If anyone thought New York City Mayor Eric Adams would be an improvement over the incompetent Bill de Blasio, they’ve had a rude awakening. After whining incessantly over Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s dark-genius plan to bus illegal immigrants to the Big Apple, Adams wants to strike back by sending a busload of New Yorkers to the Lone Star state to campaign to oust Abbott.
“I already called all my friends in Texas and told them how to cast their votes,” Adams said during a news conference on Tuesday. “And I am deeply contemplating taking a busload of New Yorkers to go to Texas and do some good old-fashioned door knocking because we have to, for the good of America, we have to get him out of office.”
Sounds pretty threatening to me, actually. But how serious is he about this cockamamie plan? To be fair, he did say it with a smile, so he may have been joking. But on Sunday, he issued this tweet claiming that Abbott has “used innocent people as political pawns to manufacture a crisis”:
.@GregAbbott_TX used innocent people as political pawns to manufacture a crisis. New Yorkers are stepping up to fix it — that’s our city’s values.
But we need the federal government’s help — money, technical assistance and more. pic.twitter.com/cOdXrULpcC
— Mayor Eric Adams (@NYCMayor) August 7, 2022
Is he aware of how ridiculous this sounds? Does he own a mirror? He’s a Democrat, and the Democrat party under Joe Biden has stopped the construction of Trump’s wall, encouraged people to come to the border and enter the country fraudulently, and crippled agencies like the Border Patrol. Yet somehow this crisis is Abbott’s fault?
Perhaps Adams should ask the Biden Administration to help stem the flow of illegal immigration. Nope. As my colleague Mike Miller reports:
The New York Post asked Eric Adams if he has asked or plans to ask Biden or federal agencies to change the open-border policy and stop the endless flow of illegal border crossers from entering the country. “Shockingly,” Adams said he has no interest in doing so.
Fox News’ Bill Melugin sums up the absurdity perfectly:
Just for perspective…NYC Mayor Eric Adams is calling for federal help because he says around 4,000 migrants have arrived in NYC in last 3 months since May.
Texas averages 4,000 migrants crossing its border *every single day*, and so far, has sent less than 100 migrants to NYC.
— Bill Melugin (@BillFOXLA) August 9, 2022
But the most brutal response came from former Creative Director for Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell Anang Mittal:
What else is he going to do with his time, run a city? https://t.co/Jok12C63b1
— Anang Mittal अनंग मित्तल (@anangbhai) August 9, 2022
Abbott welcomes the idea of New Yorkers coming to Texas, as it might give them some idea of the utter chaos the Biden Administration is presiding over at the border. His spokesman said in a statement:
We hope the Mayor of New York City will come to Texas and campaign for Beto O’ Rourke. He should stop by the Border as well to see the real humanitarian crisis President Biden has created.
Abbott is up for re-election this November, facing off against that walking political stunt machine, former Democratic congressman Beto O’Rourke. My guess is that a busload of whining New Yorkers entering the fray would be about as welcome in the Lone Star state as Gavin Newson’s campaign ads. As in, not well-received at all.
This whole back-and-forth between Abbott and Adams can sometimes be humorous, but the reality is anything but funny. Tragedy occurs every day at the overwhelmed border, and blue state governors and the White House routinely belittle red state governors who dare to fight back. Although it’s not the job of a New York City mayor to solve the border crisis, Adams certainly isn’t helping here or saying anything useful. He’s just trying to get cheap political points.