Mayor Eric Adams did his best Tuesday to embody one of his go-to catchphrases, “Stay focused, no distractions and grind,” in his first weekly wide-ranging news conference since being criminally indicted last week.
Throughout the roughly hour-long media availability in the City Hall Rotunda, Hizzoner strained to assuage growing doubts that he can still effectively manage the city, while fighting the federal criminal charges against him.
“I want to be clear, if I couldn’t do my job, I would never do anything that’s going to in any way hurt this city,” Adams told reporters. “I love the city. I wore a bulletproof vest, protecting the children and families of this city. I put my life on the line for the city. I’m never going to harm the city. I can do this job. And I will continue to do this job. And I have the right team to do the job.”
The five-count federal indictment of Adams includes charges of bribery, conspiracy, soliciting foreign campaign donations and wire fraud. Broadly, he stands accused of soliciting and accepting gifts and illegal foreign campaign donations from Turkish nationals for nearly a decade in exchange for favors.
Mayor Adams argued he has been able to effectively lead his administration over the 11 months since the federal investigation that resulted in his indictment burst into public view. He said that will not change now that he has been formally charged — even though he will now presumably be spending a substantial amount of his time in court fighting the charges.
To make his point, Adams compared himself to any New Yorker who is able to work their day jobs while contending with issues in their personal lives. For instance, he said that when he claimed to have been going blind while battling diabetes as Brooklyn borough president, “no one knew,” and he continued performing his job as usual.
“I’m not quite sure why we’re not really acknowledging that this has been going on for 11 months, but our city has not moved backward, it has moved forward,” he said. “Just as you could do your job with multifaceted things going on. I’ve shown that I could do my job with multifaceted things going on. Stuff has always gone by in my life, always.”
Still, many of the pols making up the growing chorus of voices calling on the mayor to resign see things quite differently.
Elected officials ranging from Adams’ usual foes on the left, like US Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (Bronx/Queens), to even some of his more centrist allies, like Robert Holden (D-Queens), called for Adams’ resignation in the wake of the indictment. They have argued he cannot effectively lead the city while fighting the charges against him at the same time.
“My belief is that the Mayor has lost the ability to effectively lead the City of New York, and therefore, he must resign,” US Rep. Jerry Nadler said in a statement last Friday.
They have also cited concerns about the growing list of high-level resignations in the administration over the past month, including former Police Commissioner Edward Caban, Chief Counsel Lisa Zornberg and Schools Chancellor David Banks — who is due to step down by the end of the year.
Adams already spent much of Friday morning surrendering to federal authorities and at his arraignment in Manhattan Federal Court, where he pleaded not guilty. The mayor said he would be back in court Wednesday morning for a conference that would take up some of his day.
Additionally, the mayor’s diminished political capital might make it even more challenging for him to get already thorny policy items over the finish line, such as the controversial “City of Yes for Housing Opportunity” zoning proposal that is due to go before the City Council before the end of the year. In order to pass the plan, Adams could end up having to make major concessions to progressive council members whose votes he would need.
