Rev. Al Sharpton urged Gov. Kathy Hochul Saturday to refrain from using her authority to remove Mayor Eric Adams from office — arguing that such a move would have “no precedent,” days after the governor said she is mulling her “options and obligations” in relation to the mayor’s indictment.
Sharpton’s remarks are something of a shift in his recent public tenor on Adams, whose political future has grown more tenuous after the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Manhattan unsealed a five-count indictment this week, charging the mayor with bribery and fraud charges. Until Saturday morning, Sharpton had been relatively quiet in his support for the mayor, whom he has vocally backed in the past as an influential ally.
“The governor should not be pressured into removing Eric Adams from being the mayor,” Sharpton said on Saturday during his regularly scheduled National Action Network rally.
The governor has the power — under the city charter and state law — to remove the mayor, and following the charges against Adams, Hochul said she was weighing all of her options. A spokesperson for Hochul did not immediately return a request for comment.
“There is no precedent for that,” Sharpton continued. “We just had a U.S. senator, Menendez, indicted. They found gold bars in his house, Mercedes Benz … He was not forced to resign until he was convicted.”
The rarely used gubernatorial authority was invoked by former Gov. Franklin D. Roosevelt against Mayor Jimmy Walker, who was also being investigated over corruption allegations, but Walker resigned in 1932 before Roosevelt exercised his power to remove him.
Adams’ defiant approach in claiming his innocence has not sat well with some, particularly those taking issue with the mayor’s claims that he is a “target” — and his apparent suggestion, without evidence, that his communications with the federal government on the migrant crisis are to blame.
Sharpton on Saturday said he did not believe the Biden administration had targeted Adams, and cautioned anyone against using such rhetoric.
Sharpton told the New York Times on Thursday, the day charges were unsealed against the mayor, that he would be convening a meeting of Black leaders to discuss the situation in the coming days but acknowledged the delicate nature of the circumstances.
“Does that hurt Vice President Kamala Harris? The head of the Southern District is a Black man that we work with,” Sharpton told the Times. “There’s complexities in this.”
But Sharpton had taken a more decisive step toward Adams’ defense by Saturday morning.
“We’re going to see where the evidence is, but we are not going to stand by silently and let Governor Hochul not know that some of us are saying: ‘Do not change the process and the precedent,’” Sharpton said. “Let due process take its course.”
Sharpton was flanked by civil rights legend Rev. Herbert Daughtry who also appeared with Adams the day he was charged. While insisting Adams be allowed due process, he did briefly raise a question about the leadership ability of City Hall officials who have been buffeted by federal and state investigations.
Sharpton joked during his Saturday remarks that former President Donald Trump did Adams no favors when the Republican candidate voiced his support for the mayor this week.
“I do not want this to get into a contest that helps [former President Donald] Trump,” Sharpton said. “If I was facing a federal trial, the last person I want to speak up for me is somebody convicted of 34 felonies.”
