Mayor Eric Adams apparently hit his tipping point with critics after the flood of flak he took over last week’s weather preparations — and sniffed Monday he will only answer off-topic press questions once a week.
The self-described “most accessible” executive in Big Apple history rolled out the new bizarrely restrictive policy after being battered for months over his handling of the migrant crisis — and three days after the city got slammed by historic flooding, prompting criticism over his administration’s alleged lack of preparation for it.
“Out of our concern of making sure that we really respond to the off-topic questions that we get, I believe Deputy Mayor [Fabien] Levy sent out a notice that we’re going to be holding once a week just off-topics, so you can ask whatever questions you want,” Adams told a reporter — who had simply asked about a summit being hosted Monday by Hizzoner on the city’s deadly fentanyl crisis.
“This will give you an opportunity, so we don’t mix the messages. We want to be as clear as possible,” Adams said.
Veteran observers and political operatives said the mayor’s decision all but limit daily press questions to the topics that City Hall wants covered is unprecedented — and that Adams is all wet if he thinks this will help his image.
“It sounds like the recent storm gave Eric a case of the ‘de Blasios,’ shutting out the press after a bad cycle that was spurred by City Hall’s own inability to lead in an emergency,” a veteran Democratic operative said, referring to former Mayor Bill de Blasio, who once famously walked out of a press conference when getting hammered on an issue.
“Pretty simply, if you so openly admit you can’t handle the heat from the New York City press corps, it’s no wonder you can’t handle the rain,” the source quipped.
David Catalfamo, who served as press secretary to then-Gov. George Pataki, had choice words for Adams, too.
“Show some message discipline,” Catalfamo said.
“It’s crazy. It’s thin-skinned. It’s not sustainable,” he said of the mayor’s new press policy. “It looks like you’re running away from every issue.”
Hizzoner announced his new policy at a City Hall press conference that his administration told reporters was related to health care.
It took place an hour after Adams was scheduled to deliver remarks to the opening of his summit on the fentanyl crisis, which has fueled soaring overdose rates across the city.
But then the mayor used the new rule to justify refusing to take a question even about that.
The stiffling of press questions triggered a protest from a Post reporter who noted it was a dramatic departure from how previous mayors handled the City Hall press corps, even when those executives weren’t happy with the coverage they were getting.
“No mayor in the history of this city has been accessible, more approachable, more on the ground than I have, and so this is the rule — don’t look around at your colleagues, they’re not answering, I’m answering,” Adams said. “We’re going to have one day a week so I can do the business of running this very complicated city.”
The mayor then walked off the podium, and a City Hall staffer attempted to intervene as a chorus of objections from the press broke out.
The Post reporter shouted a follow-up question during the commotion, a common move. The mayor turned around and accused the scribe of treating him like a “child.
“I don’t know why you’re yelling; you keep doing that. Stop raising your voice. You’re not talking to a child,” Adams said before finally exiting.
The veteran operatives said Adams’ appearance of being thin-skinned will do him no favors.
“You can’t run from the New York City media,” said former de Blasio press secretary Bill Neidhardt. “From a government transparency standpoint, it’s a bad thing. It will just hurt the Adams administration. The mayor’s most powerful tool is the bully pulpit. You have the ability to set your agenda.”
De Blasio frequently griped about the coverage he got and, at an earlier point in his mayoralty, walked out of a press conference as he was peppered with questions about how his motorcade was caught on tape violating traffic laws.
Adams’ new policy comes after City Hall was most recently widely criticized for its slow-footed response to Friday’s epic rainstorms and flooding.
The mayor’s first press conference was scheduled hours after the rain started to fall — and then it started 40 minutes late, leaving both Gov. Kathy Hochul and MTA Chairman Janno Lieber stuck on camera, in a lurch, waiting.
Criticism about how he handled Friday’s storm came on top of growing questions about his struggles managing the arrival of more than 110,000 migrants to the Big Apple over the last year, which has put a $12 billion strain on the Big Apple’s budget.