Hecklers Drown Out NYC Mayor at Press Conference

New York City Mayor Eric Adams may be rethinking the wisdom of holding an outdoor press conference in the wake of federal bribery charges. As Rolling Stone notes, he was "heckled mercilessly" at Thursday's event.

• "This is not a Black thing, this is a you thing," one protester yelled through a megaphone. "Your policies are anti-Black! You are a disgrace to all Black people in this city! The things that you have done are unconscionable!" Watch video here.
• "He deserves to be in handcuffs," another yelled, per the New York Post, which has video. "He made the city dirty."

• At one point, 92-year-old Hazel Dukes, a former NAACP leader who supports Adams, shouted back, "Will you shut up," per the AP. Police circled the protesters—who also were chanting "abuse of power!"—though there were no immediate reports of arrests.
• Adams, for his part, attempted to get his point across. "It's an unfortunate day, and it's a painful day," he said. "But inside all of that is a day when we will finally reveal why, for 10 months, I've gone through this. And I look forward to defending myself."
• Prosecutors say Adams was for years "showered" with gifts from foreign donors he knew were illegal, reports the New York Times. "This was a multiyear scheme to buy favor with a single New York City politician on the rise," said Damian Williams, the US attorney for the Southern District of New York, "Year after year, he kept the public in the dark." The investigation put a particular focus on gifts out of Turkey.

(More Eric Adams stories.)