FRESH CUT, REAL TALK: New York City Mayor Eric Adams will help Kamala Harris get elected by encouraging disaffected Black men to vote, he said, adding that he’ll hit up barbershops and other spots where people get the word out. “It needs to be real talk,” Adams told his fellow New York Dems this morning at their national convention breakfast. “We have to have this one-on-one conversation with the men of this entire country, particularly in our communities of color.” The mayor, who was left off the convention stage — a seeming snub he swears he’s totally OK with — has said he’d be a soldier for the party and go where he’s needed. Today, his second day in Chicago, he got a little more specific, saying, “I’m proud to be here today as a member and the president of the ‘men who get it’ club.” Adams envisioned a national role for himself when he was elected mayor. But his public criticism of the White House’s handling of the migrant crisis unfolding in New York and a federal investigation into his 2021 campaign have hurt his standing with the party. He won’t be alone in urging Black men to help Harris make history as the country’s first Black woman president. “We’re going from barbershop to barbershop. We’re going from basketball court to basketball court … to talk to Black men, to get them engaged,” Rep. Greg Meeks told Playbook. “We’re also talking to their girlfriends and their wives to make sure that they are pushing them.” State Sen. Zellnor Myrie, mounting a challenge to Adams in the race for mayor, added that the hurdles have long been high. “Historically in this country, Black men have not had a government that has been responsive to their needs, and for too long, people have not had faith in government or the political process,” he told Playbook. Meeting them where they are extends beyond the barbershop, he said. “We don’t just have Black men in barbershops. We have Black men that are civil servants. We have Black men that are teachers, like my dad,” Myrie said. During his remarks, Adams said of Harris, “This is a sister that worked in McDonald’s, for God’s sake. … This is a sister that was continuous in her pursuit to make sure people were treated fairly in every level of government.” City Council Member Yusef Salaam, who will speak tonight at the DNC, said the case to Black men needs to also be about why Donald Trump is wrong for them. Salaam is a member of the Central Park Exonerated Five who were wrongly convicted of rape, jailed and targeted by Trump with a call for the death penalty. “We should not be a people that can be bought,” Salaam said. “We should be a people that are thoughtful, that are looking for the long run, that are saying to ourselves what really matters.” — Emily Ngo | 
