Adams Unleashes Angry Tirade Against De Blasio & His Former Officials for Critiquing His Policies
Edited by: TJVNews.com
In what was scheduled to be a routine news conference in which New York City Mayor Eric Adams was to discuss the expansion of the city’s fleet of electric vehicles, things took a very different turn and the mayor turned his sights on lambasting former Mayor Bill de Blasio and his top officials.
On Wednesday, Adams gave de Blasio and those that worked for him in the previous administration a fierce tongue lashing, in response to what the mayor perceives as constant criticism directed at him from the.
The New York Times reported that in an unprompted, seven-minute tirade, Adams confronted the former mayor by leveling accusations at him for leaving New York City in a complete disarray. He also strongly asserted that de Blasio’s former top aides had no right to publicly criticize the way he is running the city, the report indicated.
In general, Adams has been the focus of intense scrutiny over the issue of mounting crime in New York City and his ineffective methods of combating it.
“I am so tired of the previous administration and their antics,” Adams said at the end of the press conference in which he spoke about the use of electric vehicles in New York City.
The NYT reported that he had recently called de Blasio to register his complaints about the critiques, which he believes are patently unfair.
“I don’t remember an administration in history that says we want a full frontal assault in the first year of an administration,” Adams said.
Adams then launched into his own diatribe against de Blasio. He excoriated the record of the former mayor and his performance as the city’s top executive. The NYT also reported that Adams argued that criticism from former city officials concerning how he is dealing with the effects of the Covid pandemic, city schools and violence at Rikers was extremely unusual and unhelpful, especially when they had “left the house in total disarray.”
The NYT described Adams’ scathing remarks against de Blasio and the officials who worked with him as a “stunning broadside” and “one of the most fiery scuffles between Democrats in New York since de Blasio accused former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo of acting vindictively toward the city in 2015.”
Currently, de Blasio holds the position of visiting scholar at New York University. The NYT reported that he has criticized Adams on very rare occasions but top officials from his administration have raised concerns about some of Adams’s policies.
In particular, Adams singled out de Blasio’s second term press secretary, Bill Neidhardt, as one of those officials who has been quite vocal in his public critiques of Adams, the NYT reported.
Adams referred to Neidhardt as the “worst comms guy in the history of communication.”
For his part, Neidhardt said, “Every New Yorker has a right to speak out when Mayor Adams slashes school budgets, raises rents and echoes right-wing talking points. Instead of whining and attacking his constituents, the mayor should tackle the crises working people face every day in our city. Grow up,” as reported by the NYT.
In addition to taking the heat for not effectively curbing crime or addressing the controversial bail reform measures in New York City, in his first year in office, Adams has also been on the receiving end of criticism over allegations of cronyism in terms of who he has chosen to give jobs to in his administration as well as being critiqued for his policies on budget cuts at libraries and schools, the NYT reported.
Adams also received condemnations on Tuesday when he said there was “no more room at the inn” for migrants arriving in waves from the nation’s southern border.
Adams and de Blasio are considered political allies and who came on the political scene in Brooklyn at approximately the same time. During the last mayoral race, the NYT reported that behind the scenes, de Blasio helped to elect Adams and quietly supported him.
The emergence of major differences between the two came in the form of Adams decision to nix the expansion of de Blasio’s preschool program for 3-year-olds as well as critiquing the closure of the jail complex at Rikers Island on de Blasio’s timeline, the NYT reported. Adams also reinstituted a contentious anti-gun police unit that was disbanded under de Blasio.
In a statement issued on Wednesday night, de Blasio said that he had spoken to Adams earlier in the day and that he understood how difficult it was to govern the city and wanted him to succeed, the NYT reported.
“I sympathize with his frustration with certain critics but want to emphasize this: No one speaks for me but me,” de Blasio said. Many have opined that this statement was a direct reference to those officials in his former administration who have been tough on Adams.
Adams has repeatedly criticized the de Blasio administration for leaving him with major problems across city government, including reduced trash pickups and higher crime rates, the NYT reported. Last summer, Adams told The New York Post that after reviewing city operations, he was “shocked” to learn just “how bad this place is.”
On Wednesday, Adams said that he has inherited a mess and inferred that the de Blasio administration had performed in a lackluster and ineffective manner.
“They had eight years to do their job — eight years to fix Rikers, eight years to deal with crime, eight years to deal with education, eight years to deal with early childhood education for children with disabilities, eight years to fix NYCHA,” he told reporters, according to the NYT report. “They had all that time to do their job.”
“And did they?” a reporter asked.
“No,” the mayor said, laughing.
