Mayor Eric Adams is still on the outs with President Biden, revealing on Tuesday that they have not met in person for nearly a year.
“I have not communicated with the president since I think earlier this year,” Adams said, during his weekly off-topic news conference. “Either earlier this year or late last year around the same time.”
Adams and Biden’s once close Democratic Party-allyship has soured over the course of the migrant crisis, which has seen more than 150,100 newcomers arrive in the Big Apple over the past 19 months. The mayor has repeatedly slammed the president in public for not covering the sizable cost of providing shelter and services for new arrivals or enacting a plan to divert them to other places around the country.
In the spring, Adams said that Biden had “failed” the city on immigration and the federal government had “turned its back” on the five boroughs. Soon after that Biden dropped Adams as a surrogate for his 2024 reelection campaign.
The pair also notably did not meet when Biden visited the city for three days in September to attend the United Nations General Assembly, instead opting to meet with Gov. Kathy Hochul.
Adams has also blamed the federal government’s lack of support for his recent round of 5% budget cuts across city agencies, which have led to the cancellation of five police academy classes, reducing the number of litter baskets in the outer boroughs and cutting Sunday service at most public library branches.
The news of continued bitterness between Adams and Biden comes as Hizzoner prepares to travel once again to Washington DC on Thursday — his 10th time since the start of the migrant crisis in 2022 — to plead with federal officials for more funding and resources to alleviate the strain of providing for 67,200 newcomers. The trip also marks the first time Adams is heading to the nation’s capital since he traveled there last month only to cancel several meetings with federal officials and jet back to the city when the feds raided the home of his chief fundraiser, Brianna Suggs.
The meetings Adams skipped out on included discussions with White House officials and members of Congress, but not the president himself.
Even with all of those trips to DC under his belt, Adams has still been mostly unsuccessful in securing more federal aid for the city — with the feds only having reimbursed his administration for $135 million of the $1.5 billion it has already spent on the crisis. When asked by a reporter Tuesday about what he expects to get out of his latest jaunt to DC, Adams said he is going to keep pushing for the same items he has already advocated for.
“I’ve learned in government that what you don’t accomplish on one conversation you have to keep repeating and continue to show the evidence of the things that you’re asking for, and that’s the goal here,” Adams said. “The goal is to constantly go there, be front and center and raise your concerns of how this is impacting our city.”
Adams would not say if he is going to meet with White House officials on the trip, or who else he might be meeting with, instead saying his office would release those details on Wednesday.
When asked by amNewYork Metro if Adams’ poor relationship with Biden has impeded the city’s efforts to get more assistance with the migrant crisis, veteran City Council Member Gale Brewer (D-Manhattan) said she does not think so.
“New York still has Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries, so it’s not like we’re without representation in Washington,” Brewer said, referring to U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. “Those two, if they can’t pull it off, even with more mayoral support, it wouldn’t have mattered … I know that the mayor’s tried as hard as he can but I don’t know that meeting would have helped or not.”
