Embattled New York City Mayor Eric Adams, 64, was relentlessly trolled for an Instagram post he made overnight visiting a senior citizen center in Harlem, where he appeared blissfully unaffected by the bribery and fraud charges against him.
Adams, wearing a persistent grin, joyously made his way through the ARC A. Philip Randolph Older Adult Center to take pictures with his constituents.
‘Visiting Harlem always fills me with pride, especially with the warmth I receive from New Yorkers,’ Adams wrote. ‘Every experience at an older adult center…reaffirms that our efforts are making a real difference.’
In two photos, he’s seen beaming over a cake that reads: ‘Happy Birthday To All September Seniors.’
He was also seen dancing as an emcee repeatedly shouted ‘Go Eric!’ and ‘Our Mayor!’
Commenters on the Friday post were stunned at Adams’ tone deafness in posting this just days after he became the first sitting New York mayor to be charged with crimes, let alone five federal charges that could land him in jail for 45 years if he’s convicted.
One user asked if Adams told the elderly people he visited about him allegedly defrauding NYC taxpayers of $10 million through allegedly fraudulent campaign funds.
Another pointed out Adam’s ‘self delusion.’
‘The patience and self delusion of some of us…,’ they wrote.
Others just couldn’t believe the optics of the post, coming the same day he pleaded not guilty in court.
‘Dude maybe read the room … is this what you want to be posting about? Who is advising you? They need to be fired,’ one person wrote.
‘Big Rearranging-deck-chairs-on-the-titanic energy,’ another wrote.
‘Eric! Just go to jail,’ a third wrote.
One user sounded a bipartisan note, calling for all supposedly corrupt politicians to be brought down.
‘I’m sick of corruption no matter who it is. He should resign and hopefully go to jail. Same as Menendez, Trump and all corrupts!!’ they wrote.
Interestingly, Adams got plenty of supportive comments from those who thought he is a better mayor than his predecessor, Bill DeBlasio, or from those who believe the charges against him are bogus.
Adams himself hinted as such in a pre-recorded video he released to the media on Wednesday after it broke that the Southern District of New York was charging him.
‘It is now my belief that the federal government is attempting charge me with crimes. If so, these charges will be entirely false, based on lies,’ Adams said from Gracie Mansion.
‘But they will not be surprising. I always knew that if I stood my ground for all of you, that I would be a target. And a target I became,’ he added.
In a wild press conference on Thursday in front of Gracie Mansion, Adams was shouted down by furious New Yorkers who demanded he resign.
Seemingly undeterred, Adams stood on the steps of his official residence on Manhattan’s Upper East Side while the protestors screamed at him, making it hard for him to get a word out.
‘This is not a black thing, this is a YOU thing,’ one furious Big Apple resident bellowed over a megaphone.
‘Your policies are anti-black, you are a disgrace to all black people in this city.’
Hazel Dukes, 92, a former NAACP leader who was there in support of Adams, shouted back at protestors in a moment that went viral.
‘Will you be quiet?’ Dukes asked as the crowd chanted. ‘Will you shut up?’
Adams has been charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, federal program bribery, and receiving campaign contributions from foreign nationals.
The NYC mayor allegedly took advantage of the city’s system of matching campaign contributions with tax dollars, and ‘fraudulently obtained as much as $2,000 in public funds for each illegal contribution’, the indictment alleged.
He was allegedly ‘relying on the concealed nature of these illegal contributions to falsely portray his campaigns as law-abiding.’
‘As a result of those false certifications, Adams’ 2021 mayoral campaign received more than $10,000,000 in public funds’, prosecutors said Thursday.
US Attorney for the Southern District of New York Damian Williams also claimed ‘Adams took corrupt official action in exchange for some of the luxury travel benefits.’
Williams also alleged Adams skirted safety inspection regulations in order to open a Turkish government-owned high rise in Manhattan in time for a visit from the country’s president.
Adams is scheduled to appear in court again on Wednesday after the judge released him on his own recognizance.