Mayor Adams cast his ballot for President Biden in New York’s presidential primary Tuesday — a vote that comes after months of simmering tensions between the two officials over the city’s migrant crisis.
“I don’t talk about who I normally vote for when I go into vote, but it felt good checking off the box for Biden,” Adams told reporters at City Hall after voting at a polling station in Brooklyn earlier in the day.
Biden is already the Democratic Party’s presumptive nominee for November’s general election and was virtually certain Tuesday afternoon to win New York’s primary. Biden is all but certain to face former President Donald Trump in the November contest.
Adams’ primary support for Biden comes after he has sharply criticized the president for not doing more to help the city shelter and provide services for tens of thousands of mostly Latin American migrants.
Last April, Adams said Biden had “failed” New York by not securing more financial and logistical federal migrant help. After that, Biden’s 2024 campaign dropped Adams from a list of official surrogates advocating for the president’s reelection.
In Tuesday’s briefing, Adams acknowledged his migrant-related beef with Biden.
“We should be reimbursed for the dollars that we are spending, and we should allow people to work, and I’m clear on that,” he said. “And even in my criticism of the president I have never made it unclear that I support the president. I support what he has done around public safety; I support how he has turned around the economy. Many people thought we were going to be in worse off conditions than we are in. I think he has done a great job.”
