New York Mayor Eric Adams said he would “welcome support from every American” in response to a question from the Washington Examiner about whether he would accept former President Donald Trump’s favor.
Trump recently said he had predicted Adams would be “indicted within a year” as the mayor called for federal government funds to deal with the city’s migrant crisis.
“Listen, I welcome support from every American,” Adams said Tuesday at a press conference. “No matter where they are and who they are, I welcome support from every American. Those who know me and know how I am, and those who are just reading up on this. So every American in this great country, I welcome support from.”
While Adams has endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris in her presidential run, he has rarely knocked Trump in at least the past year, according to Politico. Recently, however, he suggested that Trump was a “rat” and that Democrats needed to win the White House.
“It is challenging bringing all Democrats together,” Adams said at a Harris campaign event. “We said in Albany it’s like herding cats. But all of us know, that these cats? We’ve got one rat. And it’s about winning this White House.”
Adams’s lack of frequent condemnation of the Republican presidential candidate is unusual among Democrats. In most situations, Republicans and Democrats would jump at the chance to criticize their opposing party’s presidential candidate. But when given the chance, Adams passed.
It could be that Adams is not looking to make more enemies than he already has. Trump’s comments last week suggested that he sympathized with the mayor.
“I watched about a year ago when he talked about how the illegal migrants are hurting our city, and the federal government should pay us, and we shouldn’t have to take them,” the former president said. “And I said, ‘You know what? He’ll be indicted within a year,’ and I was exactly right.”
An Adams spokesman believes press coverage of Adams’s remarks has been misguided.
“This is a distortion of what the mayor said today,” Fabien Levy, Adams’s deputy mayor for communications, said in a social media post. “He never said he was looking for Trump’s support. Mayor Adams has said multiple times that he supports Kamala Harris for president. In fact, the mayor traveled to Chicago to support her historic nomination in August.”
Adams was recently indicted on five corruption charges, including bribery and wire fraud, for his actions allegedly soliciting benefits from foreign nationals, namely Turkish government officials, in exchange for favors.
Several prominent city and national officials, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and city comptroller Brad Lander, have since called for Adams’s resignation. High-ranking state officials, such as Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-NY) and Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), have not called on the mayor to resign.
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A prosecutor said Wednesday that it is “highly probable” that more charges would be levied against Adams and that “additional defendants are likely” to be charged.
If convicted, Adams will likely resign his post or be removed and a new mayor will be elected in New York.