Adams-Adams slap at AOC tweets could mean a brouhaha’s brewing
Move over Cuomo and de Blasio, there’s a new feud in town.
Mayor Adams backed up City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams in her broadside against progressive Congresswoman Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) on Friday, saying that instead of taking to social media to air out differences, leaders like AOC are better off discussing their disagreements privately.
“I thought Speaker Adams (photo) answered appropriately,” the mayor said. “AOC is a congressperson representing roughly 800,000 people . ... The speaker’s decision represents the needs of 8.8 million people. And I think there’s professional courtesy that if there’s an issue, you know, don’t tweet — speak. Pick up the phone, call your colleague and say, ‘I’m concerned.’ ”
Since former Gov. Andrew Cuomo resigned from his perch in disgrace and former Mayor Bill de Blasio left City Hall, politics in the city and state have remained relatively feud free.
But that appears to be changing. Mayor Adams, a moderate Democrat, and AOC, who’s farther to the left of him, are arguably the city’s highest-profile politicians, and it’s now clear they’re at odds with one another in a very public way.
“I’m not sure of what is this new form of governing that you tweet your concerns,” Adams said Friday at an unrelated press event in the Bronx, not far from AOC’s congressional district. “How about just speaking? How about picking up the phone and asking and giving your advice? I’m sure the speaker will take her call. I’ll take her call.
“As a Congressional representative, I think it would be better for her to just pick up the phone and speak with Speaker Adams, who I find to be an amazing communicator and an excellent leader,” the mayor added.
The war of words between the mayor, the Council speaker and AOC began on the heels of the City Council finalizing the city’s budget.
Several progressive Council members who voted against the budget were not given credit for certain allocations to their communities as a result of their no votes — leading some to accuse the Council speaker of cutting the programs outright as revenge and others to fault her for not giving credit where credit is due.
Ocasio-Cortez, who boasts a huge social media following, was among the speaker’s critics.
The congresswoman’s claim that Adams had punished no-voting members with “dirty politics” angered the speaker, who charged that AOC’s comments amounted to “mudslinging” and “slander.”
“It is not a punishment to your community to not have your name attached to an additional allocation of funding that you voted against,” the speaker said Thursday. “It is simply a distinguishing indication of your votes against the entire budget.”
Speaker Adams then suggested that she would have appreciated the “professional courtesy” of a phone call over the matter.
A spokesperson for Ocasio-Cortez did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday.
Rep. Nydia Velazquez (D-N.Y.), an ally of Ocasio-Cortez’s who also criticized the speaker over the budget, declined to say what she thought of the mayor’s suggestion that the congresswoman pick up the phone instead of tweeting attacks.
“You have to ask her, you have to ask her,” Velazquez said. But Velazquez suggested it was justified to criticize the speaker even though the nay-voting members ended up getting funding from her special discretionary pot.
“Just like I criticized [former Council Speaker] Corey Johnson when he did it, I’m going to criticize her if she’s punishing younger members,” Velazquez said of the speaker.