Your support helps us to tell the story
Our mission is to deliver unbiased, fact-based reporting that holds power to account and exposes the truth.
Whether $5 or $50, every contribution counts.
Support us to deliver journalism without an agenda.
Louise Thomas
Editor
Mayor Eric Adams’ September 25 indictment has spurred hilarious reactions from New Yorkers.
On Wednesday, the 64-year-old politician was indicted on federal charges of bribery, wire fraud, solicitation of contribution by a foreign national, and conspiracy.
The US Attorneys in the Southern District of New York announced his five-count indictment and accused him of taking “illegal campaign contributions” during his 2021 mayoral campaign in addition to “other things of value, from foreign nationals.”
These charges come after a lengthy federal investigation into his 2021 campaign as well his personal ties to Turkish government officials and nationals. Adams is now the first sitting mayor to face federal criminal charges.
On social media, locals were quick to joke about the ordeal.
“And that’s why you don’t play chicken with the public library budget,” The New Yorker’s Emily Nussbaum joked
“Meanwhile across town Samantha was dealing with an indictment of her own,” wrote another, referencing a famous Sex and the City bit.
“I guess God doesn’t want Eric Adams to be mayor anymore,” a third wrote. Adams famously once said that God wanted him to be New York City mayor.
“Eric Adams throwing awaying his career,” wrote another next to a video of the mayor introducing the city’s trashcans.
Others shared jokes about Adams’s famed hatred of rats. Between his 2022 press conference remarks, where he officially declared his distaste for the city’s unofficial inhabitants, to the Urban Rat Summit he hosted earlier this month, Adams has been very vocal about wanting to solve the city’s rodent problem.
“Rats high-fiving each other in the street,” one person remarked.
A second posted a Photoshopped picture of a rat seated at the head of a table with the caption: “Tell Eric I want him to know it was me.”
“Rats secure yet another victory in New York’s ‘war on rats,’” another person commented, while a fourth added: “They’re winning the streets one slice of pizza at a time lmfao.”
Adams confessed he was “not surprised” by the charges raised again him and refused to step down from his position as mayor. He denied all the allegations against him, ignoring all past and present lawmakers urging him to leave his post as the top official in the city.
Adams was elected as New York City’s 110th mayor in 2021 and took office in 2022. He was due to run again in next year’s mayoral race for a second term.
