“It was not a security breach,” he said, referring to his security team. “They know that there’s one thing the mayor can do, the mayor can handle himself.”

He added that he’s instructed his security team to not guard him too closely.

“I tell my detail members: ‘Do not crowd me, I don’t want you in the room, I want to walk by myself, stay on the peripheral, do not keep New Yorkers from coming near me,'” he said. “It is challenging for them. I am a security person’s nightmare.”

Adams’ half-hour speech was geared at boosting the city’s post-COVID recovery. During it, Adams touted real estate development, his response to the migrant crisis and his administration’s approach to addressing crime. Immediately after his speech, he sat for a Q and A where he played down the disruption.

Adams recalled how, years ago, he overheard a classmate he disliked saying he hated the sound of people popping gum.

“So I waited until the finals, and I sat down behind him and I started popping gum,” he said, laughing. “I felt so bad that I confessed to him.

“You’d be surprised how many people wake up every day just to disrupt you,” he continued. “They don’t like their own lives so they want to disrupt your life. And you have to realize to yourself: Pray for them. All those folks were doing, they were popping gum. I gotta stay focused on the final so I can get that A.”

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(New York Daily News staff writers Chris Sommerfeldt and Thomas Tracy contributed to this story.)

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