Adams admits campaign is struggling, while Cuomo and Sliwa exchange accusations
NEW YORK CITY (WABC) -- In the race for New York City mayor, Eric Adams admits his re-election bid is struggling, but insists he's still running.
The mayor said on Thursday he's been strategizing.
Instead of pressing the flesh, he's been carrying out his duties as mayor.
"You can't beat Eric at the polls. No one campaigns like me. No one knows how to put the strategy together," Adams said.
Mayor Adams insists he's serious about his re-election. But claims he's so busy being the mayor that he has very little time to campaign, which might explain why he hasn't held a campaign event for the better part of a week.
Instead, he's held official news conferences, greeted visiting Greek Orthodox priests and hosted the Prime Minister of Belgium and his delegation, who can't vote.
Adams has routinely taken questions about the campaign, as he did, as recently as Thursday morning.
"When do you think your campaign is going to catch fire? And what do you think it's going to take? Eyewitness News' N.J. Burkett asked.
"Well, I don't want it to catch fire that it burns up," Adams replied.
Every major poll shows Adams a distant fourth behind Zohran Mamdani with 45%, Andrew Cuomo with 24%, Curtis Sliwa with 17% and the mayor with 9%.
He told Eyewitness News that he's spent a lot of time strategizing with his advisors.
"This is going to be one of the most exciting campaigns in the history of this city. I've said it over and over again. It takes a lot of strategy. This is three-dimensional chess, because the pieces are moving so rapidly," Adams said.
Adams is waging a court battle over campaign matching funds and says rumors that he intends to drop out have crippled his fundraising.
"The reason we can't catch fire the way we want to, because in order to catch fire, you need oxygen and my oxygen has been shut off. So my team has been sitting down the last few weeks to see how do we strategize?" Adams said.
The mayor blames the Cuomo campaign for fanning the rumors. Sliwa insists Cuomo's supporters have tried to bribe him to drop out. Thursday, the former governor said Sliwa needs to name names.
"Give me a name. I think you're making it up. You know why I think you're making it up, Mr. Sliwa? Because you have made it up many times before," Cuomo said.
Cuomo said as for the mayor, "Nobody can tell him what the right thing for him to do is. It's his personal decision; he knows where he is. He knows the consequences. He can look at a poll like anybody else can look at a poll."
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