New York City Mayor Eric Adams wouldn’t commit to seeing his re-election campaign through to Election Day, saying on MSNBC’s “PoliticsNation” Saturday that he will make the “right decision for the city of New York.”
For weeks, Adams has faced rumors that he could drop out of the race in an effort to boost former Gov. Andrew Cuomo over Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani, a state assemblyman. President Donald Trump told reporters earlier this month, “I would like to see two people drop out” of the race. Adams soon after held a defiant press conference saying he’d stay in the race and that he’s received no “formal offers” from the White House.
But during his Saturday interview, Adams lamented the media coverage of his campaign, arguing it has hurt his ability to mount a competitive run.
“If someone constantly reports, even when you say otherwise, that you’re leaving the race the next day, you’re leaving the race the next day, you lose your funders and your donors. And so it’s been a real challenge for me to raise the money that I need to run for office,” Adams said.
“Is the real agenda to cover me the same way you are covering the other candidates or to undermine my campaign?”
When the show’s host, the Rev. Al Sharpton, replied by asking if there was “no circumstance” under which Adams would withdraw from the race, Adams replied: “No, I can’t say that.”
“I’ve been sitting down with my team, having our pathways, finding out how we get the money into the coffers to do the commercials, to do the mailers, to pay for our team and staff,” he said.
“We’ve got to make the right decision. I’ll make the right decision for the city of New York, a city I love,” he added.
Mamdani has polled well ahead of the rest of the field in public polling of the city’s mayoral general election, with Adams struggling to eclipse single digits. The mayor has also trailed both Mamdani and Cuomo significantly in campaign fundraising and spending.
Adams’ political future was derailed first by corruption charges and then by the Trump administration’s decision to drop them, which soured Democratic voters on the incumbent mayor.
Prosecutors accused him of taking more than $100,000 in free airfare and luxury hotel stays from wealthy Turkish nationals during his time in local government, arguing he carried out official favors in return. Adams, who has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing, subsequently chose to run an independent bid instead of seeking the Democratic nomination.
Asked about Trump and the decision to drop the charges against him, Adams thanked the president for his “help” in dismissing the “bogus charges” against him and repeatedly said he did not discuss the case directly with Trump. But he criticized the idea that he is under the Trump administration’s “thumb,” said that Trump had never “asked anything from me,” and cast his critics as racists.
“What you have witnessed over the last three years and eight months is a consistent narrative that has been created: The second Black mayor is corrupt, the second Black mayor is incompetent,” he said.
He also invoked then-President Joe Biden’s decision to pardon his son Hunter Biden to cast doubt on the Justice Department’s decision to indict Adams.
Former Governor Andrew Cuomo spoke out today, claiming there is a “civil war” within the Democratic Party. Cuomo also fired back at his Republican rival, Curtis Sliwa, over allegations that Cuomo supporters attempted to bribe Sliwa to drop out of the race. NBC 4 New York’s Melissa Russo reports.