This past week Adams sat down with news personality and 13-time Emmy Award winning host of Pix on Politics, Dan Mannarino. It was wild.
Mannarino asks Adams, “We’ve come to the end of what was a very eventful 2023. When you look at the totality of the year, and you have to describe it…in one word, what would that word be?” Adams responds, “New York.”
Then Adams tells tourists, those moving to the Big Apple, and residents that can’t escape, what they can look forward to in 2024. “This is a place where every day you wake up, you can experience everything from a plane crashing into our trade center to a person who’s celebrating a new business that’s open.” Sounds like he’s found our new tourism pitch; “Come get murdered by terrorists with us.”
This isn’t funny and it’s not far from reality. Post 9/11 shows Manhattan has become an Islamist outpost. Everyday, there are myriad swarms of rabid Jew haters and pro-Hamas sympathizers holding hostage federal buildings, bridges, commuters, schools, and streets. These are seemingly tourist attractions to Adams.
Adams explains, “This is a very, very complicated city and that’s why, this is the greatest city on the globe.” Normally, “complicated” and “greatest” don’t go hand-in-hand, but we can chalk this up to another achievement.
When asked to describe the highs in 2023, Adams says it’s the bursting private sector growth. Perhaps he means the heroin injection sites and illegal weed shops, more ubiquitous than Starbucks? Maybe he is referring to what locals refer to as “deliveristas”, illegal immigrants hired by Uber Eats, breaking all sorts of laws and traffic rules as they zip around sidewalks and streets on e-scooters without licenses. “It shows a real [sic] healthy movement towards our city coming back.”
Adams isn’t delusional, he cites the low in 2023 as the illegal immigrant crisis, which has the city in a death grip. 150,000 “asylum seekers”, he says, have put a bump in the road. More like a landmine. Mannarino presses on, calling the situation a “curveball.” Not really. Adams’ was a pioneer - one of the first to say aloud that he wanted the then 800,000 non-citizens to be able to vote. People have been screaming from the rafters about the perils of the open border for years, but Mannarino and Adams choose to talk sports. “That’s not a curveball. That’s a brushback pitch that knocked us in the ground”, says Adams with a smile.
However, Adams is bright-eyed about New York City’s future; he plans on “working hard.” He says, “I want to continue to do the job until the job is done. I don’t quit in anything I do.” (Sounds like a threat). Adams says he failed two sergeants exams, but that didn’t stop him. “My product is a good product”, he says with a straight face.
As for what 2024 brings - no federal aid; “I believe that”, says Adams. That being said, it isn’t Biden’s fault, or his.The Republicans are the problem, they haven't done immigration reform, he laments. “What we’re going to have to do is extremely painful. We’re going to have to see how we deliver services from our agencies without…resources.” Regarding cuts, “everything is on the table.” This should have been the part where Mannarino asked why we’re still a Sanctuary City, because changing this would solve many issues, as would not sending a Batman signal for “free” everything. Adams reminds the viewers, he has to balance the budget by law and there’s a $12 billion dollar hole “and a thirty something billion dollars”, whatever this means.
Mannarino says he “isn’t a mathematician” but tries digging deeper into the financial quandary. Adams breaks it down. “If you are a homeowner, and you have budgeted yourself for rent, electricity, water, etc, and your roof caves in, your insurance policy should pick up on that. Our insurance policy was the federal government. They’re not paying us. You might have to turn off the lights longer. You may only have to have two meals a day.”
Adams completely misunderstands the division between the federal government and state’s rights (enumerated and unenumerated powers). The federal government can’t pay for the profligate actions of New York State or any state.
But it’s not all grim. The good news; Adams discusses creativity and reliance on technology, “like to know how snow plows are going.” Wouldn’t we all? At the rate Adams is burying his head in the sand, it may take a snow plough to get him out.
