Time to wake up and let go of political animosity: Trump’s shooting serves as a wake-up call

City Council Minority Leader Joe Borelli’s remarks at Sunday’s City Hall event called by Mayor Adams to promote unity in the wake of the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump.

Two years ago I heard that Mayor Adams was interested in getting the DNC to come here to New York City this year.

As soon as I heard it, the first thing I did was I called up the mayor — actually, I texted him — and I called up some of his people and I said, “Make me a part of this, I want to be a part of this.”

People said, well, you’re a Republican, why do you want this?

Because when things are good for our city in terms of its economic viability, and when things celebrate our democracy, that’s something I want to be a part of.

Sometimes I’ve heard criticism that, being an outspoken conservative, why do I get along with Democrats so good?

Well, I’ll tell you why: The truth is, the worst thing I want to happen to them is to lose elections — to lose their jobs.

And that’s real: I want to beat them.

But that’s the worst thing I want to have happen to my political opponents.

Trump raised his fist, I would encourage you — many of you who I imagine don’t particularly like him or may not vote for him — I hope you see his raising his fist as a defiant gesture against, not his political opponents, but against people who would use violence to silence our democracy.

He came out [Sunday] and said “Unite America.”

And that’s what I believe he meant by shaking his fist and saying “Fight!”

We have to fight for this democracy. We’ll see who wins in November, but we should all fight to preserve our democracy.

Joe Borelli (R-S.I.) is the minority leader of the New York City Council.