Conservative-minded New Yorkers (which, in New York City, includes some fairly liberal folk) have generally been reassured by Eric Adams winning the Democratic mayoral primary, given that the alternatives were so much worse, and Adams — as a former cop — seems at least to recognize that having a police force is useful. He can’t be worse than Bill de Blasio.
But it is helpful to be reminded now and then that Adams may be an improvement, but he is still bad. Specifically, he is a product of the cartoonishly corrupt Democratic Party of Brooklyn. So, when he gets caught telling one story about where he lives for the purposes of election law, and a different story to the IRS, benefiting both ways, this is the kind of excuse we get:
Adams pointed to the stress and devastation that his accountant, Clarence Harley, experienced in losing his own home. “He came to me when he reached the point of his homelessness, and he stated: ‘I’m under a lot of pressure, I’m going through some difficult times, and I understand you have to fire me,’” Adams said when asked about the filings. Adams said that firing the man when he was facing homelessness would have been hypocritical, so he kept him on as his accountant even while Harley was living in a homeless shelter. “And because of that, it may have caused him to make some bad decisions,” said Adams.
I suppose Adams could have told us he lied to his diary or ate too many Twinkies, but blaming his homeless accountant for getting his home address wrong is . . . something.