Adams Blames Election Results on Democrats ‘Who Ignored’ Crime Concern

By Reuvain Borchardt

Mayor Eric Adams speaking in Boro Park on Thursday, at his first post-election press conference. (Reuvain Borchardt/Hamodia)

BROOKLYN — Mayor Eric Adams shot back at allegations he bears responsibility for Democrats’ lackluster performance on Election Day due to his criticisms of left-wing crime policies.

“If every poll shows that New Yorkers were concerned about crime and their mayor is responding to their concern, who should be at fault? Those who ignored the concern,” Adams said when asked to respond to those who argued he was fearmongering as well as hurting Democratic electoral chances by discussing rising crime during the recent election season.

Crime in New York City began rising in 2020, which Republicans and moderate Democrats blamed on bail reform laws enacted by Democrats in the state Legislature and signed into law by Democratic former Gov. Andrew Cuomo in 2019. Adams, a former NYPD captain, campaigned for mayor in 2021, and won, on a law-and-order platform.

Crime has continued to spike in the city this year – with every major category but murder seeing an increase over last year.

Though Gov. Kathy Hochul held up this year’s budget to enact some rollbacks to the bail reform, Adams had publicly asked her to call a special session of the Legislature to enact further laws giving judges’ discretion in imposing cash bail. Hochul did not call the special session, but Adams still supported her reelection bid.

However, Hochul’s opponent, Republican Rep. Lee Zeldin, ran a campaign focused almost entirely on blaming her for rising crime. And on Election Day, in this deep blue state, Hochul fended off Zeldin by just 5 points, and Republicans flipped several seats in the state Legislature and U.S. Congress. Some Democrats had blamed their party’s underwhelming showing in the state on Adams’ harping on the crime issue. But Adams — at his first post-election press conference Thursday, at which every reporter’s question was about this subject — said the blame lies with those critics who had not taken the crime issue seriously enough.

“Come on. Let’s get real here,” the mayor said. “If every poll shows that New Yorkers were concerned about crime and their mayor is responding to their concern, who should be at fault? Those who ignored the concern. So to say, ‘Eric was talking about crime” — duh, New Yorkers were talking about crime! And I was clear when I ran for office, I didn’t sugarcoat it: we needed to be safe.”

“The problem [in the election] was that we ignored the concerns of everyday New Yorkers, and you can’t do that, and they are at fault for that.”

Adams did not criticize Hochul — his comments were regarding those who had blamed him for the election results —calling the governor “an awesome partner,” and said he’s” looking forward to going back to Albany with her and navigating these challenges.”

Adams also bemoaned that Republicans succeeded in controlling the narrative on crime during the election.

“It’s unfortunate that Democrats have a good crime story – they didn’t tell it. If you look at the Republican states, you’ll see the homicide rates are extremely high,” the mayor said. “Democrats allowed Republicans to pin the ‘defund’ movement on them when that’s not the position of the majority of Democrats.”

Adams also lamented that Democrats were afraid to publicly embrace law enforcement because “they felt as though they were going to lose the fringe of the party.”

“Everyday New Yorkers support their police,” Adams said. “They want to be safe, and they want their leaders to say that, and I don’t think we said that enough during this election.”

Adams eased off the crime talk in the closing days of the campaign, and speculation ensued that Democratic leaders had asked him to do so for fear of hurting the party’s election chances. But Adams disputed that notion Thursday.

“I did not change my dialogue throughout the entire campaign, I was clear on what was needed,” Adams said. “No one came to me and said, ‘Eric can you please stop talking about the criminal justice problem,’ because I will continue to talk about that until we get it right.”

rborchardt@hamodia.com

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