New York Mayor Eric Adams, who’s running for reelection as an Independent, was grilled Saturday by MSNBC’s Al Sharpton over his relationship with President Donald Trump.
Sharpton, during the latest episode of PoliticsNation, played a clip of Trump saying, “You have a good independent running, Mayor Adams, who’s a very good person. I helped him out a little bit. He had a problem and he was unfairly hurt over this question.”
“Now, what was the problem the president was helping you with?” Sharpton asked. “How how did he help and what did he want in return?”
The question and the soundbite appeared to stump the NYC mayor.
“Well, okay, I don’t know. He has to define what the problem is,” Adams answered. “But I will tell you this: He has never asked anything from me.”
Adams was accused of engaging with Trump in a quid pro quo that involved the DOJ dropping indictment charges against Adams — which were brought by the Biden administration for alleged corruption — in exchange for allowing Trump to go after undocumented migrants in New York City.
“Okay, but he said he helped you with a problem, right?” Sharpton pressed. “And are you saying he helped you with a problem or are you saying the president was not telling the truth?”
ADAMS: No. I’m saying that the president knew what was happening to me was wrong —
SHARPTON: But how did he help you with it?
ADAMS: Referred it back to the DOJ. DOJ looked at it and did an analysis of what I was being charged with —
SHARPTON: So, you’re saying the president referred the case himself back to the DOJ?
ADAMS: Whatever the process is, I don’t know what the process is. Just as President Biden, who said his Justice Department was politicized, the same Justice Department that indicted me, he pardoned his son and he made decisions. So whatever the process is, I’m not in that circle.
SHARPTON: All right, let me let me put it this way: Did you and the president ever discuss your indictment and or with anyone around the president asking for help, or is the president making that up when he said —
ADAMS: No, no, we don’t know what he’s what he said that he helped. Whatever way he helped, thank you for your help. I want to be very clear on that. Thank you for your help. I was facing 33 years in prison for bogus charges that the federal government came at me on, and whatever help he did and whatever he’s defining, thank you for your help.
SHARPTON: Did you and him ever discuss it?
ADAMS: No.
Saturday’s back-and-forth comes a few weeks after Trump was reportedly considering whether he should give Adams a position in his administration. That potential move, The New York Times reported, would be Trump’s way of “clearing the field” for former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) to battle frontrunner Zohran Mamdani (D) with less competition, although the likelihood Adams gets an offer is now “dead in the water,” the New York Post reported.
Watch the clip above via MSNBC.
The post MSNBC’s Al Sharpton Grills NYC Mayor Eric Adams Over Alleged ‘Quid Pro Quo’ With Trump first appeared on Mediaite.