Eric Adams may not want Rudy Giuliani’s support, but he got it anyway on Friday when the former mayor of New York City said that if he were a Democrat he would back Mr. Adams in the mayoral primary.
“There’s no question that Adams gives us some hope,” Mr. Giuliani said, stopping short of a full-throated endorsement. The former mayor highlighted Mr. Adams’s approach to crime, a top issue for voters across the city.
In a subsequent campaign appearance on Friday, Mr. Adams did not seem particularly pleased by Mr. Giuliani’s comments and suggested it was an attempt by the former mayor to sabotage the campaign of a sometimes former critic.
“I don’t need Giuliani’s endorsement, and we don’t want his endorsement,” Mr. Adams said. “One of the ways you sabotage a campaign is that you come out and endorse the opponent that you don’t want to win, and that’s what I believe he has attempted to do.”
Mr. Adams became a Republican during Giuliani’s tenure, only to return to the Democratic Party later. Over the years, he has sent mixed messages about the former mayor, criticizing police brutality under his watch while also crediting him for the city’s falling crime rate.
Mr. Adams is currently the frontrunner in the mayor’s race, though credible polling is sparse and the race remains fluid. He has also won praise from right-wing TV host Tucker Carlson, praise that Mr. Adams has also rejected.
After Mr. Giuliani’s remarks, Mr. Adams’s opponents pounced.
“Eric Adams is RUDY GIULIANI’S #1 pick in the Democratic primary,” said Eric Soufer, an adviser to Andrew Yang, the former presidential candidate, on Twitter.
That prompted Rebecca Kirszner Katz, a campaign adviser to the campaign Scott Stringer, the New York City comptroller, to note that Stephen Miller, the architect of former President Donald J. Trump’s anti-immigration policies, has praised Mr. Yang for taking “positions antithetical to the progressive left in a very progressive primary.”
“Andrew Yang is Stephen Miller’s #1,” she said on Twitter. “Don’t rank either of them.”
Source: Elections - nytimes.com
