Eric Adams, the embattled New York City mayor who seems to be desperately angling for a pardon from President Donald Trump, recently sat down for a lengthy interview with MAGA podcaster and trusted Trump allyTucker Carlson.
The friendly chat, which will air in full on Carlson’s network and X (formerly Twitter) on Tuesday night, comes less than three years after Adams rejected the former Fox News star’s apparent endorsement of him in the New York mayoral race.
“I don’t want or need the support of Tucker Carlson, or anyone else who perpetuates racist, anti-immigrant propaganda,” Adams tweeted in May 2021 following a segment on Carlson’s then-Fox News primetime show.
At that time, Carlson heaped praise on Adams while discussing the city’s mayoral candidates, specifically commending the current NYC mayor for his willingness to criticize “smug, fussy liberals” while being “bright enough” to recognize that the city’s crime is a problem.
Skip ahead to January 2025, and Adams is now facing an April trial on five federal corruption charges, including conspiracy to commit wire fraud, bribery and solicitation of a contribution by a foreign national. The mayor could also be looking at more legal problems as federal prosecutors said earlier this month that law enforcement may soon “uncover additional criminal conduct by Adams.”
With polls showing he is a massive underdog to win re-election in November as his approval rating sits at a putrid 22 percent, Adams has spent the past few months cozying up to Trump, who has said he would consider pardoning the scandal-plagued mayor. Last month, Trump said he felt Adams was “treated pretty unfairly” by the feds and was likely indicted because he criticized the Biden administration’s immigration policies.
Adams even received a last-minute invitation to attend Trump’s inauguration, prompting the mayor to cancel his planned Martin Luther King Jr. Day activities and race to Washington to make it on time. It appears that Adams found time to sit down for an interview with Carlson, who also attended the inauguration and has become a member of Trump’s inner circle.
In a preview that was posted to social media on Tuesday, Adams told Carlson that people often tell him that “you don’t sound like a Democrat, and you seem to have left the party,” claiming that “the party left me, and it left working-class people.”
According to Politico, the mayor’s press team didn’t promote the interview and kept it off Adams’ public schedule. Spokesperson Kayla Mamelak Altus claimed she does not usually add interviews to the schedule if they are posted to social media.
Adams’ attendance at Trump’s inauguration and his sitdown with Carlson, who seemingly has the president’s ear, has only ramped up speculation that the Democratic mayor is actively seeking a pardon from the president. Zellnor Myrie, one of Adams’ mayoral opponents, said that New Yorkers “deserve a mayor who puts our city’s well-being above their exoneration.”
