Eric Adams Triangulates His Way to Reelection

New York Mayor Eric Adams speaks before swearing in Jessica Tisch as the next Commissioner of the New York Police Department (NYPD) during a ceremony at One Police Plaza on Nov. 25, 2024 in New York City. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

By Wednesday, 11 December 2024 02:17 PM EST ET Current | Bio | Archive

With Black men shifting to Trump, New York City Mayor Eric Adams is joining the parade. While other Democratic mayors, like Denver’s Mike Johnson, are vowing to resist the deportation policies of the incoming Trump White House, Adams is rising above the Democratic swamp to back the incoming administration’s policy of deporting illegal immigrants who committed serious crimes on arrival.

Risking his political fortunes as he faces a re-election test in 2025, he’s throwing out a challenge to the cancel culture that has conquered his party (and not much else).

"Well, cancel me," he says "because I’m going to protect the people of the city. And if you come into this country, in this city, and think you’re going to harm innocent New Yorkers and innocent migrants and asylum seekers, this is not the mayor you want to be in the city under."

Expressing an openness to deporting illegal immigrants who have committed crimes, Adams is further distancing himself from more progressive members of his party on the issue.

Is he dooming his future in New York politics?

Hardly.

There are lots of New Yorkers who think the same way Trump does on deportations.

New York City uses ranked choice voting in choosing its mayor.

Adams defeated a packed field of Democratic challengers in 2021, beating Kathryn Garcia, former sanitation commissioner, by only 8,000 votes.

The 405,000 votes Adams received compares with 838,000 New Yorkers who voted for President Trump in 2024.

So there's still plenty of head room for a Democrat triangulating with Donald Trump.

While Adams’ ratings in the most recent Quinnipiac Poll are dismal — only 24% approval in an April, 2024 poll by The Manhattan Institute — much of the negative is powered by Adams’ federal indictment stemming from his alleged dealings with Turkish businessmen and from a perception of high crime in Gotham.

But the charges against Adams are far removed from the business of running New York and have little to do with most of the city’s residents.

And President-elect Trump has expressed empathy with Adams agreeing that the indictments they have received are both motivated by partisanship. Adams’ indictment came shortly after he broke ranks with Biden and criticized him for dumping illegal immigrants in the city’s lap.

But Trump can offer Adams more than a comforting shoulder.

Since Adams is under federal indictment and the Justice Department is under new management under incoming Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi, Adams’ destiny is truly in Trump’s hands.

He could send Bondi signals to slow down the process against Adams or even to drop the case, Trump also has the power to pardon Adams entirely.

For his part, by focusing the issue of crime in New York City on the unwelcome presence of repeat and likely future criminals and heralding Trump’s deportation policy as a cure, Adams could both embrace deportations as a solution and open the door to an even broader alliance with Trump.

So don’t count Adams out in 2025.

There are plenty of votes in the fields Adams is exploring.

Dick Morris is a former presidential adviser and political strategist. He is a regular contributor to Newsmax TV. Read Dick Morris' Reports — More Here.

© 2024 Newsmax. All rights reserved.


Morris
Expressing an openness to deporting illegal immigrants who have committed crimes, Adams is further distancing himself from more progressive members of his party. Don’t count Adams out in 2025.
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