Eric Adams has a multitude of legal and political problems that have ended any political ambitions he may have had. Donald Trump may have kept him from going to jail, but in seeking a lifeline from a president hated by most New Yorkers, he has sealed his fate and will go down in history as the anti-Black, Black mayor.
New York City residents are wondering if mayor Eric Adams will resign, or be removed from office by the governor, or be summoned to an Inability Committee, or limp along ineffectively until his term ends on December 31, 2025. The city’s mayoralty is hanging by a thread with four Deputy Mayors resigning, and top staff under indictment or leaving. Depending on a judge’s ruling, Adams may no longer be under indictment himself because Donald Trump interceded with the United States Attorney on his behalf. So egregious was the action that six prosecutors with solid republican bona fides resigned rather than sign onto the obvious travesty of justice.
Adams denies agreeing to any quid pro quo with Trump but it is hard to believe him after his appearance on Fox and Friends with border czar Tom Homan. Homan felt quite comfortable beating up on the embattled mayor. “If he doesn’t come through … I’ll be in his office, up his butt, saying, I wanted to look him in the eye and say you carried out this terroristic act in my city, the city that the people of New York love. Where the hell is the agreement we came to?” What was the agreement that caused Adams to humiliate himself on national television? He has promised to work with the Trump administration’s mass deportation plan and, in so doing, will end New York’s adherence to so-called sanctuary city status, which prevents city agencies from working with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
No one should think of New York as being free from ICE enforcement because of sanctuary city virtue signaling. New York City is home to an ICE detention facility and New Yorkers can be and are deported on a regular basis. But those facts are inconvenient and the Trump administration obsession with deportation photo opportunities gives the appearance that he is the first president to ever deport anyone.
Adams is charged with taking bribes and using straw donors, which included illegal donations from foreigners, to inflate his campaign contributions using New York City’s generous matching program, and netting his campaign a cool $10 million. While the judge hearing his case has still not officially dismissed it, Adams is believed to have escaped a trial and any jail time that might have resulted from a conviction. Others indicted on the same charges have already pleaded guilty. They will face conviction and possible jail time even if Adams succeeds in walking free.
New York City’s second Black mayor is not only facing serious accusations, but he is no friend to the nearly 2 million Black residents he governs. The existence of ineffectual and compromised Black elected officials is not a new phenomenon. Adams stands out because of his policies which are so obviously harmful to Black people.
Until recently the Adams administration took more than 30 days to process Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Programs (SNAP) and other public assistance applications, a violation of law and a cause of great suffering to low income people. Adams has also been slow to close the notorious Rikers Island jail, in defiance of the demands of a federal monitor. He did find time to be baptized at Rikers Island by none other than Al Sharpton in a Good Friday ceremony but he has stymied every effort at improving conditions there and eventually closing the facility. The New York Police Department (NYPD) remains a pet agency, allowed to violate the rules the mayor sets for others, including exceeding its overtime budget by $100 million. Adams fought against efforts to minimize the imposition of cash bail and worked with the governor to undo a process which impacted Black people more than any other group. Now under indictment himself, Adams bragged that other people presumed innocent should sit in jail because they lacked money to post a bond. When Luigi Mangione, the accused shooter of an insurance company executive was extradited to New York, Adams joined in the perp walk and trampled on Mangione’s presumption of innocence as he has done with others. “I wanted to look him in the eye and say you carried out this terroristic act in my city, the city that the people of New York love.”
The right wing New York Post endorsed his 2021 campaign and the mayor made good on Rupert Murdoch’s seal of approval by constantly harping on crime as an issue even after major crimes decreased. He is so devoted to the state of Israel that he visits whenever that nation is in the midst of genocidal activity and in need of public relations campaigns to cover up its war crimes. Adams even mused about retiring to the occupied Golan Heights.
Adams praised acquitted subway killer Daniel Penny who walked free after he choked a Black homeless Black man on a subway train. Adams said, “You have someone [Penny] on that subway who was responding, doing what we should have done as a city." The hopefully soon to be former mayor also brought back the stop and frisk policies which victimized so many Black New Yorkers.
Other Black politicians go through the motions of meeting the needs of their Black constituents and speaking to their issues of concern. But Adams made it clear that the needs of conservative white New Yorkers would be his priority. While others make phony progressive promises, Adams panders to a group unlikely to support any other Black politician. Amidst the drama of his legal woes he met with republican leadership, presumably to seek their endorsement to run on their party’s ballot line.
While he ultimately decided against this ploy, Adams is completely discredited. A small coterie of clergy will show up at a press conference to show support, but politically speaking, Adams is a dead man walking.
While current and past office holders have already announced they are vying to sit in the mayor’s office, it is wise to determine how to prevent another political debacle for the city. Despite not having announced that he is running, former governor Andrew Cuomo has both name recognition and a long list of rich people ready to contribute to a campaign. Despite not making his candidacy official, he is the front runner for the mayoralty.
As governor of New York state, Cuomo governed as a neo-liberal, currying favor with rich conservatives and carrying on a years-long feud with then New York City mayor Bill de Blasio. Cuomo also attempted to undo a state ethics commission which this week ruled that he should not have received a $5.1 payment for writing his memoirs while in office. Cuomo is smoother and smarter than Adams but brings the same bad political baggage.
No one is certain how long the Adams soap opera will go on, but he will not be missed by the Black New Yorkers whose political and material needs he ignored. Eric Adams will be a footnote in history as a clownish and quirky character with legal troubles but whenever he leaves office, he will not be missed.
Margaret Kimberley is the author of Prejudential: Black America and the Presidents. You can support her work on Patreon and also find it on the Twitter, Bluesky, and Telegram platforms. She can be reached via email at margaret dot kimberley at blackagendareport dot com.
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