Transcript: Mayor Eric Adams Appears On ABC’s “this Week With George Stephanopoulos”

January 22, 2023

Martha Raddatz: Chief Washington correspondent Jonathan Karl sat down with Mayor Bass, New York's mayor, Eric Adams, and Houston's mayor, Sylvester Turner, to discuss the challenges their cities face.

Jonathan Karl: This is the first time in American history that we have the top four cities in America, the biggest four cities represented by Black mayors. How significant is that?

Mayor Eric Adams: It's a moment for us. It's a moment that we are now really going after those tough challenges and historical problems that we fought for many years to be in the driving seat.

Karl: And you made history by getting elected Mayor of Los Angeles.

Mayor Karen Bass: Right. First time there's a woman mayor. And I think that... Thank you. I think one issue is that all of our cities are extremely diverse. So it's not as though we are representing Black cities; we are representing cities that reflect the population of America, that have many problems, but whose population had the confidence in us to elect us.

Mayor Sylvester Turner: And there was a time when, let's say, the top 50 cities didn't have a single mayor that looked like any one of us. And I think it does signal that progress has been made and hopefully gets to the point where it doesn't stand out.

Karl: What is, in your view, the number one issue facing your city?

Mayor Turner: Public safety.

Karl: Public safety.

Mayor Adams: Prerequisite to prosperity of the economy, inflation. All of that ties to people must be safe.

Mayor Bass: Right. In Los Angeles, without a doubt, it's homelessness. But it's the intersection of income inequality and also public safety.

Mayor Turner: And I would agree with that. I mean, public safety is a top priority, but at the same time, what impacts public safety?

Karl: Yes.

Mayor Turner: And so you have to... The economy, revitalizing our communities that have been underserved for a long, long time, dealing with the issues of homelessness, and those things that put people on the street or keep people at the margins.

Mayor Adams: It's so important. So important. And that's what we are doing. When people hear public safety, they think police. And we are saying public safety is intervention and prevention. We must stop feeding criminal behavior and what we're doing - upstream. If you change upstream, we won't be pulling people out of crime downstream.

Karl: I think you called defunding the police probably one of the worst slogans ever, Mayor Bass. Why did you say that?

Mayor Bass: What I believe is that over time, especially the federal government, state and cities have divested, defunded social services. And so I think when a person goes into the academy, they don't go in to address homelessness, addiction, mental illness. And so we need to refund our communities, build out the social safety net so that people don't fall into crime.

Mayor Adams: You go into the average community of color or any community, they'll tell you, no, we want our police, but we want them to do fair policing.

Mayor Turner: So it's not about defunding police, it's about investing in communities.

Karl: So I want to ask you about the migrant crisis. Mayor Adams, you were just in El Paso. You were on the border.

Mayor Adams: Yes.

Karl: Did it change your perspective of this issue at all? What are the big takeaways?

Mayor Adams: This should not happen to any city in America. This is a national problem and our national government, Congress, and the White House, must do a long-term comprehensive immigration policy. But the White House must deal with the immediate emergency we have now.

Mayor Turner: Number one, you need comprehensive immigration reform. Number two, if you're going to send people anywhere, there needs to be dialogue and collaboration, between, for example, the governor in New York or Denver, Chicago, wherever that's taking place. And if you want to score political points, that's one way to do it. But that doesn't solve the problem. And quite frankly, migrants shouldn't be used as political pawns.

Mayor Bass: Exactly. I mean, I think it's very cynical on the part of the governor of Texas and it's a way of attempting to deliberately undermine New York City and Democratic run cities that welcome immigrants and we do need comprehensive immigration reform. But look at why we can't get comprehensive immigration reform - it's the Republicans will stop it.

Karl: Does something need to be done though to slow the flow of migrants over the border?

Mayor Bass: Well, I think that you need to look at the population because the people that are coming are coming for different reasons and anything that we can do to help those countries, to help the economic conditions, to help the crime issues in the Central American countries, we need to do more.

Mayor Turner: Well, the recent policy that the Biden administration has put in place I think will help. Allowing people to apply from where they are instead of coming over, I think is a significant step forward. So I think we have to wait and see whether or not the new policies that they've put in place will have a positive impact.

Karl: But you think that's a good policy?

Mayor Adams: If we are going to allow those that are coming in who have relationships here in the country, sponsors, if it's coordinated in the proper way, we could absorb it throughout the entire country. You cannot absorb it just in a few cities that we are witnessing right now, with each one of those cities acting independently to address a national crisis. That's not how to do it.

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