LEMIRE: “But now, this just in: A federal judge has ordered New York City Mayor Eric Adams to appear in court tomorrow for a hearing to explain the Department of Justice’s controversial request to dismiss the criminal charges against him. Today, Adams will have until 5 P.M. to provide his written consent filing to dismiss those bribery charges. And we should also note, Mara, later today, the governor is assembling a meeting of civil rights leaders, elected officials, community leaders here in New York as she mulls what to do about Mayor Adams. There is a mechanism never before used where she could try to oust him, remove him from power. And this comes a day after four of his deputy mayors offered their resignations, their intent to resign because of this deal with Department of Justice.”
GAY: “That’s right. It’s very clear that the nation’s largest city right now is leaderless, essentially. You know, Eric Adams really should resign. And if he cares about putting New York first, as he says he does, the most heroic thing he can do in this moment is step down. There is a mechanism, as you said, for the governor of the state, you know, under the city charter, actually, to remove the mayor. That’s an extreme action. There is a second option, as well, which is called an Inability Committee of city officials that would — there’s kind of a higher bar to do that, but that could also remove him. I think that’s a little less likely. I still think it’s unlikely that the governor will remove the mayor unless she absolutely has to. There is a lot of reasons why that may not be, you know, an ideal move. I think, especially at a moment where you have a sitting elected mayor in the drama of the crisis of democracy that’s playing out, you know, there’s no easy option here because Mayor Adams is duly elected. He is up for re-election this year. There will be an opportunity for New Yorkers to replace the mayor, first in the June primary and then again in November. So we are just months away from that, which feels more Democratic. At the same time, the reality is that the mayor is deeply beholden to the president of the United States. And in order to protect the 8.3 plus million New Yorkers and make sure that their city is being run by someone who is beholden to them, not the president, you know, the governor may not have many options.”
