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NYC Mayor Eric Adams holds a press briefing to promote the budget.
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00:00Beautiful day here at the Brooklyn Children's Museum, and a great day in the
00:05City of New York. I want to thank all of you for being here to celebrate the best
00:11budget ever in culture and indeed indeed it is the best budget for culture that
00:25we have seen in the city's history. I want to thank our partners at the City Council.
00:32I've been through my fair share of budget negotiations and I am particularly proud of
00:40both how we passed this budget together as well as where we landed. And I would of course also
00:49like to thank the people here in this space for your consistent, continuous, persistent,
01:01tireless, borderline annoying advocacy and support. And for all you do for New York City,
01:13give yourselves a round of applause. You make New York City the beacon of arts and culture.
01:25Mayor Eric Adams understands that community spaces like our cultural institutions,
01:32our libraries are the lifeblood of our city. And that's why our mayor has done more to invest in
01:45arts and culture than any previous administration in New York City history.
01:51Please join me in giving a cultural embrace and welcome to the mayor of the city of New York,
02:02Eric Adams.
02:09Thanks so much, Deputy Mayor. And really, you know, we need to just thank our Commissioner,
02:17Lori Cumble, Lori Cumble. She has remained constant and consistent. And I believe that that is why it's
02:33so important when you build an administration, you should find those who have toiled in the fields
02:39of their particular location because they bring that authentic care. And a person who had a museum,
02:46a person who was very much engaged in the cultural institutions in the city, not only did she look
02:52at the large giants, but she looked at those small cultural institutions that were, they were often
02:57overlooked and they were denied. Those small cultural entities that were, that were in the crevices of
03:05our city that were providing vital services. And to these advocates, someone I saw had a t-shirt on,
03:11I was trying to find out the culture for all, you know, you should be up here with the gang, you know,
03:26but, and the reason that these organizations and people who are standing behind me and beside me,
03:34the reason that they fought so hard is because they knew a cultural institution is more
03:40than an organization that is playing out on the landscape of our city.
03:45It's a vital service that provides for everyday New Yorkers. When you have libraries that are open,
03:52that Tony talks about all the time, it is a place for children to come and cross pollinate their ideas,
03:58socialization, interaction. When you have a museum that you can walk through like this museum,
04:04that not only did I put money in as the president, but watch this museum play such a vital role for
04:12children in this city. Or the Brooklyn Jewish Children Museum on Eastern Parkway in Kingston,
04:20telling the story of young Ari who was shot and killed
04:24when an assassin took his life across the Brooklyn Bridge and his mother, Devorah Haberstein,
04:31turning that moment of pain into a moment of purpose that brings communities together.
04:37That is what these cultural institutions represent and how it was so important to make sure that they're
04:44longstanding. And trust me, it hurt. It hurt like hell when we had to try to find money and try to make sure we
04:53balance the budget of our city. It was painful. Our team sat down and your advocacy compelled us to
05:01say, we got to find a way. We got to find a way. And we did. We did. We found a way. And it was hard. We found the way.
05:08And if you know this city of 8.5 million people, hey, Councilwoman, how are you? We're the children.
05:21If you know this city, this is a city of 8.5 million people, 35 million opinions. To give 51
05:28council people to vote on a budget, all of them voting on a budget, you know it had to be the best
05:34budget ever. So we're really proud of that. And so we're looking at our zoos, our museums, our libraries,
05:45all of our cultural spaces, all of our cultural institutions. You know, when you invest a record
05:50number of 300 million dollars into your cultural institutions, that's clear. And supporting our
06:00cultural development fund and cultural institutions groups was our North Star part of all that we want
06:07to do in this city. And that's why we gave DCLA the first permanent funding increase in a decade,
06:15increasing their baseline. Baseline funding of 45 million dollars. And so this is about more than
06:33dollars. It's these small dance organizations, these small groups, as we were showing our steps,
06:40science exhibits that expires a third grader to study rocket science and learn AI and other forms of
06:47science and innovation that the future is going to hold. That's what this budget was about. And that's
06:53why we invested 523 million dollars in our libraries with this budget to help more of them offer seven day
07:00service. I can finally sleep at night and stop having Tony call me all throughout the night. And give even
07:13more children, students, young professionals and seniors a safe place to learn, to grow, to thrive. And we
07:19told you this year we will deliver the best budget ever. We was clear on that for working class people of
07:25this city. That includes investing in cultural organizations and libraries, but it also includes
07:30historic investments and universal after school, universal after school.
07:40Many people tried and we did. We did it. 3k and pre-k, affordable housing. And what we really love,
07:48Jacques Maurice is not here, Jacques Jihad is not here, but to do our acts, the tax, no income tax for low
07:57income New Yorkers. That's unbelievable that we were able to do it. And so we are really proud of this
08:05moment. It was, it's a great accomplishment, but we didn't do it alone. We did it because of the folks
08:10behind us, you know, these cultural institutions, they played a vital role of their advocacy. And that's
08:19how government works. Government works by advocates. It works by people who are compassionate and caring
08:26about these entities and organizations that really makes our city thrive every day. And it really is
08:32important to have the leadership to move us in the right direction. So I want to thank you, DM, your entire
08:37team and this great community that's behind me, turn it back over to the DM. Thank you, sir.
08:44Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I now bring to you someone who everyone here knows. She is a force of nature.
08:58You see her coming. You hear her coming. But more importantly, and she's just a lovely human being,
09:06but more importantly, she's a real leader in our city. And someone who didn't just stumble upon arts
09:12and culture, but lives it in her life. We were having a little conversation outside,
09:19and she shared with me her journey. And family, arts and culture runs through her family's blood,
09:27her mom. And I will tell you, before I was even deputy mayor, she was already lobbying me.
09:38I was the commissioner of housing. I was like, Laurie, why are you talking to me about this?
09:43I'll talk to anybody who listens. And she did the biggest champion for arts and culture,
09:49commissioner, Laurie Kumbo.
10:01Laurie, Laurie, Laurie, Laurie, Laurie, Laurie, Laurie, Laurie, Laurie, Laurie, Laurie, Laurie, Laurie, Laurie.
10:13Wow.
10:16What an incredible, incredible full circle moment today is. I remember being 20, 21 years old,
10:27and working right here at the Brooklyn Children's Museum in the arts and education program and being
10:34able to come back here as the commissioner of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs
10:41is such an incredibly rich, full circle moment.
10:44And we worked so hard to get to this moment. And this is essentially today's budget. And the
10:59opportunity to celebrate today's budget is really a moment of a lifetime of work. And it's a lifetime of
11:07work and sacrifice that so many of the people that are here today, these are the champions, the doers,
11:16the healers, the conveners, the people that keep our city intact, that bring people together in a way for
11:26this beautiful mosaic doesn't just exist on its own. It takes the cultural community, the artists,
11:35the leaders to bring that diversity together. And it doesn't just happen. It's not a goal that you
11:42achieve one day. It's an ever going achievement. It's an ever going goal. You have to continuously work
11:49at bringing people together. And as Nina Simone said, as far as I'm concerned, the arts are supposed
11:56to reflect the times that we are living in. And that's what this budget is about. This budget is
12:05giving you and empowering you with the resources to be able to bring people together, to be able to
12:13educate our young people, to heal our seniors, to give them mobility. It's the ability to bring the economic
12:22revenue that is needed to support this entire economy for New York City. It's the ability for
12:28tourists to come here and discover themselves and discover the world. There's no other place where
12:33you can have another city where you can have a hip hop museum, an Africa center, a Louis Armstrong house,
12:41an Asian American arts alliance, where you can have all of these different flavors. You can have
12:47Pregones. You can have El Puente. You can have all of these cultural spaces. And what this mayor wanted
12:53to do was to make sure that we had world-class state-of-the-art cultural opportunities in all five
13:00boroughs. You should be able to wake up and walk out your house and go to the Louis Armstrong house. You
13:11should be able to wake up and take your children to the Bronx Children's Museum or to wake up and come
13:16right here to the Brooklyn Children's Museum. We wanted to make sure that culture was in every
13:23single borough. We wanted the folks in Staten Island to know that you are a priority to this
13:29administration and we made sure that we put resources into Snug Harbor to make sure that that
13:35community was sound and culturally strong.
13:42But I wanted to just thank everyone for all of their advocacy for doing this work when this work
13:51didn't necessarily match with the resources that you had to do this work. And during this very critical
13:57moment, if you look at this moment, the universe has set an incredible table.
14:06The universe has set an incredible table. And it is up to every single person here
14:13to make sure that that table moves in the right way to bring people together. Because we are evolving
14:22as a people. The world's people are coming together and it is our role to bring the world's people
14:30together. Evolution is sustainable. Preventing evolution is unsustainable. So we have to work
14:39with what is sustainable. And evolution by its very nature is sustainable because it's natural. So we have
14:47to utilize this time to do this work and to continuously to dig deeper to bring people together.
14:54And I just want to close by saying we've had some incredible wins. We have tripled the public art
15:02budget so that we can have more funding for our arts programs in our public spaces. We've brought on
15:09the She Built program. We brought on the She Built program to put a monument of a woman in every single
15:16borough. We have increased the cultural budget by 75 million dollars with 45 million being baselined.
15:28We have increased the budget of our arts councils by 15 percent. We have saved cultural institutions
15:36like Magnolia Tree Earth Center. We have passed the largest capital budgets in the record of the history
15:43of New York City. And I want to at this time I want to publicly as I have said to thank this mayor for
15:54never giving up. What this mayor has endured over these last four years one day would kill any of you.
16:07One day if you had to carry the weight of what he's been carrying for four years.
16:21I met this man when I was running the Mokata Museum and he was with a hundred blacks and law enforcement
16:27who care and they wanted to shut my museum down because I was doing an exhibition on police brutality
16:34and I needed some help. And so I called Eric Adams when he was a police officer and president of a hundred
16:43blacks and law enforcement who care. And he brought his whole brigade of black law enforcement officers
16:51who said this museum will not be closed. And so I thank you. And like many black leaders that have come
17:02before, the price that they have to pay for the progress and the leadership can never quite be told.
17:10And like I have said before, for many black leaders to achieve what we've achieved for everyone
17:17involved a lot of laughing when there was nothing funny, dancing when there was no music playing.
17:24It's a humbling and humiliating experience to be in a position of leadership and to be one of the first so
17:33often in many of the positions that we hold. But I feel proud in this administration and what we've been
17:40able to accomplish and what we've been able to do collaboratively and together. And they will never be
17:46able to take that away from what happens when people of the diaspora of New York City come together
17:53for a profound purpose. And I'm proud of this budget in particular. I'm going to dedicate today's budget.
18:01I didn't know how it was going to happen. It was Thursday night. I was in the nursing home with my dad.
18:08And I didn't know how, because like they said, I'm a pain. I'm a pain. I'm that pain. I'm on the phone.
18:17I'm calling. I'm texting. I'm doing. I'm doing. But I was in the nursing home that Thursday night.
18:23I didn't know how I was going to make it through. And my dad passed that Thursday night.
18:34Friday night. But Friday night, that budget was passed with $75 million.
18:53Sometimes we don't know how things happen. Everybody said, I don't know how you did it,
18:59but I know. And so I thank all of you because this is such a beautiful effort. I thank my father.
19:09I'm so proud and honored that he was able to see me accomplish so many things in my lifetime. I thank
19:15my mom. I thank my whole family for getting us through. And I, again, want to thank this mayor.
19:22I want to thank my good friend, Adolfo Carrion. He has been an extraordinary deputy mayor.
19:30Randy Mastro, Jacques Jija, my girl Latonya back there.
19:36I want to thank Alton Murray, my deputy. I want to thank Lance Pallavi back there,
19:42my general counsel, Angela Blocker. I want to thank all the incredible people.
19:48Audrey St. Clair, who just came on as our CDF. Representative Bliss, Ryan. I want to thank Lucy
19:56Sexton for all the incredible work that you've done and advocacy. I see Mike Wallace, who I spoke to
20:05every day of this process, making sure that everything was carried out just the way it was.
20:11And I want to thank Atiba Edwards, who has been an incredible leader of this Children's Museum.
20:20And I just want to say it's been an extraordinary sea change to see so many African-American leaders
20:27in positions of leadership, hosting, carrying on the torch of so many, from American Museum of Natural
20:34History, to the Brooklyn Children's Museum, to the Brooklyn Academy of Music, to Wave Hill, to The
20:41Kitchen, to so many organizations that people never thought that they would see leadership of color
20:50representing those institutions. And again, I want to shout out those also that have continued to toil,
20:57to push forward, to make sure that we have world-class state-of-the-art cultural institutions that are
21:03by us, for us, and representing us in this landscape. So
21:11today is the greatest day of my life. And I thank you all for taking this journey with me.
21:18And I thank you, Mayor Eric Adams, for making this possible and for
21:23enduring all that you've endured for the greater good of all people. Thank you so much.
21:33Thank you, Commissioner Combo. It could not have been said better and more inspiringly.
21:44The mayor often talks about this work being very personal to us, to him, to his administration,
21:52to the people that he surrounded himself with, who have this lived experience in this society. And you
22:00heard it directly from the commissioner. As the commissioner outlined, the big 300 million
22:08dollar number is very exciting. But we would not mean anything if it did not have leaders in the arts
22:18and culture space putting that 300 million dollars to good use. And I'm grateful to have such amazing
22:24cultural partners in New York City, including our host today. And I was sharing with Atiba that
22:33back when I was borough president of the Bronx, we were putting together the Bronx Children's Museum.
22:38And we were suffering. Thank you. It's yeah, we're going to have a cool announcement soon about that.
22:51But but we were suffering FOMO in the Bronx, fear of missing out for our children,
22:59because Brooklyn, Queens and Manhattan had beautiful children's museums and the Bronx didn't.
23:05And I came here early in my tenure before Atiba was executive director of this institution
23:12to see how Brooklyn did it so we could do it in the Bronx like Brooklyn did it. And Atiba,
23:19I have to tell you, it was an inspiration for me. We went back home and toiled to make it happen.
23:25But it was because in part because of the visit to a place like this, where we saw the children having
23:32rich experiences that were enriching their lives. And so, ladies and gentlemen, the executive director,
23:39president and CEO of Brooklyn Children's Museum, Atiba Edwards.
23:51Good morning. Good morning. Good. Thank you, Mama D. Thank you. I want to pull out one of the words
23:57that Laurie mentioned is collaboratively, right? Nothing is done in isolation that's really worth
24:02celebration. So when we think about thank you, Mayor Adams. Thank you, Commissioner Combo. Thank
24:07you, Council Member Colleen Rivera. Thank you, Speaker Adrian Adams, Finance Committee Chair Justin Brannon,
24:13and so many advocates. It's really good that emails are free and phone calls no longer have minutes
24:18behind them because we did it though, right? The work is hard. The work is challenging. The work is not
24:23impossible when you have the right team, the right collaborators together, but also the right mindset
24:28about what we want for our future. So really excited because this represents the largest funding
24:34increase in 15 years. And I stand before you because I'm a product of my environment.
24:44My parents took my siblings and I here every day from Brownsville. We'd also journey to a million different
24:49cultural institutions throughout New York City because they knew very deeply that these rich
24:54experiences are vital to our upbringing. So as mentioned, my name is Atiba Edwards. I'm the president
24:59and CEO of this storied institution, the first children's museum in the world. And it was designed because
25:05we thought about what we were really instinctual, intentional about creating a space for children to
25:09thrive. That's what this museum went to. And then we're proud to continue helping our partners in it. So yes,
25:15the Bronx came down across the entire world. There's many people who spent time here who are off doing
25:20some fantastic things. And what this budget will allow us to do, we're providing much, much, much more
25:26needed trips to schools. We have a great announcement coming soon, but we have more field trips coming.
25:32And the field trips are really essential because it's often the child's first cultural experience is
25:36coming to one of the institutions across the five boroughs. So thank you all for making this happen.
25:40Thank you all for making that a reality for so many families. Times are hard. Things are figuring out.
25:46It is the hardest decision to make when you have a child who's looking for something and you don't
25:50know where to go. But because of this budget, seven days a week, there'll be a place for them to go.
26:02So this is the best budget ever. This is the budget of more, more opportunities for students,
26:08more opportunities for educators, more opportunities for artists, more opportunities for institutions,
26:12more opportunities for our aging, more opportunities for families who like mine are looking for a place
26:17for their littlest ones to go to. They don't know what it will be. They don't know what impact it will
26:22have in their future, but they know they need to be there because to paraphrase a quote, a people without
26:28knowledge and understanding of culture is a tree without roots. So I really do appreciate you all for this
26:35work. I know it wasn't easy, but if it was easy, why bother doing it, right? So in closing, thank you all
26:41for here. Thank you all the advocates, all my culture people in the audience. This could have been done without you. Thank you all.
26:53Thank you, Atiba. And by the way, he went to Bronx High School of Science.
26:57Come on, man. In addition to cultural institutions, libraries serve as crucial neighborhood hubs.
27:09Libraries not only lend out books, but they serve as meeting spaces, spaces to work, to study, to receive
27:17job training, often places where people get language training, English as a second language to enter our
27:23economy. The Adams administration understands how crucial libraries are to New York City,
27:30to all our communities. That's why, as the mayor noted, we invested 534 million dollars in libraries
27:39this year, this year alone.
27:44We have the presidents of the New York Public Library systems. We have Dennis Walcott from the
27:50Queens Public Library.
27:55Linda Johnson from the Brooklyn Public Library.
28:00And representing all of them, we have our friend,
28:04Tony Marks of the New York Public Library, our next speaker.
28:07Good morning, everyone. Good morning, good morning. It's so wonderful to be here with you and to be
28:22representing my amazing colleagues, Dennis and Linda, and the entire workforces of the three greatest
28:28library systems in the country, if not the world. We are here to celebrate an amazing achievement.
28:36The FY26 budget, increasing funding for libraries citywide, as well as for all the amazing cultural
28:44institutions, so that the work, including the construction, can continue.
28:51This year's budget is an astonishing investment in our city's most trusted democratic institutions.
28:58Libraries receiving 32.7 million dollars in restored and increased operating support, including funds to
29:08expand seven-day service, so we can be there for all New Yorkers when they have the time.
29:18This is such a major critical step toward meeting our rising costs, because costs are rising for all of us,
29:25and the growing demand, the essential demand, for our vital services across this city.
29:31This means we can continue to provide to New Yorkers everything they rely on us for,
29:38and crucially, as I said, to expand Sunday service at 10 more branches across the five boroughs.
29:45This would not have been possible without the dedication of many individuals and groups,
29:51many of whom are represented here today. We are so immensely grateful for this investment
29:58and your partnership, Mr. Mayor. Thank you so much.
30:01Thank you so much.
30:05And of course, everyone in his administration, including the amazing deputy mayor, who's here with us.
30:16Thanks also to the city council speaker, Adrian Adams, to the finance chair, Justin Brannon,
30:21our amazing chair of the library's committee, Carlina Rivera, who's with us today, to the entire city council,
30:31for their unwavering support. Big thank you, of course, also goes out to DC 37, and the leadership of locals
30:401930, 1482, 1321, and local 374. Amazing partners, and make all the work possible, do all the work.
30:52This advocacy season, as the mayor referred to, has once again powerfully illustrated how deeply New Yorkers
30:59care for their libraries, calling, letters, emails. Sorry, not sorry. That's how democracy works,
31:11which is fabulous. Thank you to the tens of thousands of patrons who sent letters, wrote postcards,
31:17and delivered testimony in support of our beloved libraries. As libraries face growing threats across
31:25the nation, with book bans, with even the Librarian of Congress being fired, our city leaders have
31:34demonstrated that libraries are not a luxury, but an essential civic infrastructure that strengthens all of our
31:47communities, and therefore all of us. This investment by city leaders is a testament to the invaluable
31:55impact that libraries have on our communities, and a statement of New York's values, of this mayor's values,
32:02that everyone has, must have the opportunity to learn, to improve their lives, to improve their communities,
32:15and to continue to build the greatest city on the planet. Thank you all so much.
32:22Thank you very much, Tony Marks. And Mr. Mayor, I'm going to take the privilege of the microphone and introduce
32:35somebody who, there's a, there's a term of art that we use in budgeting, besides sausage making,
32:44it's shared priorities, because this is a partnership. You saw two Adamses standing together a few days ago.
32:54Eric Adams, and Adrian Adams, the mayor of the city of New York, and the speaker of the city council.
33:08Two kids who went to high school together by the way, graduated from the same high school.
33:14Um, but it is because it is a partnership that we stand together with the city council,
33:21and they conduct long, arduous hearings. There's a lot of back and forth that goes on between both sides
33:28of that building called city hall, the people's house. And at the end of the day, we come out together
33:35with product, together with outcomes for the people of the city of New York,
33:43and the leader in that body who advances this agenda of culture, arts, and libraries,
33:51is none other than the chair of that committee, council member, Carlina Rivera.
34:02All right. Good morning. Thank you so much. Sometimes, you know, you have to know when to just be here in support. So I just want to thank you for this opportunity to make a few brief remarks. I was here really as a cheerleader for the city. I love the city. This is my home. I've spent,
34:10my whole life here. And regardless of your political ideology, we have one thing that we all know and can agree on is that this is the culture capital of the world.
34:26So when we have organizations like Materials for the Arts, the Dance Parade, Third Tree Music School, Loisaita Center, when we have places like the Museum of the Moving Image,
34:45Snug Harbor, these fantastic places in addition to over 200 library branches across the five boroughs that is providing a safe space for our young people, our seniors, we have to ensure that we are investing equitably.
35:01And 2025 fiscal year 2026 has been that year.
35:05That's right.
35:06So I was asked, where are, where are the babies at?
35:11Because, you know, they'll be at the Puerto Rican Day Parade at the, you know, waving the flag. They were at Pride. I have very, very young children.
35:18I will tell you that they're in daycare right now. And at the cost that childcare is, we are loving the teachers that watch them from nine to five.
35:28We are incredibly grateful that this budget also took into account our educational spaces and early childhood, especially for zero to two years old.
35:40I have little babies and those costs are great. And those teachers are deserving of a living wage.
35:47So when the weekend comes and we're like, what will we do? What will we do?
35:52We're going to bring them to, we're going to pay the babysitter living wage so we can go out and enjoy a night on the town.
36:00Occasionally me and my husband, but we're also going to frequent our library branches.
36:04We're going to go to our local museums. We're going to go to that dance class, that swim class.
36:09And we want to expose students and everyone else to the opportunities that we want for ourselves.
36:16Growing up, my mother always looked for what was free. Where was the scholarship?
36:21That's what you do when you're a low income family looking for opportunities to grow as a person.
36:26And now doing this professionally, it's the same thing. We're guided, our North Star, our own experiences.
36:32And so we want everyone to have that. And I want to thank all of the advocates here who worked so, so hard to ensure that we were bringing in millions and millions of dollars in historic investment in really unprecedented times with threats to federal grants, just cuts across the board.
36:49We really are lifting up our cultural institutions, our groups, our nonprofits that are on the ground, incubators, and pioneering spaces of great ideas and concepts of shows and pieces of art that will go on to change the world.
37:04And we need that so desperately right now.
37:07So thank you to everyone.
37:10I think the one thing I'll mention is that there are some really great things like we are improving the infrastructure in our library systems to ensure that cooling centers
37:18centers can be open and available. We are ensuring that our museums can open more days a week to embrace those experiences of families across the five boroughs.
37:27And we're very thankful to be doing that collaboratively.
37:30So thank you so much. This is my eighth and final budget. Bittersweet, but way to rock it, everyone. Thank you.
37:36Thank you, council members. It's terrific.
37:41Mr. Mayor, the mayor will now take some on-topic questions.
37:45Great work, mayor. Great work.
37:51Thank you. Okay.
37:52Great work.
37:53So we're going to excuse everyone so we can take some off-topics.
37:58I don't want to put y'all through this.
38:00All right, everybody.
38:03Nina.
38:10Amen.
38:11Happy birthday.
38:14What's your guarantor?
38:15Can I give you a yoky Allah tinelblere?
41:20Okay.
41:21Okay.
41:22Okay.
41:24I'm going to do a few off topics, but I just want to start before we do the off topics.
42:14He's safe.
42:15So hats off to SPF and the entire crew for what they're doing.
42:18So let's, we're going to do a few off topics.
42:22Okay.
42:23Andrew.
42:24Andrew.
42:25Andrew.
42:26You're doing quite well, brother.
42:27You're doing quite well, brother.
42:28All right.
42:29All right, you can hear me this way.
42:30All right.
42:31You can hear me this way.
42:32Yes.
42:33You can hear me.
42:34You can hear me.
42:35You can hear me.
42:36You can hear me.
42:37You can hear me.
42:38You can hear me.
42:39You can hear me.
42:41You can hear me.
42:42You can hear me.
42:43You can hear me.
42:44The Cuomo campaign said, New Yorkers know that Trump supports you and New Yorkers don't
42:49want socialism and that Cuomo is more of the middle.
42:52How would you respond to that?
42:53I don't have a response.
42:54I'm going to do what I do best campaign with people.
42:58People who know me, as Laurie gave that narrative of many years ago, people who know me, they
43:04know that I'm an independent voice.
43:06I respond to the people of this city.
43:09I've been clear on that.
43:10Everyone knows that.
43:11They know, I think it's almost an insult for anyone to state that anyone is going to
43:16control a person who has been independent for 40 years.
43:19My record speaks for itself.
43:20You know, New Yorkers know me.
43:22They know how authentic I am on fighting on behalf of New Yorkers.
43:25When the president is wrong, I'm going to stand up.
43:28When the president is right, like giving us a stop record, lifting a stop record order
43:33and a multi-billion dollar initiative, I'm going to go down and advocate.
43:38I'm going to advocate for New Yorkers, like I did with President Biden.
43:41I'm going to do it under this administration.
43:43It's about New York.
43:44It's not about name calling.
43:46It's about producing for the city.
43:48And that's what I'm going to do.
43:49That's my history.
43:50That's my history.
43:53Was the president wrong when he said yesterday, Eric Adams is a great guy.
43:57I helped him out.
43:58Was he wrong when he said he helped you out?
44:00Well, go back on the campaign trail.
44:02First of all, I never met President Trump prior to him running for office.
44:07We need to be clear of that.
44:08Almost 60 years of my life, I never met him.
44:11On the campaign trail, he was clear.
44:14What they're doing to Eric Adams is wrong.
44:17Now, I don't know about you, but if you were facing 33 years in prison for doing something that was not wrong, and if someone said what they're doing to you is wrong, my mother said thank you to those who speak on your behalf.
44:32And so I thank him for pointing out that I was targeted for fighting for the city of New York.
44:39And I thank him for doing that.
44:40Anything else?
44:41You have to go to Washington, D.C., and you have to speak to the president, because I'm just the mayor of the city of New York.
44:47I just want to follow up on those questions.
44:54I'm sure you do.
44:55So are you saying that you don't believe it's a two-person race going into the general election?
45:01And then to be clear, you didn't thank him for dismissing your case, just for helping you out in general, highlighting that you were being unfairly targeted?
45:10Because 100%.
45:11I thank him for, listen, I've said this over and over again.
45:15These last 15 months have been the most difficult months of my entire life.
45:19I watched a record and legacy that really young people were proud of.
45:25Young people would stop me on the street and tell them how proud they were when I was with 100 blacks in law enforcement who cared.
45:31How proud I was when I was a state senator, when I became the first person of color to be the president,
45:36and the second person of color to be the mayor after 30 years absent, after David Jenkins.
45:42In 15 months, I've watched this media and others really dismantle my entire reputation.
45:51I watched them call me all sorts of names.
45:54I watched them say that I was corrupt, that I was a corrupt crook.
45:58I just watched all of that.
45:59And in spite of all of that, I got up every morning and I delivered for this city.
46:03And I'm hoping at the end of this narrative, people are going to see what resiliency looks like.
46:10Resiliency.
46:11And so I know others when they're under pressure, they step down.
46:15I stepped up.
46:16I'm delivering for New York.
46:17So the best budget ever is not the only chapter in what we have done.
46:22We have done amazing things for the city.
46:24So my thank you was for his comments on the campaign trail that draw attention.
46:30Other people started asking the question, let's see what they did to Eric Adams.
46:34It was wrong.
46:35But I'm not going to sit back and say, woe is me.
46:37I'm going to say, why not me?
46:39And so I've always felt this was a two person race.
46:42It was a race between those of us who are going to toil in the field.
46:47My record is clear.
46:48One person is running on no record.
46:51I'm running from a record.
46:53My record is clear.
46:54And the voters are going to have to look at it and decide what they want the city to look like.
46:58And I'm going to continue to put that message out in a loud and clear way.
47:03And I'm excited about this summer and the campaign season.
47:06This is what I do best, communicate with voters.
47:09I wouldn't even have to run if y'all would have covered what we've really done in the city.
47:13But you didn't.
47:14You didn't.
47:15You focus on everything but.
47:20And it's our right to write stories about our floors.
47:24Because I'm perfectly imperfect.
47:25But it's wrong not to report that bond rate has increased our bond.
47:29It's wrong not to report that we build more housing in individual years in the history of the city.
47:34It's wrong not to report that Broadway had his best 12 years in the history of the city.
47:39That we invested in foster care children, paying their college tuition.
47:43It's wrong to report that we have done more for those who are coming home from incarceration than any other administration.
47:50When you don't report that also, you have the city to believe that this city is out of control when the city is in control.
47:58So now I've got to get out there and go over the media distortion of my record.
48:03And I've got to speak one-on-one to New Yorkers and tell them about my record.
48:06So they won't say, I didn't know.
48:08They're going to say, now we see what you've done.
48:11This is one of the most successful administrations in the history of the city.
48:15We break records every day on helping working class people.
48:18Right.
48:19Just really quick, will you condemn Trump's threats to look into Mom Donnie's citizenship status?
48:26Yeah, listen, listen.
48:28You know, hey folks, I want you all to understand something.
48:31I want you all to watch these next couple of months.
48:34Everyone is going to try to pull me off of the record of providing for the city.
48:39They're going to have a mic in my face.
48:41Are you going to do this?
48:42Are you going to do this?
48:43Are you going to do this?
48:44Let me tell you what I'm going to do.
48:45I'm going to deliver for New Yorkers.
48:46And if you have a question about affordable housing, if you have a question about not closing supermarkets so bodegas workers won't lose their jobs.
48:53If you have a question about making sure that when we empty out people from Rankin's Island that they don't get the help that they need.
49:00That's what I want to talk about.
49:02I don't want to talk about this other stuff.
49:04Look at my record.
49:05Go Google me and then you can get the answer to the question.
49:09You got to bounce.
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