As New Yorkers Turn on Mayor Adams, Prominent Democrats Join the Pile-On

For the nearly two and a half years since Eric Adams took office as mayor of New York City, many of his fellow Democrats have kept their criticism over his management of the city relatively muted or private in deference to the mayor.

That period of harmony is over.

On Sunday, former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo appeared at the First Baptist Church of Crown Heights in Brooklyn and forcefully criticized the city for its “incompetence” in managing the Jacob Riis public housing complex in Lower Manhattan, where suspicions of arsenic poisoning arose.

A few hours later, Jumaane Williams, the city’s public advocate, called the mayor’s response to the Israel-Hamas war “shameful and dangerous” and argued that the police had used too much force against protesters at a pro-Palestinian demonstration this weekend in Bay Ridge in Brooklyn.

With Mr. Adams facing a federal investigation into his campaign fund-raising and low approval ratings, prominent Democrats have increasingly taken aim at the mayor and his policies — a potential foreshadowing of Mr. Adams’s contentious bid for re-election next year.

Mr. Cuomo and Mr. Williams have not declared if they intend to run for mayor, though their candidacies seem more likely if an indictment materializes against Mr. Adams. Two Democrats who have announced forming exploratory campaigns for mayor — Zellnor Myrie, a state senator, and Scott Stringer, a former city comptroller — have also been critical of the mayor’s management of the city.

Mr. Adams, his allies and his aides have been quick to push back, often in unusually public and aggressive ways.