In 2023, Adams hosted Mamdani and his father, a scholar of post-colonialism at Columbia University, for dinner. “The frightening thing is, he really believes this stuff!” Adams tells me as he mixes the veggies. “Globalize the intifada, there’s nothing wrong with that! He believes, you know, I don’t have anything against Jews, I just don’t like Israel. Well, who’s in Israel, bro?” At the dinner’s end, Adams says he told the Mamdanis, “Listen, I just don’t believe what you do.” (Mamdani has decried antisemitism and recently, after a prolonged controversy, said he will discourage use of the loaded intifada phrase.)
On Oct. 23, Adams endorsed Cuomo, calling him the better candidate to keep the city safe. Mamdani’s candidacy, Adams tells me, is “the number one threat to our city, and to be honest with you, I think the entire country, because you’re going to watch cities fall like dominoes if his philosophy takes root in New York City.” But he is still no fan of Cuomo, whom he sees as too inclined to capitulate to the left. “Andrew sabotaged this race,” Adams tells me. “He’s better than Zohran, yes, but that’s not a hard choice, because to me everybody’s better than Zohran.”
