Adams: Not fair to call me an anti-woke Democrat

New York City mayoral candidate Eric Adams (D) said on Sunday that it is not fair for people to call him an “anti-woke Democrat.” 

During an appearance on ABC’s “This Week,” Adams told host George Stephanopoulos that fellow Democratic lawmakers shouldn’t be idealistic without being realistic on the issues the country is facing in the post-Trump administration, referring to the current problems NYC has. 

“We can’t be so idealistic that we’re not realistics — realistic. Cities are hurting all across America, and New York personifies that pain, the inequalities, the gun violence, the lack of really looking after everyday blue-collar workers, I like to say,” Adams told Stephanopoulos. “And we have failed for so many years. And we’ve allowed the fallout of the Trump administration to have an overreach in philosophy and not on-the-ground, real issues that are facing everyday New Yorkers…”

When Stephanopoulos asked Adams if it was fair for people to call him an “anti-woke Democrat”, Adams responded that he “never went to sleep,” referring to his 35-year work as a police officer fighting for reform, public safety, and sharing his own personal accounts of his experiences in the city.

New York City mayoral nominee Eric Adams tells @GStephanopoulos: “We [Democrats] cannot be so idealistic that we’re not realistic.”

George: “Is it fair to call you an anti-woke Democrat?”

Adams: “Some of us never went to sleep.” https://t.co/zw6gzexARs pic.twitter.com/Dv3S1jhYOy

— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) July 11, 2021

“No, I — I’ve — some of us never went to sleep. That’s the problem. You know… A 35-year record of fighting for reform, for public safety, a person who was arrested by police, assaulted by police, but also lost a child of a friend to gang — to gang violence,” Adams said. “And so I never went to sleep. And people who have finally realized that there are issues out here believe that they can carve the entire Democratic agenda.”

Adams won the New York City Democratic primary on Tuesday. Adams told the ABC host that he wants public safety to define his first term as mayor of the city. 

“We want to be a safe city, and we want to be ready to do business again. We’re going to live up to our name. This is an Empire State. We want to build empires.”