Mayor Eric Adams expresses frustrations over criticisms of his job performance by members of Team de Blasio
NEW YORK -- Eric Adams celebrated one year on the job by agreeing to have Curtis Sliwa become the nighttime rat czar, and the mayor also launched an attack on his predecessor.
Adams is furious about attacks on his first year in office by members of Bill de Blasio's administration.
Adams connected one of the city's new electric trucks to a charger on Wednesday, but the jolt was nothing compared to the electricity given off by hizzoner as he started the new year with a string of high-voltage -- and surprising -- pronouncements.
First, he accepted the offer of his Republican mayoral opponent to become a part-time rat czar.
"I know he's probably looking for a job since he lost the job that he was trying to get," Adams said of Sliwa.
Sliwa accepted in true Sliwa style -- at the mayor's Brooklyn brownstone, which has been cited for rat problems.
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Sliwa, who said he will work for free at night and leave the bureaucratic parts of the job to a salaried daytime rat czar, brought along some feral cats to eat the mayor's rats.
"He said he's afraid of the rats. He's intimidated by rats. I've grown up with rats. I've got it," Sliwa said.
Then the mayor said he was going to go off message to get something off his chest -- criticism of his first year in office by Team de Blasio. People, he said, who after eight years, "left the house in total disarray and then they come and say, 'Look at the mess that you created, Eric.' I mean, Marcia, let us do our job. They had eight years to do their job. Eight years to fix Rikers. Eight years to deal with crime. Eight years to deal with education."
CBS2 asked the mayor if they succeeded.
"No, no, but they are now ... once they're gone they are experts on everything," Adams said.
CBS2 initially tried to get a response from Team de Blasio, even going to his Park Slope home.
Bill de Blasio took to Twitter just before 5:30 p.m., said he has offered to help Adams, and made it clear nobody speaks for him anymore.
Political consultant Basil Smikle said Mayor Adams is right.
"Right now, to compare mayors who've been there for eight years to his one, I understand his point. It does seem pretty unfair," Smikle said.
Adams said unlike Team de Blasio, people from the Koch, Dinkins, Giuliani and Bloomberg administrations have offered their help.
