Brian Ler on WNYC, and now as usual on Wednesdays, our lead Eric Adams reporter, Elizabeth Kim, after the Mayor's Weekly Tuesday News Conference.

She's here again with clips and analysis,

and to take your calls, 212-433. WNYC got pretty lively yesterday with the mayor and some of the

reporter's questions. topics included the resignation of the first female FDNY commissioner,

Laura Kavanaugh, Mayor Adams' response to the assassination

attempt against former President Trump and who he thinks needs to tone down politically intense

rhetoric and an early look at the 2025 mayoral primary with three Democrats now officially

in that race, or at least filing campaign finance reports

for that race. So Liz, hi, happy Wednesday. Happy Wednesday, Brian. And we'll start off with

the resignation of Laura Kavanaugh, the FDNY Commissioner. You asked the mayor about this,

and we're going to play part of your question. Should I just play it or do you

want to set this up in any way? Sure. I'll set it up. So just to remind listeners, Laura Kavanaugh,

she was appointed in October 22. She was the first woman to lead the department. She was also the

youngest in over a century. Now, she herself was not a firefighter,

but she had years of experience going back to 2014. She was the acting commissioner to Dan Nigro,

who retired in 2022. And prior to that, she was the first deputy commissioner. So very much a trailblazing appointment.

And here's part of Liz's question, folks, and we'll hear part of the mayor's response.

She tried to have some shakeups in the department, and she got backlash for it.

There was a lawsuit. And I remember you defended her at the time in making those decisions.

Now, one of the arguments that was made against her by members of the fire department

was that she herself had never been a firefighter.

And I'm wondering how much credence do you give to that argument?

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