New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez called on New York City Mayor Eric Adams to resign in a post on social media Wednesday amid multiple federal investigations that have touched members of his administration and a handful of high-profile resignations.
“I do not see how Mayor Adams can continue governing New York City,” Ocasio-Cortez said in a post on X. “The flood of resignations and vacancies are threatening gov function. Nonstop investigations will make it impossible to recruit and retain a qualified administration. For the good of the city, he should resign.”
Multiple investigations have produced a drumbeat of subpoenas, raids and whiplash-inducing developments for the first-term Democrat in recent weeks. Federal investigators have visited more than a dozen members of his administration, taking devices from the police commissioner (who then resigned), the head of the public schools and other trusted confidantes both in and out of City Hall.
At least one high-ranking mayoral aide received a subpoena to testify before a grand jury.
Federal prosecutors have declined to discuss the investigations but people familiar with elements of the cases have described multiple, separate inquiries involving senior Adams aides, relatives of those aides, campaign fundraising and possible influence peddling at the police and fire departments.
Adams has not been accused of wrongdoing and adamantly denies any knowledge of criminal activity. No charges have been filed in the investigations.
He pushed back sharply on AOC’s social media post with a statement.
““For anyone who self-righteously claims people charged with serious crimes should not be in jail to now say that the second Black mayor of New York should resign because of rumors and innuendo — without even a single charge being filed — is the height of hypocrisy. I am leading this city to protect it from exactly that kind of phony politics. The people of this city elected me to fight for them, and I will stay and fight no matter what,” Adams said Wednesday.
Among the questions: Did the mayor or the campaign’s defense attorneys go to the Justice Department to try to explain why criminal charges are not warranted. The mayor did not directly respond to that question on Tuesday. NBC New York’s Jonathan Dienst reports.
The mayor has repeatedly said he has no plans to resign and is focused on running the city.
“We’re going to continue to fight on behalf of New Yorkers… I’m stepping up, not stepping down. I have a city to run that I will continue to run,” Adams said at a media availability on Sept. 24.
NBC News caught up with AOC Wednesday night and read her the mayor’s response.
“Here’s the deal. This is not about investigations. This is about the fact that his NYPD Commissioner had resigned. His interim named commissioner is now under federal investigation. His DOE commissioner has now resigned. His deputy mayor is under federal investigation. We just saw investigations expand into five other countries. This is not about rumors. This is about the fact that people are leaving the Adams administration en masse,” the congresswoman said in part.
Ocasio-Cortez said she has not spoken with the mayor.
A handful of Adams’ longtime political critics have called on him to leave office, but top Democrats in the state have largely been silent about the criminal investigations, or generally supportive of the mayor.
Speaking to reporters Wednesday morning, the top Democrat in the House, U.S. Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, of New York, said he believed Adams was “working as hard as he can to be the best mayor possible.”
“We need Eric Adams to be successful as mayor because he is the mayor at this moment in time,” Jeffries said.
