Hizzoner took Hizztime.
Mayor Eric Adams was missing-in-action on Election Day and avoided the limelight most of the day before finally venturing out of hiding briefly to support his frenemy Andrew Cuomo.
The sitting mayor insisted he didn’t vote for himself but instead cast his ballot for Cuomo, the ex-governor who is running as an independent against Democratic Party nominee and mayoral front-runner Zohran Mamdani.
“It’s been a great four years and no matter, my vote is clearly for Governor Cuomo,” Adams said outside his polling site at PS 81 in Brooklyn.
“We can’t go backwards. We can’t legalize prostitution, we can’t tax people based on their ethnicity, we can’t defund our police department, we cannot go after small businesses,” he said, criticizing Mamdani — who has bashed the NYPD and is in favor of increasing taxes on the wealthy and decriminalizing sex work.
“And you know, this city is not a socialist city. This is capitalism, you come here as a dishwasher and one day you could become the mayor if you work hard enough.”
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Adams’ name was still on the ballot on a minor line, but the scandal-scarred Democrat dropped out of a June party primary and eventually abandoned his long-shot re-election bid as fundraising dried up and poll after dismal poll showed his chances of holding onto City Hall were slim.
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Leading up to casting his ballot, the one-termer had only released a statement through his spokesperson encouraging city dwellers to vote.
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It was also a mystery for much of the day when he would actually vote, with his staff only estimating his arrival time less than an hour before he actually cast his ballot.
Adams appeared to revel in the idea he would step aside into obscurity when his term ends at the end of the year. He claimed he had to be “stuck on stupid” to want to be mayor again and claimed he had other job opportunities lined up.
“I can, I can fly private now. I can go on a cruise. I can hang out in St Barts. I can go and do whatever I want without you guys looking over my shoulders. I’m, I’m actually out of the fish bowl,” he told reporters.
“I’m now going to live. I’ve been doing this for 40 years and for the first time in 40 years, I’m going back to be able to live my life and the joy of it. When y’all come and say, you know, what are we doing? Going to Spain, I could just give you the finger and keep it moving.”
The absence of the mayor for much of the day was noticeable after Adams had been out campaigning to help Cuomo in a last-minute push to upset Mamdani.
Adams’ endorsement was a sharp departure between Adams and Cuomo, with the mayor often attacking the ex-governor, even calling him a “snake and a liar.”
The incumbent’s time in office was thrown into disarray when he was hit with federal corruption charges under the Biden administration, and then faced accusations he only got the legal case tossed because he made a deal with President Trump.
The mayor, who said Tuesday he’s “had an amazing run as a New Yorker,” also issued a stark warning to Big Apple residents.
“And so, the only message I can give to New Yorkers as I go to the next leg of my journey, I’m leaving you a good city, don’t f–k it up,” he said.
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