One of the greatest things about Mayor Adams is how he stands up and calls out bull when he hears it — the latest being his damning remarks on Democrats’ closing “argument” of calling Donald Trump a “fascist” and even “Hitler.”
“I know what Hitler has done, and I know what a fascist regime looks like,” he said Saturday at a press conference on security measures for Trump’s MSG rally. “I think, as I have called for over and over again, that the level of conversation, I think we can all dial down the temperature.”
After two assassination attempts, that certainly makes sense.
Plus, it’s just good political advice: Kamala Harris’ own super PAC has been pushing the Harris-Walz campaign to drop this name-calling in favor of something that might actually make the case for electing her.
Indeed, Adams was also spot-on when he slammed the rally’s horrible opening act, “comedian” Tony Hinchcliffe, who seemed to think raw bigotry counts as humor.
Eric Adams isn’t a guy to echo anyone’s party line.
Not when he was running back in 2021 and warned, “America is failing in running cities” — an implicit slap at the progressives who’ve led the way in that failure.
Not after the Oct. 7 attack on Israel, when he headlined the “New York Stands With Israel” rally and damned how “right here in the city of New York you have those who celebrate” the atrocities and vowed: “We will not be all right until every person responsible for this act is held accountable.”
And again this spring, after the NYPD answered Columbia University’s request for help in ending the pro-Hamas campus occupation, when he slammed “those who came to the city to disrupt our city” and took pride in showing New York’s Finest restoring the American flag, where protesters had imposed a Palestinian one: “That’s our flag, folks. You don’t take over our buildings and put another flag up. It may be fine to other people, but it’s not to me.”
Progs vilify Adams for being out of step with the Democratic Party’s leftward march; they (and the Biden-Harris folks) were furious when he started calling out the illegal-migrant crisis’ baneful impact on New York City.
Adams’ straight-shooting has the berserk left crying for his head, but the Democratic Party needs more grownups like him — and a lot fewer “go with the flow” hacks.
And what a contrast with Gov. Hochul, who never full-on faces down the hard left.
Not the pro-crime progs in the Legislature, nor the raging antisemites on the streets and campus: Just look at the weak-tea report she ordered up on facing down Jew-hatred at CUNY.
Adams is also a true free-speech supporter, saying Saturday he “strongly disagree[s]” with those calling for the rally to be scrapped: “This is America. This is New York, and I think it’s important that we allow individuals to exercise their right to get their message clear to New Yorkers,” he said.
“And our job as a city and as a Police Department is to make sure they can do that in a peaceful, in a peaceful way.”
Mission accomplished again, Mr. Mayor — and here’s hoping the rest of your party can learn a few lessons in what real leadership looks like.
