Adams Hosts Fox News at City Hall, as N.Y. Leaders Mute Trump Hostility

The setting, not to mention the event itself, was unusual: Eric Adams, the Democratic mayor of New York City, had invited Fox News into City Hall on Wednesday for a sit-down interview.

And if anyone had a notion that he would be confrontational with the conservative network, Mr. Adams put it quickly to rest. He said Democrats had lost the presidential election because they had wasted time trying to demonize President-elect Donald J. Trump and that they had failed to address “the real needs of people.”

He characterized Mr. Trump’s chosen “border czar,” Thomas D. Homan, as his partner, said that the Biden administration’s border policy had created a “pipeline of criminality,” and offered that he would see if there was a way to get around current city laws to allow Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents into the Rikers Island jail complex.

Mr. Adams’s comments seemed so far to the right that the Fox News host who was interviewing him, Martha MacCallum, asked if he was considering rejoining the Republican Party.

The mayor is hardly the only New York Democratic official who has ratcheted down the rhetorical warfare with the incoming Trump administration.

Gov. Kathy Hochul has said her relationship with Mr. Trump “does not have to be adversarial” and has agreed with him on issues like border security. Attorney General Letitia James, a reliable foil of Mr. Trump who has won several cases against him in court, said she was prepared to work with “him or anybody regardless of party.”