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Mayor Eric Adams insisted Sunday he has no plans to step down despite a litany of legal troubles and repeated calls for him to throw in the towel — telling a church gathering he’s on a mission from God.
“I am going nowhere,” Hizzoner said during morning remarks at the Maranatha Baptist Church in Queens Village.
“I have a mission to finish, the mission that God put me on many years ago,” Adams said.
“I just find it so amazing — the most sanctified among us are calling for me to step down,” he said. “I’m not going to step down. I’m going to step up.
“I want to be clear: You are going to hear so many rumors … and you’re going to read so much. [But] I am going nowhere. Nowhere. God has fortified me.”
It’s unclear if the grace of the Almighty will be enough to keep Adams — a Democrat seeking his second term — in Gracie Mansion with the cascade of scandals and indictments rocking his administration.
Adams, 64, had pleaded not guilty to charges that he fast-tracked the opening of the Turkish Consulate in Manhattan in exchange for $123,000 worth of bribes — and that he sought illegal donations from Turks who poured tens of thousands of dollars in cash into his 2021 campaign.
Then came the Trump administration, which Adams had been cozying up to, particularly on immigration.
The Justice Department soon ordered Manhattan federal prosecutors to drop the historic corruption case against Adams, calling it politically motivated by the previous Biden administration, which the mayor had tussled with over border issues.
Manhattan’s top federal prosecutor, Danielle Sassoon, quit in protest over the dropping of the case. She said in a scathing resignation letter that nixing the charges against Adams amounted to a “quid pro quo” meant to force the now-indebted mayor to comply with Trump’s hardline immigration policy.
At least 30 local Democratic leaders have already called on Adams to abandon his post.
“New York City deserves a Mayor accountable to the people, not beholden to the President,” Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado, Kathy Hochul’s second-in-command, wrote in a social media post Thursday. “Mayor Adams should step down.”
State Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, a Westchester County Democrat, told The Post on Saturday while attending a political conference in Albany, “It’s probably time that he move aside.”
Stewart-Cousins said she would back Gov. Kathy Hochul if the governor yanks Adams from office — an extraordinary move that the gov has the power to make, even though no Empire State governor has tried to pull a Big Apple mayor since Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Hochul told MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow on Thursday night that she is still weighing her options.
“The allegations are extremely concerning and serious, but I cannot as the governor of this state have a knee-jerk, politically motivated reaction like a lot of other people are saying right now,” Hochul said.
“I have to do what’s smart, what’s right and I’m consulting with other leaders in government at this time.”
Some political insiders are skeptical Hochul would force Adams out without the support of black political leaders, voters and activists such as the Rev. Al Sharpton.
Despite the public maelstrom, Adams remained defiant during another speech from the pulpit Sunday, too.
“All those tripping over themselves to say … who I’m going to be beholden [to] and how I’m no longer independent — I know who I am,” Adams said during a second sermon at Mount Olivet Baptist Church of Hollis in St. Albans, Queens. “God is still in charge.
“I’m going to continue to stand up and be a child of God,” he said. “I just don’t understand those who watched the second black mayor in the history of this city — and they are joining in the chorus.”
