Mayor Eric Adams said on Monday that New York City needs to be saved from ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo, marking his first clear rebuke of the state’s former top executive since launching a bid for mayor over the weekend.
“Yes, I do believe we need to be saved — from him,” Adams said, referring to Cuomo, during his weekly news conference on March 3.
Hizzoner’s remarks were in response to Cuomo’s central campaign message that he is the one to “save” the city from the chaos that has erupted under Adams’ three-plus years as mayor.
Cuomo, who resigned from the governorship in 2021 amid multiple allegations of sexual misconduct that he denies, introduced the “save our city” line in a 17-minute campaign launch video released on Saturday. The former governor slammed the city’s current leadership without naming Adams and argued that he was the one to right the ship.
The former governor is already facing a barrage of attacks from his rivals over his treatment of New York City as the state’s chief executive and the scandals that led him to resign.
In response to Adams, Cuomo’s spokesperson, Rich Azzopardi, simply said, “We will let the voters decide.”
‘Get an original idea,’ mayor tells challengers
During Monday’s news conference, Adams also claimed that Cuomo, as well as many of the other candidates challenging him, have modeled their campaign platforms after the issues he has prioritized in office. He said that includes reducing crime, improving the city’s economy, and building more housing.
“Look at what I ran on and what I completed, and look at what they now are shifting to run on,” he said. “All I’m saying to all of them, get an OI, an original idea. Get your originality. Don’t run on what Eric ran on and accomplished. You’re gonna continue what I’ve down.”
Yet Adams declined to offer many more thoughts on Cuomo’s candidacy, insisting that he cannot campaign during his official mayoral press conferences at City Hall. Instead, he said he would save his attacks on Cuomo’s record and scandals for the campaign trail.
Nevertheless, Adams did hint at plans to blast Cuomo over the high COVID-19 death toll in New York’s nursing homes, which many allege stemmed from the former governor’s order to readmit patients to the facilities after they were discharged from the hospital. Cuomo has also been accused of purposefully undercounting the state’s coronavirus nursing home deaths.
“I met with some of the nursing home family members and advoctes, there are some things we want to do with them,” Adams said. “But he has to answer that question on the trail.”
Cuomo’s team has fiercely disputed that he mishandled COVID-19 in nursing homes. Azzopardi has pointed to a January 2025 Justice Department inspector general’s report that he says shows Trump’s first White House had attempted to smear Cuomo’s handling of the deadly virus’ spread in nursing homes, in an apparent effort to influence the 2020 presidential election.
“The DOJ inspector general released a report definitively stating that federal employees corruptly used DOJ resources to go after New York even though they knew that New York was following the federal guidelines and that other states had far worse COVID infection problems in their homes,” he said. “This was all political to help in the 2020 election, and it’s there in black and white in that report.”
Cuomo has come into the race as a frontrunner, rolling out his campaign with endorsements from key supporters, including pols like US Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-Bronx) and the District Council of Carpenters. He has led the Democratic primary field, including Adams, in a series of public polls in recent weeks and will draw support from the same base of older Black and Latino voters as Adams.
Meanwhile, Adams’ chances of getting re-elected appear to have grown ever slimmer.
The embattled mayor has refused multiple calls to resign following President Trump’s Justice Department’s move to drop his federal corruption charges. Those calling for his ouster allege that Adams is compromised after agreeing to do Trump’s bidding on immigration enforcement in exchange for dismissing the charges against him.
