Rep. Ocasio-Cortez says New York City mayor should resign
U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Wednesday called on New York City Mayor Eric Adams to resign, the first nationally prominent Democrat to do so amid the escalating federal criminal investigations in the mayoral administration and a series of unexpected departures of top city officials.
“I fail to see how Mayor Adams can continue to govern New York City,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote on the social platform X.
“The flood of layoffs and vacancies threatens the function of government. Constant investigations make it impossible to recruit and retain qualified administration. For the good of the city, he should resign,” she said. Both Adams and Ocasio-Cortez are Democrats.
Adams responded disdainfully.
“Anyone who self-righteously claims that people accused of serious crimes should not be in jail, and now says that New York’s second black mayor should resign based on rumors and innuendo — without a single charge having been filed — is the height of hypocrisy,” Adams said in a statement.
“I run 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,” he continued.
The Democratic mayor has not been accused of wrongdoing, and neither he nor the people on his staff under investigation have been charged with a crime.
A handful of Adams’ political critics have called for him to resign, but leading Democrats in the state have largely remained silent on the criminal investigations and generally do not support the mayor.
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday morning, the top Democrat in the House of Representatives, U.S. Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York, said he believed Adams was “working as hard as he can to be the best mayor he can be.”
“We need Eric Adams to be successful as mayor because he is the mayor right now,” Jeffries said.
Still, Ocasio-Cortez’s statement comes at a particularly vulnerable moment for the Democratic mayor.
Earlier this month, federal agents seized electronic devices from several top members of the Adams administration in what appears to be part of multiple, separate investigations. Adams himself had his phones confiscated by the FBI last year.
Also this month, the city’s former police chief, Edward Caban, resigned days after his devices and those of his twin brother were stolen. seized by investigators for unknown reasons.
Agents also seized equipment from New York City public school system superintendent David Banks, who announced Tuesday that he plans to retire at the end of the year.
The mayor’s top legal adviser, Lisa Zornberg, who had defended him at press conferences, resigned this month. In a brief letter, she wrote: “I can no longer effectively perform my duties.”
The city’s health commissioner, Dr. Ashwin Vasan, announced Monday that he would step down early next year, something he said had nothing to do with the investigations.