NEW YORK (1010 WINS) — Mayor Eric Adams joined 1010 WINS’ "The PM Rush" with anchor Larry Mullins on Friday evening and encouraged New Yorkers to read the entire federal indictment charging him, defended the turnover of top City Hall staff and touched on city housing and gun violence prevention programs.
In reference to the Southern District of New York’s federal indictment charging him with corruption, Adams remained steadfast in his innocence, confirming that “I did nothing wrong, and the facts are going to show that.” The mayor said that his attorney is handling the indictment while he focuses on fulfilling the duties of his station for New York City.
When asked whether any of his actions, made even with good intentions, could have been misunderstood or misconstrued as a crime, Adams said that “hindsight is always 20-20,” and pushed for New Yorkers to do their own research.
“I really encourage New Yorkers to read the indictment. Read it. Don’t just do the presentation that came from the Southern District,” he said. “Read it and see for yourself, the normal constituent service I provide to New Yorkers, and [what] every elected provide[s], is what we need to focus on.”
After months of federal probes spanning through multiple NYC agencies and the filing of the indictment against Adams, a litany of top city officials have stepped down from their posts, including former staffers First Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright, Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Philip Banks, NYC Schools Chancellor David Banks and Police Commissioner Edward Caban.
The mayor called his former appointments “great public servants” before pointing to the toll a “24-hour, seven-day-a-week job” can have on people and their family, leading to the desire to do something different after being in these positions.
“If you break it down just to my discretionary appointments, from all my commissioners to all of my chiefs of top hierarchy of the office, all of my deputy mayors are still here, outside … the first deputy mayor and deputy mayor of public safety, so it's not the top leadership of my administration,” he said. “That is just not the reality. They’re still here. And most importantly, they’re still producing for New Yorkers.”
Adams also touched on his City of Yes program that intends to bring more affordable housing to NYC, responded to criticism over scanners in the subway system not finding any guns and said that the New York Yankees are “going to finish the task” in the World Series against the Dodgers.