I don't know a lot of people that don't like you.

00:01:16.940 Almost everybody I talk to, they like you.

00:01:19.300 We have a friend, Alex Spiro.

00:01:20.480 I'm sure you know who Alex is.

00:01:21.180 Oh, yes, I do.

00:01:22.040 We spoke this morning.

00:01:23.200 He said, let him know that, you know,

00:01:24.940 Alex is a heavyweight.

00:01:27.120 You know who Alex is.

00:01:28.120 It doesn't get any heavier.

00:01:29.160 No, it doesn't get any heavier than Alex.

00:01:31.220 No, no, Alex is as heavy as it gets.

00:01:33.940 Yeah, he's represented everybody.

00:01:35.600 That's right.

00:01:35.880 You, Trump, Musk, a lot of Jay-Z, a lot of guys.

00:01:38.160 So the question becomes, you go Republican,

00:01:43.440 you go Democrat, now you're independent.

00:01:45.700 I ask, why did that happen?

00:01:48.000 They said, well, you have to understand New York politics.

00:01:51.760 You know, this is as Republican of a Democratic

00:01:56.240 and independent candidate you'll have,

00:01:57.820 but if he goes as a Republican, da-da-da-da-da.

00:02:00.120 I said, you know what made Trump attractive is the following,

00:02:04.220 and I'm just going to talk openly,

00:02:05.720 and I'd love to see what you're going to say.

00:02:06.800 So he came out and he said, look, this is what I am.

00:02:11.600 Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.

00:02:13.560 So everybody's like, okay, I know how to get behind him

00:02:16.100 because I think this is the worst time ever

00:02:18.940 to be wishy-washy to try to win everybody over, right?

00:02:22.500 Especially in the city you're in.

00:02:24.360 And when I look at this, I'm like,

00:02:26.420 you don't give me Democratic vibes.

00:02:28.420 Even when you were doing the Sanctuary City,

00:02:30.260 I'm like, dude, this guy knows this is not going to,

00:02:32.440 like, you know, you even saw,

00:02:34.220 why are we giving away the money?

00:02:35.300 And the moment you started saying that,

00:02:36.620 they came after you immediately.

00:02:37.820 We got to take this guy out, right?

00:02:38.900 I'll say it.

00:02:39.660 So what caused you to go from being a registered Republican,

00:02:45.420 not for a split second, for four years, five years, six years,

00:02:49.080 to a Democrat, then an Independent?

00:02:51.140 And so let's think about this for a moment because you're right.

00:02:53.580 So our city, both Dems and Republicans,

00:02:58.500 have different feelings on different topics.

00:03:01.140 And what you will find throughout those entire years,

00:03:03.820 I've been consistent.

00:03:05.540 Public safety.

00:03:06.660 We have to be safe because that is the prerequisite to our prosperity.

00:03:11.300 And I have been always focused on that.

00:03:14.280 My moderate Dems, even progressive Dems,

00:03:17.760 my moderate Republicans, even conservative Republicans,

00:03:21.240 with independents, they all say,

00:03:23.720 you've always been clear that our city must be safe,

00:03:26.600 my children must go to school safe,

00:03:28.240 I must be able to live on a safe neighborhood.

00:03:30.560 That is the foundation of my run.

00:03:32.840 Party lines and party labels don't define a person.

00:03:36.520 You know, I may be a blue Democrat,

00:03:39.200 but I'm red, white, and blue.

00:03:40.660 I love this country.

00:03:42.080 I had a 19-year-old uncle that died in Vietnam,

00:03:44.900 defended this country.

00:03:45.900 He didn't agree on everything,

00:03:46.880 but he said, well, my country called, I responded.

00:03:49.320 That's the energy that I come from.

00:03:51.600 So when you look at someone like Michael Bloomberg,

00:03:53.980 who was one time a Democrat before he ran Republican Independent,

00:03:58.200 Donald Trump was a Democrat at one time,

00:04:01.240 you know, before he ran Republicans.

00:04:03.360 Those of us who love the country,

00:04:05.360 we use the vehicle to continue to serve the country.

00:04:08.780 The vehicle doesn't define who we are.

00:04:10.460 But why were you Republican 97-01?

00:04:12.560 We saw, I was a police officer at the time,

00:04:15.560 and we saw an unbelievable lax criminal justice reform.

00:04:21.580 We were doing some of the things that we're doing now,

00:04:24.840 allowing people who commit crimes.

00:04:26.700 There was a repeated revolving door.

00:04:29.020 And as a police officer, I was seeing this all the time

00:04:31.140 and telling those who were in office

00:04:33.380 that these laws are not the way we should be going.

00:04:37.240 And the Republican Party started defining clearly

00:04:39.900 the whole public safety agenda.

00:04:41.900 I have a straight public safety, business-friendly,

00:04:45.740 law enforcement agenda, and that's why I did it at the time.

00:04:48.680 Why did you leave it in 01?

00:04:49.560 Because 01 is when Giuliani and Bernard Carrick

00:04:52.020 and the late Bernard Carrick,

00:04:53.500 they're cleaning up the streets, right?

00:04:55.120 Yeah, he was a good friend of ours as well, yeah.

00:04:56.960 So why 01?

00:04:58.880 Was it after 9-11 when you switched back

00:05:01.220 to the Democratic Party, or was it before 9-11?

00:05:03.340 It was when I switched back,

00:05:05.260 was around the time when I said,

00:05:07.180 you know what, this is a Democratic town,

00:05:09.500 almost similar to what Michael Bloomberg did.

00:05:11.900 It's a Democratic town, you need to be on a Democratic party

00:05:14.700 if you want to get elected to get something done.

00:05:17.280 If you want to get elected to get something done,

00:05:19.780 you have to understand what vehicle to use

00:05:22.180 to get elected to get something done.

00:05:23.400 Did somebody knock on the door and tell you to switch,

00:05:25.620 or was that like, hey, Mayor Adams,

00:05:28.060 if you, you know, Eric, Captain Adams,

00:05:30.280 if you do this, I think you can end up being a mayor,

00:05:32.280 you can have a political career.

00:05:33.680 Was it just a decision you made?

00:05:35.180 Was it an event that took place with Giuliani and Carrick?

00:05:37.980 What was it that got you?

00:05:38.800 Some of my mentors, when we sat down

00:05:43.620 and I saw what was happening in the city

00:05:45.780 and what direction we was traveling in the city,

00:05:48.240 they said, Eric, don't only complain about it.

00:05:51.000 You need to get into your elected office

00:05:52.740 to do something about it.

00:05:54.320 I had a young man who was 11 years old.

00:05:56.640 He was arrested two or three times for robbery,

00:06:00.040 and I was doing midnight tours of duty,

00:06:02.320 and I walked into the precinct,

00:06:03.480 and I saw him in there.

00:06:04.240 He was spitting at everyone, cursing at everyone.

00:06:07.080 And throughout the night, I befriended him,

00:06:10.080 and I asked him, what's going on?

00:06:11.820 He broke down and started crying.

00:06:13.560 His dad was in jail for homicide.

00:06:15.780 His mother was selling her body on the streets,

00:06:18.020 hooked on crack cocaine,

00:06:19.260 and he was out of school for three months,

00:06:20.880 and no one knew about it, that he was out.

00:06:23.320 And I realized that putting handcuffs on these children

00:06:25.820 is not going to solve the problem.

00:06:27.620 And when I spoke with many of my mentors,

00:06:29.900 they said, listen, you did time in the street

00:06:31.880 as a police officer, you see the end of the problem.

00:06:35.220 Now I'm going government to reverse the problem,

00:06:37.560 and that put me back on the pathway.

00:06:39.580 Got it.

00:06:39.940 So the inspiration was to leave the Republican Party for that,

00:06:44.540 but it was also, if you're going to have a political career in it,

00:06:47.560 you know, join the Democratic Party.

00:06:49.880 They're going to have your back.

00:06:50.800 You'll have a career politically there.

00:06:52.220 Now, you went there, okay?

00:06:54.360 And that always had my back.

00:06:55.800 I was always the outsider.

00:06:57.060 Nowadays, more than ever,

00:06:58.680 the brand you wear reflects and represents who you are.

00:07:01.620 So for us, if you wear a Future Looks Bright hat

00:07:05.360 or a Valuetainment gear,

00:07:07.040 you're telling the world, I'm optimistic,

00:07:09.680 I'm excited about what's going to be happening,

00:07:11.260 but you're a free thinker, you question things,

00:07:12.920 you like debate.

00:07:13.820 And by the way, last year,

00:07:15.060 120,000 people got a piece of Future Looks Bright gear

00:07:20.380 with Valuetainment.

00:07:21.360 We have so many new things.

00:07:23.080 The cufflinks are here.

00:07:24.600 New Future Looks Bright.

00:07:25.700 This is my favorite, the green one.

00:07:27.140 Just yesterday, somebody placed an order for a hundred of these.

00:07:31.440 If you watch the PBD podcast,

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00:07:36.800 If you smoke cigars and you come to our cigar lounge,

00:07:40.760 we have this high quality lighter cutter

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00:07:45.380 We got sweaters with the Valuetainment logo on it.

00:07:48.060 We got mugs.

00:07:48.880 We got a bunch of different things.

00:07:50.540 But if you believe the future looks bright,

00:07:52.620 if you follow our content and what we represent

00:07:56.260 with Valuetainment, with PBD podcast,

00:07:59.240 go to vtmerch.com.

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00:08:02.120 there's going to be a special VT gift insight just for you.

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00:08:08.420 tell the world that you believe the future looks bright.

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Valuetainment - July 14, 2025

＂Don't Complain, Do Something!＂ - Eric Adams REVEALS The Crime Crisis That Pushed Him Into POWER

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