New Yorkers are withdrawing their support for Mayor Eric Adams as federal authorities investigate whether his 2021 campaign masked large funds from the Turkish government by funneling them through straw donors.
More than 7 in 10 New York City residents believe Adams’s campaign “did something wrong” in connection to the mayor's close ties with Turkey, a Marist College poll on Tuesday found. The FBI is investigating whether Adams’s campaign conspired with the Turkish government to collect donations illegally for his 2021 mayoral campaign.
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Fifty-six percent of respondents disapprove of the job Adams has done as mayor, while only 37% approve. Adams won the New York City Democratic primary by a narrow margin in 2021 before receiving two-thirds of the vote in the general election. He ranked favorably among a majority of city residents, according to a March 2022 Marist poll that found 61% approved of the job he was doing and 24% disapproved.
Adams’s approval rating experiencing a sharp decline this year largely can be attributed to a migrant crisis defining his early years in office. City leaders are struggling to accommodate migrants seeking sanctuary in New York, and residents' dissatisfaction can be traced back to earlier this year. In February, a Quinnipiac University poll of New York City registered voters found that only 37% approved of the way Adams is handling his job, while 43% disapproved.
The FBI raided the home of Adams's chief fundraiser, Brianna Suggs, as part of the broad public corruption investigation into his 2021 campaign. Following the raid, FBI agents seized Adams’s personal electronic devices two weeks ago. The New York Times reported that the bureau raided the homes of two more people associated with the mayor — Rana Abbasova, an aide in Adams’s international affairs office, and Cenk Öcal, an ex-Turkish Airlines executive on Adams’s transition team.
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Adams said he is cooperating with the FBI’s investigation, which has raised questions about his extensive travel to Turkey, dating back to his time as a state senator between 2007 and 2013.
"We will give the list on what was the governmental trips that we took,” Adams said during a Tuesday press briefing. “We followed the procedure every time because I believe in following the procedures.”