New York City Mayor Eric Adams probably will not be planning a trip to Kansas anytime soon. Twitter users are firing back after his remarks about the state during a news conference earlier this week.
Speaking about efforts to construct tent cities for migrants entering New York City, Adams, who it is believed has never been to Kansas, suggested that these actions were in line with New York’s “brand” and that other states like Kansas don’t have one.
“We have a brand,” Adams said. “New York has a brand. And when people see it, it means something…Kansas doesn’t have a brand. When you go there, OK, you’re from Kansas. But New York has a brand.”
US Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) wrote: “Kansas has KS wheat, Jayhawk basketball, KS beef, and the Wizard of Oz.”
“What’s New York Mayor Adams’ brand? Violence, murder, homelessness, and high taxes? I’ll take Kansas any day,” Marshall tweeted.
Social media users quickly descended on Adams’ statements, attacking the liberal New York politician for snubbing a rural state.
- “This is what Democrats really think of you. If you aren’t from a big city on the coast, they couldn’t care less about you,” Canary CEO Dan K. Eberhart wrote.
- “Wow. what did Kansas do to Eric Adams?” Los Angeles Times reporter Laura J. Nelson tweeted.
- “The difference between NYers and Jersey people right here: these people have NO self-esteem, no confidence. Jersey has a brand. And Kansas having a brand (which it does, been there and loved it) doesn’t threaten Jersey’s brand. But it threatens New York’s brand,” Breitbart International news editor Frances Martel tweeted.
- Washington Time columnist Billy Hallowell wrote, “Brand: mystery smell emitting from every sewer and subway gate.”
- “Whatever makes you feel better about paying $4k in rent for a closet that you don’t even get to own, I guess meanwhile, people in Kansas enjoying living a pleasant, peaceful life out in God’s country are getting the last laugh,” CBN managing editor Dan Andros tweeted.
- “Play this clip the next time a Democrat says, ‘We can compete in rural America!’” former CIA Ops officer Bryan Dean Wright wrote.
Data shows that Manhattan, New York’s murder rate is three times that of Manhattan, Kansas.
Even Hollywood liberals came to the state’s defense. Emmy-winning former “Modern Family” star Eric Stonestreet tweeted: “I’m from Kansas and have been to New York many times.”
“I find beauty in both places and with the people from both places. Too bad NYC’s elected leader can’t say the same thing,” he wrote.
I’m from Kansas and have been to New York many times. I find beauty in both places and with the people from both places. Too bad NYC’s elected leader can’t say the same thing. #brand pic.twitter.com/uXPUv3xGl4
— Eric Stonestreet (@ericstonestreet) September 27, 2022
In a follow-up tweet, Stonestreet also scolded “the people standing there laughing,” saying: “You’re somehow less dignified than the unfunny and unnecessary comment.”
A Wichita TV station asked the state’s residents to weigh in. KWCH asked its viewers to weigh in on Adams’ remarks, with one viewer musing: “I say we send him a bus load of angry Badgers.”
Another wrote: “We don’t defund our police and let criminals out of jail so they can terrorize our citizens.”
“Consider the source. He can’t clean up his own backyard so he trashes someone else’s,” another fumed.
Adams announced the opening of “humanitarian emergency” centers to help control the influx of migrants arriving from Texas and other border states. According to Adams’ estimates, approximately 11,600 migrants have arrived in his city, with 2,500 arriving from Texas since August alone.
Although many have criticized Adams for his lack of action on rising crime rates since the beginning of his term, Adams has maintained that the media often distort coverage of him because of his race. “I’m a black man that’s the mayor but my story is being interpreted by people who don’t look like me,” Adams said in February.
–Metro Voice and wire services