Whenever Mayor Eric Adams has faced adversity, he has sought refuge in the pulpit of Black churches, and he returned there on Sunday as he confronted fresh calls to resign.
Mr. Adams, a New York City Democrat who is running for re-election, made clear that he would not leave office on his own after the Justice Department’s push last week to drop the corruption case against him, which raised concerns that he is now beholden to President Trump.
“People are dancing on my grave,” the mayor said on Sunday, but he predicted that he would rise from the dead like the biblical figure Lazarus.
“I’ve got a mission to finish,” he said at Maranatha Baptist Church in Queens, adding: “I am going nowhere.”
Mr. Adams, the city’s second Black mayor, showed flashes of anger as he talked about the wave of criticism he has faced since the top federal prosecutor in Manhattan, Danielle R. Sassoon, resigned on Thursday. She wrote in her resignation letter that the mayor’s lawyers had negotiated a dismissal in exchange for the mayor’s help with Mr. Trump’s immigration crackdown in a clear “quid pro quo.”
Mr. Adams had hoped that having the federal corruption charges dropped would save his political career. But his coordination with the Trump administration and questions over whether he can run the city independently have cast new doubts over his ability to remain in office.
There are growing calls for Gov. Kathy Hochul to use her power to remove him. Mr. Adams has also bristled at the prospect that former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo might challenge him in the June primary.
At a second appearance on Sunday, at Mount Olivet Baptist Church of Hollis in Queens, Mr. Adams told the parishioners that they should shut down criticism of him if they hear it at the supermarket or at school.
“If you’re not going to be with a brother — Negro, shut up,” he said to cheering from the crowd. “That’s right — shut up!”
Among those who have called on Mr. Adams to quit are Andrea Stewart-Cousins, the State Senate majority leader, who said on Saturday that the mayor’s troubles were a distraction from governing. “It’s probably time that he move aside,” she said.
Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado has also called on the mayor to resign, as have many of his mayoral challengers and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. On Sunday, Representative Laura Gillen of New York called for Ms. Hochul to remove Mr. Adams on CNN and said that the mayor was “not above the law.”
Representative Hakeem Jeffries, the top House Democrat, said in a television interview on Sunday that he was “very concerned” about Ms. Sassoon’s allegations and called the situation “very disturbing.”
“Mayor Adams has a responsibility to convince the people of New York City that he will be able to continue to govern in a manner that puts their best interests first at all times, and that he’s not simply taking orders from a Trump administration,” Mr. Jeffries said on ABC.
The coming week will be pivotal. The judge who is overseeing the mayor’s case in Manhattan federal court, Dale E. Ho, must decide whether to drop the charges.
In Albany, where many elected officials gathered over the weekend for a meeting of the state’s Association of Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic and Asian Legislators, Adrienne Adams, the City Council speaker, was encouraged to run for mayor, according to a person familiar with the matter. Ms. Adams, a moderate Democrat from Queens who is not related to the mayor, has emerged as a key critic of Mr. Adams.
Several of the mayoral candidates are progressives, and some civic leaders have been searching for a moderate Democrat to take on Mr. Adams and Mr. Cuomo. Letitia James, the state attorney general, had considered entering the race, but she appears to want to stay in her current role using the legal system to counter Mr. Trump.
Mr. Adams has often spoken of his Christian faith and how God told him he would become mayor. He has also questioned the separation of church and state.
After his indictment in September, Mr. Adams compared himself to Job, a biblical figure who endured immense suffering but whose blessings were ultimately restored. On Sunday, Mr. Adams picked a different figure: Lazarus, who was raised from the dead by Jesus.
Mr. Adams said that at every stage of life he had encountered a “new devil,” from having undiagnosed dyslexia as a child to being beaten by the police as a teenager.
“Right now I’m facing a new devil,” he said of the negative headlines about his case.
Parishioners outside Mount Olivet expressed support for the mayor despite his troubles. Derrick Hunt, 63, said that to him the charges seemed overblown, and political after Mr. Adams criticized the Biden administration over the migrant crisis. The charges against the mayor included accepting more than $100,000 in flight upgrades and airline tickets as part of his relationship with Turkish officials.
“To tell me, ‘I took an upgraded seat on a plane,’ that doesn’t make sense to me,” he said. “I just don’t understand why they’re coming after him like that.”
Dolores Harrison, 87, said the mayor had done good work in her community.
“We’re going to stick with him, and God is going to be the judge,” she said.
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