politics

Hillary Clinton and Eric Adams Bond Over Bubble Baths

Photo: Kena Betancur/AFP via Getty Images

Mayor Eric Adams has previously called himself “the face of the new Democratic Party,” and he has the party’s former presidential nominee as a major fan Hillary Clinton.

The mayor joined the former secretary of State on her podcast, You And Me Both, in an episode that was released Monday. He was featured in one-half of an episode focusing on recently elected mayors that also included a discussion with Boston mayor Michelle Wu.

Clinton said she can “attest to his own personal swagger,” as she has known him since she was New York’s junior senator and he was a lawmaker in Albany.

Clinton praised Adams for his approach to public safety and crime and his goal of decreasing gun violence, congratulating him for appointing Keechant Sewell as the first female commissioner of the NYPD. Adams said that many Democrats prefer to focus on prevention over intervention rather than both things at once. “I am not going to allow the numerical minority that are the loudest to dictate how we’re going to keep my city safe now and what we’re going to do in the long term,” Adams said. “I tell people all the time: ‘It is not what happens in tweets; it’s what happens on our streets.’”

“Amen!” Clinton said. “Oh preach, mayor! That is music to my ears!”

The conversation broached lighter topics, with Clinton weighing in on a particular controversy that arose during Adams’s first few months as mayor: whether the self-proclaimed vegan actually eats fish.

She mentioned how her husband, former president Bill Clinton, has been largely vegan for health reasons, but had to add fish to his diet under orders from his doctor. “I’m coming to tell you, living with a vegan man, I get it! You gotta have occasionally some other protein,” Clinton said.

Adams said that some parts of the media like to “play gotcha” and praised the former president for promoting a plant-based lifestyle. “We have to stop trying to judge people who want to inspire, and that’s all we’re doing. We’re inspiring people,” he said.

Finally, Clinton asked the mayor what he does in his downtime. Adams talked about starting his day with meditation and how he enjoys riding his bike.

“I’ll put some bubble baths and some rose petals and incense and sit in a hot tub in a minute,” Adams said, laughing.

“You’re a man after my own heart, mayor!” Clinton laughed.

Hillary Clinton and Eric Adams Bond Over Bubble Baths