New York City Mayor Eric Adams is once again bucking his own party, publicly disagreed with Vice President Kamala Harris’s recent characterization of former President Donald Trump as a fascist. Adams made his stance clear on Saturday during a security briefing ahead of Trump’s scheduled rally at Madison Square Garden on Sunday.
Speaking alongside Deputy Mayor Chauncey Parker, interim NYPD Commissioner Tom Donlon, and other New York Police Department leadership, Adams was asked by Politico reporter Emily Ngo whether he believed Trump really will be a fascist if he takes the White House in the coming weeks, following Harris’s comments earlier in the week.
His response was unequivocal: “My answer is ‘no.’ I know what Hitler has done, and I know what a fascist regime looks like.”
Adams’ comments came in response to Harris’s statement during a CNN town hall event on Wednesday, when she directly labeled Trump as a fascist. “Yes, I do,” she said when asked by CNN’s Anderson Cooper if she considered Trump a fascist, emphasizing the perspective of those who had worked closely with him, including Trump’s former chief of staff John Kelly and retired General Mark Milley.
CNN’s Anderson Cooper: Do you think Donald Trump is a fascist?
Kamala: Yes I do. pic.twitter.com/OXpbR1tgZq
— Washington Free Beacon (@FreeBeacon) October 24, 2024
“I think we could all dial down the temperature,” Adams stated, noting that terms like “fascist” and “Hitler” had even been directed at him by political leaders in New York City. “The heat we turn up today, pre-election, is going to be the heat we’re going to have to govern in,” he cautioned, urging moderation.
Adams also defended Trump’s right to hold the rally in New York City, which has drawn criticism from some local leaders who argue against providing a platform for the former president. “I strongly disagree,” Adams said of calls to cancel the event. “This is America, this is New York, and I think it’s important that we allow individuals to exercise their right to get their message clear to New Yorkers. Our job as a city and as a police department is to make sure that you do that in a peaceful way.”
Trump has long been a major figure in New York and Adams has often attacked the Biden Administration for their failure to rein in illegal immigration.
Trying to scare people has become Kamala Harris’s closing message because she has nothing positive to discuss about America’s future. Instead, the vice president has been bringing up a two-year-old, lightly sourced story in The Atlantic in which Trump allegedly praised German generals during World War II.
The Atlantic is owned by a major supporter of Harris, who has been associated with Ghislane Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein.
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