New York Mayor Adams refuses to quit race, blasts Cuomo after Trump nomination talk

New York City’s mayoral race is shaping up to be one of the ugliest and most consequential political battles in years. On Friday, Mayor Eric Adams vowed to stay in the race, brushing aside reports that President Donald Trump’s advisors had floated the idea of making him ambassador to Saudi Arabia if he agreed to bow out.

“I’m running for reelection, and I’m going to tell New Yorkers every day why I believe I should be the Mayor of the City of New York in 2026,” Adams declared, despite polling that shows him struggling in the single digits in what has effectively become a four-way contest.

Trump has made clear his strategy: clear the field so that one strong challenger can take down Zohran Mamdani, the self-described democratic socialist who has emerged as the Democratic nominee and frontrunner. On Friday, Trump suggested that former Governor Andrew Cuomo—running now as an independent—would have the best chance of defeating Mamdani in a head-to-head matchup.

Adams, however, didn’t take kindly to that. Outside Gracie Mansion, he lashed out: “New Yorkers, I want to speak directly to you. There has been so much speculation, communications, announcements of what I’m doing, no matter what I have stated over and over again publicly. So I want to be clear with you. Andrew Cuomo is a snake and a liar.”

Adams added, “I am in this race, and I’m the only one that can beat Mamdani. Andrew has had a career of pushing black candidates out of races.” He went on to insist, “I committed myself and dedicated myself to a city that I love, and I’m going to continue to do that. This polo shirt that I’m wearing that says Eric Adams, Mayor of the City of New York, I’m going to wear that for another four years. We can’t go backwards.”

He ended his remarks with a blunt promise: “I’m running for reelection. I’m going to beat Mamdani.” Then he walked away without taking questions.

Trump, meanwhile, didn’t back down from his view that Cuomo might stand the better chance. “I would say that Cuomo might have a chance of winning if it was a one-on-one,” he said. “If it’s not one-on-one, it’s going to be a hard race. I think if you have more than one candidate, we’ve got ourselves a communist mayor in New York.”

The dynamics are complicated further by Adams’s decision to skip the Democratic primary altogether after facing sinking approval ratings and a criminal indictment on federal corruption charges—a case that the Trump administration later requested to be dropped. Mamdani, nevertheless, had already defeated Cuomo handily in the Democratic primary.

Meanwhile, Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa has signaled he has no intention of stepping aside.

All of this sets the stage for a fractured race where the far-left candidate stands to benefit most from division among his opponents. With Adams refusing to quit, Cuomo bitterly clashing with him, and Sliwa holding firm, the concern is clear: unless the field consolidates, New York City could soon find itself led by an open socialist. For a city already plagued by rising crime, financial mismanagement, and declining quality of life, the stakes couldn’t be higher.