New York City Mayor Eric Adams is used to making headlines, but his recent spotlight isn't flattering. After this unfiltered, cigar-smoke-infused Livestream from cavernous Gracie Mansion Saturday night, Adams is taking heat from everywhere on the political spectrum and he is blaming his rapper son for the unwelcome company he kept.
Rumble itself has identified as a place where the right has a "home," and Hodge seems like she might be in that room with them. The infamous stream took place on Rumble, from the right-wing outlet, and featured: Adams, his son Jordan Coleman aka rapper Jayoo, social media provocateur Sneako, a collection of others…and founder of SlutWalk, Amber Rose, herself a MAGA princess. The broadcast started just before 10:30 p.m. and lasted nearly 90 minutes, plenty long to ignite a full-on media and political firestorm.
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Sneako, whose inflammatory takes and rap sheet of being banned from major platforms like YouTube and Twitch for distributing antisemitic and misogynistic content, make him an unlikely guest at a mayor's residence. Skeptics soon pressed: What was Adams doing, casually chatting it up with a guy who has said things like "Down with the Jews" and served as a conduit for reaching out to far-right figures like Nick Fuentes?
If nothing else, Adams, speaking at a Beat the Streets rival news conference on Monday, did what many other parents might do in a moment of public embarrassment: he blamed his kid.
"This was not an interview that was coordinated," Adams said. "I was on my back porch with [my son] with a cigar. Other people came and joined, you know, and they brought people... I didn't know [Sneako's] history."
The way Adams tells it, the two crossed paths organically. It was another casual evening that blew up into a controversy, aided by the mayor's casual, open-house approach to public engagement. But advocates and officials didn't have the good-timing excuse, given that a man in one of the country's most powerful municipal government jobs somehow found himself playing host to hate speech live and unexpurgated.
"Hindsight is 20-20," Adams said. "One of the downsides of being mayor in my style is that I'm available for everyone. Maybe I'm just too hopeful."
He also pointed to the modern media landscape, which can increasingly make public figures susceptible to surprise recordings and live streams. "We're in a world today where everyone is a reporter," Solder says. You have no idea who comes up to you all."
Stirring even more fuel into the fray was Amber Rose, who herself has already jogged heads with her political U-turn towards MAGA. That she happened to appear on the stream along with Sneako set the vibe spiral into motion: from booze-fueled, late-night hangout to a political scandal in the course of a single Saturday evening.
The livestream wrapped up just before midnight, but the backlash is burning hot. Whether Adams can put this fire out or whether it'll leave a long-lasting scorch mark on his administration — remains to be seen. One thing seems clear: the late-night cigars at Gracie Mansion just got a lot more fraught.
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