NYC Mayor Adams backs Council Speaker Adrienne Adams in broadside against AOC over budget

Move over Cuomo and de Blasio, there’s a new feud in town.

Mayor Adams backed up City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams in her broadside against progressive Congresswoman Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) on Friday, saying that instead of taking to social media to air out differences, leaders like AOC are better off discussing their disagreements privately.

“I thought Speaker Adams answered appropriately,” he said. “AOC is a congressperson representing roughly 800,000 people … The speaker’s decision represents the needs of 8.8 million people. And I think there’s professional courtesy that if there’s an issue, you know, don’t tweet, speak. Pick up the phone, call your colleague and say, ‘I’m concerned.’”

Since former Gov. Andrew Cuomo resigned from his perch in disgrace and former Mayor Bill de Blasio left City Hall, politics in the city and state have remained relatively feud free.

But that appears to be changing. Mayor Adams, a moderate Democrat, and AOC, who’s further to the left of him, are arguably the city’s highest-profile politicians, and it’s now clear they’re at odds with one another in a very public way.

“I’m not sure of what is this new form of governing that you tweet your concerns,” Adams said Friday at an unrelated press event in the Bronx, not far from AOC’s congressional district. “How bout just speaking? How bout picking up the phone and asking and giving your advice? I’m sure the speaker will take her call. I’ll take her call.

“As a Congressional representative, I think it would be better for her to just pick up the phone and speak with Speaker Adams, who I find to be an amazing communicator and an excellent leader,” the mayor added.

The war of words between the mayor, the Council Speaker and AOC began on the heels of the City Council finalizing the city’s budget.

Several progressive Council members who voted against the budget were not given credit for certain allocations to their communities as a result of their no votes — leading some to accuse the Council Speaker of cutting the programs outright as revenge and others to fault her for not giving credit where credit is due.

Ocasio-Cortez, who boasts a huge social media following, was among the Council Speaker’s critics. Her assertion that the budget process amounted to “dirty politics,” among other criticisms, prompted the Council Speaker to push back on Thursday.

Council Speaker Adams, who is not related to the mayor, accused AOC of “mudslinging” and “slander” after accusing her of punishing her Council colleagues for voting “no” on the budget.

“It is not a punishment to your community to not have your name attached to an additional allocation of funding that you voted against,” the Council Speaker said Thursday. “It is simply a distinguishing indication of your votes against the entire budget.”

Council Speaker Adams then suggested that she would have appreciated the “professional courtesy” of a phone call over the matter.

A spokesperson for Ocasio-Cortez did not immediately respond.

Rep. Nydia Velazquez (D-N.Y.), an ally of Ocasio-Cortez’s who also criticized the Council Speaker over the budget, declined to say what she thought of the mayor’s suggestion that the congresswoman picks up the phone instead of tweeting attacks.

“You have to ask her, you have to ask her,” Velazquez said of Ocasio-Cortez.

But Velazquez suggested it was justified to criticize the speaker even though the nay-voting members ended up getting funding from her special discretionary pot.

“Just like I criticized [former Council Speaker] Corey Johnson when he did it, I’m going to criticize her if she’s punishing younger members,” Velazquez said of the speaker.