NEW YORK CITY–Mayor Eric Adams didn’t rule out the possibility of returning to the Republican Party when asked about the possibility on Dec. 6 in a pair of TV interviews.
During an interview on NPR’s ‘Morning Edition’, the host asked, “Would you ever consider rejoining the GOP?”
Adams responded, “The party that is the most important for me is the American party, I’m part of the American party ... that’s the party I will always be a member of.”
He never said no.
In a subsequent TV interview with PIX11 Morning News, Adams was asked to follow up on how he had responded about rejoining the GOP.
He replied, “We need to move away from identifying, classifying ourselves as anything other than Americans. ... No matter which party I’m on, or vote on, I am going to push for the American values.”
Adams did say that he would run again for mayor as a Democrat.
Adams left the Democratic Party for the GOP from 1995 to 2002. He said in a 2013 interview with City Limits magazine that he did so because he was “concerned that city Democrats were too soft on crime.”
In 2006, he was elected to the New York state Senate as a Democrat.
Adams has been seen as friendly to the incoming administration. On Dec. 3 he said, “I made it clear that I’m not going to be warring with this administration. I’m going to be working with this administration. President Trump is the President-elect, and whomever he chooses to run his agencies, I’m looking forward to sit down and see how we better New York.”
The mayor has announced that he will be meeting with future border czar Tom Homan next week to discuss Trump’s deportation plans.
Adams made supportive comments of Trump’s including Elon Musk in his government at another PIX11 interview in November: “One of the people I think it was important to bring on board, some people may argue, is Elon Musk. We’re dealing with an antiquated government filled with bureaucracy unwilling to make any changes.”
During the days leading up to Trump’s campaign rally at Madison Square Garden, Adams spoke in defense of Trump. “I know what Hitler has done and I know what a fascist regime looks like. Trump has nothing to do with either,” he said.
Trump has also made friendly remarks about Adams. During the Al Smith Dinner, he said that they had both been unfairly targeted by the justice apparatus.
