Mayor Eric Adams headed to Washington DC on Thursday to meet with the White House and members of Congress about the migrant crisis, along with other big city mayors, only to say the he would no longer be attending the meetings and was headed back to the Big Apple.
The mayor’s press team said his abrupt cancelation was to return to the city to “address a matter,” without expounding on what that meant.
Hizzoner had a packed schedule set for his Thursday excursion to the nation’s capital, including meetings with White House officials, members of the House and U.S. Senate, along with Mayors Mike Johnston and Brandon Johnson of Denver and Chicago respectively. But only a few minutes after the big city mayors’ scheduled meeting with White House honchos was set to begin, the mayor’s press team sent out an advisory showing that all of his D.C. events had been canceled for the mayor and said he will “travel back to New York City.”
“His meetings in Washington, DC will be rescheduled as soon as possible,” the advisory read.
When contacted by amNewYork Metro about the sudden schedule change, Deputy Mayor for Communications Fabien Levy said, “The mayor is returning to New York City to address a matter. These meetings will be rescheduled as soon as possible.”
Levy did not say why Adams had to cancel or whether the other big city mayors were proceeding without Adams. He also did not disclose what “matter” the mayor was returning to address.
Another Adams spokesperson, Charles Lukvak, clarified that while the mayor was no longer attending the meetings because of his need to head back to the city, that did not mean they were cancelled for the other big city mayors. Lukvak declined to say whether the mayor is traveling home for a work or personal matter, but confirmed there are “no specific and credible threat to the city.”
Not even two hours earlier, the mayor’s X account posted a video of him on the plane heading to D.C., laying out his plans for the day.
“We are headed to D.C. to meet with our Congressional delegation and the White House to address this real issue with the asylum and migrant issue in our city and we’ll keep you updated as the day goes,” the mayor said in the video.
The goal of the trip, laid out in a letter to the White House earlier Wednesday, was to urge the federal government to give big city’s far more assistance with managing the tide of migrants to their cities over the past year plus. They requested a meeting with President Biden to plead for more financial aid and expedited work permits for recent arrivals.
Adams’ move comes as he and Biden’s once close political alliance has crumbled to pieces amid the migrant crisis, where the mayor has repeatedly publicly blasted the president for not providing the city with sufficient help to alleviate the strain of the migrant influx on the city’s resources. The divide was evident when Biden spent three days in the city in September for the U.N. General Assembly and did not meet with Adams.
Representatives for the White House and mayors of Denver and Chicago did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
This is a developing story, check back for updates.
Clarification (10:45 am): This story has been updated to make clear, based on new information from the mayor’s office, that Adams has pulled out of the D.C. meetings, and that they are not necessarily cancelled.
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