If there’s a hot seat right now in American politics, it’s that of New York Governor Kathy Hochul. Following the Justice Department’s decision to drop the federal corruption charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams this week, one major question that has been raised is whether she will exercise the power that the state constitution grants her to remove Adams from office. The decision from the DOJ to drop the case against the mayor without prejudice – meaning that they could be brought up again in the future – has led many to view Adams as compromised, indebted to a Trump administration that has saved him from prosecution but could just as easily indict him again. So far, Hochul is apparently taking a wait-and-see approach, even as Trump’s Adams-allied “border czar” Tom Homan and the Department of Justice are already firing their first broadsides at her administration.
Up to this point, Hochul as not stated definitively that she is pursuing the removal option, although it is not off the table yet. “The allegations are extremely concerning and serious,” she said on the Rachel Maddow Show last night. “But I cannot as the governor of this state have a knee-jerk, politically motivated reaction like a lot of other people are saying right now.” She went on to say that at this stage, she was conferring with state leaders to “figure out the right approach.” While she did also say that her judgment includes figuring out “what’s right,” Hochul also appeared to be considering factors unrelated to the question of Adams’ alleged corruption. “I don’t want our rebirth to be stopped by this,” she told Maddow. “I have to maintain stability, end the chaos and do what’s right for the city of New York.”
A new fault line is forming between the Governor Hochul on one side, and Adams and the Trump administration on the other. New York City’s mayor appeared on Fox News this morning alongside Tom Homan, judiciously neglecting to opine on the governor’s power to remove him from office, only saying that “she has her role, I have my role.” Homan instead offered a harsh critique, saying that Hochul “is an embarrassment to the position she holds.” He then flipped the script on the governor, saying that “she needs to be removed – if anybody needs to be removed it needs to be her,” because of her support for New York’s Green Light law passed in 2019, which affords undocumented migrants in the state the opportunity to obtain drivers’ licenses and learners’ permits.
The Trump administration’s clash with Hochul goes beyond just words, as Attorney General Pam Bondi announced a lawsuit against the governor, New York Attorney General Letitia James, and DMV chief Mark Schroeder over the Green Light law this week, just after the federal charges against Adams were dropped. Hochul canceled a planned meeting with Trump shortly after the announcement, saying that she “tentatively agreed” to speak with him when she goes to the Washington D.C. next week for a National Governors Association meeting. In the meantime, she has come out in support for New York’s immigrant communities. “New York is proud that immigrants from across the globe come here searching for a better life,” Hochul said in a statement, which also invoked her own immigrant grandparents. “New York is not backing down.”
