Mayor Eric Adams touts his legacy leading NYC, blasts some of Zohran Mamdani's supporters
Incumbent New York City Mayor Eric Adams insisted Tuesday he's not giving up on his quest to get reelected despite his low standing in the polls.
He then levied incendiary charges against some of frontrunner Zohran Mamdani's supporters.
"My legacy is locked in"
A smiling Adams walked into the living room at Gracie Mansion and told CBS News New York's Marcia Kramer he's in it to win it and will go down as one of the great mayors of all time.
"My legacy is locked in. I'm going to be up there with the LaGuardias," Adams said.
Pressed as to whether if he's going to campaign until the end of the election cycle, "I'm going to keep going," Adams said.
- Read more: NYC Mayor Adams insists he's staying in the race, blasts "two spoiled brats running for mayor"
Adams, however, seemed bitter about the tone of the campaign and ugly rhetoric he says he has been subjected to by Mamdani backers.
"Mamdani 's supporters, a substantial number of them, are mean people. They're arrogant. They're nasty. They have a total disregard for others," Adams said. "We were walking through the church the other day, getting ready to go for service, and they yelled out, 'F*** you! F*** you!,' yelling across the street."
Mamdani's campaign offered a response.
"It speaks volumes that the mayor -- especially at a time of heightened political violence -- would choose to spread dangerous lies about the New Yorkers he was elected to serve, all while never refusing to condemn [President] Trump's threats to deport and arrest Zohran Mamdani," the campaign said in a statement.
Assembly Speaker Heastie to endorse Mamdani, sources say
Sources tell CBS News New York that Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie will endorse Mamdani on Wednesday, following in the footsteps of Gov. Kathy Hochul, who threw her support behind the Queens assemblyman Monday.
- Read more: President Trump weighs in on Gov. Kathy Hochul's endorsement of Zohran Mamdani for NYC mayor
Hochul, who got a COVID shot Tuesday in a pointed rebuke to the anti-vaccine policies of U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., explained that while she and Mamdani have areas of agreement and disagreement, she is backing him because she thinks he has a backbone.
"What this city needs is someone who's going to stand up to Donald Trump aggressively and not cave and not be bought off," Hochul said.
Hochul, Mamdani disagree on Israeli PM Netanyahu
The governor said she agrees with Mamdani's goal of universal health care, but doesn't support his desire to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he comes to New York because of a warrant issued by the International Criminal Court over his conduct in the war in Gaza.
"I would say that Benjamin Netanyahu is a person who is nowhere near unanimously supported by Jewish New Yorkers, and that is in opposition because of the fact that we are speaking about a war crime," Mamdani said Monday.
"I disagree with that, and I also do not believe the mayor of New York or the NYPD have the legal authority to do so," Hochul said of arresting the Israeli leader.
Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who was sitting in second place in a recent mayoral poll, agreed.
"I think it's just hyperbolic rhetoric to make the point that [Mamdani] is anti-Israel. We know he's anti-Israel, and I think that's just an exclamation, punctuation of how rabidly anti- Israel he is. It would be absurd to have a mayor put aside the fact that there's no legal jurisdiction," Cuomo said.