We noted in our coverage of the quite beautiful scandal engulfing an ultra-MAGA evangelical candidate in North Carolina that it wasn’t just that he’d allegedly left a huge amount of identifying information in comments on a porn site (written in Comic Sans, because why the hell not?) . It’s that the comments were so hilariously at odds with his most full-throated political views on LGBTQIA+ people and abortion.
Well, a similar dynamic is at play with New York Mayor Eric Adams. Adams, a Democrat, won comfortably in 2021, campaigning on a hardline, tough-on-crime platform. He revived a NYPD unit that had been disbanded over police brutality concerns (most famously responsible for choking Eric Garner to death), and vowed to clean up the New York streets by cracking down on the homeless. But it has been alleged this week that Adams wasn’t so tough on crimes he was personally involved in, as he became the first New York mayor to be criminally charged while in office.
Alleged graft
An indictment unsealed this week — one of five separate federal probes into Adams’ administration and campaign — alleges Adams “not only accepted but sought illegal campaign contributions to his 2021 mayoral campaign,” taking over US$100,000 in luxury travel benefits from a Turkish businessman and at least one Turkish government official, and defrauded US$10 million in public funds. The alleged crimes span nearly a decade, going back to when Adams held the offices of Brooklyn borough president.
Adams denies the charges. “I ask New Yorkers to wait to hear our defence before making any judgments,” he said at a press conference on Thursday, one that was interrupted by New York residents who called him a “disgrace”. Adams could be imprisoned for up to 45 years if found guilty.
So there’s that. But Adams’ relationship with the truth has raised concerns several times over the course of his time in public life
Fishgate
To start on the merely pointless: fishgate. Adams has been vocal about the health advantages of his apparent vegan diet. Except, he kept being seen, very publicly, eating fish.
Only in New York!
It would take more time and space than we have here to collate every weird thing Adams has said out loud to a journalist, so we’ll just note our two favourites.
Adams told local news outlet PIX11 late last year: “This is a place where every day you wake up you could experience everything from a plane crashing into our Trade Center through [to] a person who’s celebrating a new business that’s open … and that’s why it’s the greatest city on the globe.” Which I believe was a line cut from the original ending of Ghostbusters.
Which displaced, for sheer brain-twisting, his quote in Vanity Fair in 2021 that his favorite concert had been a performance in Brooklyn by soul legend Curtis Mayfield… specifically the gig during which a piece of lighting rig fell on Mayfield and paralyzed him for the rest of his life. “It was an amazing concert before that happened. Just so unfortunate.” Which makes it, as far we know, the only real life sincere example of an “Other than that, Mrs Lincoln…”
Light crimes
There was lots of mild, sometimes admitted to, lying on the campaign trail and in office. For instance, conceding that a story Adams told about dealing with a rude neighbour and their dog hadn’t actually happened to him, appearing to lie about carrying a photo of a fallen officer in his wallet (and going to hilarious lengths to cover his tracks), and the ongoing mystery about whether he actually lived where he claimed to. Adams also seemed to hint he wasn’t above cutting corners when, in full view of a bank of reporters, he mounted the pavement in his car to drive past a traffic jam.
Policy
Oh yeah, we shouldn’t ignore his formidable policy legacy: he invented the wheelie bin, held the city’s first ever “Urban Rat Summit” (and appointed a “Rat Czar”), and tried to institute a RoboCop pilot plan in NYC subways. The robot needed a human guard, and could hit a maximum speed of three miles an hour. For good measure, during a press conference, Adams attempted to make the “heart hand” sign in collaboration with a machine that has no arms or hands.
