New York mayor Eric Adams won’t rule out the idea of switching parties to join the GOP as he faces federal corruption charges.
“The party that’s most important for me is the American party — I’m a part of the American party,” he said Friday when asked by NY1 about joining the GOP. “I love this country.”
It would be a return to the GOP for Adams, who was registered with the party from 1997 to 2001 when he was a working police officer.
Adams’s comments came just days after he expressed an openness to deporting illegal immigrants who have committed crimes, further distancing himself from more progressive members of his party on the issue.
He said he hopes to meet with President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for border czar, Tom Homan.
“I would love to sit down with the border czar and hear his thoughts on how we are going to address those who are harming our citizens,” Adams said on Tuesday. “Find out what his plans are, where our common grounds are. We can work together.”
“Those who are here committing crimes, robberies, shooting at police officers, raping innocent people, have been a harm to our country. Those are the people I am talking about,” Adams said.
“I made it clear that I’m not going to be warring with this administration. I’m going to be working with this administration,” he added.
On Tuesday, he also suggested that the criminal charges brought against him were politically motivated. Adams has pleaded not guilty on charges related to his alleged acceptance of bribes and illegal campaign contributions from foreign sources. Adams faces five counts, including conspiracy to commit wire fraud, federal program bribery, and to receive campaign contributions by foreign nationals; wire fraud; solicitation of a contribution by a foreign national in two instances; and bribery.
A 57-page indictment accuses Adams of accepting “improper valuable benefits,” including free airline flights and luxurious hotel stays from Turkish business and government officials who sought to influence him. Some of the foreign funds Adams received benefited his 2021 mayoral campaign, but some of the alleged bribery dates back to 2015 when he was the Brooklyn borough president.
But Adams claimed he was targeted by law enforcement because of his criticisms of President Joe Biden’s overly-permissive immigration policy.
“Know what’s interesting? I want you to all go back and Google Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama,” Adams said. “Google what they said about those who commit crimes in our city and … in our country. They said those who commit crimes need to get out right away. That was their position. So this is not a new position.”
He suggested progressives have grown afraid to speak out against illegal immigration because of cancel culture.
“Well, cancel me because I’m going to protect the people of the city. And if you come into this country, in 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.”