Mayor Eric Adams and former Gov. Andrew Cuomo appeared at a candidate forum for the first time on Thursday at a carefully choreographed event with nine mayoral hopefuls moderated by the Rev. Al Sharpton.
A defiant Adams railed against the Democratic Party and former allies at the National Action Network’s annual convention in Times Square — while repeating attack lines about the media and the corruption case federal prosecutors had brought against him. He said the case “overshowed” the alleged success of his administration before the Trump administration finally succeeded in dropping those charges.
“When you look at what we have done, I wonder why I’m even still asking to be reelected — I should be reelected,” he said. Polling has consistently shown Adams is historically unpopular.
Adams announced his reelection bid as an independent candidate in the early hours of Thursday morning, capping off a chaotic 24 hours in the city’s political world after a federal judge ruled to dismiss the federal corruption charges against him with prejudice on Wednesday, meaning he cannot be recharged.
The mayor, who once declared himself “the face of the Democratic Party,” repeated his line about how he hadn’t left the party, the party had left him.
Meanwhile Cuomo, who resigned as governor three and a half years ago amid allegations of sexual harassment, has gathered a broad coalition of support for his mayoral run that includes labor unions and leaders of the Brooklyn and Queens Democratic machines — all erstwhile allies of Adams who spurned the mayor in favor of the current frontrunner in the polls.
Adams addressed those defections: “I’m going to be real candid and transparent: People broke my heart, broke my heart. Folks that knew me for 40 years,” he said, before rattling off the indignity of seeing people whose mortgages he says he helped pay, or whose children he helped bail out of jail, “trip over themselves saying I need to step down.”
“To hell with you, I’m going to step up,” Adams said.
The panel hosted by Sharpton is a signature campaign event for any Democratic hopeful seeking to nab the support of Black voters. Reactions to the two men were mixed among the hundreds of people in attendance; both received spirited ovations along with some boos.
Other Democratic hopefuls participated in the two-hour event, including City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams; Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani and State Sen. Jessica Ramos of Queens; city Comptroller Brad Lander; former city Comptroller Scott Stringer; Brooklyn State Sen. Zellnor Myrie; and former Bronx Assemblymember Michael Blake.
The candidates spoke one by one in 10- to 15-minute intervals in conversations moderated by Sharpton, former U.S. Rep. Max Rose (D-Staten Island) and civil rights attorney Jennifer Jones Austin.
Asked by Rose whether he intended to serve his entire term if elected mayor — foregoing gubernatorial and presidential elections — Cuomo cheekily said he could not guarantee that.
“What if I die?” he said, before adding that “short of death, I commit” to serving a full term.
Former Governor Andrew Cuomo answers questions during the National Action Network mayoral forum, April 3, 3025. Credit: Ben Fractenberg/THE CITY
Speaker Adams, Mamdani, Lander and Myrie were recently endorsed by the progressive Working Families Party, which on Thursday announced it was prepared to run one of its own candidates on its party line in November if Cuomo wins the Democratic nomination.
Though the candidates did not have the opportunity to address each other directly, that did not stop them from launching broadsides against the former governor and incumbent mayor.
“New York needs a change, New York is bleeding and hemorrhaging right now and we need something different, we need a touch from a woman who can get this done and get this done right. Somebody that’s not afraid of Donald Trump nor will hawk his people’s books,” said Speaker Adams, in an apparent reference to the mayor’s touting of FBI director Kash Patel’s book of conspiracies about the “deep state.”
Council Speaker Adrienne Adams answers questions during the National Action Network mayoral forum, April 3, 3025. Credit: Ben Fractenberg/THE CITY
The Speaker — who like Cuomo launched her campaign about a month ago but has so far struggled to raise money or garner institutional support — urged voters not to have “short memories” about the former governor’s well-documented cover-up of thousands of nursing home deaths during the depths of the pandemic.
“Don’t forget that one person could have made a difference a lot sooner than he chose to and, instead, we got a lot of lives lost during the pandemic,” she said. “But somebody is betting that you will forget.”
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