Eric Adams Keeps Playing Hard To Get

Eric Adams loves attention. There is no moral reason behind his politics. He’s not helping people (who aren’t his friends). I know folks who worked with him when he was Brooklyn Borough President, and he at least tried to help there, but the apple has long since turned. Eric Adams cares about Eric Adams. Now, so does everybody else, but not for the reason he wants.

Adams is the soon-to-be-former mayor of New York City. I can say that with some certainty at this point. Setting aside the fact that Zohran Mamdani is leading most polls conducted about NYC’s mayoral race, Adams doesn’t even crack the top three in most of these rankings. He’s tracking behind his former opponent, Curtis Sliwa, who still sports his trademark beret like he’s cosplaying for war.

In front of Sliwa, but also behind Mamdani, is Andrew Cuomo, the man who won’t take no for an answer in any aspect of his life. Cuomo was handily defeated by the man once known as Young Cardamom in the Democratic primary, and has stayed in the race as an independent, running on his father’s name and his ability to work with the current President.

Cuomo is courting Republicans and Upper West Siders with fear-mongering about Mamdani and his proposed policies. However, so are Eric Adams and Curtis Sliwa. All three men are vying for the same piece of the pie and are basically cancelling each other out. To make matters worse (for them), they are all gigantic ego maniacs who think they can defeat Mamdani and are counting on the others to drop out.

Sliwa isn’t going anywhere. To his limited credit, he’s not attacking Mamdani for his religious beliefs or home country. That doesn’t make him any less insane or hateful, but it’s refreshing to see him leave some of the more fiery rhetoric to his more “civil” opponents. Still, Sliwa is a relic of New York’s past, and a good reminder that things could be worse, much like Andrew Cuomo.

I genuinely don’t understand why Cuomo thinks he can win. Delusion can be stronger when you have money to back it up, and Cuomo has money. However, his fall from “grace” was substantial and occurred at a time when he could not have had more scrutiny on him. The man was practicing for a presidential run for Christ’s sake. Now, those same eyes are watching him attempt to ape Mamdani’s style while privately assuring rich folks that the President likes him.

There is no world where Sliwa or Cuomo drops out of the race. Eric Adams is a much different story. He and Cuomo are courting the same voters and will eat into each other’s totals. That’s basically a guarantee. So, pressure has been mounting for Adams to drop out, with rumors swirling that he’s been offered an Ambassadorship to Saudi Arabia if he were to do so, which seems laughably perfect for the corrupt mayor.

The rumors of Adams dropping out are so strong that, this weekend, it got out that he would be making an announcement this week, hot on the tail of another rumor that he was taking an “internal poll” (seeing who he could still ask for money) about his chances. However, an Adams spokesperson went on to claim the rumors of the announcement were false, and you can believe anything an Adams rep tells you, as long as it’s accompanied by a suspiciously open bag of salt & vinegar potato chips.

Adams’s endgame is not clear. He is radioactive to his alleged political party, but his party’s opponents see him merely as a means to an end. They aren’t going to lift him to a position he feels he deserves. At best, they will turn him into a talking head on FOX News. A man with an ego as big and fragile as Adams’s isn’t going to admit defeat, unless he’s offered the right price.

The current mayor will just continue to play hard to get. He’ll keep gumming up the works for wannabe Republicans like Cuomo until they offer him something that fits his view of himself. Then, he’ll move on, claiming that New York never understood him or has changed or some such nonsense. Eric Adams will make this all about himself, as he always does, but, luckily, he will soon be doing it from a position of far less power. Of that I am certain.