WASHINGTON — Mayor Eric Adams faced not-so-friendly fire from fellow Democrats during a heated congressional hearing on sanctuary city laws Wednesday — while receiving a largely warm welcome from the GOP.
Hizzoner repeatedly insisted under oath during the six-hour House oversight committee hearing that there was “no quid pro quo” between him and the feds about President Trump’s Department of Justice moving to toss his corruption case.
The line of questioning from Dems such as New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez clearly frustrated Adams, who otherwise kept a low profile as Republican representatives ripped into three other big-city Democratic mayors.
The Democratic furor began with California Rep. Robert Garcia calling on Adams to resign as he accused the mayor of agreeing to work with Trump on immigration in order to see his charges dropped, which the mayor denied.
“Are you selling out New Yorkers to save yourself from prosecution?” Garcia bluntly asked Adams.
“There’s no deal, no quid pro quo and I did nothing wrong,” Adams responded.
The hearing in Washington, DC, vividly illustrated Adams’ waning position among his own party, as well as Republicans’ increasingly warm view of him.
Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Kentucky) called Adams “outstanding” while introducing him, but did not offer such pleasantries to the mayor’s counterparts: Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu and Denver Mayor Mike Johnston.
Comer even served up a gentle question to Adams over the cost for the “influx of illegal foreign entities” to New York City.
“Mr. Chairman, we spent $6.9 billion,” Adams said. “And the long term impact of that is extremely significant.”
Adams time-after-time gave that billion-dollar response to questions over the cost of “illegal” immigrants, despite repeatedly saying in the past that asylum seekers were in the city legally.
He otherwise faced few direct questions during the hearing, unlike the other Democratic mayors who spent hours in the hot seat.
Most of the nearly three dozen questions Adams received were from when Republicans went down the line of mayors, quizzing them on illegal immigration and sanctuary city policies.
At one point, Rep. William Timmons (R-South Carolina) backhandedly praised Adams for speaking up against former President Joe Biden’s border policies by insinuating it led to the mayor’s legal troubles.
“The only one of you who stood up to the previous administration was under investigation shortly thereafter,” he said. “Weird how that happens.”
Many Democrats tried to pin down Adams on the alleged improper deal to work with the Trump administration on immigration.
They trotted out props and repeatedly asked Adams about border czar Tom Homan’s promise — made in a bizarre joint appearance with the mayor on “Fox & Friends” — to be “up his butt” if he fails to uphold an “agreement” on the Trump admin’s immigration crackdown.
Adams fell back on denying any quid pro quo and contending he needed to defer to Manhattan federal Judge Dale Ho’s hotly-anticipated decision on whether to scrap the corruption case.
Ocasio-Cortez argued that deference to a judge is not a permissible excuse to avoid questions from Congress.
“Is it your intention to plead the Fifth?” she asked.
“I’m answering your question directly,” Adams responded.
Comer ended Ocasio-Cortez’s questions with a reminder that the hearing was over sanctuary city policies and that “Mr. Adams is here voluntarily.”
Numerous times as Adams was grilled by his fellow Dems on his ongoing legal woes, an attorney leaned in and whispered to the mayor before or interrupted him as he answered.
The lawyer refused to answer questions from a Post reporter, only saying he was counsel during one of the breaks.
Press secretary Kayla Mamelak later confirmed the attorney was Sandeep Savla of Norton Rose, where he works on white collar crimes and civil cases. She said he was brought on by the corporation counsel to represent the city.
Mamelak refused to answer any questions about why Savla repeatedly chimed in while the mayor was asked about his criminal case.
Adams dodged reporters as the contentious hearing ended.
