When the Ministry of Justice ordered federal prosecutors on Monday to remove the corruption file against the mayor Eric Adams of New York, he hoped that this would save his political career and allowed him to better focus on the governance of the largest city of the country.
Instead, the mayor is even more danger, his political future is still in question and the confidence of New Yorkers in him was a hurry.
During the last 48 hours, the best democrat in the room, almost all the major members of the city’s elected management, civic leaders, pastors and even mayor’s mayors have made a credible manner that he has Left President Trump to influence the most important effective in the most important town hall in America.
Calls to his resignation have increased. Pressure rises on governor Kathy Hochul to use his power to withdraw the mayor.
The representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, citing “the lever effect on Adams” by Mr. Trump ,,,, said that if the mayor “Will not resign, it must be deleted.” Representative Nydia Velázquez said Mr. Adams must resign Because the city could not be “led by someone under Trump’s thumb and willing to sell New Yorkers”.
The calls also came from the Democrats of the State Capitol, in particular the Lieutenant-Governor of Ms. Hochul, Antonio Delgado, and the Democrat n ° 2 of the Senate, Michael Gianaris, and the challengers of the mayor during the primary elections of June.
The saga on the Criminal case of Mr. Adams also sparked a crisis in the Ministry of Justice, where the American prosecutor of Manhattan and several senior officials of the public integrity unit in Washington resigned on Thursday than to obey an interim vice-avocado prescription. general of drop the case against the mayor.
The mayor’s lawyers, she wrote, “exhorted several times which was equivalent to a counterpart, indicating that ADAMs would be able to help the priorities of application of the ministry only if the act of indictment was rejected. “
The nuptial parade opened by the mayor of Mr. Trump, and his refusal of several months to criticize him, have raised doubts about Mr. Adams’ ability to manage the city independently. Many New Yorkers are concerned about the threats of the president of mass deportations and financing reductions in key programs.
At the same time, many New Yorkers are concerned with an influx of 200,000 migrants from the southern border, the pressure on the city to take care of them and certain high -level violent incidents involving migrants. The problem Helped Trump to perform better In the city of the November elections that was four years ago and could be a central concern in the mayor’s elections this year and in the governor’s race next year.
However, the mayor did not do much to suppose doubts that he is indebted to Mr. Trump.
Friday afternoon, Mr. Adams published a declaration responding to the counter coupling, committing to “always put this city first”.
“I want to be clear with the New Yorkers: I have never proposed-no one offered in my name-any job of my authority as mayor for the end of my case,” he said . “Never.”
He urged New Yorkers to move forward and “put this difficult episode behind us”.
However, earlier, Mr. Adams made two public appearances on Friday with Tsar Frontier of Mr. Trump, Thomas Homan, one with the former animator of talk show Dr Phil McGraw And the other on Fox News. He underlined the city’s collaboration on the application of immigration, saying that it was not “on the way”.
On “Fox and Friends”, Mr. Adams underlined their new agreement to allow the federal immigration authorities to return to the I Island Rikers prison complex. Then, Homan boasted that the mayor was under his influence and said that Ms. Hochul was a “embarrassment” and should resign.
Zellnor Myrie, a Brooklyn state senator who presents himself for the mayor, said that it was the mayor who hummed himself.
“I would say that we have become a national joke with how embarrassing it is, but unfortunately, none of this is funny,” he said. “The largest city in the world is humiliated daily because Adams is compromised.”
Jessica Ramos, a state senator from Queens who presents herself for the mayor, urged Ms. Hochul to act.
“Much of Trump’s agenda would harm New Yorkers,” she said, adding: “We love puppets on” Sesame Street “, not the town hall.”
Jumaane Williams, the city’s public lawyer who would become acting mayor if Mr. Adams was to resign or be withdrawn, said on Friday that he wanted the mayor to retire for the good of the city.
“He cannot be the mayor of this city and govern this city as it should be governed,” he said.
Ms. Hochul, who previously suggested that he did not oust Mr. Adams, remained mainly ambiguous, although she did not exclude withdraw it.
“The allegations are extremely worrying and serious,” she said in an interview on MSNBC on Thursday evening. “But I cannot, as governor of this state, have a reaction to political motivation and political motivation.”
The crowded area of candidates for the mayor who run against Mr. Adams jumped on the mayor’s vulnerability and began to campaign more aggressively. They organized a series of press conferences this week to criticize the mayor’s cooperation with the president and the unilateral decision of the Trump administration of seize $ 80 million in federal migrant funding of the city account.
Mr. Delgado’s appeal so that Mr. Adams resigned disagrees him with Ms. Hochul. He also called on President Biden not to appear in the elections last year before Ms. Hochul was ready to do so, and could consider her own campaign for the governor next year against her.
Mr. Delgado said in a statement on Friday that, even if Mr. Adams is innocent until his guilt, “it is clear that he is compromised and can no longer make decisions in the best interest of New York.”
For weeks, Mr. Adams had recruited the favor of Mr. Trump, returned to Florida and attended his inauguration. The mayor hoped that the charges rejected could prevent an embarrassing trial in April – and the prison sentence – and he could return to focus on the race for re -election.
But even before the actions of the Ministry of Justice, the popularity of Mr. Adams had dropped in the recent polls which placed him well behind the former governor Andrew Mr. Cuomo, who plans to enter the mayor’s race.
Mr. Adams sought to pour out criticism in a wave of television and radio interviews Thursday evening, defending his cooperation with Mr. Homan and arguing that he was not under the thumb of Mr. Trump.
“Whoever believes that I am in a short leash must go back and look at my story,” he said.
However, even the Democrats in New York who hesitated to criticize Mr. Adams after his indictment in September publicly expressed their concern concerning his management, in particular the representative Hakeem Jeffries, the best democrat in the Chamber and the Reverend Al Sharpton .
Mr. Jeffries has raised its strongest doubts However, about Mr. Adams on Thursday, saying that some New Yorkers from his Brooklyn district were “deeply alarmed” and that the fears of compromise the mayor were “legitimately detained”.
“This is the Trump administration’s intention to keep the current mayor in a short leash,” he said at a press conference.
Adrienne Adams, the president of the municipal council who showed the mayor with the mayor, said Thursday that the ordinance of the Ministry of Justice was an “blackmail instrument” intended to make Mr. Adams “an arm” of the ‘Trump administration.
The mayor’s allies were also ready to confront him. When Mr. Adams said that a new charter review commission could change the city’s sanctuary laws, Richard Buery, the president of the commission who was appointed by Mr. Adams, made his opposition public. Mr. Buery said The city should “do everything in our power” to support the city’s 600,000 undocumented immigrants, many of which pay taxes and follow the law.
Another member of the commission, Carl Weisbrod, agreed with Mr. Buery: “I did not join the expulsion of residents respectful of the city’s laws.”
Jeffery C. Mays And Nicholas Fandos ∂ained contributed the relationships.