Mayor Adams bizarrely invokes ‘Mein Kampf,’ takes vicious dig at Dem rival in defiant message refusing to step down
By
Desheania Andrews and
Steve Janoski
Published Feb. 17, 2025, 6:29 p.m. ET
Mayor Eric Adams bizarrely invoked “Mein Kampf” at a Brooklyn church rally Monday afternoon as he defiantly blasted rivals calling for him to step down — as chaos swirled around the administration.
Adams — who delivered the speech to a group of about 50 supporters at the Rehoboth Cathedral on MacDougal Street — also took a vicious dig at his potential successor, Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, who would take over as mayor if the embattled, indicted Adams abdicates his office.
“I still don’t know what he does, because it’s hard to really serve the city when you wake up at noon,” Hizzoner said of Williams.
4
Mayor Eric Adams launched into a bizarre tirade Monday in which he invoked “Mein Kampf” and claimed he was being persecuted.Stephen Yang
“If I step down, the public advocate becomes the mayor. So can you imagine turning the city over to him? That is the top reason not to step down.
“When you don’t have a job, you can go all over the city throwing rocks,” he continued. “I love this city too much to watch him become mayor.”
The speech came at an event attended by clergy members who offered words of support for the mayor and even prayed around him.
During his remarks, Adams also claimed he once heard Martin Luther King Jr. recite a quote from Hitler’s infamous Nazi manifesto “Mein Kampf” that went something like, “If you tell a lie long enough, loud enough, people will tend to believe it’s true.”
“And that’s what you’re seeing right there, right now: a modern-day ‘Mein Kampf,'” Adams told his supporters, appearing to imply he was being persecuted by liars.
The apocryphal quote — which has many variations — is not from the book and is most often attributed to Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels, not Hitler.
Still, Adams launched into a lengthy diatribe in which he defended his mayoral record against attacks on his handling of the city’s migrant crisis, among other things.
“I slept in a homeless shelter with my migrant, asylum-seeker brothers and sisters and talked with them on the ground,” Hizzoner said. “Now they have a loud voice yelling at me — where were you when I was going to Washington, DC, fighting for the people of the city?”
4
The Department of Justice dropped the corruption case against Adams, and several federal prosecutors resigned in protest.Stephen Yang
He also appeared frustrated with his predicament, which includes a litany of legal troubles and political potholes.
“When we talk about taking homeless off our streets so we won’t have encampments, they protested me,” he said. “When we talk about taking guns off our streets by having our gun units in place, they protested me. When we talk about changing and building new small businesses, they protested me.
“When we talk about putting police officers on a train to make our streets safe, they protested me,” he went on. “When we talked about mental health issues and crises to prevent people from living in that condition, they protested me.
“All they know how to do is protest.”
Most of Adams’ problems stem from his legal issues, which began when the 64-year-old mayor pleaded not guilty to charges that he fast-tracked the opening of the Turkish Consulate in Manhattan in exchange for $123,000 worth of bribes — and sought illegal donations from Turks who poured tens of thousands of dollars in cash into his 2021 campaign.
4
At least 30 Democratic officials have called for Adams to resign — including City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams.Stephen Yang
But the Trump administration — to which Adams has cozied up — and its Justice Department have ordered Manhattan federal prosecutors to drop the historic corruption case because the feds now claim it was politically motivated.
Manhattan’s top federal prosecutor, Danielle Sassoon, quit in protest over the Justice Department’s decree, and wrote in a scathing resignation letter that nixing the charges amounted to a “quid pro quo” meant to force the now-indebted mayor to comply with Trump’s hardline immigration policy.
But even if the legal case against him dissolves, his political troubles endure.
At least 30 local Democratic leaders have already called on Adams to abandon his post, including high-ranking pols in the New York state Senate.
But Adams is stubbornly clinging to his office, and
told a Queens congregation on Sunday that he’s on a mission from God and isn’t going anywhere.
4
Adams is stubbornly clinging to his office, despite the many calls for him to resign.Stephen Yang
But several of his deputies are: Sources told The Post that Deputy Mayors Maria Torres Springer, Meera Joshi, Anne Williams Isom and Chauncey Parker
stepped down in the wake of the Justice Department’s
controversial case-tossing move.
The administration scrambled over the weekend to convince the four to stay quiet about — or at least delay — their plans to punch out.
The deputies resigned Monday.
The same day, City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams threw her weight behind the resignation drive, saying it’s “clear that Mayor Adams has now lost the confidence and trust of his own staff, his colleagues in government, and New Yorkers.”
“He now must prioritize New York City and New Yorkers, step aside and resign,” she said. “This administration no longer has the ability to effectively govern with Eric Adams as mayor … there is too much at stake for our city and New Yorkers to allow this to continue. “
647
What do you think?
Post a comment.
“We have endured enough scandal, selfishness and embarrassment, all of which distract from the leadership that New Yorkers deserve,” she continued.
“This is the opposite of public service.”
