The Eric Adams scandal could harm Kamala Harris, some Democrats fear

WASHINGTON – Some Democrats fear that the corruption scandal involving New York City Mayor Eric Adams could hurt Vice President Kamala Harris in the neck-and-neck presidential race and hamper the party’s bid for control of the House of Representatives.

The nervousness comes as Adams, who was indicted on federal corruption charges on Thursday, has refused to resign while suggesting he is the victim of a White House vendetta.

“While he is innocent until proven guilty, I certainly do not believe he has been targeted by the Biden-Harris administration,” the Rev. Al Sharpton, a Democratic kingmaker, told USA TODAY. “This is garbage.”

The embattled mayor claims he is the victim of federal retaliation for complaining about the financial burden of accepting 210,000 asylum seekers from the southern border.

Six Democrats – current and former elected officials, advisers and party leaders – expressed concern that the mayor’s allegations could harm Harris in battleground states by drawing more attention to immigration, an issue on which former President Donald Trump was the vice president clearly leads in surveys.

More:Eric Adams and the missing password: The Feds say the mayor of New York locked the phone before the FBI seized it

And with Trump now amplifying Adams’ claims of persecution in the White House, politicians fear the mayor could scuttle Democrats’ chances of retaking the House by refusing to resign and becoming a poster boy for mismanagement five weeks before Election Day becomes.

Republicans currently have an eight-seat majority in the House of Representatives, with three seats vacant in Democratic districts. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries would be the first Black speaker if Democrats win.

The Adams mess has Democrats “worried about House seats in suburban districts” outside the city, said Hank Sheinkopf, a longtime New York political consultant.

Flanked by clergy – but no elected Democrats – Adams said at a news conference after his indictment was unsealed Thursday: “I think we have to ask the federal prosecutors who gave the direction or the order.”

“I don’t know,” he said. “You should ask them who gave the order.”

Donald Trump speaks out

Former President Donald Trump rushed to Adams’ defense – and amplified his statements – claiming to have foreseen the allegations.

“I said, ‘You know what? He will be impeached within a year,” Trump told reporters. “And I was exactly right.”

Sharpton said he would meet with his fellow New Yorkers, Minority Leader Jeffries of Brooklyn and Rep. Gregory Meeks of Queens, in midweek to discuss the Adams implication.

“It’s not a reflection of him that Trump compliments him,” Sharpton said of his troubled ally.

“It’s in Sharpton’s hands.”

Adams and Sharpton have had a long relationship. Adams was an early board member of the Democratic civil rights organization the National Action Network and was baptized by Sharpton in a ceremony at the Rikers Island prison complex last March.

Adams did security work for Sharpton in the mid-1990s.

“If he said ‘resign,’ I just don’t think Adams could do anything other than resign,” said Ron Howell, author of “King Al,” a political biography of Sharpton.

“I guess you could say it’s in Sharpton’s hands,” he added.

A spokesman said Jeffries “is not scheduled to meet with other elected officials to discuss the mayoralty.” Sharpton is not an elected official. Meeks’ office did not respond to a request for comment.

A “gun” scandal

Federal investigators are also looking into Adam’s inner circle, including a former police commissioner, two deputy mayors, the school chancellor and, in a separate matter, the city’s interim police commissioner.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office also joined the investigation, seizing the phone of top City Hall aide Ingrid Lewis-Martin on Friday as she stepped off a plane from Japan.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has the power to remove Adams, but Sharpton and others have warned her against this politically sensitive move.

“There is a fear that this corruption stuff will be used against them in congressional and Senate elections,” said George Arzt, a veteran New York political consultant.

Between the indictment of Adams and the conviction of former Sen. Robert Menendez of New Jersey on federal corruption charges, Republicans have a ready-made attack pitch, Arzt said.

“Trump is supporting Eric now, but that is being used against the Democrats,” he added.

“I see it as a concern if it is used as a weapon,” Sharpton said.

More:New York Mayor Eric Adams pleads not guilty in federal court to corruption charges

The cloud over Adams, coupled with new charges, could turn uncommitted New York voters against Democratic candidates, several political activists said. The party is fighting for four seats that it unexpectedly lost to Republicans in 2022.

“Whenever there is a scandal on one side of the ballot or the other, that party tends to lose independent voters or swing voters,” said Robert Hornak, former executive director of the Queens Republican Party.

“He can’t function.”

According to several Democrats, pressure is growing to get Adams to resign, in part because the city government is paralyzed by the overlapping federal investigations.

“He is presumed innocent,” state Sen. Liz Kreuge told USA TODAY. But “he can’t be mayor. He can’t function and his people can’t function.”

The mayor said Thursday the swarm of investigations will have no impact

Adams is accused of accepting illegal foreign campaign contributions and free travel from Turkey and defrauding the city’s public campaign finance system of $10 million. He denies the allegations.

A national Democrat who did not want to be identified said Sharpton and Jeffries were forced to confront Adams over his potential harm to Harris – and over Jeffries’ chance to become the first black speaker of the House.

More:New York Mayor Eric Adams is indicted on bribery and foreign financing charges

In a video released the day before his indictment was made public, Adams portrayed himself as a martyr for good government.

“I always knew that if I stood my ground I would be a target – and I was a target,” he said.

“The federal government has done nothing as its broken immigration policies have overwhelmed our protection system without relief,” he added, linking the problem to its legal quagmire.

Attorney General Letitia James is reportedly reviewing the Adams administration’s contracts for emergency migrant housing.

“The evidence against Eric is frankly extensive, and his political defense that the Biden-Harris administration wrongly charged him, a leading Black elected official, is silly and absurd,” said Mark Green, who served as public counsel , the city’s second-largest elected politician post, in the 1990s.

The trick “suggests how tough his defense seems to be,” Green said.

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