Mayor Eric Adams had a dream — to attend President Trump’s inauguration.
Hizzoner likened himself to Martin Luther King Jr. on Tuesday as he defended bailing on occasions commemorating the civil rights icon to trek Washington, DC, to hail the brand new chief.
He claimed MLK, like himself, would have set “partisan politics” apart to indicate assist for the incoming president.
“My life is the life that Dr. King talked about when he stated he had a dream,” Adams stated throughout his weekly information convention. “I’m dwelling that dream.”
“Dr. King’s dream just isn’t in Brooklyn or New York Metropolis.”
Hizzoner launched into a middle-of-the-night jaunt to Washington, DC, after a last-minute invite to the swearing-in – solely to be shunted into an overflow room, away from the principle inauguration house contained in the Capitol Rotunda the place the wealthy and highly effective mingled.
When The Submit requested how being relegated to an overflow room with the likes of social media stars Jake and Logan Paul helped New York Metropolis, Adams dodged the query.
“I’m not going to spend this complete convention speaking about this,” he stated. “I answered the questions on why I went to DC.”
However regardless of Adams’ lofty self-comparison, many black New Yorkers have been outraged that the mayor would cancel appearances at MLK Day occasions to indicate assist for Trump — and, maybe, make a slipshod try to realize a pardon in his federal corruption case.
“I believe proper now he doesn’t have his priorities straight,” stated Janice, 75, a longtime parishioner of Harlem’s Convent Avenue Baptist Church, the place Adams had been scheduled to ship remarks Monday morning earlier than the sudden cancelation.
“He ought to’ve been the place he was most wanted.”
Adams stated he’d take the criticism over his DC journey, once more evaluating his minor travails to these of King — who endured segregationist violence, arrests, surveillance by the FBI, a stabbing and extra earlier than he in the end was assassinated in 1968.
The mayor additionally maintained that he obtained textual content messages in assist of his inauguration go to, two of which his employees supplied to The Submit.
Black voters helped thrust Adams into Gracie Mansion through the 2021 election – however their assist this yr has been doubtful because the mayor faces a crowded subject of challengers within the June Democratic main.
Current polls present former Gov. Andrew Cuomo carrying vital leads amongst metropolis voters if he decides to enter the crowded 2025 mayoral race. He additionally maintains excessive assist amongst black voters, a doubtlessly worrying prospect for Adams, who has watched constituency after constituency bitter on him over his time period.
Adams stated that the legacy of King — who disrupted the established order via nonviolent protests, sit-ins and strikes — was to place political variations apart.
“I’m not going to be warring with the president,” he stated. “I’m going to be working with the president and that’s my accountability because the mayor.”
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