House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) said Eric Adams should not resign as the Big Apple mayor fights an unprecedented federal indictment.
The Brooklyn lawmaker bucked an avalanche of other Democrats calling for Adams to step down during a New Mexico campaign stop Thursday, NBC News first reported.
“No,” Jeffries bluntly said when asked if Adams should resign.
“My view is that Mayor Adams, like every other New Yorker and every other American, is entitled to the presumption of innocence and entitled to a trial by a jury of his peers who will ultimately determine his fate within the legal system,” Jeffries said.
Jeffries’ wait-and-see sentiment echoed that of several other prominent black pols and figures who have called for patience as Adams faces federal bribery and corruption charges.
The Rev. Al Sharpton last week defended Adams, casting a potential move by Gov. Kathy Hochul to remove the mayor as smacking of a political double standard.
Other embattled pols, notably former New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez, were allowed to stay in office as they fought accusations of wrongdoing, Sharpton argued.
“What we’re saying is there must be one set of rules,” he said.
Adams, the city’s second black mayor, has sought to shore up support from African American leaders and communities since his indictment last week.
During a press conference outside Gracie Mansion after the indictment was unsealed, Adams was flanked by local black leaders, including NAACP president Hazel Dukes.
He also embarked on a spate of visits to black churches, telling one Bronx congregation, “I’m not going to resign. I’m going to reign.”
Hizzoner’s appeals, however, struck some black New Yorkers as self-serving.
Black Lives Matter activists heckled Adams at his post-indictment presser, with one — Hawk Newsome — calling him “an embarrassment to black people.”
“This is not a black thing — this is a YOU thing,” he yelled.
