HE’S LIKE A SAINT — OR BROCCOLI
Adams often makes historical & hysterical references to himself
Eric Adams likes to make comparisons, and often, those rhetorical pictures he paints include himself and prominent historical figures.
Over the past several months, the mayor has likened himself — and the issues he faces — to America’s longest-serving president, to the man who broke the color barrier in big league baseball and to former President Barack Obama.
Known for his spirituality, Adams has also drawn parallels between his policies and the work of Jesus’ apostles.
It’s not always the icons of western civilization that Hizzoner has compared himself with, though. At least one vegetable got some love from the mayor also.
“I’m like broccoli,” he said in February with a beaming smile. “You’re going to hate me now, but you’re going love me later.”
Adams is undeniably charismatic. He likes to joke with and tease reporters and his fellow politicians. He playfully makes what, in 2022, are pretty obscure cultural references — the old TV show “Welcome Back, Kotter” and sportscaster Warner Wolf, among them. And much of the time, at least in public, he appears to be having a grand old time.
Some in New York City’s political circles have described his rhetorical style as “loose” or “schtick.” And that’s perhaps nowhere more apparent than in the comparisons he makes.
“You gotta remember one thing. He’s a New Yorker. He likes to brag,” said Doug Muzzio, an author and political scientist at Baruch College. “He’s like the city — he’s the biggest, the best, the baddest. Of course, it’s exaggerated. And he knows it’s exaggerated. At least, I hope he knows it’s exaggerated. It’s part of his schtick.”
Muzzio opined that Adams’ rhetorical style — or his schtick — is a refreshing departure from his two immediate predecessors, former mayors Bill de Blasio, who was regarded as prickly, and Michael Bloomberg, who was viewed as dry.
“We want a mayor who has a personality, says Muzzio. “The danger, from his perspective, is that the schtick is taken for a lack of seriousness. The danger is it’s just the personality, without the policy.”
If nothing else, Adams has been rhetorically bold — in some cases, to the dismay of his detractors.
While talking about his policy to remove homeless encampments from city streets and subway stations during an April prayer rally outside City Hall, Adams likened his work to that of Jesus’ disciples.
“We are on the wrong road as a city. We have tolerated homelessness, walked past our brothers and sisters who are living in tents on the street, and we’ve normalized it,” he said. “I can’t help but to believe that if Matthew, Mark, Luke and John was here today, he would be on the streets with me, helping people get out of encampments.”
With some on social media, this did not go over particularly well.
“Eric Adams said the gospel writers would be with him displacing our homeless neighbors, the very people God commands us to house & Jesus commands to love in the same way we love ourselves,” wrote Brian Moll, a pastor, on Twitter. “Blasphemy, Mayor. Oppression, Mayor. Corrupt, Mayor. ungodly, Mayor.”
Days later, in his recent State of the City, Adams summoned the spirit of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who was elected to four terms in the White House, to make a point about the problems he’s now facing as mayor.
“FDR — like ELA — understood that people needed an honest reckoning of the problems and bold plans to solve them,” Adams, whose middle name is Leroy, said during the speech.
Then, there’s what he said about Obama — he compared his trip to Ghana to the journey the former president made there — as well as Brooklyn Dodgers’ icon Jackie Robinson, the first Black man to play in the Major Leagues.
“I feel like the Jackie Robinson of mayoralty,” he said during an announcement earlier this month on traffic safety. “I keep making history.”
Adams also likes to frame issues, policy announcements as “moments” — sometimes to humorous effect.
He pointed to his “broccoli moment” during a press conference on a new homeless shelter, the “Kotter moment” when he welcomed Bloomberg back to City Hall, and to “my Warner Wolf moment,” when he alluded to the broadcaster’s catchphrase “let’s go to the videotape” while talking about his record on public safety.
For all his joking and playfulness, when asked about his penchant for such comparisons — and who he’d like others to compare him with once all is said and done — Adams offered a serious, yet humble response.
“I believe we often try to identify individuals as one characteristic and one personality, and we’re just not that simple. And I think that’s the challenge that people have. I am complex because we are complex. And I don’t try to hide that complexity. I try to say this is who I am — I’m perfectly imperfect. I have good days and bad days, I make some dumb errors and I make some smart decisions,” Adams told the Daily News last week. “So I think, when it’s all over, I’m just hoping that people say this was a guy that did not try to fit a role. He did what was best for the city, and he tried to move us in the right direction. And that we should not be ashamed of the complexities that we have.”