Hochul doesn’t rule out removing Adams

Gov. Kathy Hochul did not rule out removing New York City Mayor Eric Adams during a Thursday night cable news appearance following a series of resignations by federal prosecutors who refused to drop corruption charges against the mayor. The new comments are in stark contrast to those she made just days ago, when she balked at the prospect of removal. 

News broke in numerous outlets on Thursday that now-former Acting U.S. Attorney Danielle Sassoon had resigned from her post in the Southern District over the Department of Justice demand to drop the charges against Adams. In a letter sent to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, Sassoon said her office was preparing to bring additional charges against Adams and also claimed that lawyers for Adams all but explicitly asked for a quid pro quo agreement with the Justice Department to drop the charges in exchange for cooperation with immigration enforcement. Following Sassoon’s resignation, at least five other top Justice Department officials reportedly resigned after refusing to seek dismissal of the case against Adams.

Speaking on the Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC, Hochul said she had seen the letter Sassoon sent to Bondi and called the allegations that Sassoon made about Adams “extremely serious and concerning.” Although Hochul said that she did not want to have a “knee-jerk” reaction to the latest developments, she kept the door open to the prospect of removal when asked about it. “I'm consulting with other leaders in government at this time,” she told Maddow, adding that there needs to be “one sane person in the state who can cut through all the crap.” Because the latest revelations are so new, Hochul said, she needed “some time to process this and figure out the right approach.”

That’s a very different response than what she told reporters at an unrelated press conference on Tuesday after the initial news that the DOJ had instructed Manhattan federal prosecutors to drop the corruption charges against Adams. “I’m not going to go there,” Hochul said, apparently bristling at the idea of exercising her state constitutional authority to remove the New York City mayor. “To suggest that at this point in time, just use my powers (and) say, ‘Despite what the voters said when you ran three-and-a-half years ago, I’m overturning that election’ – that doesn’t seem very democratic,” she told reporters.

Hochul isn’t the only notable figure who is changing their tune. Shortly before Hochul went on MSNBC, her second-in-command, Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado, apparently broke with the governor’s position on Adams. “New York City deserves a Mayor accountable to the people, not beholden to the President,” Delgado wrote in a post on X. “Mayor Adams should step down.” This isn’t the first time that the lieutenant governor has seemingly gone rogue and deviated from Hochul’s message. Last summer, Delgado called on former President Joe Biden to drop out of the race for president. At the time, Hochul remained a steadfast Biden backer, which she continued to be until the day he dropped out.

In a prickly statement Thursday night, Hochul’s communications director indicated that Delgado’s position does not reflect that of the administration. “Governor Hochul is carefully reviewing these new allegations,” he said in a text. “Lieutenant Governor Delgado does not now and has not ever spoken on behalf of this administration.”

A handful of progressive lawmakers have also begun calling on Hochul to remove Adams in the wake of recent news. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is the most high-profile official so far to call for the mayor’s removal, writing on social media that “he should have resigned a while ago, but will not.” Assembly Member Zohran Mamdani, who is running for mayor against Adams, also said Hochul should use her power to force Adams out.