Bulwark Takes - NYC Mayor Adams Case Dismissed After Kissing Trump’s Ring

Episode Date: February 11, 2025

Tim Miller and Sam Stein discuss NYC Mayor Eric Adams’ corruption cases being dismissed after getting friendly with Donald Trump.

Hey everybody it's Tim Miller with the Bullwark here with my buddy Sam Stein, Managing Editor. We have some breaking news out of the Justice Department. They have decided that they are dismissing without prejudice the prosecution of Mayor Eric Adams, New York Mayor, who is a Democrat but has gotten very Trumpy and he's learned the playbook of Democrats who want to get into Trump's good graces, which is just do crimes and then be very nice to him. That has worked out very well for Eric Adams. So there's something in this report in particular, in the memo from the Justice Department that jumps out to me that I want to

share with you in a second here, Sam. But I'm wondering your biggest picture thoughts on this, the not politicized, not processed at all trump justice department dropping the prosecution of eric adams well i i want to know if trump realizes what an easy mark he is like does he know that he's just being like played and flattered in order to get part of this is going to be my one defense of trump i think maybe he does know and he's but like all he cares about is that he just wants people to be nice to him and flatter him and so if he like sends out a big flashing sign to everybody just flatter me just talk about how great i am and

you'll get whatever you want then he'll get what he wants which is people talking about how great he is i think maybe it's a strategy no it's possible it's quite likely i would i want to also note like there are obviously you know it's not just the flattery i mean adams is out there basically saying he's gonna do pretty much what trump wants on uh on deportations and ice raids in new york city so there's gonna be you know a bunch of new yorkers who bear the brunt of this because eric because Eric Adams clearly had some dubious connections to overseas figures and got in some serious trouble because of ethical lapses and then decided his one way to freedom was to give up migrants to Trump so he can get out of jail. It's kind of ridiculous. Am I wrong?

That's basically what happened. It is absolutely what happened. But Eric Adams did say to his staff, this was reported in a briefing, we're going to do whatever they want us to do on immigration. We're going to start being nice to Trump. And that's the new mayor's order. Don't say a critical word at the guy.

There will not be a critical word emanating from this office. Here's the money phrase from the acting deputy attorney general, the memo. You put out one of these memos. You kind of rationalize why the Justice Department is doing what it's doing. You kind of explain the reasoning. The number two reason for why they're dropping this case the pending prosecution has unduly restricted mayor adams ability to devote full attention and resources to the illegal immigration and violent crime that escalated under the policies of the prior administration i mean i was just so restricted

like we're just nagging joe biden like we're in like joe biden is just catching strays in the in the uh in the well that kind of reminds me when they uh when they had to run rod rosenseen had to put together the justification for getting rid of james comey and he was like james comey just over politicized the office by announcing the hillary clinton investigation what are you talking about it's a little too tough on hillary yeah too tough yeah so there you go uh we i guess we should just say because this is a fact-based operation the violent crime in new york was down uh during the previous administration um illegal immigration was up in part because of red state shipping um undocumented migrants to new york well let's let's be fair too

i mean adams ran for office and adrian carasquillo for huddle masses wrote about this adams ran for office pledging to maintain new york's status as a sanctuary city and pledging to protect immigrants and migrants uh including those who are here illegally from getting deported and you know those were not like soft pledges they were iron clad he was like boasting about him and then he did a 180 because he had to save himself but yes a lot of what happened was a lot of southern states texas and i don't know if new york did it but definitely texas sent tons of migrants up to new york you know put a real strain on the city's resources and here we are here we are so yeah now mayor adams gets to just focus all of his attention

this guy loves nobody loves a fancy dinner more than eric adams like you know he's just out with john katsamitas and he does go to that italian restaurant oh yeah he's just doing that whole deal uh so i'm sure that he'll you know after he has you has What's his future here? Honestly, what's his future? He has a lot of food and drink, you know, a lot of libations at a big dinner and then he focuses on deporting some migrants out of New York City. He's not going to win the Democratic

primary for mayor now. No way. The current leader in that primary in the polls is disgraced Governor Andrew Cuomo. You can't win a Democratic primary for mayor of New York City running as the guy who got pardoned by Donald Trump. Look, there are some laws of gravity still in politics. You cannot be that guy.

But he does get his freedom. This is the price to pay. Who knows? Maybe he runs such as an independent. I don't know. Maybe he's the next HUD director. Maybe. Who knows? Maybe he goes in this. He'll an independent. I don't know. Maybe he's the next HUD director. Maybe. Who knows? Maybe he goes in this.

He'll definitely be. I definitely. It's not on Cal Shee yet, but high probability is the second wave Trump hire, right? Like, you know, someone quits and Adams is kind of off there inside waiting for his turn. All right. Then let's do it. Then let's go to Cal Shee. Let's go right.

You're obsessed with the gambler. I got to earn that. I was plus right. You're obsessed with the gambler. I got to earn that money. I was plus 50 bucks on my Super Bowl prop bets yesterday. I must have bet 30 things. I just was all over the place. And I was like, you know, as ups and downs, wins and losses, and it evened out to being like up 12 bucks. I was thinking about it.

I didn't bet on the Super Bowl, but that first touchdown that was called back from that obscure wide receiver for Philly, he got his knee down. I was like, oh my God, so many prop bets. But then it was Jalen Hurts with the tush push, and I'm sure a lot of people had that. All right, guess the lines, Cal Shea edition. I'm just going to give you a clue because you'll never realize. These are all low odds, okay? They're all low.

Just I'm going to give you that. The question is, who will trump pardon in his first 100 days they give you three options okay and again they are all low okay just want to be clear what are the odds that they give steve bannon for securing a pardon um well i mean bannon has doesn't need a pardon yet. So his next, I mean, I may be overthinking this, but his next court date is until March, so give or take. But I don't know, you know, 20%. Damn, nailed it, 19%.

Dude, on fire. Okay. Julian Assange. I mean, Assange is a lot closer to the Silk Road guy whose name is escaping me right now. You know, I mean, there's a lot of parallels and the types of people that are arguing for that. So I guess I would say 25%. Wrong. 10.

Again, they're all low. All right. Mayor Adams. I guess you don't need a pardon now. A hundred. He doesn't get a pardon because he doesn't need it. Five percent, and it's gone down precipitously. It's down six.

All right. Last one. Bob Menendez. This could be easy money right here, buddy. Bob Menendez. And he's obviously going straight out of the Adams playbook right now. Right. But he just is more of Adam's playbook right now.

He's more of a Democrat's Democrat than Adam's. I think he's going to have to humiliate himself a little bit more. He doesn't also have the excuse of the city. I've got to say less than Bannon. I would say like 12%. 4%. I think there's some money to be made there. You think so? I think Menendez knows the game now.

It's pretty easy. Just straight line, just flattery. But you really got to... You got to lay on thick. He's really going to have to lay it on thick. He will campaign in New Jersey for Trump. He's got to lay prostrate before him. Start painting orange.

Start doing orange shapes. The whole thing. Just go straight full trump yeah i like it all right well those are the odds time to bet your money all right some not surprising but appalling uh breaking news uh out of out of the administration anything else jump out at you today i will just say this is a perversion of the administration. Anything else jump out at you today? I will just say this is a perversion of the justice system. It's like just basically eliminating public corruption as a thing that you care about and deciding you're not going to prosecute people unless, of course, they're critical of you and they're Democrats, you'll prosecute them. But it really has to be incredibly demoralizing for everyone who works in the Justice Department, who built these cases and took some considerable risks at doing so, and then have to watch as they just decide, you know what, he's been nice enough and he's going to deport some migrants, we'll drop these

charges. So yeah, that's pretty bad. Yeah, I guess the last thing I'll say is, you know, it almost goes without saying because it's so obvious, but the whole basis of this Trump 2024 campaign and one of the central elements was that he was being unfairly prosecuted that the justice department had been politicized against him and here we've got joe biden's justice department targeting a democratic mayor in the biggest city uh for legitimate reasons that are not political and then immediately as a democratic senator and then immediately within the first Biden who we did pardon but yeah immediately within the first month the Trump team undermines

all that so there you go if you guys if you are taking Trump at his word on the politicization of the justice department I've got some bad news for you all right that's Sam Stein I'm Tim Miller we'll be back here soon see y'all subscribe