Just a couple of hours ago, before the indictment was made public, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez called for Adams to resign, that the constant swirl that began with rumors of free dinners and has led to recent resignations of key officials, including the new police commissioner, made it impossible for New York City government to function.
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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
@AOC
I do not see how Mayor Adams can continue governing New York City.
The flood of resignations and vacancies are threatening gov function. Nonstop investigations will make it impossible to recruit and retain a qualified administration.
For the good of the city, he should resign.
https://nytimes.com/2024/09/25/nyregion/aoc-eric-adams-resign.html
3:13 PM · Sep 25, 2024
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Adams responded to AOC with a dismissive, petulant statement:
Adams responded in a statement that Ocasio-Cortez was being hypocritical and that he will not step down.
“For anyone who self-righteously claims people charged with serious crimes should not be in jail to now say that the second Black mayor of New York should resign because of rumors and innuendo — without even a single charge being filed — is the height of hypocrisy," Adams said. "I am leading this city to protect it from exactly that kind of phony politics. The people of this city elected me to fight for them, and I will stay and fight no matter what.”
Now this.
Adams was elected as a reform cop, but that image and label was quickly belied.
Adams circle:
Needless to say that's a critical mass on the wrong side of the law. AOC was right, as she almost always is, and was prescient. The City of New York has been decapitated and its second-level commanders have been decimated. It resembles what Israel has done in the last week to Hezbollah. Since AOC's call a chorus of other local, state, and federal lawmakers have joined her.
In a further statement Wednesday night, Mr. Adams said: “I always knew that If I stood my ground for New Yorkers that I would be a target—and a target I became. If I am charged, I am innocent and I will fight this with every ounce of my strength and spirit.”
Police Commissioner Edward Caban resigned this month amid a federal investigation into the department’s nightclub enforcement, according to sources familiar with the matter. Caban, the city's first Latino commissioner, took over the department in July 2023.
This investigation, by federal prosecutors in Manhattan, appears to be focused in part on whether Mr. Adams’s 2021 mayoral campaign conspired with Turkey’s government to receive illegal foreign donations, and whether Mr. Adams pressured the Fire Department to approve a new high-rise Turkish consulate, despite safety concerns.
Prosecutors have also recently sought information related to interactions with five other countries — Israel, China, Qatar, South Korea and Uzbekistan — people with knowledge of the matter said. This focus stems from a round of grand jury subpoenas issued in July to Mr. Adams, his office and his campaign. These subpoenas came after F.B.I. agents stopped Mr. Adams outside an event and seized his electronic devices in November.
Just days before the seizure of Mr. Adams’s devices, the Brooklyn home of Brianna Suggs, Mr. Adams’s chief fund-raiser at the time, was searched by federal agents, as were the New Jersey homes of Rana Abbasova, an aide in the mayor’s international affairs office who previously was an Adams liaison to the Turkish community, and Cenk Öcal, a former Turkish Airlines executive who served on the mayor’s transition team. Weeks later, Mr. Adams said Ms. Suggs was no longer in that role. Ms. Abbasova is cooperating with the investigation.