(Ken Silva, Headline USA) GREENVILLE, SC—Doubling down on his previous assertions that he can win New York in the 2024 presidential election, Donald Trump suggested Tuesday that New York City Mayor Eric Adams might be blackmailed into supporting the Biden administration’s open-borders policy, which has wrought havoc on the Big Apple.
Trump made his comments during a town hall event with Fox News host Laura Ingraham in Greenville, South Carolina.
The former president said he believes he can win New York due to the mass migration that has overwhelmed the area, with thousands of illegal immigrants sleeping on the streets.
Trump noted that Adams had been a vocal opponent of Biden’s border policy last year, until he became the target of a Justice Department probe into his political fundraising.
Trump was referring to the FBI’s raid last November of Adams’s top fundraiser, Brianna Suggs. It was revealed shortly thereafter that the FBI seized Adams’s cell phone and other personal devices during that raid.
The FBI is investigating potential illegal campaign contributions from the Turkish government to the Adams campaign, a violation of federal law, according to the New York Post. But just a month before that investigation was made public, Adams was decrying the toll immigration was taking on his city—making comments such as, “New York City has reached capacity and we don’t want to turn your aspiration for dreams into a nightmare.”
“I’m not even blaming the mayor. I think the mayor was told to take a back seat because they came after him like they’re going to indict him, and now he’s gone quiet. These are fascists, they’re terrible people. So I’m not blaming him,” Trump said of the situation.
Trump also reiterated his intent to campaign in New York.
“We have nine months left, but I’m going to see about Madison Square Garden, and we’re going to go to South Bronx and Queens and other areas,” he said.
Ingraham noted that Joe Biden defeated Trump by 23 points in 2020. But a recent poll from Siena showed the current President only up by 12 points ahead of Trump, she said.
Meanwhile, Adams has resorted to playing the race card as his poll numbers slump and his legal woes mount.
“Stand up, stand up, they need to see you. Have you ever seen this much chocolate lead in the city of New York?” Adams reportedly said at his own town hall earlier this month.
“And then go down the line, look who’s here,” Adams pleaded, before adding: “This is representative of the city. That’s why people hate me. You’re trying to figure out, why the hating on me?”
Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.
