By Bob Hennelly

At this week’s regular press conference Mayor Adams refused to answer Politico's Jeff Coltin's  question about when was the last time that he had spoken to former President Trump or his team.

“Give me another question, please. You lost your opportunity,” Adams snapped before moving on to the next reporter.

In that moment, Adams crossed a line by dismissing the right of New Yorkers to know to what degree he’s communicating with the former president, the first in U.S. history to subvert the peaceful transition of power by inciting the Jan. 6th mob that attacked the U.S. Capitol and the police that valiantly defended it.

Coltin's question, which put him in the Blue Room Penalty Box, was an attempt to follow up on Adams' relationship with Trump.

Rather than be defensive, Mayor Adams belittled questions asking him to offer any judgement on Trump after the former President’s Madison Square Garden rally at which a featured speaker described the island of Puerto Rico as “a floating island of garbage” and Trump himself lied and said the Biden administration and FEMA “haven’t even responded in North Carolina” in the aftermath of the massive devastation wrought by Hurricane Helene.

“There’s nobody. They don’t see any FEMA. You know why? They spent their money on bringing in illegal migrants so they didn’t have money for Georgia and North Carolina and Alabama and Tennessee and Florida and South Carolina,” Trump told the adoring MAGA crowd that lapped up whatever he was serving. “They didn’t have any money for them. They spent all of their money on bringing in illegal immigrants and flying them in by beautiful jet planes. They flew in. We just found out about a year and a half ago. Remember, we said, what’s going on? Those planes, a lot of planes going over there. What are they? They would fly them into the middle of our country, our beautiful, beautiful country.”

Yes, this deluded and patently false riff was offered up at Madison Square Garden by the same man who has called for the use of the American military on “the enemy within,” called for a mass deportation of immigrants, describes how new arrivals to the U.S. were “poisoning the blood of our country” and regularly attacks the news media as “fake news.”

At that same MSG event, likened by many commentators to the 1939 Madison Square Garden rally of the American Nazi Party, former Mayor Rudy Giuliani claimed all Palestinians were terrorists who "are taught to kill us at two years old ... .They may have good people. I'm sorry I don't take a risk with people who are taught to kill Americans at two. I am on the side of Israel. You are on the side of Israel. Donald Trump is on the side of Israel. And they [Democrats] are on the side of the terrorists."

After the MSG Maga hate fest, Mayor Adams offered this vapid tweet: “The hateful words that were used by some at today’s rally at Madison Square Garden were completely unacceptable. No matter who says it, hate is hate and there is no place for it in our city. As Americans, we always should stand up against racism, antisemitism, and misogyny.” 

Back in Tuesday’s tense City Hall Blue Room presser, Mayor Adams took a page out of the Trump deflection manual in his response to N.J.Burkett’s question by attacking the news media for having the wrong priorities and asking him to clarify his stand on the former President as Americans heads to the polls in the most consequential election since 1864 amidst the Civil War.

“Listen, let me tell you what I find insulting. I find [it] insulting when you have children dying on top of trains based on what they're mimicking on social media,” Adams said.  “A housing crisis in the city, affordability, thousands of seniors are unable to know if they're going to be able to live in the city, in the country. I speak to my mayors across the country and they talk about these real problems we're having. And with all that's going on to everyday New Yorkers, we're asking questions that is someone a fascist or is someone a Hitler. That's insulting to me. That is insulting. And I'm not going to engage in that.”

Having just turned up the heat in the room, Adams attempted to elevate himself as the true protector of the people of New York City, even as he was suggesting he was the victim of a hostile and self-promoting press that he believes has tried to undermine him throughout his tenure. 

“Everyone needs to turn down the rhetoric because after election day, we still have to be the United States and not the divided states,” Adams lectured reporters. “And so if people can't understand their real issues facing New Yorkers, and I just find it just humiliating that what everyday mom and pops are doing and going through across this country, that here we are having this conversation about this silly item.” 

From the day Adams was indicted on  charges  he got more than $100,000 in illicit flight upgrades and luxury accommodations while defrauding taxpayers of more than $10 million in public campaign financing, the Mayor has suggested he was “targeted” for his criticism of the Biden administration over its “broken immigration policies.”

At the MSG rally, Trump made it clear he has the mayor’s back by using his high profile forum to help Adams build a sympathetic jury pool. Remember, while elections require a majority, when it comes to jury nullification, all it takes is one juror and to keep his liberty, that’s all Mayor Adams needs to prevail at trial.

“And you know, I want to thank Mayor Adams because Mayor Adams has been treated pretty badly, “Trump told the MSG MAGA crowd. “You know, when he said that this whole thing with the migrants coming into New York, this is just not sustainable. You know, we can’t do it. We’re trying to run a city. We got 100,000 migrants coming. We can’t do it. We just can’t do it. It’s not feasible. It’s not good.”

And Trump pulled off a hat trick—building up Adams while referring to himself in the third person and paying homage to Al Capone. 

“But I have to tell you, he’s been really great. And he said that they shouldn’t be calling Trump a dictator because it’s not true. That’s nice. That was nice. I want to thank Mayor Adams for going through a hard time with these people. These are lunatics, by the way. They’ve weaponized the Justice Department against their political opponent. I am under investigation more than the great, late Alphonse Capone.”

On the steps of City Hall, Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, who would succeed Mayor Adams should he leave office, told WBAI “the mayor’s comments have been disgraceful. They’ve been disgusting from a so-called Democratic Mayor who has had more criticism of Biden/Harris than he has of Trump and Vance. It makes me believe that he may have wanted to remain in the Republican Party and he should have done so and just been a MAGA supporter.”

Williams said New York City voters had a “need to know” if Adams was back channeling with former President Trump who has said he would only be a dictator on “day one” of his second term.

“He is an accidental Mayor that has been governing like he had a mandate and he just never did and the city is paying for that,” said Williams, referencing an election where only 21 percent of registered voters bothered to turn out. “To see him try to talk about the things that were said at that rally but not separate himself from the man that created the atmosphere—he should be ashamed of himself.”

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