Adams Under Fire as Calls to Oust Him Grow After 4 Deputy Mayors Resign; Mayor Calls Reporters “Liars”

Mayor Eric Adams, under increasing heat after claims from top prosoecutors that he is cooperating with the Trump administration in its immigration crackdown in exchange for the decision to drop the corruption case against him.

Four deputy mayor’s resigned on Feb. 17 including Adams closest advisor, First deputy mayor Maria Torres-Springer, who was only promoted after the previous first deputy mayor Sheena Wright resigned in October. Also joining Torres-Springer in the stampede for the exit was Anne Williams-Isom, deputy mayor for health and human services; Meera Joshi, deputy mayor for operations; and Chauncey Parker, deputy mayor for public safety, who only took the post when the previous deputy mayor for public safety Philip Banks resigned.

The New York Times reported that Kaz Daughtry, a deputy commissioner in the NYPD will replace Chauncey Parker. Daughtry had been under fire for feuding with members of the press on social media,

All four notified Adams on Feb. 17 that they would step down from their posts.

“I am disappointed to see them go, but given the current challenges, I understand their decision and wish them nothing but success in the future,” Adams said in a statement.

Calls for his resignation have been growing. With City Council speaker Adrienne Adams and Comptroller Brad Lindor, who is also in the running in the Democratic primary, calling for him to resign.

“He now must prioritize New York City and New Yorkers, step aside and resign,” said a statement from Adrienne Adams [who is not related to Mayor Adams] on Feb. 17, citing the resignation of the four top deputies. “This administration no longer has the ability to effectively govern with Eric Adams as mayor.”

Mayor Adams spoke at a press conference on Feb. 18 where a cop had been rushed after he was shot in the shoulder in downtown Manhattan. But he refused to any any “off topic” questions, and left after fielding only three questions about the shooting. As the press corps attempted to follow to get in some questions about his embattled administration, a phalanx of officers temporarily blocked reporters from following.

Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch, who was at the Bellevue press conference with Adams intervened and said softly, “Let them through.”

By then Adams had a good 20 yard lead on the pack of journalists trailing him. But when Adams got to the lobby, a few people sitting on a bench asked him if they could take his picture. Adams obliged and that gave the press horde the opportunity to catch up to him.

”Mayor Adams, why won’t you answer questions from the press?,” shouted one reporter in the horde.

Adams stopped and snarled, “because you’re liars.”

He then proceeded out the back of the hospital and into a waiting SUV.

Meanwhile, a few blocks north of Bellevue, Governor Kathy Hochul was meeting with elected officials and local leaders trying to figure out if she should remove Adams from office.

One of the first people she spoke with was the Rev. Al Sharpton, who was an early backer of the Adams campaign in 2021. Speaking with reporters afterward, he indicated he was reserving judgement until it could be determined if Adams was going to face criminal prosecution or not.

Danielle Sassoon, the acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York triggered a dizzying round of resignations which eventually reached seven top prosecutors in NYC and Washington D.C. when she resigned on Feb. 13. She said she could not accept an order from Emil Bove, the acting number two in Trump’s Department of Justice, to drop the case against Adams. Bove cited as his rationale that the pending criminal case, which began with a five count bribery and corruption charge unveiled in September, was interfering with Adams’ ability to help Trump in the immigration crackdown. Astoundingly, the Bove letter conceded that the order to drop the case had nothing to do with the underlying merits of the legal case.

Sassoon said that Adams attorneys made the deal to cooperate on immigration in a “quid pro quo” with the Trump DOJ to drop the charges.

Bove also said the proceedings were too close to the upcoming city elections, where Adams is trying to get reelected in a crowded Democratic primary set for June 24.

Bove also said that Sassoon’s predecessor, Damian Williams had brought the case due to political prosecution. Adams had been sharply criticical of the Biden Administration for not picking up more of the $7 billion tab to house the more than 220,000 migrants who descended on the city. But prosecutors insisted they had started the case a years before the immigration crisis, alleging bribes from Turkish business executives and allegedly accepting illegal straw donors in his political campaign.

Adams has insisted all along that he is innocent.

But in his latest sign of cozying up to Trump, last week he said he was going to allow Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents onto Rikers Island to pick up migrants accused of crimes.

And in what would have to be seen as a major political blunder, he then appeared on the cable show Fox & Friends on Fox News on Feb. 14 with Trump’s border Czar Tom Honan. Honan said he was going to make sure Adams complied with the “agreement” to cooperate.

“If he doesn’t come through, 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?’”

Then Honan called for Governor Hochul to be removed from office for upholding the city’s sanctuary city regulations. “Governor Hochul, she needs to be removed,” Homan said. “The one who needs to be removed is her. She supports sanctuary policies.”

That was the straw that broke the camel’s back for the deputy mayors. According to the New York Times, they told Adams they wanted to resign that morning.

Adams asked for them to take the weekend to think about it. But by Monday, Feb. 17, their minds were made up. They did say they would stay on to make an orderly transition, so their official departure date is not yet set.

But it meant that half of the deputy mayors in the Adams administration, which had already seen several come and go in recent months, lost half of the deputy mayors in a single day. Two of the deputy mayors are offspring of immigrant parents.

Sharpton in his talk with reporters said he was “surprised” that “Honan would come here and say he is telling the mayor what to do.”