New York City Mayor Eric Adams started a tour of the city’s Black churches to garner support during his federal investigation probe, the New York Times reports.
Adams appeared at the Changing Lives Christian Center and Power and Authority Evangelical Ministry on Sept. 8. He claimed he was unbothered by the overflow of his top aides who had their homes raided by the FBI in correlation to an investigation by the Southern District of New York. While speaking to Black congregations, Adams compared himself to the biblical figure, Job, who suffered immensely but had his spirit renewed. “Job lost it all, and even his wife questioned him. ‘Where’s your faith? Where’s God now?’ His friends rebuked him,” the mayor professed at Power and Authority.
“And I wish I could tell you that I had one moment in my life that was a Job moment. But I did not have one. I had many.”
The mayor is also under investigation for possible ties to Turkey, targeting alleged involvement in Adam’s 2021 campaign and collusion with foreign interests, including the Turkish government. However, during an interview on WABC’s “Cats and Cosby,” hosted by John Catsimatidis, Adams labeled the probes as “reviews.”
Adams made the same comparison to Job at Changing Lives, but this time, he cited his own shortcomings in his upbringing. “And when you come out of your Job moment, and your faith is intact, you will receive blessing tenfold,” Adams said. “Only God can make you go from being dyslexic, arrested, rejected, and now I’m elected to be the mayor of the most powerful city on the globe.”
Senior lead pastor Paul B. Mitchell laid hands on the political figure, praying for him by saying, “Father, we know that when you are a public servant, that, Lord, the forces of evil want to come against you.” Fellow political correspondents like former NY Gov. David Paterson aren’t too surprised by the Adams investigation since he was the “first elected official in the country to object to the placement of migrants in your city.”
Fordham University political science professor Christina Greer is keeping a close eye on the investigation and highlighted that since the mayor or his colleagues have yet to be charged for anything, she understands why supporters are skeptical. “Right now, there’s a lot of smoke,” Greer said.
“And smoke does not always lead to fire.”
Nurse Elizabeth Armstrong, who said she is prepared to vote for Adams during his 2025 re-election bid, says this is all a part of the world of politics. “When you’re in the political life and limelight, there’s things that are going to be thrown at you,” she said. “And it may not necessarily be him, but the people around him that makes his job a little harder.”
While there may be some truth to that, a person close to the details of the federal probe, according to Politico, says the Eric Adams’
team isn’t blind to what the investigation could do to the campaign. “It’s clear as day you don’t want what happened [Thursday] to happen when you’re heading into re-election,” the unidentified person said.Adams’ mentor, Rev. Herbert Daughtry, shared similar thoughts, highlighting the church strategy wasn’t too bad of a play. “Let’s say that I believe that the faith community surely will observe the ‘innocent until proven guilty,’ especially in this case,” he said.
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