brooklyn borough president eric adams, left, and mayor bill de blasio.  | michael appleton/mayoral photography office by laura nahmias 11/20/16 04:47 pm est bill de blasio deserves more time in office to fulfill his campaign promises, and new york city must keep its mayor in place to help ward off the threat of president-elect donald trump, brooklyn borough president eric adams told congregants sunday at salem baptist church, as he endorsed de blasio<u+2019>s bid for a second term. adams had been discussed as a possible challenger to de blasio in next year<u+2019>s democratic primary, but those rumors withered on sunday with his forceful endorsement of the incumbent mayor. story continued below <u+201c>now more than ever we need a mayor that<u+2019>s willing to out-trump trump,<u+201d> adams told the congregation. de blasio's campaign has attempted to create an early aura of inevitability around the mayor with a series of institutional endorsements since he kicked off the campaign last week. on sunday, it was adams and former mayor david dinkins, in whose administration de blasio worked. last week, de blasio<u+2019>s campaign also announced three endorsements from major labor unions <u+2014> the sanitation workers<u+2019> union , the retail wholesale and department store workers<u+2019> union and 32bj seiu . in the absence of a big-name challenger, both adams and de blasio were keen to cast trump, as the mayor<u+2019>s chief opponent. <u+201c>he gets it that we may not be living trump tower, but our houses are our towers,<u+201d> adams said of de blasio. for voters who wonder if the mayor has kept his own campaign promises around addressing income inequality and creating affordable housing, adams told a story about how the mayor<u+2019>s efforts would eventually bear fruit. <u+201c>i remember as a child, working in the garden with dad, and he<u+2019>s from alabama, the caribbean of america. and he used to plant tomatoes and collard greens and turnips, and after a couple weeks i<u+2019>d say <u+2018>daddy this is just a little flower here, where are the tomatoes?<u+2019> he<u+2019>d say, <u+2018>son, these are the indicators that the plant is growing and the harvest is going to be huge.<u+2019><u+201d> <u+201c>i know that some of you are saying to yourself that, mr. mayor, we<u+2019>re still not seeing all that we expect. we<u+2019>re still not seeing the harvest,<u+201d> adams said. <u+201c>but look at the indicators. the plant is here. and i would not have known that the tomatoes were coming if my dad didn't help me open my eyes and help me realize that the indicators were there,<u+201d> adams said. <u+201c>we will have that harvest but it will take the nurturing and the caring and the watering and the planting of the original farmer that planted the seed," he said. de blasio maintains high approval ratings among black voters, even as his standing has diminished among other groups, and adams said the mayor's appearance at salem baptist church, and his comfort level within the black community, show he <u+201c>gets it." <u+201c>you cannot fake the funk,<u+201d> adams said. <u+201c>all roads to leadership go through salem, and hillary [clinton] should have gotten the memo. she should have understood it is the salems of this city and country, where the hopes and dreams of people are." de blasio, in brief remarks, focused largely on the threat of trump, <u+201c>when i took office three years ago, we certainly didn't expect this turn of events that happened in the last few weeks,<u+201d> he said. <u+201c>but it doesn't change things, it simply deepens my resolve. what we<u+2019>re doing here has to work,<u+201d> de blasio said, because new york city needs to send a message to the rest of the country, about the viability of some of the policies implemented during his time in office. like adams, de blasio also counseled patience to new yorkers waiting to see how the mayor has made their lives better. <u+201c>if you hear people who are yearning for more change, i want them to know, more change is coming. if people say, <u+2018>show me some evidence! show me those thirsty flowers starting to blossom! tell me there will be a harvest later on!<u+2019><u+201d> <u+201c>i say, remember just five years ago in this city, 700,000 people were stopped and frisked by the nypd in one year,<u+201d> said de blasio. <u+201c>we ended that broken and unconstitutional policy,<u+201d> he said, adding, <u+201c>it will take time. you don't erase decades of history immediately.<u+201d> he re-cast his meeting last week with trump <u+2014> which he described as a <u+201c>candid and substantive meeting<u+201d> at the time <u+2014> as something of a standoff. <u+201c>you may remember during one of the presidential debates, donald trump talked about wanting to bring back stop and frisk all over the country, and i looked him in the eye a few days ago and i said, <u+2018>that policy of stop and frisk, the way it was used was unconstitutional," he said. 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de blasio rolls out adams, dinkins support, with a promise to battle trump
laura nahmias