NEW YORK (PIX11) -- Mayor Eric Adams said Tuesday he would not criticize President Donald Trump publicly.
Adams also doggedly defended his decision to attend Trump’s inauguration Monday and skip local Martin Luther King Jr. Day events, as the embattled Democratic mayor faces a tough reelection campaign and fights federal corruption charges.
"You shouldn't come out the gate criticizing," Adams said. "You should come out the gate trying to collaborate, trying to cooperate."
The mayor said in the instances he disagrees with Trump, he will tell him privately.
True to his word, on Tuesday Adams passed time and time again on critiquing the new administration publicly -- especially on emerging plans for immigration officials to conduct raids in major cities like New York.
"We need to secure our border, and we need to make sure those with criminal intention don't come to our country," Adams said. "We should be looking to coordinating and making it happen."
In one poignant moment, Adams, a retired cop himself, even sidestepped criticizing Trump for his pardons of Jan. 6 rioters who attacked police officers.
"The president has the power to execute several things from executive orders to pardons to signing laws. That is the balance of power in our country," Adams said.
The increasingly cozy relationship with Trump, and the tension it’s creating back home in the city, was on full display when the mayor skipped traditional New York City Martin Luther King Jr. Day events for the inauguration.
"Dr. King's dream is not in Brooklyn or New York City," Adams said. "He clearly stated we have to put partisan politics aside to deal with the issues facing the country."
However, Monday in a Harlem Church the mayor was supposed to visit, the senior pastor was critical of those attending the inauguration.
Adams said criticism of him is nothing new. He pointed to his long history of working for abortion rights, marriage equality and with immigrant communities.
"I was being attacked on day one, but I never got unfocused, and I delivered for this city, and now we're a better city because of that," Adams said.