One of NYC mayoral frontrunners declines to participate in next debate
CBSN
Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, one of the frontrunners in the New York City mayoral Democratic primary, said Tuesday that he will not be participating in the final debate before early voting begins. The debate is airing on CBS New York and streaming on CBSN New York on Thursday night.
Adams said he will be with the family of a 10-year-old boy who was killed in a shooting last weekend in Far Rockaway, Queens. The 22-year veteran of the New York Police Department has made crime a central focus of his campaign. "I'm going to be in Rockaway with the family of a 10-year-old child," Adams told reporters on Tuesday, dismissing criticism from rival campaigns that he was dodging tough questions. "I wanted to do the debate. I enjoy debating the people on the stage, I wanted to. But the people of Rockaway, the people of the city - violence is suffocating our city. Now, to a lot of people, they're not aware of that, but I'm in these streets every day."Ashley White received her earliest combat action badge from the United States Army soon after the first lieutenant arrived in Afghanistan. The silver military award, recognizing soldiers who've been personally engaged by an attacker during conflict, was considered an achievement in and of itself as well as an affirming rite of passage for the newly deployed. White had earned it for using her own body to shield a group of civilian women and children from gunfire that broke out in the midst of her third mission in Kandahar province. All of them survived. She never mentioned the badge to anyone in her battalion.