After weeks on the fence about whether to attend, Mayor Adams said late Tuesday that he’ll be at Zohran Mamdani’s Thursday inauguration.
“We communicated this afternoon, and he made it clear that he would like for me to attend, and I would like to be there to show the smooth, peaceful transition of power. We both know how important that is,” Adams said in an unannounced appearance on WABC77 radio.
Though the outgoing mayor has long claimed he doesn’t discuss private conversations, Adams said he told his successor that he doesn’t “want to do anything to disrupt this important moment in history.’”
“And [Mamdani] said, ‘No, Eric … It would be good to see you there’,” Adams added.
Mamdani spokeswoman Dora Pekec confirmed the mayor-elect and Adams communicated via text Tuesday afternoon about the inauguration. Mamdani has for weeks said Adams is welcome at his inauguration, and Pekec told the Daily News Mamdani reiterated that in texts to the mayor.
Mamdani’s inauguration is slated to take place Thursday afternoon on the steps of City Hall before thousands of supporters, with Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders expected to administer the oath of office.
It’s standard for outgoing mayors to attend the inauguration of their successors, even after bitter campaigns. Memorably, outgoing Mayor Michael Bloomberg sat on the dais on the City Hall steps during incoming Mayor Bill de Blasio’s 2014 inauguration, during which multiple speakers laced into Bloomberg.
Still, for weeks, Adams has declined to say whether he would attend Mamdani’s swearing-in.
On Monday, Adams blamed Mamdani’s own supporters for his indecision, saying he doesn’t want to give them a reason to “disrupt” the ceremony by protesting him.
“It’s unfortunate that there’s a body of some of his supporters, some of them, who rather protest everything,” Adams said.
Adams’ attendance at the ceremony could be awkward. After dumping his bid for reelection in September amid continued fallout from his federal corruption indictment, Adams endorsed Mamdani’s chief rival in the mayoral race, ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo, and railed harshly against Mamdani, calling him the “king of gentrifiers.”
Since then, Adams has taken various steps to stymie Mamdani’s agenda, including by appointing new members to the Rent Guidelines Board in an effort to block his successor’s push to freeze rents for the city’s stabilized tenants.
On Wednesday, in his final hours in office, Adams is also expected to veto roughly 20 City Council bills, many of which have earned the support of Mamdani, according to sources familiar with the matter. The Council can override the outgoing mayor’s vetoes when the chamber reconvenes early next year.
