Most New York City residents want indicted Mayor Eric Adams to resign: poll

With New York City Mayor Eric Adams under federal indictment for corruption, most residents of the Big Apple want to see him go, according to a new Marist poll.

A majority of city residents, 69%, say the mayor should resign from office after prosecutors accused him of accepting bribes and soliciting illegal campaign contributions from foreign nationals. Adams, a former cop, could face up to 45 years in prison if convicted on all charges. 

There is no good news for the mayor in the survey findings. Though the Democratic mayor has resisted calls to resign, 71% of New York City Democrats think he should step down, according to the survey. Only 30% of city residents said he should serve out the remainder of his term, while 2% were unsure.

The survey of New York City adults was conducted between Sept. 30 and Oct. 1 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.6 percentage points. 

ERIC ADAMS LIKELY TO FACE MORE CHARGES AS EMBATTLED MAYOR ACCUSES BIDEN-HARRIS ADMIN OF POLITICAL PERSECUTION

If Adams refuses to resign, 63% of survey respondents say Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul should take action to remove the mayor. A 65% majority of residents, including 68% Democrats, think Adams did something illegal. Another 24% think the mayor did something unethical but not illegal.

"It’s hard to imagine how Mayor Adams could be faring any worse in the court of public opinion," says Dr. Lee Miringoff, director of the Marist Institute for Public Opinion. "Not only do New York City residents think he has done something illegal, but they think he should resign or have Governor Hochul start the process of removing him from office."

The mayor's job approval rating is underwater at 26%, with 74% saying they disapprove. The vast majority of New York City residents, 81%, say Adams should not run for re-election, according to the poll.

Adams was in federal court in Manhattan on Wednesday for a hearing in his corruption case. The mayor's defense lawyers have asked the court to toss at least one charge and punish the government for leaks of confidential information.

ERIC ADAMS CALLS OUT ALLEGED COLLUSION BETWEEN FEDS AND MAINSTREAM MEDIA, ASKS JUDGE FOR ‘CONSEQUENCES’

Prosecutors said it is "quite likely" that additional charges will be filed — against additional defendants and possibly in new cases. The investigation is ongoing, they said. But the defense scored a minor win, demanding the Justice Department file quick replies to motions filed earlier this week as the mayor is standing by his right to a speedy trial. The presiding judge gave prosecutors an Oct. 18 deadline to do so.

Adams is accused of turning unlawful bribes and campaign contributions around to rack up taxpayer cash in the form of "matching" grants that pay out $8 to 1.

ERIC ADAMS DEFENSE HINGES ON SUPREME COURT RULING IN HEARTLAND TRUCKING CASE

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York is alleging that Adams used his position in government to obtain benefits like luxury travel and fine dining from wealthy business leaders, including at least one Turkish government official. 

In exchange, Adams allegedly provided favors, including helping Turkey get fire department approvals to open a new diplomatic high-rise in Manhattan despite concerns about fire safety. Adams' defense has countered that he had no authority over the Manhattan building at the time, when he was Brooklyn's borough president, and therefore could not and did not provide the alleged "official act" required to prove the case against him.

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Adams has described the investigation as retaliation for his criticism of the Biden-Harris administration's border policy.

The mayor previously blamed the White House for a migrant crisis in New York City that overwhelmed its shelter system. The influx of illegal immigrants coincided with a spike in robberies in the Big Apple, city police said earlier this year.

Fox News Digital's Michael Ruiz and Fox News' Maria Paronich contributed to this report.

Trump teams up with former GOP nemesis to survey storm damage in key battleground state

Former President Trump and Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp will appear together on Friday for the first time in four years as they receive a briefing on recovery and relief efforts one week after Hurricane Helene tore a path of destruction after slamming into the southeast United States.

The former president and the popular two-term conservative Georgia governor are scheduled to be briefed on storm damage and to "deliver remarks to the press" as they team up during a visit to Evans, a town in the northeast portion of the state.

The event is not being described as a campaign stop.

For Trump, it's his second trip this week to Georgia, following a visit on Monday in Valdosta. The state, along with North and South Carolina, and Tennessee, took direct hits from the powerful storm. The death toll from Hurricane Helene now stands at over 220, with hundreds still missing, more than 800,000 people in seven states still without power or running water, and damage estimated in the billions.

TRUMP CLAIMS BIDEN, HARRIS, STORM RESPONSE IS INCOMPETENT

With Trump locked in a margin-of-error presidential race with Vice President Kamala Harris, and Georgia and North Carolina crucial battleground states, Trump has repeatedly slammed President Biden and Harris over their handing of the federal response to the storm.

"It is going down as the WORST & MOST INCOMPETENTLY MANAGED ‘STORM,’ AT THE FEDERAL LEVEL, EVER SEEN BEFORE," Trump claimed in a social media post on Thursday, as Biden spent a second straight day in the southeast surveying storm damage. 

HEAD HERE FOR THE LATEST FOX NEWS REPORTING ON HURRICANE HELENE AFTERMATH

And Harris stopped in Georgia on Wednesday for storm briefings and to meet with local officials and victims of the storm, as she canceled a campaign swing in another key electoral state, Pennsylvania.

The vice president heads to North Carolina on Saturday to survey damage and get briefed on federal, state and local efforts.

When Trump visited Valdosta on Monday, he wasn't joined by Kemp, who was surveying storm damage in other parts of Georgia.

For two years after his 2020 election defeat to President Biden, which included a razor-thin loss in Georgia, Trump attacked Kemp for failing to overturn the election results in his state. 

Trump urged, and then supported, a 2022 GOP gubernatorial primary challenge against Kemp by former Sen. David Perdue.

The former president toned down his criticism of the governor after Kemp crushed Perdue to easily win renomination on his way to re-election.

KEMP SAYS THERE'S NO PATH TO 270 FOR TRUMP WITHOUT GEORGIA

But in August, Trump went on a 10-minute tirade against Kemp at a rally in Atlanta just blocks from the Georgia State Capitol. He blamed the governor not only for failing to overturn the 2020 vote count but also for not stopping a county prosecutor from indicting the former president for his attempts to reverse the results.

"He’s a bad guy. He’s a disloyal guy. And he’s a very average governor," Trump said. "Little Brian. Little Brian Kemp. Bad guy."

But just a couple of weeks later, in a major about face for Trump, the former president praised Kemp in a social media post "for all of your help and support in Georgia, where a win is so important to the success of our Party and, most importantly, our Country."

"I look forward to working with you, your team, and all of my friends in Georgia to help MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!" the Republican presidential nominee added.

Trump's change of heart came amid a margin-of-error presidential race in Georgia.

The Peach State is one of seven key battlegrounds whose razor-thin margins decided Biden's 2020 victory over Trump and are likely to determine whether Harris or Trump succeeds the president in the White House.

Republican strategists agree that to recapture Georgia, Trump will need assistance from Kemp's well-oiled and funded political machine to turn out GOP voters.

Kemp emphasized in an exclusive national interview with Fox News Digital in August that "there’s no path for former President Trump to win or any Republican . . . to get to 270 [electoral votes] without Georgia."

The governor said his state "should be one that we win if we have all the mechanics that we need. And I’m working hard to help provide those in a lot of ways and turn the Republican vote out."

"It’s my belief that we cannot afford four more years of [President] Joe Biden and Kamala Harris or Kamala Harris and [Minnesota Gov.] Tim Walz, which I think would probably be worse than even Biden and Harris were," Kemp said.

Kemp also told Fox News at the time that Trump's tirade from early August "was a small distraction that’s in the past" and emphasized that Republicans "need to stay focused on the future. . . . We need to be telling people why they should vote for us, what we’re going to do to make things better than they are right now. And there’s a host of issues that I think you could contrast Kamala Harris and her record."

Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.