NYC Mayor Eric Adams Keeps Living Down To Our Expectations

He’s so not the future of the Democratic Party.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams was the great centrist hope. He was pro-cop, tough-on-crime, and unafraid to smack-talk progressives (that's apparently something that's tough to do, even though almost everyone does it). Not long after his election, the center-right Bulwark wondered aloud if Adams was "the Democrats' next national star?" The love affair lasted just a few weeks. When Adams declined to veto a New York law that would let non-citizens vote in municipal elections, the Bulwark'sMona Charen lamented:  

Would you have predicted that the first big political blunder of 2022 would be committed by the freshly-inaugurated mayor of New York?

Yes, I would have. I was never a fan.

Would you have thought that Eric Adams, the African-American former cop, political moderate, and skilled campaigner who represented a better path for Democrats, would step on a rake?

Once again, yes. I heavily invested in the rake-making industry for this precise reason. 

PREVIOUSLY:

 NYC Mayor Eric Adams: Some Dumb Bullsh*t About Face Masks And CRIME! 

 NYC Mayor Eric Adams Gonna Defund Nerdy Libraries Only Loser Geeks Use Anyway 

 Eric Adams Proves That Our Prayers For A Normal NYC Mayor Remain Unanswered 

Adams has to his credit not discriminated when it comes to disappointing people. There's been bad policies on everything from face masks to funding public libraries, all with a dash of corruption. Here's the latest lowlight: Adams has often talked about his friend, fellow police officer Robert Venable, who died in the line of duty in 1987.

“I still think about Robert,” Mr. Adams said at a 2022 news conference after the deaths of two New York City police officers. “I keep a picture of Robert in my wallet.”

When the New York Times asked to see this picture, Adams posed in his office with the wallet-sized photo. He's since repeated the story during interviews and at police events, each time with the visual prop.

However, last week, the Times reported that "the weathered photo of Officer Venable had not actually spent decades in the mayor’s wallet. It had been created by employees in the mayor’s office in the days after Mr. Adams claimed to have been carrying it in his wallet."

Here are some more wacky sitcom details:

The employees were instructed to create a photo of Officer Venable, according to a person familiar with the request. A picture of the officer was found on Google; it was printed in black-and-white and made to look worn as if the mayor had been carrying it for some time, including by splashing some coffee on it, said the person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution.

The staffer who came up with the idea of distressing the photo with coffee should receive points for most creative problem solving while misleading the public.

Two former City Hall aides, who remain anonymous to spare their dignity, claim they'd known about the sham photo since last year. Fabien Levy, the mayor's spokesperson, insists that Adams has carried that photo of Officer Venable for decades. So sentimental! He's as devoted as I am to my Madonna trading cards. 

Levy even provided the names of former transit police colleagues who confirm that Adams and Officer Venable were friends. That's nice but it doesn't prove that Adams kept a photo of the guy like his high school crush. I worked with a lot of people 30 years whose photos I don't currently store next to my vaccination card.

The person who reportedly ordered the photo altered has referred all media inquiries to Levy, who's not great at PR spinning in a crisis. He whined that this is just a “campaign to paint the mayor as a liar," but we don't need coffee to create that very accurate picture.

Levy said Wednesday, “The Times ’s efforts to attack the mayor here would be laughable if it were not so utterly offensive." Sorry, sir, but this is definitely both those things.

[ New York Times ]

 Follow Stephen Robinson on Bluesky and Threads. 

Catch SER on his new podcast, The Play Typer Guy. 

Did you know SER has his own Substack? Well, now you do, so go subscribe right now!

Click the widget to keep your Wonkette ad-free and feisty.