Eric Adams says he won’t be “the word police” after Kathy Hochul said Black Bronx kids don’t know what “computer” means.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams on Tuesday defended Gov. Kathy Hochul saying “we have young Black kids growing up in the Bronx who don’t even know what the word 'computer' is.”

“I am not the word police. I know the governor's heart,” Adams, a fellow Democrat, said at a news conference. “The people of the Bronx knew where her heart was.”

Hochul, the governor of New York and a frequent Adams ally, made the comment Monday during an interview at the Milken Institute Global Conference in California about expanding economic opportunities in the field of artificial intelligence for low-income communities, according to the Associated Press. Hochul went on to say that she wants to help communities of color access emerging AI technology in order to address social inequality.

Hochul in a statement apologized for her remark: “I misspoke and I regret it.”

“Of course Black children in the Bronx know what computers are — the problem is that they too often lack access to the technology needed to get on track to high-paying jobs in emerging industries like AI,” Hochul continued. “That’s why I’ve been focused on increasing economic opportunity since Day One of my Administration, and will continue that fight to ensure every New Yorker has a shot at a good-paying job.”

“When you make thousands of speeches, when you're in front of the cameras all the time, when you're trying to be authentic and say the things that you're really feeling, one can sit back and do a critical analysis of every sentence you say,” Adams said. “I know what she was intending to say. And she was not trying to be disrespectful to the people of the Bronx.”