The Tragedy of Eric Adams

A DAY IN THE CITY WITH THE MAYOR OF NEW YORK

- BY MOLLY BALL

BEFORE ERIC ADAMS CAN START EXPLAINING THE CONSPIRACY THAT took him down, the soon-to-be-former mayor of New York City must make his morning smoothie. On a chilly recent Friday, he is standing in the stainless-steel kitchen of Gracie Mansion, the stately official residence on the Upper East Side, layering blueberries and ginger and flaxseed and greens into a Nutribullet blender.

“People think that our stomachs are like a washing machine—that when you eat, everything mixes up together—and it is not,” he says, whirring the mixture into a greenish-brown sludge. “Our stomachs are like a sink, where what you put in it first goes down the drain first.” He pours me a sample. It tastes like ginger-flavored grass.

We are speaking a week and change since Adams bowed to the inevitable and dropped his bid for reelection. There is a lot he wants to get off his chest. When he was elected four years ago, Adams seemed poised to be a transformational figure. Amid rising crime and racial tensions, the former police captain promised there need be no compromise between safety and justice. Like Joe Biden’s election a year earlier, his win was a triumph of the Democratic Party’s moderate Black base over the radical-chic faculty liberals and their alienating ideas. “I’m the Biden of Brooklyn,” Adams boasted. “Look at me and you're seeing the future of the Democratic Party.” Aides whispered that he could run for President.

Four years later, the Democrats’ future looks murkier than ever, and Adams’ lofty ambitions lie in ruins. His approval rating sank as low as 20% in the wake of his federal indictment on bribery and corruption charges and its subsequent dismissal by President Trump’s Justice Department. In the mayoral race between Zohran Mamdani and Andrew Cuomo, Adams was relegated to an afterthought, an object of ridicule and scorn. The cloud of scandal has obscured the message he wants to leave on his way out.