Adams mulls endorsing Cuomo or Sliwa as he puts all energy into defeating Zohran Mamdani

Mayor Adams has dropped his re-election effort, but he certainly doesn’t sound like a man planning a vacation.

Far from it. In addition to keeping his day job until the end of the year, he’s plunging headfirst into a new battle: Making sure Zohran Mamdani does not become his successor.

In an interview, Adams called the committed Socialist “an extremist” whose policies would ruin New York, and said forcefully that the 33-year-old assemblyman “must be defeated in November.”

To that end, the mayor told me he has “put out feelers” to the two other remaining candidates, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and GOP nominee Curtis Sliwa, about a possible endorsement.

“We need to focus on one of them,” Adams said by phone Monday.

“Over the next few days, I’m going to take the next step.”

He insisted his endorsement will require a “real commitment from the recipient to continue the work we have done on children and families” and a clear plan to beat Mamdani.

That’s a tall order because the 33-year-old Queens Assemblyman holds a commanding lead in the polls.

After Adams’ withdrawal, The Action Network, a sports betting outfit, gives Mamdani a 91% chance of victory.

When I pressed the mayor about whether he’s leaning more toward endorsing Cuomo or Sliwa, he responded that “I’m more inclined to Cuomo,” but quickly added, “Let’s not underestimate Sliwa as a fighter, but the problem is that he can’t govern.”

“We need someone who is going to fight and be able to to govern at the same time,” he said in an apparent nod to Cuomo’s long experience as governor and Attorney General.

Cuomo, in second place in the polls, is a more natural choice, given that he and Adams are Democrats.

That gives Cuomo a better chance of building a winning coalition of Dems, independents and some Republicans.

Also, Adams defeated Sliwa in the 2021 general election, and their nasty exchanges came with racial overtones.

Adams’ passion for defeating Mamdani is contagious because he speaks about the mayoralty and political power with unique experience.

He sees too many people who don’t like Mamdani foolishly talking themselves into believing the destructive impact of his policies could be minimized.

The mayor scoffs at this “illusion,” saying “Zohran and his comrades cannot be allowed to run this city. New York cannot be an experiment for their agenda.”

“People don’t understand how much power a mayor has,” he adds.

Referencing several of Mamdani’s outrageous campaign promises, Adams puts it this way: “He could tell the Police Department not to enforce prostitution and shoplifting crimes and not to go after lower level drug dealers.”

Those and other moves, the mayor said, “will have a very big impact on the quality of life in the city very quickly.”

Almost as an aside, he warns about Mamdani’s “charm act,” saying he has a “nice smile and knows how to tilt his head just right for the camera.”

He wants voters to pay attention before it’s too late, saying “When homeowners in Brooklyn and Queens start seeing teenagers selling their bodies on the streets and using drugs and see homeless encampments popping up in their neighborhoods,” they shouldn’t be shocked because that’s how Mamdani’s agenda would play out.

It’s also true that Adams has been a strong supporter of Israel in its fight with Hamas, while Mamdani is hostile to the Jewish state and frighteningly comfortable with antisemitic tropes.

In a reference to the way leftists in the Legislature weakened the criminal justice system and tied the hands of prosecutors and judges, Adams adds:

“It was bad enough that the far-left rolled us in Albany, can you imagine how much damage they could do if one of them is mayor?”

About his endorsement, he says, “If Andrew is going to be the mayor, he must be the mayor who is not going to let the far left roll him.”

Adams says Mamdani “is not just like a routine candidate you can disagree with. We’re talking about a man who is surrounded by the Democratic Socialists of America. They hate our way of life, they they don’t believe in our families.”

While I believe he will give it to Cuomo, all has not been smooth sailing between them. Not long ago, Adams called Cuomo a “snake and a liar.”

Because Adams was running a distant fourth in the race, with about 10% support, the power of his endorsement will be limited.

I asked what that was about and whether he still feels that way.

“I have known Andrew a long time,” he answered and noted that the former governor had said that he would not run for mayor if Adams sought re-election.

Cuomo did indeed say that when Adams was facing a federal indictment and there were many calls for him to resign.

Ultimately, President Trump’s Department of Justice dropped the inflated charges, which had involved sordid leaks to the media, and the mayor remains grateful.

“I was facing 33 years in prison,” Adams told me.

“But some people were upset that I thanked Trump.”

“He was talking about me at a rally, about what the Biden administration did to me, but we had never met prior to that. It took a lot of gall for him to do what he did with the case.”

There were also reports that Adams would take a job in the administration, with Trump saying he wanted to shape the field to defeat Mamdani, though nothing came of them.

Adams’ own case was just one of several involving members of his inner circle, with many top aides forced out, creating a cloud over City Hall.

The bad-press pile-up severely damaged his re-election hopes and helped to put a second term out of reach.

He still bears a grudge, saying Monday that “some strange things were happening under President Biden’s Justice Department.”

Still, he believes his record is a good one, especially in bringing violent crime to modern low levels.

In an interview three weeks ago, he told me with a laugh that “history will be kind to me,” and said something similar Monday.

“When history looks over what we did with employment, housing, and education, in addition to crime, there’s a lot to like,” he said.

He’s right in the sense that the city is better off now than it was when he was elected in 2021, following the disastrous terms of Bill deBlasio.

For his Sunday video announcement, saying he would quit the race, Adams sat casually on interior stairs at Gracie Mansion, beside a large photo of his late mother.

After I complimented him on the setting and the calming, positive tone of his remarks, I asked if the staging was his idea.

“Oh, yes,” he said, “because I didn’t want any interruption, it was a modern day fireside chat.”