Eric Adams blames Election Day losses on Dems catering to ‘anarchists’
Mayor-elect Eric Adams said Friday that he was not surprised Democrats lost ground in this month’s elections — from City Council districts to the governor’s race in Virginia — because elements of the party are catering to “anarchists” within its ranks.
Adams, who was in Puerto Rico attending the SOMOS political confab, said instead of focusing on kitchen-table issues, these so-called anarchists are “trying to disrupt our way of life.”
He took the veiled shot at Democratic progressives while speaking to reporters at the SOMOS retreat where he’s schmoozing with powerful political players as he prepares to take office on Jan. 1.
“There’s a body in our country where there’s no desire to talk. There’s an anarchist group in this country that many of us are ignoring,” he said. “They’re throwing Molotov cocktails at police cars. They are trying to disrupt our way of life.”
He added that Democrats need to “weed them out from those who have real concerns and engage in real conversation with them.”
“If I have one message to the Democrats: Get back on the ground,” he said.
Unlike Adams, who won his election handily earlier this week, other Democrats, both in New York and around the U.S., weren’t so fortunate.
In Virginia, former Gov. Terry McAuliffe lost his bid to regain that post to Glenn Youngkin, a former private equity executive and political neophyte.
In New Jersey, Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy barely eked out a victory and a second term.
And in New York City, Republicans held on to the City Council seats they already controlled and will pick up at least one more.
The one GOP victory that now appears certain came in Brooklyn’s 48th Council district where pro-Trump Republican Inna Vernikov beat Steven Saperstein, a Democrat, by more than 27 percentage points.
Another Brooklyn seat — the one held by Democratic Councilman Justin Brannan — remains too close to call. And in Queens, Republican Vickie Paladino appears poised to beat Democrat Tony Avella, whom she leads by more than 1,600 votes with 99% of ballots counted. Absentee ballots in both races are still being tallied.
Adams noted Friday that he wasn’t surprised by the numbers out of those hotly contested races.
“We allowed a segment of the community to rally against a specific issue,” he said, a likely reference to Mayor de Blasio’s vaccine mandates, which led to protests. “They did a great campaign of spreading lies and propaganda and people voting in connection with that.”
Adams said he spoke with both President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris about Tuesday night’s election results and said he was clear in his conversations with them that Democrats “better engage on the ground.”
“I just believe we don’t have our fingers on the pulse of everyday Democrats and even in the purple areas — people who are trying to decide,” he said. “Democrats don’t want to disband police departments. They want police officers to do their job. Democrats are not against closing Rikers Island, but they also want to close the pipeline that feeds Rikers Island.”
Adams then suggested that the national Democratic Party should rip a page from his political playbook and conduct a “listening tour.”
“I was a beast on the trail. And I was able to hear — from Sunset Park to Borough Park — I saw the uniform message that ‘Eric, we want a city that is functioning and doing its job,’” he said.
“Americans and New Yorkers are not complicated. All they’re saying is listen, ‘We do our job and pay our taxes, pick up the damn garbage, educate my children, make sure I can go outside without someone robbing me,’” he continued. “That’s all they want.”
