Mayor Eric Adams of New York City revealed that President Joe Biden responded to his pleas about the migrant crisis by telling him to ‘act like a good Democrat, Eric.’
During an interview with Tucker Carlson, the mayor expressed his belief that the Democratic Party has abandoned him and working-class individuals, citing Biden’s handling of the ongoing crisis as a major point of contention.
Adams, who is currently facing charges of bribery, wire fraud, conspiracy, and illegal campaign contributions, expressed his disappointment with how the situation has played out.
‘We have Venezuelan gang leaders that were coming to the city creating crimes,’ Adams said, which led to his asking Biden for help the condescending answer he received.
Adams – who uses the ‘be a good Democrat’ line on multiple occasions in the 48-minute interview – is grilled by Carlson on the city’s sanctuary status and the mayor denies that they’re ‘welcoming’ the migrants to New York.
Adams has previously said that the sanctuary status should be altered to allow migrants who commit crimes to be given up to ICE and that he wants to work with incoming ‘Border Czar’ Tom Homan.
He merely says to Carlson in the preview clip: ‘I don’t think they should be rounded up in the middle of the night.’
At one point, he expresses pure frustration, saying: ‘Damn it, I’m at the end of the line here!’
When asked what he’s discussed with Donald Trump, Adams said it was all in a spirit of bipartisanship.
‘We talked about, you know, how do we do things to work together to improve the city,’ he said.
‘And as I told everyone, I’m not here to be war in with the president. I’m here to work with the president. And everyone should do that. I think there’s some great opportunities and we need to find out those areas of agreement.’
‘Mayor Adams does not believe we should be living in silos and speaking into echo chambers,’ spokesperson Kayla Mamelak said in a statement.
‘At a time where our country is so divided, the mayor believes we must break out of our comfort zones and speak with everyone – even those we may not always agree with.’
Adams has said he would ‘love’ to work with Tom Homan to deport criminal migrants.
The Democratic politician, who has signaled he will be running for a second term in 2025, said he is not afraid to be ‘canceled’ by being ‘honest about the truth’ when it comes to immigration.
‘Those who are here committing crimes – robberies, shooting at police officers, raping innocent people – have been a harm to our country,’ former NYPD captain Adams, 64, told a news conference on Tuesday.
‘Those are the people I am talking about and I would love to sit down with the border czar and hear his thoughts on how we’re going to address those who are harming our citizens.’
Adams added that this position had not changed because previous Democrat administrations pledged to do the same thing.
‘You know what’s interesting – I want you to all go back and Google Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama – Google what they said about those who commit crimes in our city, and what they said in our country,’ he said.
‘They said those who commit crimes need to get out right away. That was their position.
‘So this is not a new position, because in the era of “cancel culture” (everyone) is afraid to be honest about the truth.
‘Well, cancel me, because I’m going to protect the people of this city.
‘If you come into this country and 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.’
Trump and Homan have pledged to start deporting ‘millions’ of migrants from his first day in the White House following the inauguration on January 20.
The pair said they will start by cracking down on asylum apps used by migrants to gain interviews before targeting the super gangs terrorizing American cities.
Homan has also said the incoming president will pull federal funds from any states which refuse to comply with the mass deportation plans.
The incoming border boss previously served in the highest echelons of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) under Presidents Barack Obama and Trump.
Meanwhile, Adams said in mid-November he believes he can assist the Trump administration with its plans, while lamenting what he called the ‘broken’ immigration system under President Joe Biden.
Adams also declared New York City as a sanctuary city, meaning that its laws limit cooperation between local authorities and immigration officials.
‘I am willing to sit down with this administration like I tried to sit down with the previous administration in my 10 trips to Washington to say: we have a problem that is overrunning our cities,’ he told reporters at the time, according to Politico.
‘I’m hoping this administration will hear what I’m saying and listen to some of the ideas that I have been pushing for… close to two years now.’
Adams went on to say he was not surprised by the support Trump received in the five boroughs, noting that many Trump supporters listed immigration as one of their top concerns.
‘The voters are stating, “We need to secure our border, we need to make sure cities are not experiencing what New York City experienced,”‘ the mayor said, according to the New York Post.
‘The voters communicated loudly and clearly: We have a broken immigration system, it needs to be fixed. That’s the only conversation I want.’
The budding bromance between Adams and Trump has had many wondering if the mayor could get a pardon from the president if found guilty.
Adams was indicted in September on bribery, wire fraud and conspiracy charges, as well as soliciting campaign contributions from foreign nationals.
Some of the charges date back to Adams’ time serving as Brooklyn Borough President, with investigators alleging he accepted freebies from officials from Turkey, among other misdeeds.
‘Yeah, I would, yeah,’ Trump said at Mar-a-Lago Monday when asked about a pardon for Adams. ‘I think he was treated pretty unfairly.’
Trump noted that he wasn’t aware of the full extent of the charges.
‘Now I haven’t seen the gravity of it all. But it seems, you know, like being upgraded on an airplane many years ago. I know probably everybody here’s been upgraded,’ the president-elect said to the 20 or so reporters standing in Mar-a-Lago’s ornate living room for his first press conference since winning the 2024 election.
‘They see you’re all stars and they say, “I want to upgrade that person from NBC, I’m going to upgrade him,”‘ Trump said ‘And that would mean you’ll spend the rest of your life in prison.’
Trump also pushed, without evidence, that Adams’ indictment was politically motivated over his strong words about illegal immigration.
