The four big city mayors who testified Wednesday on Capitol Hill knew they were invited by House Republicans to be punching bags. For New York’s Eric Adams, however, the blows were thrown by fellow Democrats.
GOP lawmakers not only spared Adams from the brunt of their often-theatrical attacks on sanctuary cities, they defended him against the Democratic onslaught — including from fellow New Yorker Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) at one point called Adams “an outstanding mayor.”
It was the latest display of just how far through the looking-glass things have gone for Adams, who in four years has gone from the “Biden of Brooklyn” and “new face of the Democratic Party” to an unlikely ally of President Donald Trump.
That about-face — with the Trump Justice Department’s decision last month to drop a corruption case against Adams as its pivot point — fueled the Democratic attacks Wednesday at the made-for-TV hearing.
It opened with Rep. Gerry Connolly of Virginia, the panel’s top Democrat, referencing Adams’ federal case and alleged indebtedness to Trump. It deepened when other Democrats pressed Adams in increasingly aggressive terms about whether he had traded his cooperation with federal immigration officials for leniency from prosecutors.
“We have a right to know if the Trump administration has actually coerced you into agreeing to him,” Rep. Robert Garcia of California asked him. “Are you selling out New Yorkers to save yourself from prosecution?”
Ocasio-Cortez — who, like Adams, represents New York City — later rained questions on the mayor about whether he agreed to municipal policy changes that would appease Trump. Adams looked straight at her as she described the Trump administration’s decision to drop his prosecution as a “four-alarm fire” for the rule of law in the United States.
“There’s no deal, no quid pro quo, and I did nothing wrong,” Adams said in what has become his standard response to the allegation that he struck an illicit deal with Trump’s border czar Tom Homan to allow federal immigration agents into city jails in exchange for the end of his legal peril.
The dynamic set Adams far apart from the three other Democratic mayors — Denver’s Mike Johnston, Chicago’s Brandon Johnson and Boston’s Michelle Wu — who sat alongside him in a subterranean hearing room and faced feverish questioning from House Republicans seeking a viral moment.
Adams had braced for the possibility he would feature prominently in the GOP’s scrutiny of cities that had rebuffed federal immigration enforcement. Instead, Republicans largely gave the former New York City police captain a pass, often skipping over him with their rapid-fire questions.
Where the other three mayors put up a defiant and sometimes argumentative front, Adams instead followed a formula of giving succinct, unprovocative answers. He was rewarded with plenty of Republican praise.
“Mayor Adams is being attacked because he’s agreed to cooperate with federal officials to uphold the laws of the United States,” said Rep. Gary Palmer (R-Ala.).
Rep. William Timmons (R-S.C.) connected Adams’ prosecution to his criticism of former President Joe Biden: “The only one of you who stood up to the previous administration was under investigation shortly thereafter. Weird how that happens.”
And Comer praised Adams for being “willing to work with [Immigrations and Customs Enforcement] on detaining the most criminal illegals — and I want to publicly thank you for that.”
That praise alternated with combative exchanges between Democrats and the New York mayor. In one testy exchange, freshman Rep. Suhas Subramanyam of Virginia asked Adams if he had ever discussed his criminal case with Trump.
Adams paused as an attorney whispered into his ear then repeated the line: “This case is in front of Judge Ho, and out of deference to Judge Ho, I’m not going to discuss this case,” he said, referring to U.S. District Judge Dale Ho, who is now considering whether to drop the charges as the Justice Department has requested.
Subramanyam eventually dropped the line of inquiry, concluding that “Mayor Adams is not answering the question because he probably has” discussed his case with the White House.
Rep. Laura Gillen (D-N.Y.) — whose Long Island district was previously represented by Anthony D’Esposito, a Republican and former New York police officer — targeted the New York mayor with the same zeal as her more progressive colleagues, calling on him at one point to resign.
Her attacks provoked Adams to retort, “Thank God you don’t live in New York City.”
The bear hug from congressional Republicans, meanwhile, does Adams no favors when it comes to his political future. He faces a narrowing path to reelection this year with the criminal case and Trump’s mass deportation agenda looming over the country’s largest sanctuary city.
Democrats were not in the mood to do him any favors. Garcia came with posters of former U.S. Attorney Danielle Sassoon’s resignation letter condemning the decision to drop charges against him and of Homan praising Adams in a joint Fox News interview.
Weighing in from afar was Homan himself, who wrote on X that “Mayor Adams is trying to protect New Yorkers from violent illegal aliens” as he watched the hearing.
Adams appeared disengaged at times. When Connolly laid into him at the top of the hearing, he looked off to the side, then looking forward again and sipping his tea after the Virginia Democrat moved on. As other Democrats pressed him for answers, he flipped through a briefing book as he mounted his defense.
In his own opening statement, Adams leaned heavily on his experience as a law enforcement official and sought to push back on the notion that his approach to immigration and crime has changed since Trump won a second term.
“You know me, I’m the same mayor,” he told reporters before the hearing. “Three things stay on my mind all the time: public safety, public safety, public safety. We have to have a safe city.”
