By Michael V. Cusenza
Twenty-four hours after former President Donald Trump was injured in an attempted assassination on Saturday at a rally in Pennsylvania, Mayor Eric Adams joined NYC spiritual and political leaders in calling for unity.
“It was a chilling visualization as I watched what happened yesterday, inches away from the former president losing his life. It’s unimaginable that his children would have to experience that, his wife, those who love him and his family, and those who are politically aligned with him. To watch that in horror, to see the history of what bullets have done, how it has reshaped our past, and it could reshape our future,” Adams said. “Ever since Abraham Lincoln, Dr. King, Ronald Reagan, the families of the Kennedys, both senator and President Kennedy losing their lives, Medgar Evers losing his life, we’re watching how the destructive power of a bullet can change the entire direction of our entire country. I am troubled by some of the responses we saw on social media on so many different levels. We have to ask ourselves, what are we doing to our young people and our families, and how do we regain that? I believe it’s by doing the accumulation of people who are here today, to start with this small group, and really put in place a letter that we’re going to send out and ask everyone to sign on to it, to stop this toxic violence that we’re seeing.”
Adams later lauded City Council Minority Leader Joe Borelli for putting the collective predicament into proper perspective.
“I cannot thank Councilman Borelli, Minority Leader, enough for understanding how significant this is. We could line up on political lines, but he’s a dad, like I am a dad. He loves this city like I love this city. He believes we should raise healthy children and families like I do. Good, healthy debate is part of the democratic process and what it represents,” Hizzoner said.
“I hear things that my political opponents might say. They bother me. Sometimes I think that they’ll have a bad impact on my family, our safety, our wallets. Yes, those things anger me. Anger in and of itself is not a bad thing in politics. It’s what motivated me to go hang flyers and knock on doors as a volunteer. It’s what motivated me to run for office. People who are angry at the system are not the problem in politics. Hate is the problem in politics. The dehumanization of your political opponents is the problem of politics,” Borelli said. “Let’s use our anger and our political differences as the founders intended, by having debates, by standing on our soapboxes, by offering different ideas, and by encouraging people to vote. When Trump raised his fist, I would encourage you, many of you who I imagine don’t particularly like him or may not vote for him, I see his raising his fist as a defiant gesture against, not his political opponents, but of people who would use violence to silence our democracy. He came out today and said, unite America. That’s what I believe he meant by shaking his fist and saying, fight. We have to fight for this democracy. We’ll see who wins in November, but we should all fight to preserve our democracy.”
