Former President Donald Trump drew huge laughs Thursday night when he roasted New York mayor Eric Adams while headlining the Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner in New York City.
“Mayor Adams, good luck with everything,” Trump said, while looking at Adams and smirking.
“They went after you,” Trump said, as the crowd burst into laughter. “They went after you, mayor.”
Adams was indicted last month following a federal corruption investigation, and charged with bribery, conspiracy, wire fraud, and campaign finance offenses. The mayor, who is accused of soliciting bribes from foreign businesspeople to finance his political campaigns, has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Trump said Thursday that he predicted Adams’ indictment nearly a year ago.
“Nine and a half months ago, I said, you know, he just said something bad about the administration,” Trump said, as the crowd continued laughing. “He’s going to be indicted any moment. And guess what happened, but you’re going to win.”
“I think you’re going to win,” Trump continued. “I know you’re going to win, so good luck. I don’t like what they do.”
New York Senator Chuck Schumer (L), Cardinal Timothy Dolan (C) and former President Donald Trump are seen at the 79th annual Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner on October 17, 2024, in New York.
AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson
The Republican nominee was likely referring to the myriad criminal cases he’s faced at the federal and state level, including in New York.
Trump also took several shots at Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee.
Harris, breaking with tradition, didn’t attend the event because she was stumping in Wisconsin. Instead, she made an appearance via recorded video.
Harris is the first presidential nominee to decline an invitation to the annual Al Smith dinner in decades, a move that didn’t go unnoticed by Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the archbishop of New York.
“This year will be imbalanced because, sadly, Kamala Harris isn’t coming,” Dolan said on his podcast earlier this week. “It’s a shame because the nature of the evening is to bring people together. The nature of the evening is civility, patriotism, humor. It’s not a campaign speech. It’s not a campaign stop.”
Thursday’s event came less than three weeks before the November election, and Harris and Trump have been in a virtual dead heat since Harris replaced President Joe Biden as the Democratic nominee in July.
While the Harris campaign enjoyed a boost in polling numbers after she became the Democratic nominee and after she debated Trump in September, the race has evened out in recent weeks.
In a Quinnipiac University poll published Wednesday, Harris edged Trump out in North Carolina, where 49 percent of likely voters said they supported her, compared to 47 percent who said they support Trump. But in Georgia, the vice president trails Trump by seven points — 52 percent of likely voters in the state back Trump, while 45 percent support Harris.
