Why Gustavo Rivera was early in calling for Eric Adams to resign

Health care policy is usually top of mind for state Sen. Gustavo Rivera, recently introducing legislation requiring insurance companies to provide inhalers for free and another providing insurance coverage for chronic pain. But lately, he has been more concerned with the health of New York City’s government. Rivera was among the first in the state Legislature to call on New York City Mayor Eric Adams to resign in light of ongoing federal investigations into the mayor and his administration, doing so two days before Adams was indicted. City & State sat down with the state senator on Sept. 27 to discuss his push to oust Adams and the charges against the mayor. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

I saw that you called for New York City Mayor Eric Adams to resign. I assume after the schools chancellor resigned? Is that right?

Yeah, it was after the chancellor. I had already been thinking about it. It had already been on my mind for a couple of days. But it just got to the point that that, for me, was the gallon that spilled the cup, so to speak.

Yeah, and now we have this indictment, which, of course, is completely unrelated, seemingly.

It is unrelated, but it isn’t. I think that what we have is that people are running for the exits, because they either are under investigation themselves or recognize that this is not an administration that they can continue to be part of. So it’s all related. Which is what’s sad here, and what I think the mayor needs to realize (is) that if he truly cares about New Yorkers, he must resign. 

Just to play devil’s advocate for a moment, there are some folks who say, “Well, he hasn’t been convicted of a crime.” To you, why is it important that Adams take that step to resign now?

Because one thing is – just because someone hasn’t been convicted doesn’t mean that they can actually still govern. … As he has said himself, he will use all of his energy and all of his efforts to fight this with all his might. Very well! And matter of fact, I absolutely believe in the presumption of innocence for everybody. Unlike – I should say – what the mayor has done more than once is he has no presumption of innocence for people who are murdered by the NYPD or people who die at Rikers. But hey, that’s another conversation altogether. I have a presumption of innocence for everyone, including him. So yes, he is innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. But that is directly related to the fact – the fact that he has to defend himself from these charges – is directly related to the fact that he can’t govern effectively anymore when all of his agency heads are running for the doors. We don’t have a permanent police commissioner. We don’t have a permanent (schools) chancellor. Both of his attorneys quit. The commissioner of health is leaving, as well. (In a few days), we might have three or four more people who are also running for the doors. And by the way, this is not the end of the investigation, as the U.S. attorney made clear. This is an ongoing thing, and many of the people whose phones have been seized or homes have been raided – they weren’t even mentioned in yesterday’s indictment, which says that there’s probably a lot more coming. So in light of all of this, his innocence or guilt is completely separate from the fact that, because he has to fight these charges, he does not have the capacity to govern, so he must leave.

I assume you’ve read the indictment at this point?

I haven’t read the whole thing, but my God, there are many instances that just are like, “Are you serious, right now?” You know? “Make it look real.” “Don’t charge us 50 bucks, make it look real. Charge, like, a grand.” “I mean, I know it’s a $12,000 ticket or whatever, but just give us a grand, you know, a little bit of a discount.” What are we talking about here? It’s just incredible stuff.

In other words, it’s one thing to accept the gift, it’s another thing to accept a gift and then negotiate that gift?

I can see the scene in the freaking TV movie now: Somebody getting questioned by the feds, and then she’s like, “I had bad fish last night. I need to go to the restroom,” and then go to the restroom and immediately try to delete the app that you’ve just been asked about, that you communicate with the mayor on. What are we talking about here? It is ridiculous and it is causing distraction. That’s what ultimately we’re talking about here. We have an affordability crisis, we have an overdose death crisis, we have a housing crisis, we have an influx of migrants. … This is not chewing gum and walking at the same time – this is chewing gum while drunk on a tightrope with a blindfold and holding a bowling ball on each hand and trying to say that you’re going to do it all at the same time. You cannot. Resign.

Looking at the indictment, there are moments where they refer to a conversation, and they’ll say, “and Adams knew XYZ.” Reading that, do you think that suggests that the case is thin, or that there’s more that we don’t know yet or they’re not showing us yet?

Obviously, an indictment lays out the general facts, but they don’t lay out every fact – that will obviously be provided and entered into evidence during a trial. So I am pretty certain that they have clear evidence that demonstrates that Adams knew and participated. That’s No. 1. As far as this case is concerned, I do think that this is related to illegal donations and straw donations and everything. This is probably that case. But there’s a whole bunch of other stuff that hasn’t even been mentioned yet. Just yesterday – I mean, come on, this is just ridiculous – just yesterday the sheriff’s office was raided because it’s like, “Whoops, we just have, like, wads of cash we can’t find.” Like, where did that end up? These are the folks that he’s put into office. This is the administration that he leads. So there’s obviously a lot more things that are going to come down the pipe here. We need to be rid of this. We need to turn the damn page. He must resign.

Some of your colleagues have called on Adams to resign, and it does sort of feel like the floodgates have opened a bit. I’m wondering, where do you think your colleagues are at right now? Do you expect more of them to join you?

I absolutely expect more of them to join me. I’ve been talking to some of them privately, and some of them are more resistant to it than others, and everybody’s got to reach the conclusion on their own, but I do think just in the last couple of days, we’ve seen a lot of people. And I don’t think it’s a pile on. I think it’s just we need to hear from our leaders about where they stand on this. And my hope is that we get to a tipping point where – whether it’s Assembly members, council members, Congress members, etc. – just feeling that they can’t trust that whatever conversation they’re having with a city agency is going to be, you know, like, “Are you? Is that person being investigated? Can I trust that this person is doing their job ethically?” It's those types of questions that mean we can’t actually govern the city. So I would argue that many of my colleagues are going to join me, and I would hope that we get it to a tipping point. There are many folks who are convinced that the likelihood of Eric Adams resigning is impossible. That’s perfectly fine for you to believe that. A lot of people thought that about (then-Gov. Andrew) Cuomo, and Cuomo quit in disgrace, as he should have. I was one of his biggest critics during his last couple of years in office, to my detriment at times. But I was right then, and I’m right now. So yeah, we continue the pressure.