New York Mayor Eric Adams has gotten the side-eye from liberals ever since he won the city’s crowded Democratic mayoral primary last year.
Adams’ behavior in May helped explain why.
First, to get a sense of progressives’ ire at the mayor, The New York Times’ Emma Fitzsimmons helped explain it recently. From the article:
The mayor has spoken ruefully about the separation of church and state, supported charter school expansion and called for reducing the flow of migrants in rhetoric that critics have called xenophobic. He has also proposed budget cuts that could hurt key services such as libraries, arguing that all city agencies must be fiscally prudent at a time when the city’s cost of the spiraling migrant crisis is expected to be well over $1 billion — a factor that was not in play for previous mayors.
And there’s more:
Mr. Adams has removed homeless encampments, pledged to remove mentally ill people from the streets involuntarily, defended the use of stop-and-frisk policing and resisted calls to close the Rikers Island jail complex by 2027. He was also endorsed by the city’s major police union, only a year after the group backed President Donald J. Trump’s re-election bid, and recently provided officers with generous raises as part of a new eight-year, $5.5 billion labor contract.
Simply put, many liberals are skeptical of the former police officer and Republican turned conservative Democrat, and they’re concerned about the direction he could take New York City. (Full transparency: I’m a card-holding member of that group.)
Adams’ inflammatory rhetoric and law enforcement background have earned him the “Black Giuliani” label from critics who see similarities with former Mayor Rudy Giuliani. “Black Trump” is another one I’ve heard and also seen in graffiti in various parts of the city.
The month of May helped show why the Trump comparison is so apt, as the mayor went on a Trumpian tear.
Adams kicked off the month with a…
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