Mayor Eric Adams made an appearance on The View on Friday, weighing in on the appointment of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the Department of Health and Human Services.
“If we love our country, then no one individual should take us away from our mission,” Mayor Eric Adams said. “Let’s love the country, let’s love our cities, let’s get away from the rhetoric of the professionalism that we know. Those are experts in this. They’re going to look at his proposal and do a real analysis and make these decisions. It happens every day.
Kennedy, who previously ran for president himself, is a prominent anti-vaccine activist. His nomination has alarmed some public health officials.
Despite the concerns Adams seems to think, Kennedy has some good ideas.
“Executives will nominate and bring in those who they believe will bring their vision forward. And everything from the fluoride issues, I believe we should have fluoride in the water based on what my experts are telling me,” Adams said. “But let’s be clear we have a real problem with our food in this country.”
This week, President-elect Donald Trump also announced that he is looking to replace U.S. Attorney Damian Williams, with former Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Jay Clayton, who does not have experience in criminal law.
Williams indicted Adams in September on federal corruption and bribery charges.
Adams dodged a question about his case being dropped or him receiving a pardon. The mayor has recently defended Trump and even had kind words for him despite them being on opposing political parties.
“I have a legal team. They’re going to manage that. My job is to do what I’ve done since Jan. 1, 2022: make sure crime goes down in the city, a record number of housing gets built in the city, and turn around our economy,” he said.
Adams also once again criticized his own party for losing support in New York in the recent election.
“We need to talk to everyday working-class people and we stopped doing that,” he said. “Part of the business of campaigning is getting your message out and being clear on your message. Even the experts in their party were saying, get back to the message of what we are doing for everyday people in the country.”
Meanwhile, Adams had little details on how his administration would respond if mass deportations were to happen in the city, one of Trump’s campaign promises.
“What we must do is to be prepared to address the issues as they come in front of us,” he said. “We looked at all of these issues and all of the conversations that are taking place. The operationalizing of the theories that people want to do is different from the actualization of it.”