A defiant Mayor Eric Adams returned to the public eye on Thursday after an unknown illness sidelined him, shooting down rumors of his resignation in front of a fairly friendly crowd of religious leaders.
“Who started the stupid rumor that I was stepping down on Friday? Are you out of your mind?” he said, to cheers at the annual Interfaith Breakfast, held at the New York Public Library’s main branch.
The rumor hit a fever pitch when the former City Councilmember Sal Albanese posted about it on social media Tuesday.
The mayor then targeted the media, saying journalists printed the rumor but didn’t “print the facts that we had more jobs in the city’s history on that same day.”
“Not one tabloid covered it,” he added.
Priest Sara Dōjin Emerson of the Brooklyn Zen Center speaks at the Interfaith Breakfast at the New York Public Library on Thursday, Jan. 30, 2025 Credit: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office
The conspiracy-mill was not helped by Adams’s office announcing Sunday he’d have a limited public schedule all week after “not feeling his best.” He worked remotely from Gracie Mansion for three days as spokespeople said he rested and visited doctors.
And his absence came during a hectic week in the city, which included Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem tagging along with Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids in The Bronx and Upper Manhattan. Then on Wednesday, The New York Times reported the Department of Justice was in talks to potentially drop the mayor’s federal corruption and bribery case.
Adams only briefly addressed his health, saying the last week “was a scary week for me. It was hard.”
He did not directly discuss his upcoming federal trial during his fiery speech, and avoided reporters after the event.
He hasn’t held a public briefing since last Tuesday, Jan. 21.
Signs of the Times
Adams has repeatedly said God told him he would become mayor and that he leans on religious leaders and his own faith during troubling times. His speech was met with multiple standing ovations and supporters encouraging him as he declared, “How many times do I have to say, ‘When people say step down, I step up?’”
Some clergy, though, have been critical of his approach to the city’s asylum seekers and fear he won’t support undocumented New Yorkers during the Trump administration.
At Thursday’s event, priest Sara Dōjin Emerson from the Brooklyn Zen Center noted the “people in this beautiful city who are most vulnerable, who are right now being made to feel unwelcome and unsafe and unwanted, on purpose — and may they feel benefit of our solidarity in interfaith community.” She urged attendees to act to make those people feel safe.
Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum stood up at the start of Adams’s speech holding a hand-written sign asking “Mr. Mayor, please show mercy to our immigrant friends.”
Adams encouraged her to hold the sign but then later referenced it repeatedly throughout his roughly 30-minute stump-like speech.
“Walking around with your silly signs,” he said. “Stop doing the signs and give the sign that you believe in God and go join the work that these people have done in this city. That’s the sign we need to see.”
Kleinbaum later told THE CITY she has attended the Interfaith breakfast for years but has been “disturbed” by the mayor’s “capitulation” to the president’s plan to deport millions of people.
“I had hoped that our Democratic mayor would stand up to that a bit and I’ve been disappointed that he hasn’t,” she said.
She didn’t want to sit silently and decided on the sign to help inspire a conversation, writing it respectfully and using religious language, she said.
As she stood up, some people at her table told her to sit down but others came up after to tell her what she did was important. She briefly held the sign with two other faith leaders, Rev. Jacqui Lewis of Middle Church in the East Village and Rabbi Jill Jacobs.
Adams’s continued mention of the sign — including suggesting Kleinbaum hasn’t done more than hold a sign when in fact she has worked with immigrants for decades — “intrigued” her instead of upset her, she said.
“I guess he was paying attention, which I’m grateful for,” she said.
“He is absolutely wrong in his attacks on immigrants and he’s absolutely wrong on who New York City is.”
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