Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams railed against mayoral opponent Andrew Yang on Sunday claiming that media coverage of the former presidential hopeful is “creating a Donald Trump” out of the front runner.
Adams’ comments follow the release of a Data for Progress poll in which Yang has shown to be have the highest approval rating, even over other high-profile candidates such as city Comptroller Scott Stringer, former Civilian Complaint Review Board Chair Maya Wiley, or former Sanitation Commissioner Kathryn Garcia.
All of whom have worked in city government for decades.
“We have a candidate that you media has turned into a celebrity. I can’t open up the paper – Andrew Yang has gallstones, that’s a full page story… Andrew Yang had pizza, that’s a full page story,” Adams said. “We are creating a Donald Trump with Andrew Yang. That’s what the media did with Donald Trump. The same thing you complain about – how did he get elected? – was because you covered Donald Trump as though he was doing celebrity show and not running for the presidency. The media is doing the same thing right now.”
It was not all Adams had to say about Yang.
Prior to those statements during a Sunday morning press conference in front of Vulcan Hall in Brooklyn, Adams criticized Yang yet again for leaving the city for New Paltz during the height of the COVID-19 crisis instead of remaining with the people he hopes to represent in the June 22 Democratic primary.
Jake Sporn, a spokesman for Yang’s campaign, had few words for the former NYPD officer turned politician when reached out to by amNewYork Metro: “Says the former Giuliani Republican lobbing near-constant personal attacks through the media.”
A follow-up question from a reporter asked if Adams was feeling uneasy about the trajectory of the mayoral race as former CitiGroup executive Ray McGuire was set to receive an endorsement from Congressman Gregory Meeks, the chair of powerful Queens County Democratic Party, later that day.
Adams brushed off the weigh of that endorsement as a single congressman endorsing one of his opponents while he received backing himself from the the Vulcan Society, The Grand Council of Guardians, National Latino Peace Officers Association NY Charter.
According to Politico, the Data for Progress poll had Yang at 13 points ahead of Adams at 26% to 13% respectively. Only Stringer, at 11%, and Wiley, with 10%, had double-digit support in the survey apart from Adams and Yang.
