Dozens of interviews suggested that New Yorkers believed that the mayor was compromised by his association with President Trump.
As Gov. Kathy Hochul weighs removing Mayor Eric Adams from office, Mr. Adams is not just running out of allies, options and, perhaps, time. He’s also rapidly losing support among New Yorkers, dozens of interviews conducted around the city this week suggest.
Dustin Meighan, 38, a surveyor, looks at Mr. Adams and sees a pawn of President Trump.
“There are people pulling strings — he’s the Pinocchio mayor,” Mr. Meighan of Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, said as he waited for his morning sandwich at a deli in Park Slope. “It seems as if he’s just doing what he’s told because he’s in a criminal situation.”
Over by the soda case, Trevor Smith, a deliveryman for Red Bull, said he did not see how Mr. Adams could continue governing. “Right now I think he needs to step away,” said Mr. Smith, 39. He said he needed a mayor who could “protect me from what’s going on in Washington.” Instead, he said, Mr. Adams is “selling us out so that he cannot be held accountable for his actions.”
The pileup of distressing news — Mr. Adams’s indictment on federal corruption charges, his apparent agreement with the White House to help the president’s immigration crackdown if the charges were dropped, and most recently, the planned resignations of four deputy mayors — has become too much for voters to stomach, the interviews suggested. Many who spoke against the mayor said they voted for him in 2021.
“Eric Adams is a traitor,” declared Cheryl Grant, 67, a home health aide in the South Bronx.
“100 percent compromised,” Kadeem Sinclair, 28, said over a cheeseburger and fries at a Wendy’s in Sunnyside, Queens. “It’s going to influence decisions he makes for the city. I’d say it’s better for him to step down.”
“Time for him to go,” said Michelle White, 64, of Harlem, who worked under Mr. Adams for the city’s Human Resources Administration until she retired last year.
