NEW YORK — Mayor Eric Adams is endorsing Andrew Cuomo in the race for City Hall — a stunning turnaround for Adams, who just a few weeks ago accused the ex-governor of being “a snake and a liar” who was behind an effort to push him out of the contest.
A source with direct knowledge of the matter told the New York Daily News that Adams was expected to formally deliver the endorsement Thursday during a joint appearance with Cuomo.
At an unrelated press conference, Adams said he would “be with Andrew later today,” but declined to answer more questions about it because he said it would distract from a child care-related announcement he was making.
“See you all later,” he said.
Adams spokesman Todd Shapiro didn’t immediately have any information about the planned appearance, but said the mayor will start campaigning alongside Cuomo now that he’s supporting him.
A Cuomo spokesman declined to immediately comment.
The endorsement comes after Adams abandoned his reelection bid late last month as he was polling dead last in the race and faced pressure to drop out to maximize Cuomo’s chances of beating Democratic front-runner Zohran Mamdani.
Adams’ decision to throw his weight behind Cuomo comes one day after the Daily News first reported the mayor had been talking to faith leaders about endorsing the ex-governor. It also comes one day after Cuomo, immediately following his second and final mayoral debate performance, zipped over to Madison Square Garden to watch the first Knicks game of the NBA season with Adams.
“Great win for the Knicks. We need to win for the city. Can’t go backwards,” Adams wrote in a post on X on Wednesday night that included a photo of himself sitting courtside with Cuomo while flashing a thumbs up.
It’s unclear how much of a bump Adams’ endorsement might give Cuomo.
After Adams exited the race, Cuomo gained ground on Mamdani in the polls, but still trailed him by double digits.
Early voting in the Nov. 4 mayoral election starts Saturday.
Adams, who’s set to leave office Jan. 1, remains unpopular in the city, having last year been indicted on federal corruption charges that were later quashed by President Donald Trump’s administration as part of a controversial arrangement.
While Adams was still in the mayoral race, he railed harshly against Cuomo, blaming the ex-governor for spearheading an effort to get him out of the way. On the trail, Adams also accused the ex-governor of having a record of ruining the careers of Black politicians, such as Carl McCall, a 2002 gubernatorial candidate whose campaign fizzled after Cuomo ran against him.
“Andrew Cuomo is a snake and a liar,” Adams said on Sept. 5.
Despite the acrimony, Cuomo and Adams are politically aligned, with both men embracing moderate views on public safety and other key issues.
Adams said at his Thursday press conference that free child care should be reserved for those who really need it, echoing a theme of Cuomo’s campaign.
“We would like to scale it up, but it should not be scaled up to those who don’t need the support,” Adams said.
Cuomo has embraced a similar policy approach, floating proposals that would subsidize social services for low-income New Yorkers.
By contrast, Mamdani, a democratic socialist who’s polling as the favorite to win on Nov. 4, has centered his campaign on proposals to make child care as well as some other social services free for all New Yorkers, regardless of income, arguing it’s needed at a time of spiraling costs of living.
In a statement Thursday, Mamdani used Adams’ endorsement of Cuomo as a springboard to accuse both men of being too chummy with Trump.
“It’s no surprise to see two men who share an affinity for corruption and Trump capitulation align themselves at the behest of the billionaire class and the president himself,” he said. “We are going to turn the page on the politics of big money and small ideas that these two disgraced executives embody and build a city every New Yorker can afford.”
Adams’ flip to back Cuomo comes after one of his most trusted advisers, Frank Carone, has been privately pressing him to get behind the ex-governor, as first reported by the Daily News last week.
Carone was the chairman of Adams’ reelection campaign and has been his chief political confidant for years. Immediately after Adams’ campaign suspension, Carone announced he would work to get Cuomo elected instead.
Before the tumult of this year’s campaign, Adams and Cuomo were friendly.
Shortly after he took office in January 2022, Adams faced some pushback for sitting down for dinner with Cuomo, who had just months earlier resigned as governor amid sexual and professional misconduct accusations he now denies.
“Mayor Adams meets with a lot of former government officials to talk about governance, which is particularly important in these unprecedented times,” Adams spokesman Fabien Levy said at the time in defending the dinner. “There was nothing political about the conversation.”
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