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Mayor Eric Adams is embroiled in a controversy with The New York Times, which disputes the mayor’s claims that he kept a photo of a slain police officer in his wallet for years. If the allegations he doctored the photo are true, would that affect the mayor’s chances of being re-elected in two years? According to former Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino, the kerfuffle with the photo will be long forgotten by then. Appearing on 710 WOR’s Len Berman and Michael Riedel in the Morning program, Astorino said the indifference of the media all but guarantees the story will just go away.
“It’s so unnecessary, but [politicians] are so used to embellishing and lying and never getting caught,” Astorino told Riedel and Jesse Weber, sitting in for Berman, “because the media basically just covers for them anyway, so if it’s true, it’s not a huge story because who cares, but it’s exactly what they’re used to doing and we’re used to getting.”
So, looking ahead to Election Day, 2025, Astorino feels the mayor’s odds of being re-elected all but guarantee that the photo controversy won’t hurt his chances. “I would put it at 80 percent, 85 percent… Look, a lot of it depends on the economy and crime, but even if it’s bad, he’s the mayor, he’s a Democrat, he’s a minority in New York City, so, I mean, it would have to be something extraordinary for him to lose.”