New York City Mayor Eric Adams defended on Thursday his dinner date with disgraced former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, saying he'd be "foolish" to let Cuomo’s sexual misconduct scandal keep him from seeking his advice, the New York Post reports.
"The reality is that we have a crisis in this city," Adams told WCBS 880 radio when asked about Page Six's report on the Tuesday dinner. "And we have to be foolish not to learn from people who have gone through these crises before. And I'm not foolish."
Adams added, "I'm going to speak to everyone. And I'm going to continue to do so … we can learn from everyone."
While Adams refused to disclose what exactly was said during the meal at Midtown restaurant Osteria La Baia, he did say that his fellow Democrat offered "some much-needed advice on what his belief is the best way to get out of this crisis we're facing."
In a separate interview on CNN, Adams said, "I'm not going to leave any stones unturned in getting my city back under control."
Cuomo resigned last August following the release of state Attorney General Letitia James' damning sexual harassment probe. Cuomo and Adams dined in a private room at the restaurant for about two hours, beginning about 7 p.m., after Adams attended a wake for slain NYPD Officer Wilbert Mora at St. Patrick's Cathedral.
During a Wednesday appearance on PIX 11, Adams said that dining with Cuomo is "in line with who I am as a person," as he often speaks with different groups of people.
"Isn't that in line with who I am as a person?" Adams said on the channel's morning program. "I sat down with members of the Black Lives Matter group, I sat down with anti-vaxxers, I sit down with gang members to try to talk them out of gangs, I sit down with former mayors and learned what I needed to know in the seat."
When asked what the goal was for the meeting with the former governor, Adams initially said the meeting would help lift the city's economy from its COVID-19 blues, before adding, "The goal is to stop being disagreeable and learn that we can work together."
Critics, however, condemned the mayor's decision to meet with Cuomo, who remains sullied by accusations of sexual harassment and impropriety.
Bill Neidhart, a one-time press secretary for Adams' predecessor, Bill de Blasio, called the dinner a "staggering misjudgment" and said it was "straight up disgusting," given Cuomo's sex scandal.
"Why would Eric Adams even think about taking this meeting?" he tweeted.
Since he stepped down from office last year, and ended a three-term run as governor, Cuomo has mostly kept a low profile.
Insisting it was "not an exoneration," an upstate district attorney's office announced this week that it is dropping its criminal investigation of sexual harassment allegations against Cuomo.
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