Challenging Times for NYC Mayor Eric Adams
NEW YORK — A chastened Eric Adams appeared Friday alongside Trump border czar Tom Homan on the president’s favorite morning talk show to project what the New York City mayor said was a united front against violent criminals without legal immigration status.
But the “Fox & Friends” interview conveyed another painfully obvious message: Adams is beholden to Trump. And the president’s deportation agenda and the mayor’s fate are now inextricably linked.
The Political Pressures Mount
In the 20-minute rollercoaster TV interview, Adams vacillated between a grim countenance and awkward chuckles while Homan pressured him and the Trump-boosting Fox hosts grilled him. The mayor’s face even fell mid-laugh as he appeared to process a barely veiled threat from Homan — the man the president has entrusted to carry out his immigration orders in the country’s biggest “sanctuary city.”
“If he doesn’t come through,” Homan said, “I’ll be back in New York City, and we won’t be sitting on the couch. I’ll be in his office, up his butt, saying, ‘Where the hell is the agreement we came to?’”
Adams, a cop-turned-politician now facing reelection, has long prioritized targeting violent undocumented offenders, but he announced Thursday he would loosen sanctuary laws following a closed-door visit with Homan that came just days after the Trump Justice Department issued an order that criminal corruption charges against the mayor be dropped.
Legal and Political Turmoil
Adams’ fraud case now sits at the center of the first large-scale show of defiance within the Department of Justice during Trump’s second term. A top Manhattan prosecutor resigned in protest of Washington’s directive that she move to dismiss Adams’ case “without prejudice.” Several deputies quit as well.
Meanwhile, the indicted Democrat faced mounting calls for his ouster — from federal and state officials in his own party. Gov. Kathy Hochul even left the door open to exercise her power to remove him from office.
Policy Reversals and Controversy
The mayor has said he will pursue an executive order to let U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials operate once again within the infamous Rikers Island jail complex. City laws beefed up under Adams’ predecessor, Bill de Blasio, currently restrict cooperation between local and federal officers and protect migrants from deportation.
“I came to New York City. I wasn’t going to leave without nothing. I did the last time,” Homan jovially told “Fox & Friends” of his second meeting with Adams, who sat beside the border czar laughing while clasping his hands tightly.
Adams notably did not defend Hochul as the morning show hosts excoriated her over the “Green Light Law,” which blocks federal officers from accessing the motor vehicles database without a judicial warrant, as well as other measures they said hinder Trump’s plans to root out undocumented immigrants committing crimes.
Legal Allegations and Resignations
New York Democrats have sharpened their rhetoric against Adams after Danielle Sassoon — who was picked by Trump to lead the Manhattan U.S. Attorney’s office while his permanent choice awaits Senate confirmation — quit in protest over the order to drop the charges against the mayor. In her explosive resignation letter, Sassoon charged that the mayor’s attorneys “repeatedly urged what amounted to a quid pro quo, indicating that Adams would be in a position to assist with the Department’s enforcement priorities only if the indictment were dismissed.”
Sassoon also revealed that Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove had “admonished” someone on her team who took contemporaneous notes during the meeting with Bove instructing that the notes be collected afterward.
Defending Against Allegations
Adams’ counsel Alex Spiro told CNN, “The idea that there was a quid pro quo is a total lie.”
On Fox News Friday, Adams railed against the corruption charges lodged against him. The mayor stands accused of accepting bribes, including campaign finance help and airline upgrades, from Turkish officials in exchange for fast-tracking approval of construction work on the Turkish consulate in Manhattan.
“They articulated exactly ‘weaponization,’” he said of Bove’s instructions to the Southern District to drop his case. “When you look at ‘leg room’ turning into bribery because I asked for a governmental entity to do a built-in inspection. We need to be clear on the root of all this.”
