Earlier this week, the Justice Department ordered Manhattan prosecutors to drop their pending bribery case against Mayor Eric Adams, setting off a staggering chain of events that saw six department officials resign in protest in a matter of hours. Adams’s compromised position has sparked calls across the New York political world for him to resign, or for Governor Kathy Hochul to utilize an obscure power to remove him from office. But the mayor showed no signs of going anywhere as he cozied up to border czar Tom Homan during a Friday appearance on Fox & Friends where the Trump official appeared to revel in Adams’s newfound attachment to the administration.
Adams and Homan discussed the city’s improved working relationship with the White House in the wake of Adams’s announcement that he will be signing an executive order to allow U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to access Rikers Island. Homan noted that he had been a frequent critic of the mayor in years past, but no longer.
“When I sat down with him, I saw the cop in him and he really does want to do the right thing because he is a cop. He’s a lifelong cop. He wants to help take public safety threats off the streets, make New York safer,” Homan said.
Though the interview was pegged to immigration, things quickly turned to Adams’s legal controversy. The hosts asked about allegations laid out by Danielle Sassoon, a U.S. Attorney who claimed in a blistering resignation letter that the dropping of Adams’s charges amounted to a quid pro quo for his cooperation with the Trump administration. Adams quickly rejected those claims.
“Think about my attorney Alex Spiro, one of the top trial attorneys in the country. Imagine him going inside saying that, ‘the only way Mayor Adams is going to assist in immigration’ — which I was calling for since 2022 — ‘is if you drop the charges.’ That’s quid pro quo. That’s a crime,” he said.
Adams continued, “It took her three weeks to report in front of her a criminal action? Come on, this is silly.”
The hosts brought up Hochul’s comments during an MSNBC interview Thursday night where she did not explicitly rule out using her power to remove Adams from office. Notably, the mayor refrained from criticizing her remarks. “She has her role, I have my role,” she said.
However, the mayor sat by as Homan denounced Hochul as an “embarrassment” to her position, specifically calling out the state’s Green Light law, which allows noncitizens to obtain driver’s licenses and places limits on how federal immigration agencies can access DMV data.
“She’s putting the men and women of ICE at risk every day. The job’s already dangerous. Governor Hochul, she needs to be removed. If anybody should be removed, it should be her,” he said.
The interview ended with Homan making it clear that he and Adams’s friendly relationship could change depending on how he addresses immigration in his city. “If he doesn’t come through, I’ll be back in New York City and we won’t be sitting on a couch. I’ll be in his office, up his butt saying, ‘Where the hell is the agreement we came to?,’” he said.
Adams appeared to laugh with Homan and the Fox hosts. “And I want ICE to deliver. We’re going to deliver for the safety of this city,” the mayor said.
