NEWS DAY
Mayor Eric Adams defends skipping MLK events in NYC to attend Trump inauguration in DC
Mayor Eric Adams defended his last-minute trip Monday to attend President Donald Trump’s inauguration in Washington, D.C., and skip Martin Luther King Jr. events in New York City.
“My life is the life that Dr. King was talking about when he says, he had a dream, I’m living that dream — I’m living that dream — and my desire to be in Washington to make sure I continue to move forward on that dream,” Adams said Tuesday at his weekly news conference at City Hall.
Adams, a Democrat, set off after 3 a.m. on Monday to Washington, D.C., because someone on Trump’s team extended an abrupt invitation around midnight, his spokespeople have said.
Adams — who is under federal indictment on corruption charges that he traded municipal favors for luxury vacations and campaign contributions from foreign sources — has been cozying up to Trump since the charges were unveiled. Trump has said he would consider a pardon.
Since September, when the indictment was unsealed, Adams has refused to criticize Trump, and on Tuesday said he would do so only in private, with the president himself.
Asked whether he disagreed with Trump pardoning nearly all those involved in the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol, Trump ending birthright citizenship, and exiting the Paris climate accords, Adams said: “If I do disagree, I will communicate with him directly on them. I don’t want to be part of what feeds the anxiety of going back and forth in this public discourse that we’re seeing.”
It’s a change from when Joe Biden was president, and Adams routinely voiced criticisms of the president in public.
Last week, Adams flew down to Florida to meet with Trump.
Adams draws inspiration from King, he said, particularly when King described how he could turn only to God when his life and his family’s were threatened.
“That’s what it’s been like for me in this last year. God has become real for me,” Adams said. “This was a challenging year for me, these last months.”
Mayor Eric Adams defended his last-minute trip Monday to attend President Donald Trump’s inauguration in Washington, D.C., and skip Martin Luther King Jr. events in New York City.
“My life is the life that Dr. King was talking about when he says, he had a dream, I’m living that dream — I’m living that dream — and my desire to be in Washington to make sure I continue to move forward on that dream,” Adams said Tuesday at his weekly news conference at City Hall.
Adams, a Democrat, set off after 3 a.m. on Monday to Washington, D.C., because someone on Trump’s team extended an abrupt invitation around midnight, his spokespeople have said.
Adams — who is under federal indictment on corruption charges that he traded municipal favors for luxury vacations and campaign contributions from foreign sources — has been cozying up to Trump since the charges were unveiled. Trump has said he would consider a pardon.
Since September, when the indictment was unsealed, Adams has refused to criticize Trump, and on Tuesday said he would do so only in private, with the president himself.
Asked whether he disagreed with Trump pardoning nearly all those involved in the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol, Trump ending birthright citizenship, and exiting the Paris climate accords, Adams said: “If I do disagree, I will communicate with him directly on them. I don’t want to be part of what feeds the anxiety of going back and forth in this public discourse that we’re seeing.”
It’s a change from when Joe Biden was president, and Adams routinely voiced criticisms of the president in public.
Last week, Adams flew down to Florida to meet with Trump.
Adams draws inspiration from King, he said, particularly when King described how he could turn only to God when his life and his family’s were threatened.
“That’s what it’s been like for me in this last year. God has become real for me,” Adams said. “This was a challenging year for me, these last months.”
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