Embattled New York City Mayor Eric Adams ranted about the Democratic Party abandoning him while echoing MAGA’s immigration talking points in a sit-down with Tucker Carlson.
While the Democrat mayor acknowledged that the U.S. is a “country of immigrants,” he said the influx of migrants into New York City led to a “free for all” where “any and everything goes.” He criticized the Democrats to Carlson, a former Fox host and right-wing commentator, and claimed he was even “demonized” for speaking against the grain.
Adams said the “failed border policy” cost the city $6 billion as it was forced to feed, clothe, house, and educate migrants because he wasn’t allowed to give them work authorization.
Recalling his conversation with former President Joe Biden, Adams said: “I sat down with the with the President, and I said, ‘Mr. President, I’m not sure what they’re telling you about this problem, but this is a terrible problem that’s playing out on the ground.’”
The administration’s response? “Basically, ‘Be a good Democrat, Eric,’” he said. “That was the basic overall theme. You know, one of his aides told me that, ‘Listen, this is like a gallstone, it’ll pass. It’ll hurt now, but it’ll pass.”
Adams claimed he was “demonized” for voicing his concerns about the migrant crisis.
“People often say, ‘Well, you don’t sound like a Democrat, and you seem to have left the party.’ No, the party left me, and it left working-class people,” the mayor said.
Adams, a former cop, said New York was beginning to see a decrease in crime when an onslaught of migrants was brought to the city and began “creating crimes.”
That doesn’t mean he’s on board with Trump’s mass deportation plans, though.
“I totally agree [that] those who violate their rights to come here by committing crimes, they need to leave our country after they serve their time,” he said. “That immigrant family who’s trying to get a pathway into becoming a citizen, living out this amazing American dream, I don’t think they should be rounded up in the middle of the night and say, ‘We’re going to move you out.’”
The NYC mayor also claimed that his indictment last year over his controversial relationship with the Turkish government was retaliation for complaining about the migrant crisis.
“That is clearly my belief, and based on several aspects of it that I can’t go into detail… that shows me that I was targeted,” he said, adding that he was shut out by the Biden administration after his indictment.
Adams appears to have found refuge in Donald Trump, who he met with at Mar-a-Lago days before attending his inauguration on Monday.
Trump, who previously said both he and Adams were being “persecuted” as they faced legal battles in New York, once said he would consider pardoning the mayor.
The wide-ranging interview on the Tucker Carlson Network was kept off the mayor’s daily public schedule, according to Politico. Spokesperson Kayla Mamelak Altus said she typically doesn’t announce interviews published only on social media.
When Carlson praised Adams on his Fox News show in 2021, the mayor was quick to dissociate himself from the conservative anchor: “I don’t want or need the support of Tucker Carlson, or anyone else who perpetuates racist, anti-immigrant propaganda,” he wrote on X.
