New York City comptroller and mayoral candidate Brad Lander spoke out against the lack of support he has received from Mayor Eric Adams following Lander's arrest on Tuesday.
Lander was arrested by masked agents with Immigration and Customs Enforcement outside an immigration courtroom. The Department of Homeland Security alleged that Lander attacked a law enforcement officer and impeded an official investigation. Lander said he was attending the court as a volunteer observer and was escorting a migrant family out of the courtroom.
Lander repeatedly asked to see a judicial warrant for the family's arrest, but none was provided. He was released after Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) condemned the arrest and lobbied for his release.
Lander is a candidate in New York's mayoral race. He said in an appearance on Democracy Now! that five mayoral candidates showed up to support him, including Zohran Mamdani. Former Gov. and current mayoral candidate Andrew Cuomo released a statement condemning Lander's arrest. But there was one voice that was absent from the debacle: the city's current mayor, Eric Adams.
"He did not call me. He didn’t do anything to help, and issued a just rude statement," Lander told Democracy Now!
Adams accused Lander of making a political statement with the arrest during a Wednesday appearance on the Reset Talk show.
"I think it was more politics instead of protecting people,” Adams said. “It’s unfortunate that he took that action, because that is not the role of the elected official, what he did today.”
Lander said he was not surprised to see this kind of reaction from Adams because he "sold this city out to Donald Trump to try to get his own pardon."
Trump never pardoned Adams in his federal corruption trial, but Trump's Department of Justice decided to stop prosecuting the case in February. Critics have said the move made Adams beholden to Trump.