Mayor Eric Adams insisted Tuesday that ordinary New Yorkers don't really care about the federal investigations targeting top brass at City Hall and the NYPD, or the sudden resignations of several key aides.
Asked at his weekly press conference if he understood that New Yorkers were concerned about these issues, Mayor Adams said New Yorkers have never raised those concerns with him, and blamed the media for making these issues bigger than they are for New Yorkers.
“No, I don't understand,” he said. “If they have the same level of concern, they'll see it when I'm in public.”
Adams made the claim shortly after laughing off a related question from a Washington Post reporter as he entered City Hall.
The corruption investigation has embroiled several of Mayor's closest associates, including his deputy for public safety, Phil Banks, his brother, schools chancellor David Banks, former MTA employee turned safety consultant Terrence Banks, Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright, former NYPD Commissioner Edward Cavan and top adviser Tim Pearson. No one has been charged.
Towards the end of the press conference, after repeated questioning, the mayor finally acknowledged that New Yorkers might care a little about the scandal.
But he still hinted that there are more discussions to be had on other issues.
“New Yorkers are concerned. This is disturbing and we want to address it,” he said of the scandal.
But “what I say to ordinary New Yorkers, what they want to know is, 'Eric, what are you doing about my city, my schools, my housing, my job security?' That is their No. 1 priority. Because that's what I hear when I'm out on the streets. That's what I hear when I'm at town halls. That's what I hear when I'm in my churches, my mosques, my synagogues. That's what I hear,” the mayor said.
The mayor spent much of the hour-and-a-half news conference repeatedly dodging other questions about the snowballing problems surrounding City Hall.
“We're not going to be distracted. One of the distractions is answering the same questions over and over again,” he said.
During a contentious Q&A, Adams defended Pearson's controversial study of immigration contracts, and Hizzoner also detailed his decades-long relationship with the Banks family.
Cavan and the city's chief adviser, Lisa Zornberg, resigned during the scandal.
There have been calls, including from The Washington Post's editorial board, for Adams to fire Phil Banks and Pierson.
Sources told The Post that Mayor Zonberg's sudden resignation over the weekend came after he had encouraged Banks and Pearson to leave city government. Adams, at the press conference, declined to provide details about his “private conversations” with Mayor Zonberg.
Asked about a Washington Post editorial calling for the firing of Banks and Pearson, Adams smiled.
“I think they're taking a moderate pragmatic approach. They're not very idealistic,” he said.
“And they beat me up sometimes, but when I read the paper I think they got a good idea of what working-class people were going through on a day-to-day basis.
“I don't agree with everything the Washington Post does, and they don't agree with everything I do,” he said, adding: “The Post says a lot of what I've done makes him the right person for the job.”
