With echoes of Joan Rivers and Kash Patel, Eric Adams lashes out at the media in DC speech

Politico

18-04-2025

NEW YORK — New York City Mayor Eric Adams delivered a diatribe against perceived critics and the media in a speech Friday morning at the African American Mayors Association, warning politicians in attendance a similar fate could befall them.
'Particularly if you are the first or second Black mayor, you inherit those who are part of an institution who say: 'We are going to wait you out,'' said the mayor, referring to city bureaucrats he believes are deliberately sabotaging his agenda. 'You inherit those who have their own agenda, who have long relationships with the media that they can leak and slip information and make calls on you.'
In his speech, Adams accused social service providers of relishing the poverty and poor education in low-income communities because it provided them with lucrative municipal contracts. And he said he was criticized — by whom, it was unclear — for hiring a diverse set of top aides.
The mayor went on to
lambaste critics
who have called the city chaotic despite his accomplishments that he says include Covid recovery, managing the massive influx of asylum-seekers and instilling confidence in bond rating agencies through sound fiscal management.
'The goal we must do as Black mayors, we must identify our own communication mechanism,' Adams said, pivoting to a desire to circumvent traditional media. 'We can no longer be defined by the eyes of those who have no desire to see or report on the success we have accomplished.'
Adams sought to cast his experience atop the nation's largest city as a cautionary tale for Black mayors across the country. But many attendees have not had similarly scandal-scarred tenures.
Adams made no explicit mention of law enforcement probes that enveloped his administration, including a five-count bribery indictment federal prosecutors hit him with in September. He is still grappling with the political and financial fallout from that case, which President Donald Trump's administration pushed to get dismissed. That and other corruption cases involving his closest aides — many of whom have left — helped tank his polling numbers as he runs for reelection.
The mayor's dyspeptic speech also quoted late comedian Joan Rivers' signature line, 'Can we talk?,' and contained allusions to the 'deep state,' a theory that longtime government employees undermine elected officials they are supposed to serve.
Adams has begun to refer to the so-called deep state since promoting 'Government Gangsters,' a book by FBI Director Kash Patel.
He held up the memoir at a press conference
the day a judge dropped his case, and urged all New Yorkers to read it. He subsequently refused to denounce some of the most controversial parts of the book, including
Patel's belief that the committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol riot was a sham
.
Patel's book alleges a liberal cabal within the Department of Justice has repeatedly targeted GOP officials to help Democrats — mainstream MAGA thinking and conspiracy theory to Democrats.
The mayor's claim of political persecution has been undermined by the timing of the investigation and the party affiliation of a former federal prosecutor who briefly led the case.
Danielle Sassoon, a Republican and former acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District in New York, called the DOJ's move to dismiss Adams' case a quid-pro-quo and resigned in protest. The mayor has denied her allegations.