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NYC Mayor Adams calls demands to resign over Trump DOJ indictment dismissal a ‘modern day Mein Kampf,’ sparking outrage

Adams delivered the heated remark while speaking at an event at Brooklyn's Rehoboth Cathedral — a gathering billed as a rally for his reelection in June's Democratic mayoral primary.

Mayor Adams contended Monday that renewed calls for his resignation over President Trump’s Justice Department bid to drop his corruption indictment amounts to “a modern day ‘Mein Kampf,'” a comment that his critics quickly blasted as offensive.

Adams delivered the heated remark while speaking at an event at Brooklyn’s Rehoboth Cathedral — a gathering billed as a rally for his reelection in June’s Democratic mayoral primary — and he was introduced by a handful of clergy members who sang his praises.

 

Eric Adams makes an appearance at Rehoboth Cathedral Monday, Feb. 17, 2025 in Brooklyn, New York. (Barry Williams/ New York Daily News)
Eric Adams makes an appearance at Rehoboth Cathedral Monday, Feb. 17, 2025 in Brooklyn, New York. (Barry Williams/ New York Daily News) 

Once he took the stage, Adams addressed the controversies swirling over his mayoralty, saying he has recently turned to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s teachings as a growing number of local elected leaders have demanded he resign or be removed from office.

“I was listening to some of Dr. King’s teachings, and he talked about the book ‘Mein Kampf.’ He said if you repeat a lie long enough, loud enough people will believe it is true, and that’s what you’re seeing right now. This is a modern day ‘Mein Kampf,'” Adams told a group of about 30 supporters, referring to Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler’s genocidal manifesto.

In the widely reviled book, Hitler wrote “the great masses” are inclined to “more easily fall victim to a big lie than to a small one.”

 

Eric Adams speaks to the media after appearing at Rehoboth Cathedral Monday, Feb. 17, 2025 in Brooklyn, New York. (Barry Williams/ New York Daily News)
Eric Adams speaks to the media after appearing at Rehoboth Cathedral Monday, Feb. 17, 2025 in Brooklyn. (Barry Williams/ New York Daily News) 

City Comptroller Brad Lander, who’s Jewish and running against Adams in June’s primary, said the mayor’s Hitler reference was beyond the pale.

“To invoke Hitler here is shande,” Lander said, using a Yiddish phrase that means disgrace or shame. “As the highest-ranking Jewish elected official in New York City government, I condemn the mayor’s language in the strongest terms.”

Ex-Comptroller Scott Stringer, who’s also Jewish and challenging Adams in June, also blasted his comments as “unacceptable” and “offensive,” but suggested they were “nonsensical,” too.

“The mayor of the city with the largest Jewish population should not be comparing the situation that his own unethical conduct put him in to anything to do with Hitler or the Holocaust,” Stringer said.

Adams spokeswoman Kayla Mamelak didn’t immediately return a request to elaborate on the mayor’s comments. After his remarks, the supporters laid hands on Adams and prayed for him.

 

Eric Adams arrives at Rehoboth Cathedral Monday, Feb. 17, 2025 in Brooklyn, New York. (Barry Williams/ New York Daily News)
Mayor Adams arrives at Rehoboth Cathedral Monday, Feb. 17, 2025 in Brooklyn. (Barry Williams/ New York Daily News)

Adams delivered the speech at the Brooklyn church just as news broke that four of his deputy mayors had submitted their resignations. According to sources familiar with the matter, the deputies, including his second-in-command Maria Torres-Springer, resigned after informing Adams they’re concerned about his ability to lead the city after Trump’s DOJ filed a motion to dismiss his case late Friday with political considerations in mind.

The motion, which Trump’s political appointees filed after Manhattan federal prosecutors refused and resigned instead, asks a judge to dismiss the case for now, but leave the DOJ with the possibility of bringing it back as early as November.

In the interim, the DOJ leaders wrote they expect Adams to participate more in Trump’s hardline effort to target undocumented immigrants in New York for deportations, an unusual caveat in a court proceeding that both critics and allies of the mayor say makes him a “hostage” to the president’s agenda.

 

Originally Published: February 17, 2025 at 6:31 PM EST

Author: Editors Desk

Source: NY Daily News:

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