NEW YORK (1010 WINS) — Mayor Eric Adams vowed that he is “going nowhere” despite a second day of protests outside City Hall on Monday calling for his removal and reports that multiple deputy mayors are considering resigning from his administration.
“And I want you to be clear, you’re going to hear so many rumors and so many things, you’re going to read so much,” Adams told a Queens congregation on Sunday. “I am going nowhere. Nowhere.”
Immigrant rights protesters on Sunday and Monday gathered in lower Manhattan to call on Gov. Kathy Hochul to remove Adams from his position over an alleged quid pro quo between the mayor and President Donald Trump over enforcement of the president’s immigration agenda.
The Department of Justice’s order that federal prosecutors in Manhattan drop charges against Adams and recent moves cracking down on immigration by the mayor have led critics to believe that he will continue to cooperate with the White House to avoid charges.
Federal prosecutors filed a formal request to dismiss Adams’ criminal case—which charges him with wire fraud, bribery and conspiracy—on Friday night, and Judge Dale Ho will decide whether to accept the submission or schedule a hearing requiring federal prosecutors to explain their reasoning for dismissal.
The mayor has reiterated his innocence in the case and pleaded not guilty to all charges in September.
Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani, a fellow mayoral candidate, joined protesters on Sunday and stated his discontent with Adams to a crowd chanting “Kathy Hochul, fight back, remove Eric Adams.”
“In this moment when Donald Trump and his administration is asking the question of who we are willing to give up, the answer from Mayor Adams is seemingly everyone,” Mamdani said. “Whether it’s immigrants, whether it’s trans New Yorkers, it seems to be everyone. But the answer from us is no one.”
Adams—a longstanding critic of the Biden administration’s handling of immigration—affirmed to parishioners Sunday that he is still his own man and that his focus remains on running New York City.
“No matter what they write, no matter all those who are tripping over themselves to state who I am and who I am going to be beholden to and how I am no longer independent, I know who I am,” Adams said.
The mayor told reporters outside the church that he is looking forward to running for reelection and continuing his work, stating that “All those other conversations, that’s up to them to have.”
Following an appearance on Fox News with Trump’s border czar Tom Homan last week, at least three deputy mayors expressed their intention to resign from the Adams administration, according to NBC4.
First Deputy Mayor Maria Torres-Springer, Deputy Mayor for Operations Meera Joshi, Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services Anne Williams-Isom and Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Chauncey Parker tendered their resignations on Monday.
Adams reportedly met with the deputy mayors on Sunday over Zoom to convince them to slow any final decision or public disclosure of their intent to resign, which could further destabilize his position, but he was unsuccessful.
In a joint statement from Torres-Spring, Joshi and Williams-Isom, they stated that they had to resign “due to the extraordinary events of the last few weeks and to stay faithful to the oaths we swore to New Yorkers and our families.”