The powerful head of the state Senate confirmed Wednesday that Mayor Eric Adams was told in no uncertain terms that his plan to amend the state’s bail reform law in a bid to stem the tide of violence in the Big Apple was dead on arrival.
But Andrea Stewart-Cousins said she was still “happy” he traveled to Albany to pitch the idea.
One day after Adams attacked the media for reporting he failed to win over state lawmakers in his Monday trip upstate, Majority Leader Stewart-Cousins (D-Yonkers) said Hizzoner was informed behind closed doors there was no chance the Legislature would adopt his proposal to let judges lock up defendants deemed dangerous to the public.
“We’re happy that he came up and we went through the process that occurred during the conversation about bail and bail reforms and assured him that we had considered a variety of things,” Stewart-Cousins said during an appearance on WNYC radio’s “The Brian Lehrer Show.”
“But rolling back reforms that are really directed in allowing people accused of misdemeanors to have their day in court is not, you know, as we saw, the actual answer.”
Adams, a former NYPD captain, has said he wants to combat the city’s surge in gun violence by having New York add a “dangerousness” standard to the factors that judges consider before deciding whether to release defendants from custody pending trial.
On Monday, The Post and other news outlets reported that Adams was unable to gain support for the plan during his first trip to Albany since taking office on Jan. 1.
The accounts prompted Adams to start an unrelated Tuesday news conference with a seven-minute rant in he which called the reports unfairly negative and suggested the cause was racial bias by reporters and editors.
“I’m a black man that’s the mayor but my story is being interpreted by people that don’t look like me,” he said.
Adams — who said that “I have been doing a darn good job and we just can’t live in this alternate reality” — also threatened to stop fielding “off-topic” questions during his public appearances if the coverage of him doesn’t improve.
“I’m just going to come in and do my announcements and bounce,” he warned.
Stewart-Cousins wasn’t asked about those remarks during her WNYC interview.
