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Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. On Monday, Mayor Eric Adams held his first general press conference at City Hall since the crisis over his alleged quid pro quo with President Donald Trump broke out. Some breaking news this morning. The mayor asked a federal judge to toss out the corruption case against him, alleging prosecutorial misconduct. This is in addition to Trump's Justice Department seeking dismissal of the charges, at least for now. They're not saying he's innocent. They just want to dismiss the charges on the mayor's behalf.

During this week's press conference, the mayor continued to defend himself against critics calling for him to resign and step down. He pushed back a bit more carefully against Governor Kathy Hochul, who unveiled a set of guardrails, as she calls it, on the mayor's powers after pressure to use her authority to remove Adams. The mayor also announced the closure of the Roosevelt Hotel. At least to migrants, it had become a symbol of the migrant crisis. Does that mean the crisis is officially over?

Well, here for another breakdown of the mayor's weekly news conference and to cover all the latest stories coming out of City Hall is WNYC and Gothamist lead Mayor Adams reporter Elizabeth Kim. We're going to include Liz's question to the mayor about whether he will forcefully demand work permits for migrants with Trump as president like he did under Biden. If he doesn't, is that an indication that he really is under Trump's thumb now? Liz usually joins us on Wednesdays after the mayor's Tuesday news conference. For scheduling reasons, the mayor held his press conference on Monday this week, but Liz is still here today. Hi, Liz. Happy Wednesday.

Elizabeth Kim: Happy Wednesday, Brian.

Brian Lehrer: The mayor started with the closure of the Roosevelt Hotel. We'll start there too. Here he is breaking down the decision.

Mayor Eric Adams: The Roosevelt Hotel opened May 2023 during the height of the crisis when we were receiving 4,000 people a week. You just got to really think about that. 4,000 people a week. Thanks to our policies, we're down to an average of just 350 new arrivals. These were policies we put in place on how we should alter what happens at the border, what we can do here to transition out. Those 30 and 60-day programs were put in place that critics were criticizing, but it allowed us to get over 180,000 people out of our care and off taxpayers' payroll.

Brian Lehrer: Liz, is this because the Biden administration last year finally, some people would say, closed the border more and so that massive flow to New York stopped at that time?

Elizabeth Kim: You read my mind, Brian. I was thinking the exact same thing when I heard him say, "Thanks to our policies." Like you said, what the mayor is maybe conveniently leaving out is that President Biden effectively closed the border last June via an executive order. That was really when the city started to see a more dramatic reduction in the number of migrant arrivals. You could probably understand perhaps that the mayor, in this moment, doesn't really want to credit Former President Biden, who he has accused of politically targeting him with this indictment.

Brian Lehrer: As I said in the intro, during the Biden administration, Mayor Adams did lobby the federal government hard on getting work permits and getting them quickly for undocumented migrants so that they wouldn't be on the public charge. You asked him about this now in the context of the Trump administration. Let's take a listen to that exchange, folks. This starts with Elizabeth's question.

Elizabeth Kim: I wanted to talk about this consistent message that you were talking about. I know one of the things you talked about very early on was getting undocumented immigrants' work permits. I was wondering, are you going to still push that message with the Trump administration? Are you confident that they can make some headway on this? You know many industries, especially in New York City, rely on immigrant labor. This would be very beneficial to the city's economy.

Mayor Eric Adams: I agree with you. We fought when others were silent. We fought for TPS. We organized with the unions. We organized with the private industry. We thought it was important. You're right. Our economy depend on those workers. We're going to continue to advocate for that.

Brian Lehrer: Is there an indication, Liz? Interesting exchange. Interesting answer. He seemed to accept the premise and said that he would continue to advocate for it. Is there any evidence that he actually is advocating for it? He used to bring it up during Biden. You had to bring it up this time. We know that the Trump policy is not to give any people who are here undocumented work permits. It's to round them up and kick them out.

Elizabeth Kim: That's right, Brian. This was an issue, I think, that the mayor had everyone on his side when it came to expediting work permits. Advocates for immigrants, advocates for the homeless, they all said this was the right thing to do. The mayor was very vocal on this issue. He led a rally outside of City Hall on this issue. This was part of his consistent message, but we haven't heard him talk about this since Trump came into office. I put the question to him.

To his credit, he says, "I agree with you. I think that it is important, but we will see." He's not talking about it. He certainly has not talked about the Trump administration's decision to end TPS. That's Temporary Protected Status for Haitians, for example. That was another question I thought about putting to the mayor. That was something else he had asked for and then he himself talked about it in his remarks there, not specifically for Haitians but for Venezuelans.

Brian Lehrer: Did anybody ask about that specifically? I usually get to see these mayoral news conferences, but I didn't get it this week. It's such big news for so many New Yorkers. Haitian New Yorkers are one of the biggest immigrant groups in the city. We did a special Monday night with public radio stations in Boston and Miami, the other cities that have the two biggest Haitian-American populations, after this rescission of TPS for Haitian-Americans. Anybody ask the mayor specifically if he wanted to lobby the Trump administration, at least by answering a question in a news conference, "Don't do this"?

Elizabeth Kim: No, and it's an important question, though, for the mayor because-- and not just Haitians but the immigrant community. We've talked about this, Brian. The mayor did a lot of work starting as borough president to cultivate relationships with the immigrant community. He's talked about this a lot. He's done a lot to invite non-English news outlets to come to his press conferences.

The question wasn't put in part because the mayor hasn't had a weekly City Hall presser in weeks, right? This is, in part, what happens when he delays these press conferences, these off-topic press conferences, is there is such a buildup of questions that I think some questions get lost. It's just an hour too as well. There's just too much. In many ways, this is a tactic that does help the mayor. It does help him avoid some tough questions like that.

Brian Lehrer: With our lead Eric Adams reporter, Liz Kim, after the mayor's Monday news conference. We can take your questions for Liz after we took her question for the mayor. 212-433-WNYC, 433-9692, call or text. Before we get off work permits and go to the part of the conversation that's going to be about Andrew Cuomo maybe getting very close to jumping into the race and a Democratic congressman from the Bronx pre-endorsing him, Nora, in Manhattan, you're on WNYC. Hello, Nora.

Nora: Hi. Thank you for taking my call. I was calling to remind everyone who may not be aware that the mayor never really fast-tracked the work permits. The work permits can only be had after someone has filed for asylum. In which case, they can file for a work permit. It then takes 180 days approximately. I think that's a fact that has never really been talked about in the media. I've been volunteering with East Village neighbors who care for over a year now with this population. This is what they've gone through to get a work permit, so it wasn't fast.

Brian Lehrer: Thank you very much. Yes, that 180 days, six months, that's the way it was for migrants who were here seeking asylum, right? Adams was trying to get it to be shorter than that. Do I remember that correctly?

Elizabeth Kim: That's right, Brian, but I think we can give Adams credit that as a result of his pressure campaign on the Biden administration, the federal government did wind up sending a team of federal workers dedicated to expediting this process. I saw this firsthand. I think the mayor does deserve credit for raising this as an issue and there were more resources put into helping make this happen.

Brian Lehrer: On Monday, pivoting to a new topic, Congressman Ritchie Torres made a pre-endorsement of former Governor Andrew Cuomo entering the race for New York City mayor. I say "pre-endorsement," obviously, because Cuomo has not announced a run. Here's a reporter who had just spent the morning with Torres posing a question about that to Adams at Monday's news conference.

Reporter: I was pushing him on why he would do this now and he made a point that I wanted to get your response to if I could. He said, "I'm reflecting the will of my people," which is to say Black and brown working-class people in the South Bronx. Are you concerned that you've lost the faith of the people as the congressman is implying?

Mayor Eric Adams: Well, Congressman Torres also called for the former governor to step down. I don't know what happened differently now. When I go up to the Bronx, I see the will of the people embracing my working-class agenda from returning $30 billion back into their pockets to dealing with crime and public safety and so many other issues. Campaign is going to take care of itself. This is all the craziness of a campaign season.

Brian Lehrer: Liz, I know you're our lead Eric Adams reporter as I always call you. Can you be a Congressman Ritchie Torres reporter at all and say, "What's going on with him?" He is relatively conservative among Democratic members of Congress from New York City these days, right? He's definitely been on the side of Adams and Hochul with respect to police buildup in the subways and some other issues.

Now, he might be one, especially as Adams tries to run in part on his support in the Black and Latino working-class community, very much a community that Torres represents in his Bronx district. You could have seen Torres coming out and standing with the mayor. Instead, he's going to another candidate who's not even in the race yet and not from the left flank.

Elizabeth Kim: That's right, Brian. I think the mayor called it part of the silliness of the campaign season. I think it's part of the transactional nature of politics. We should say that the congressman has been critical of the mayor throughout this legal crisis that he's been going through. He has questioned whether the mayor could still govern effectively. His decision to endorse Cuomo, he spoke to several outlets where he characterized it as, "New York City in this moment doesn't need a nice guy. It needs a tough guy."

He's talking about someone who could stand up to Trump. He also spoke about someone who could fight "political extremism" and also crime. It would be very advantageous, I think, for him to team up with Cuomo if indeed Cuomo does enter the race and if indeed Cuomo does win, because then he would have a potential ally in his-- He's been flirting with a primary challenge to Hochul. We see how the deck is stacking up here.

Brian Lehrer: Right. I think I see where you're going with this. If Ritchie Torres is planning to primary Governor Hochul from the right next year, he doesn't want former Governor Cuomo, who could also do the same thing. A lot of reporting says that's what he really wants. He really wants to be governor again. He would get Cuomo out of the way if Cuomo becomes mayor of New York City.

Elizabeth Kim: Yes, I guess he would both get Cuomo out of the way and also have a powerful ally potentially. This is all assuming many things. This is assuming that Cuomo does, in fact, run. It's been a very long buildup. I think there has been more chatter this week that the former governor is thinking about announcing soon because petitioning started this week. This is the process in which candidates for public office have to get a certain number of people to sign a petition in order to qualify for the primary. It's getting to that period where it's now or never for Cuomo. That's also in part why this was an interesting endorsement to come out this week. The timing was very interesting.

Brian Lehrer: Edith in Manhattan, you're on WNYC with our Liz Kim. Hi, Edith.

Edith: Hi, Brian, and hi, guest. I'm sorry. I forgot your name. I always love this segment.

Brian Lehrer: WNYC City Hall reporter Elizabeth Kim. Just letting you know the name. Go ahead.

Edith: Oh, Elizabeth Kim. Okay, I forgot. Sorry, Elizabeth. Well, I woke up this morning to a slew of emails and even my Google feed about-- You alluded to this, but I don't know if it came up specifically in the Adams press. Well, I don't know if he knew about it yesterday or Monday but that Elon Musk just clawed back $80 million from New York City that had been appropriated by Congress specifically for migrants, for the housing, and some other things for them. I don't know if you've seen that yet that Elon Musk is taking back $80 million from New York for the migrants.

Elizabeth Kim: That's correct, Edith. This happened last week. Immediately, the city comptroller, Brad Lander, who is also running to unseat the mayor, held a press conference urging the Adams administration to immediately file a lawsuit. In some ways, he was challenging the mayor to take this issue to Trump. The mayor did accept that. The law department has, in fact, filed a lawsuit asking for this money back.

Brian Lehrer: Edith, thank you very much. Liz, before you go, I see that Fox 5 anchor Curt Menefee called the mayor out over something that the mayor's been saying, a word that the mayor's been using to refer to Black people, not like the N-word, but sort of the other N-word. What happened here?

Elizabeth Kim: A lot of this is the mayor's-- I guess I would call it, it's a kind of code-switching that the mayor does when he's in settings with a Black audience. Usually, it's a friendly Black audience. He said this at a Black church. This time, this was last night, it was a Black history event at Gracie Mansion. The essential message, which I think is the same everywhere, but the fact that he tries to argue that the criticism of him, these calls for him to step down or to be removed, not only are they unfair, but he feels that it's impeding Black progress.

Part of the mayor's politics is the politics of his identity. We often hear him talk about that. I think it works very well in the setting that he's talking about himself as only the second Black mayor of the city of New York. It's also very politically important for him to try to push back on Black criticism of him because he knows that that, in many ways, will be a watershed moment for him, this growing criticism, not just from the Democratic Party but from Democratic Black leaders.

I'm thinking of people like the public advocate Jumaane Williams, State Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins. Those are the two most prominent people that have come to mind that have called on him to resign. This is his base and this is a way in which he tries to zero in on that specific criticism and push back on it in an audience that is largely friendly to him like--

Brian Lehrer: Another person in that category, the speaker of the city council, Adrienne Adams. No relation. There's talk that with the mayor under fire in a way that he wasn't a year ago, she who had no plans to challenge him in a Democratic primary originally may jump in and do that. When do you think we're going to know? You talked about the petition signature gathering period having already started now. When are we going to know if there's an Adrienne Adams candidacy, a former Governor Cuomo candidacy, or anyone else?

Elizabeth Kim: I think it has to be soon. With respect to the speaker, I was told that she pretty much needs to-- if not declare, but maybe decide this week. It's rather late to get into a campaign. Unlike Cuomo, who already has a war chest that he can use, the speaker doesn't. She would need to raise money. She would need to build a campaign apparatus and then she would also need to juggle that with her duties as speaker as we're going into budget season. I think with Cuomo, there's been chatter that somehow a decision would come at the end of this month, which would be, I think, basically, the end of this week. The chatter has been that it could be as early as Saturday, but we shall see. I think we will see very soon, perhaps in early March, what exactly the field looks like.

Brian Lehrer: Early March begins Monday, right?

Elizabeth Kim: Exactly, yes.

Brian Lehrer: Saturday, something like that. There you go. All right. WNYC and Gothamist lead Eric Adams reporter Elizabeth Kim. Thanks for today. Don't make other plans for next Wednesday, okay?

Elizabeth Kim: I won't, Brian.

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