NYC Mayor to Kamala: Embrace Tough-on-Crime History

Vice President Kamala Harris is being advised to play the role of a tough-on-crime Democrat by New York City Mayor Eric Adams.

"The Democratic Party has a tendency to run away from public safety, but it is very attractive criterion and is a very attractive part of your resume," Adams told the online publication Semafor on Thursday. "I think that she's really using that as front and center, and that's really really impressive."

Adams served for 22 years as a New York transit police officer before going into politics.

Harris previously served as district attorney for San Francisco and then as attorney general for California. In July she touted her experience as a tough-on-crime prosecutor.

"In those roles, I took on perpetrators of all kinds," she said. "Predators who abused women. Fraudsters who ripped off consumers. Cheaters who broke the rules for their own gain. So hear me when I say, I know [former President] Donald Trump's type."

Adams said he thinks Harris' move to the left during her presidential campaign of 2020, which coincided with the Black Lives Matter riots, was a mistake. Harris famously encouraged her followers at the time to donate to the Minnesota Freedom Fund to "help post bail for those protesting on the ground in Minnesota."

She later encouraged the chaos to continue.

"They're not going to stop before Election Day in November and they're not going to stop after Election Day. And that should be — everyone should take note of that on both levels, that this isn't — they're not going to let up and they should not," Harris said at the time.

Adams added that Harris' embrace of the "defund the police" movement in 2020 was a miscalculation, but that she now has the correct approach of pitching law and order.

"She did run away," Adams said. "I don't think she should have moved away from it. I think that now you see, she's leaning into it."