Adams shakes arms with Cuomo throughout a press convention in July 2021.
Governors press workplace
Mayor Eric Adams on Thursday tried to justify his dinner get-together with disgraced ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo — insisting he’d be “silly” to let Cuomo’s intercourse scandal cease him from listening to what the previous state chief government needed to say on governance.
Adams was requested on WCBS 880 radio a couple of two-hour dinner he had with the disgraced ex-governor, first reported by The Publish. The host pressed, “Having this dinner, although, is there concern about the way in which it appeared?
“The truth is that we now have a disaster on this metropolis. And we now have to be silly to not be taught from individuals who have gone by means of these crises earlier than,” Adams mentioned.
“And I’m not silly,” Adams added. “I'm studying from everybody that's in authorities, together with my predecessors who sat on this seat, and I’m going to proceed to take action.”
“I’m going to talk to everybody. And I’m going to proceed to take action. … We will be taught from everybody,” he mentioned.
“I’m not going to depart any stones unturned in getting my metropolis again beneath management,” he later mentioned in a separate interview on CNN.
Adams refused to dish on precisely what Cuomo informed him throughout their roughly two-hour energy discuss at Midtown hotspot Osteria La Baia — or whether or not he raised considerations with Cuomo over his habits in workplace.
However he shared on WCBS that his fellow Democrat provided him “some much-needed recommendation on what his perception is one of the simplest ways to get out of this disaster we’re going through.”
Sources informed Web page Six that Adams on Tuesday night ate dinner with Cuomo — who resigned in August following the discharge of state Legal professional Basic Letitia James’ damning sexual harassment probe — for about two hours in a non-public room on the restaurant. The dinner began about 7 p.m., after Adams attended a wake for slain NYPD Officer Wilbert Mora at close by St. Patrick’s Cathedral.
Throughout a Wednesday look on PIX 11, Adams insisted the Cuomo dinner was “in step with who I'm as an individual,” since he typically speaks with a big selection of individuals.
“Isn’t that in step with who I'm as an individual? I sat down with members of the Black Lives Matter group, I sat down with anti-vaxxers, I sit down with gang members to attempt to discuss them out of gangs, I sit down with former mayors and discovered what I wanted to know within the seat,” he mentioned on the channel’s morning program.
“Gov. Cuomo served in politics for a few years,” Adams added. “I’m going to sit down down with everybody. No stone shall be left unturned to get my metropolis again up and working.”
Requested what the objective was for the assembly with the scandal-scarred former chief government, Adams claimed the assembly would assist raise town’s financial system from its COVID-19 doldrums, earlier than including, “The objective is to cease being unpleasant and be taught that we will work collectively.”
A rep for Adams beforehand informed The Publish that the assembly wasn’t “political” and that the mayor “stands by” his place that Cuomo ought to have stepped apart. Previous to his resignation, Adams in July stood alongside Cuomo in Brooklyn to debate Massive Apple gun violence. Days after the discharge of the AG probe — which discovered the previous governor sexually harassed 11 girls, together with staffers, in violation of state and federal legal guidelines — Adams mentioned he didn't remorse the joint look.
Nonetheless, critics torched the mayor’s determination to satisfy with Cuomo, who stays tarnished by the slew of accusations of sexual harassment and impropriety.
Invoice Neidhart, a one-time press secretary for Adams’ predecessor in Metropolis Corridor, Invoice de Blasio, labeled the dinner a “staggering misjudgment.”
“Why would Eric Adams even take into consideration taking this assembly?” he requested in a tweet, calling it “straight up disgusting” given Cuomo’s intercourse scandal.
Adams, nonetheless, insisted he was not involved in regards to the optics of the dinner.
“I made it clear that the governor did the precise factor by stepping down when he did, and I stand by that call,” Adams mentioned, whereas refusing to inform CNN if he raised these considerations through the dinner.
“However I’m nonetheless going to hunt info from everybody that’s in authorities so we will get out of this disaster that we’re going through in violence, economics, well being care, employment …
“I’m studying from everybody that's in authorities, together with my predecessors who sat in his seat,” he mentioned of his ongoing “good relationship” with de Blasio in addition to former Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
“I’m going to satisfy with all of the governors. Governor [George] Pataki, if he'll sit down and discuss,” he additionally informed Fox 5’s “Good Day New York.”
Cuomo has been largely retaining a low profile after stepping down from workplace final yr, ending a three-term run as governor.
An upstate district lawyer’s workplace introduced this week that it's dropping its felony investigation of sexual harassment allegations towards Cuomo — however insisted it was “not an exoneration.”
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