New York mayoral hopeful Eric Adams is reportedly scheduled to meet with President Joe Biden in Washington, D.C. later today. The former police officer and the architect of the 1994 crime bill are expected to develop strategies to curb gun violence. Attorney General Merrick Garland and other community leaders from across the country are also expected to be in attendance.
Adams is heading to the nation’s capital one week after securing the Democratic Party’s nomination to become the next mayor of New York. Throughout his run toward the city’s highest office, Adams has talked extensively about his hopes to curb gun violence if he is elected in November. During a recent interview with CNN‘s Jake Tapper, the former police officer explained that he would work with Governor Andrew Cuomo to give the city’s anti-gun force the resources “they deserve.”
“And then we’re going to be extremely comfortable going to our judges and stating, we can’t have people who participate in gun violence and they’re out the next day. That’s unacceptable. We need to send a clear message that our streets are going to be safe,” he added.
As a former police officer, Adams has portrayed himself as a left-leaning candidate, but he has worked to distance himself from the Defund The Police movement. In fact, it appears that he’d be in favor of providing more funding to the police in years to come if he is elected.
“You can have all the reforms you want. You can have a kinder, gentler police department. But if your streets are filled with guns and you’re dealing with a lot of violence, you are still going to have a lot of children being shot,” he said during an interview in April.
“If you erode that trust, you are going to erode public safety.”
Biden’s meeting with Adams and other local leaders is set to take place at 1:15 p.m.
