Adams endorses N.Y. Senate candidate with a history of anti-Semitic, anti-abortion, anti-gay rhetoric: ‘I believe the Rev. Tillard of today is a lot different than the man who said those things decades ago’

A Democratic state Senate candidate that New York City Mayor Adams recently endorsed, has a history of anti-Semitic, anti-abortion and anti-gay remarks.

Conrad Tillard, who once went by the name Conrad Muhammad when he was a member of the Nation of Islam, won Adams’ support Monday in his Democratic primary bid against state Sen. Jabari Brisport, a Democratic socialist.

Conrad Tillard (Facebook/)

Adams’ backing of Tillard, who’s viewed as more of a moderate, is consistent with other recent endorsements Adams has made of Democrats challenging more left-leaning rivals in primaries.

But some of Tillard’s past public comments are far from moderate.

Tillard, now a Christian pastor, once referred to a Brooklyn assemblyman as a ‘’snotty-nosed Jewish politician.” He said he does not “believe in” abortion. And he has said that he “absolutely oppose(s) same-sex marriage.”

He has also allegedly called white people “the blue-eyed devil” and Christianity a “dirty religion.” According to a NY Press story, Tillard referred to Jews as “bloodsuckers” in 1996.

“Conrad has served this community as a minister, activist and educator,” Adams said in a statement Monday. “As your next senator, Conrad will work hard to pass laws that ensure that all New Yorkers are safe, and create affordable housing and good quality schools.”

Tillard and Brisport, the incumbent, are vying for a state Senate seat that covers Fort Greene, Bedford-Stuyvesant and Red Hook. The primary is being held on Aug. 23.

Housing advocate Jabari Brisport protests outside Governor Andrew Cuomo's office on the eviction moratorium on Wednesday, Aug. 4, 2021, in New York. (Brittainy Newman/)

Tillard was a young man during his years with the Nation of Islam, a group that for years has been criticized for its anti-Jewish rhetoric and which has been designated by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a hate group.

In the 1990s, Tillard led the historic Mosque No. 7 in Harlem, the namesake of the mosque where Malcolm X once preached. There, he developed a reputation as a firebrand and a bigot.

During a radio appearance in 1996, he went after then-Assemblyman Jules Polonetsky, a Brooklyn Democratic, for his push to remove a security unit connected with the Nation of Islam from public housing in Coney Island.

“I called Polonetsky a snotty Jewish politician, and he is in fact that,” Tillard said after his radio spot. “He was able to twist the arm of one of the most powerful governors in the country. The governor was bowing to the will of this lobby.”

The mayor said Tuesday that “I strongly disagree with those remarks.”

“But I believe the Rev. Tillard of today is a lot different than the man who said those things decades ago,” Adams continued. “Since then, Rev. Tillard has been a minister and pastored prominent churches.”

Brisport suggested that Tillard’s past comments may explain some of the support he’s received from more conservative quarters.

“We are an incredibly diverse district that deserves a representative who is honest and consistent,” Brisport said. “There’s a reason Rev. Tillard is still raking in donations from Republicans and Trump supporters.”

Tillard has also received the support of NYS Democratic Committee Chairman Jay Jacobs, who’s given $7,500 to his campaign.

In 1993, Adams was a police officer and president of the Grand Council of Guardians, an organization of 15,000 black police and correction officers. And at that time, he and Tillard appeared to be working in concert in an effort to set up a meeting between then-Mayor David Dinkins and Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan.

At the time, Adams had been expressing concerns about backing Dinkins in his reelection bid because of his refusal to meet with officers from his group and Black Muslim leaders.

“If the mayor is willing to meet with me, he meets with all of us,” Adams said at the time. “We [Guardians and Muslims] come together.”

Dinkins ended up losing his reelection run to Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams.

Tillard, who did not return calls, left the Nation of Islam in 1998, and since then he’s toned down his rhetoric considerably. But his past remarks about Jews aren’t the only stances that may give voters pause.

In a 2005 interview with blackelectorate.com, Tillard said he is “not against gay people,” but he voiced full-throated opposition to same-sex marriage, saying that “to consecrate a marriage between two men or women is certainly not something that I would ever do.”

“I would certainly advocate against that. I think that is a tremendous mistake. I don’t think it is a matter of civil rights, I think it is simply a matter of what society has established as the precedent and the only logical precedent, and that is, that marriage is between a man and a woman,” he was quoted as saying at the time. “It is just symptomatic of where we are going in society. If we are not clear that marriage is between a man and a woman — what else could be less complicated than that?”

He also laid out his rationale for opposing abortion.

“I am pro-life,” he said, but then added that he tries to “avoid absolutism.”

“Because life has shown, and I’ve grown to see that there are a lot of gray areas and I’m not God. I am not in the position of judgment of anyone. I’m trying to do the best I can as a servant of God, but I am a human being, too,” he said. “And my own mistakes and failings have certainly educated me and helped me mature.”