Adams deflects after tumultuous two weeks

Mayor Eric Adams took questions from reporters for the first time in two weeks, a period of time which saw several controversies fall at the mayor’s feet. Photo by Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Unit

By Ryan Schwach

After a tumultuous two weeks and general silence from the mayor on the chaos, Eric Adams faced reporters on Monday and largely deflected an onslaught of questions about his ongoing legal and political troubles.

On Monday, Adams held his first “off-topic” press conference in two weeks. In the time since his last presser, Adams saw a request to dismiss his criminal corruption and bribery case lead to the resignation of half a dozen federal prosecutors and four of his deputy mayors. He also saw an independent attorney appointed to argue in favor of keeping his indictment alive and a new proposal that would put a series of “guardrails” on his mayoral authority by the state.

While his office had issued pre-written statements regarding most of the chaos that engulfed City Hall over the past week, Monday’s appearance before the press marked the first time in weeks the mayor made himself available to answer questions off the cuff.

However, the mayor had little to say.

During much of the 40-minute question and answer period, Adams often punted questions related both directly and indirectly to his federal bribery and corruption case to his lawyer, Alex Spiro.

When Adams was asked how the public was supposed to reconcile his claim of innocence with the resignation of a dozen prosecutors unwilling to ask a judge to drop his case, Adams said he was “seeing people quit jobs all over for whatever number of reasons.”

Adams also appeared to allude to a debunked right-wing conspiracy theory that claimed that the news outlet Politico was receiving millions of dollars from USAID, a federal agency that has seen over 1,000 employees fired by President Donald Trump’s administration in recent weeks.

Adams was also asked about the resignations of his deputy mayors, which included Deputy Mayor Anne Williams-Isom who headed much of his administration’s migrant crisis response.

“We have deep people in the city that's willing to step up,” he said, repeating a motto he uses often when discussing resignations during his tenure. “I don't have a shortage of New Yorkers and people in the administration that are saying, ‘Hey, we would like to continue the work that we're doing.’”

Adams faced a fresh round of calls for resignation and his removal from office by Governor Kathy Hochul over the past two weeks after former U.S. Attorney Danielle Sassoon accused the mayor of entering into a quid pro quo with the White House.

As part of the agreement, Sassoon claimed that Adams and his attorneys agreed to help Trump carry out immigration enforcement actions in New York City in exchange for the dismissal of the criminal case. Adams and Spiro have denied the agreement exists.

Nonetheless, both Adams’ longtime critics and allies alike have said they fear Adams has become beholden to Trump’s wishes.

Declining to criticize Trump on Monday, Adams said that he was exploring a number of legal options when asked if he would recuse himself from immigration issues in the city.

“Our team is looking at every way possible to make sure that we are in compliance,” he said. “Those discussions are still going on, and those are discussions I'm having with our legal team, but I'm not going to go into those private discussions.”

Adams was also asked a number of times about the proposal from Governor Kathy Hochul to put unprecedented “guardrails” on the mayor’s power.

The legislative measures would create a special inspector general for New York City affairs. The governor also proposed giving increased funding and authority to the city’s comptroller, the public advocate and the New York City Council speaker to bring litigation against the federal government.

The full details of the proposal have yet to be presented to the public, and would first have to be approved by both the state legislature and City Council.

Adams said Monday that despite the attempt to curtail his power, he and Hochul continue to have a good relationship.

“We have not had a good relationship, we've had a great relationship,” he said, adding that “there are going to be things we're going to disagree on.”

Adams also claimed that there was no “legal reason” to create the guardrails, but did not clarify what he meant.

“Some of what she's asking for, it must pass a law,” he said. “And if you have to pass a law, that means, right now, it's not legally in place.”

Adams also hit back at critics on Monday who have argued his ongoing legal woes have gotten in the way of his ability to govern, a point Spiro made in court last week.

When asked Monday about the balance, Adams called it a “fair question.”

“It was hard, but we had it done,” he said.

Throughout the off-topic conference, Adams tried to delegitimize the concerns of his opponents and New Yorkers – some who have called for him to resign – and argued there is no basis for his removal from office.

“That is not how you circumvent the power of the people who elected me, based on your perception and belief,” he said, arguing that the mere assumption of some level of loyalty to Trump is not enough to remove him.

“If that's the standard, we are all in trouble,” he said. “You can’t undo the will of the people based on what you don’t like…that's not democracy.”