Days after Andrew Cuomo announced his official run for mayor, New York City Mayor Eric Adams mostly kept his cool regarding the former governor but also reminded New Yorkers about his opponent's past.
In his video announcement, Cuomo promised New Yorkers to bring progress back into progressive government. He referenced the current mayor without naming him, but said there's "a lack of intelligent action by many of our political leaders" and that the city needed to be "saved."
“I do believe we need to be saved… from him,” said Adams. “Anyone who understands elected officials, for the most part, many are looking for their next job. They want to stay in the game."
Adams now faces nine opponents in this year's mayoral race, which includes Jim Walden, Brad Lander, Zohran Mamdani and others. “If people are not wanting to compete to be the mayor of the greatest city on the globe, something is wrong,” said Adams.
Cuomo, whilst in the lead in many polls, still carries a dangling reputation due to the Department of Justice finding that he sexually harassed at least 13 women, as well as COVID-related deaths in nursing homes back in 2020.
Adams has yet to garner any major endorsements, and instead faces outward opposition from groups like United Auto Workers Region 9A, which created the acronym “D.R.E.A.M,” or Don’t Rank Eric or Andrew for Mayor. UAW Region 9A is currently endorsing Mamdani, State Senator Jessica Ramos and city Comptroller Brad Lander, who in a recent press conference said he loved the acronym.
“I want all of you to start looking at, how everyone is running on my platform, how he's switching to become more moderate,” said Adams, referring to Lander’s desire to keep Jessica Tisch as Police Department Commissioner should he win the race. “They're more and more sounding like Eric Adams.”
He also reminded that many of the candidates, including Lander, wanted to defund the police not so long ago.
Adams, who has had a slow start to his mayoral campaign and has skipped many debates so far, said he was not hiding from the public: “I'm not running a shadow office. I am doing the role of mayor," said Adams, who added that he has attended multiple town hall events and screenings to keep his political presence alive.
That said, Adams received backlash when, at a recent Black History Month event, the mayor said “All these Negroes who were asking me to step down, God, forgive them,” to the audience. “Well, those Negroes knew they were wrong.”
At the press conference, Adams said the word was not a derogatory term and therefore did not warrant a shocked response, or ellicit calls for his removal from office.
"And so when I'm hearing those who are elected in office, who are aware of the rules, are saying he needs to be removed. He needs to step down. That's what we should be angry about. Where is the process that we're supposed to follow instead of this sort of lynch mob mentality? That's what we should be angry about. We have witnessed the lynch mob mentality before," he said.
Adams continued to drive home his policies of making New York City affordable and safe. During the press conference, the mayor announced that major crimes were down about 15% in February when compared to the same time last year.
Meanwhile, the mayor praised the federal government for stopping the flow of undocumented immigrants into the U.S. and New York City. He said he did not know how many undocumented immigrants from the area have been deported by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“I'm pleased with the Homeland Security secretary's action. I'm pleased with the border czar's action. We need to secure our borders. We need to deal with immigration,” said Adams.
The mayor said City Hall lawyers are still working on the executive order that will allow ICE officials to work on Rikers Island.
