Mayor Eric Adams said he disagrees with the notion that Trump’s rally should be scrapped over Kelly’s comments.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams rebuffed recent attacks against former President Donald Trump and said Trump’s Madison Square Garden event should go ahead.
“I have heard those terms hurled at me by some political leaders in the city, using terms like [Nazi leader Adolph] Hitler and fascist,” the Democratic mayor said at a press conference in New York City on Oct. 26.
“I know what Hitler has done, and I know what a fascist regime looks like. I think, as I have called for over and over again, that the level of conversation, I think we can all dial down the temperature.”
Adams also detailed a significant police presence planned for Trump’s event at Madison Square Garden in Manhattan on Oct. 27.
He made the comment after Vice President Kamala Harris and her surrogates criticized Trump in recent days after Trump’s former chief of staff John Kelly accused him of praising Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Germany dictator’s generals.
Referring to the claims, Harris told voters on Oct. 23 at a CNN town hall, “I invite you to listen and go online to listen to John Kelly” make the allegations against the 45th president. “This is a serious, serious issue.”
Trump and previous members of his administration have fiercely opposed the claims made by Kelly.
“I’ve avoided commenting on intra-staff leaks or rumors or even lies as it relates to my time at the White House but General Kelly’s comments regarding President Trump are too egregious to ignore,” former Vice President Mike Pence’s former chief of staff, Mike Ayers, said on social media platform X. “I was with each of them more than most, and his commentary is patently false.”
I’ve avoided commenting on intra-staff leaks or rumors or even lies as it relates to my time at the White House but General Kelly’s comments regarding President Trump are too egregious to ignore. I was with each of them more than most, and his commentary is *patently false.* pic.twitter.com/T167w9GSv1
— Nick Ayers (@nick_ayers) October 23, 2024
Mark Paoletta, former general counsel of the Office of Management and Budget in the Trump administration, also spoke out against Kelly, writing on X: “I don’t believe a word he says. He was a terrible chief of staff who dishonestly kept information from the President to pursue his own agenda.”
I worked in the White House with John Kelly, and I don’t believe a word he says. He was a terrible chief of staff who dishonestly kept information from the President to pursue his own agenda, an unelected former military official substituting his judgment for the duly elected… https://t.co/x1kk27vie6
— Mark Paoletta (@MarkPaoletta) October 25, 2024
Trump denounced the stories on Oct. 24, saying on social media platform Truth Social that Kelly “made up a story out of pure Trump Derangement Syndrome Hatred.”
