New York City mayoral nominee Eric Adams, a centrist, cautioned fellow Democrats not to be “so idealistic” that they become unrealistic.
Adams, who won his party’s nomination last week, said the “fallout” of former President Donald Trump’s administration has spurned many liberal politicians to ignore “real issues” facing those in boroughs.
“We can’t be so idealistic that we’re not realistic,” the mayoral hopeful said on a Sunday segment of ABC News’s This Week. “Cities are hiring all across America, and New York personifies that pain — the inequalities, the gun violence, the lack of really looking after everyday blue-collar workers … We have failed for so many years, and we’ve allowed the fallout of the Trump administration to have an overreach in philosophy and not on-the-ground, real issues that are facing everyday New Yorkers in America.”
ERIC ADAMS DECLARED WINNER OF PROBLEM-PLAGUED DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY IN NYC MAYORAL RACE
When asked if it was fair to bill him as an “anti-woke Democrat,” Adams responded, “Some of us never went to sleep.”
“[I have] a 35-year record of fighting for reform with public safety, a person who was arrested by police, assaulted by police, but also lost a childhood friend to gang violence, and so I never went to sleep,” he added.
New York City mayoral nominee Eric Adams tells @GStephanopoulos: “We [Democrats] cannot be so idealistic that we’re not realistic.”
George: “Is it fair to call you an anti-woke Democrat?”
Adams: “Some of us never went to sleep.” https://t.co/zw6gzexARs pic.twitter.com/Dv3S1jhYOy
— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) July 11, 2021
Adams, a former New York City Police Department captain, garnered 50.5% support as he bested rival Kathryn Garcia, who received 49.5% of the vote. The ex-NYPD boss is more of a centrist than Garcia, who advocated for a $1 billion cut to the NYPD last year.
“If we don’t get gun violence under control, it’s going to stop our economic recovery,” Adams said at the final mayoral debate among Democratic primary candidates, during which he also expressed support for a targeted expansion of the city’s police force to combat crime.
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Adams is likely to be declared mayor when he faces Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa, founder of the Guardian Angels, as Democrats outnumber GOP voters 7 to 1 throughout the boroughs. If elected to office, he will succeed New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio.
The Democratic primary was not without hiccups as the city’s board of elections acknowledged releasing erroneous preliminary results from its new ranked-choice voting system. Adams even filed a lawsuit asking a judge to review the ballots after the issue.
