Eric Adams blasts ‘progressive’ NYPD defund Dems — ‘that is not who we are’
Mayor Eric Adams went on the attack against far-left fellow Democrats for a second day on Thursday — by blasting the City Council’s dominant “Progressive Caucus” over its latest strategy to defund the police.
In the wake of last week’s exclusive NY Post report about the push by Council progressives to “reduce the size and scope of the NYPD,” Adams said the group was “calling for removing members of their own caucus if they don’t sign a pledge to defund the police.”
“That is not who we are as Democrats,” Adams said on CNN. “And I’m going to continue to stand and state that we’re pro-public safety and we’re pro-proper policing.”
Adams also said that a “numerical minority” of national Democrats “have hijacked the term progressive.”
“I have been progressive all my life,” Adams said. “Look at the issues I fought for, from police reform, housing, education. But we’ve allowed a small number that are the loudest, and they’ve hijacked the true meaning of the Democratic Party.
“We’re not for defunding the police. We’re not for attacking businesses. We’re for jobs, we’re for growth,” he said.
Adams’ criticism of the “small number on the fringe ends of our party” came one day after he blamed “those who consider themselves to be ‘woke’” for sowing division among Democrats.
“Some of us never went to sleep and we hear and speak directly to people,” he said Wednesday. “And I think the party is now understanding that we have to speak at those issues that are important: Jobs, public safety, educating our children, good health care — just these common, kitchen-table issues that we move away from.”