Mayor Eric Adams. Tuesday, June 3, 2025.
Photograph by Dean Moses
Mayor Eric Adams is not going to be on the first Democratic main debate within the 2025 NYC mayor’s race on Wednesday evening as a result of he’s working as an unbiased within the normal election.
But when he have been attending, Hizzoner instructed reporters at Metropolis Corridor Tuesday, he would ask frontrunner Andrew Cuomo one query: “Where is your consistency?”
The mayor contended that as governor, Cuomo contributed to lots of the metropolis’s issues that he now says he’ll handle if he’s elected to Metropolis Corridor.
Mayoral candidate Andrew Cuomo speaks throughout a Democratic mayoral discussion board at Medgar Evers School in New York Metropolis, U.S., April 23, 2025. REUTERS/David ‘Dee’ Delgado
Hizzoner slammed Cuomo over pledging to advocate for a $20 minimal wage within the metropolis, after rejecting the same proposal from former Mayor Invoice de Blasio over a decade in the past; saying he’ll handle the town’s overlapping homelessness and psychological well being crises, although he defunded an important state housing voucher program in 2011 and took pyschiatric beds offline; and promising to crackdown on crime, regardless of signing the 2019 bail reform legal guidelines that some say say made the town much less secure.
“I spent so much time fixing the governor’s mess,” Adams mentioned. “I had to correct what he put in place. And now he reached the point that, I mean, he would say any and everything to get elected. How about just being honest?”
The mayor is hardly the one candidate to argue that Cuomo’s marketing campaign is at odds with lots of his personal actions as governor.
Different prime contenders — together with Queens Meeting Member Zohran Mamdani, who’s in second place; Metropolis Comptroller Brad Lander; and Metropolis Council Speaker Adrienne Adams — additionally cost that Cuomo harm the town by way of his insurance policies in Albany.
Mayor Adams additionally took intention at Cuomo’s upbringing because the son of the late former Gov. Mario Cuomo, arguing that he hails from a “dynasty” and thus had benefits most different elected officers don’t. Furthermoe, Adams mentioned Cuomo’s background has allowed him to coast on his father’s identify and keep in a “cocoon” that has sheilded him from scrutiny.
“He never really had to campaign for anything. The Cuomo name goes so far because people really adored his dad,” Adams mentioned. “He was always allowed to be in his cocoon. No one’s really had to scrutinize him. He’s always moved from one location to another location with this whole cocoon…It’s so easy to pick up the phone and call people when you are a Cuomo. You really are so far ahead of so many people.”
Cuomo camp calls Adams the ‘MAGA mayor’
In response to Adams, prime Cuomo spokesperson Wealthy Azzopardi mentioned, “Eric Adams is understandably going through the five stages of grief as the end of his failed tenure as mayor is near.”
“At least he’s not in the middle of a federal corruption trial – which is exactly what would be happening right now if he didn’t sell out the city to Trump,” he continued, referring to Adams’ federal corruption case that was dismissed by a federal choose on the behest of Trump’s DOJ in April. He was additionally referencing widespread allegations that Adams’ attorneys engaged in a quid professional quo with the DOJ to have his costs dropped.
“I wish the MAGA mayor the best of luck in whatever future cabinet position he gets in the Trump administration,” Azzopardi added.
The mayor stepped up his assaults on Cuomo simply three weeks forward of the June 24 Democratic main. Cuomo has led the crowded Democratic area in each ballot on the race, however a survey launched final week confirmed Mamdani seems to be closing the hole.
Whereas the incumbent Adams is sitting out the first after opting to run as an unbiased in November as an alternative, he has been attacking Cuomo with rising frequency.
If Cuomo is the Democratic nominee, he and Adams will face off in November, together with presumptive Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa and legal professional Jim Walden, who can be working as an unbiased. Cuomo has additionally filed an unbiased line to run on in November, which he’ll maintain even when he’s the Democratic nominee.
The progressive Working Households Occasion has additionally dedicated to run its personal candidate within the normal election if Cuomo is the Democratic nominee.
Adams and Cuomo are each moderates who will likely be competing for a similar Democratic voting blocs, whereas additionally in search of to win over some Republican assist. The mayor’s current broadsides seem aimed toward chipping away at Cuomo’s assist even earlier than the first is set.
