Kinzinger knocks Jeffries for praising Eric Adams: ‘Are you kidding me?’
Former Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) on Sunday slammed House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) over a statement praising New York City Mayor Eric Adams following Adams’s decision to end his reelection bid.
“Are you kidding me? Eric Adams is corrupt and cut a corrupt deal with Trump to save himself,” Kinzinger said in a post on the social platform X.
Kinzinger’s post also featured a statement from Jefffries in which the Democrat said Adams had “served courageously and authentically for decades as a Member of the N.Y.P.D., the New York State Senate, in Brooklyn Borough Hall and as our 110th Mayor.”
Adams recently announced his decision to drop his reelection campaign, marking another significant twist in the New York City mayoral race. The contest took an unexpected turn back in June when New York Assembly member Zohran Mamdani (D), a democratic socialist, defeated political heavyweight and former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) in the Democratic primary.
Cuomo also weighed in following Adams’s announcement.
“The choice @ericadamsfornyc made today was not an easy one, but I believe he is sincere in putting the well-being of New York City ahead of personal ambition,” Cuomo said in a post on X Sunday.
“We face destructive extremist forces that would devastate our city through incompetence or ignorance, but it is not too late to stop them,” he added. “Mayor Adams has much to be proud of in his accomplishments. Only in New York can a child raised in a tenement in Bushwick, who once worked as a squeegee boy and a mailroom clerk, rise to become mayor.”
In a statement on Sunday, Mamdani painted President Trump and his “billionaire donors” as attempting to push Adams to end his bid to boost Cuomo.
“New York deserves better than trading in one disgraced, corrupt politician for another. On November 4th, we are going to turn the page on the politics of big money and small ideas and deliver a government every New Yorker can be proud of,” Mamdani said.
The Hill has reached out to the White House, Adams’s press office and Jeffries’s office for comment.