Williams says he’s preparing for ‘every eventuality’

Calls continue to mount for Mayor Eric Adams to resign after being indicted Thursday on federal corruption and bribery charges.

If Adams did resign, or was removed from office, Public Advocate Jumaane Williams is next in the line of succession to take over as mayor.

On “Inside City Hall” Thursday night, Williams said he has been preparing for “every eventuality.”

“We’ve been having a lot of meetings. You always know this scenario can occur, and you do the basic preps for it. But I think you want to make sure you have everything, as much as possible, lined up for every eventuality “It’s not an eventuality you want, and it’s not something you’re pushing for, but you got to make sure you’re prepared for whatever may come,” Williams said.

Williams described the charges facing Adams as “egregious” and “very concerning.”

“The breadth of this, the length of time, was actually pretty surprising to me. I didn’t expect to see all this. From looking at it, how do you explain it all? I don’t know the answer to that, “Williams said. “If there’s a defense to it, it will take a lot of time to build for it.”

When asked if he would run in a special election following an Adams resignation or removal from office, Williams said the possibility is “so far ahead” and maintained the “presumption of innocence is tantamount to how we operate” regarding Adams’ legal process.

Williams said the continually increasing calls for the mayor’s resignation make it difficult to run the city.

“It is untenable now kind of, it’s only getting worse by the day, which is why I say you have to quickly answer the questions, ‘how are you going to govern with all this going on?'” Williams said. “On top of that, are you confident that you can restore the trust that’s being broken? That’s a difficult plan to be able to show, but I want to make sure the greatest has an opportunity to show that. That window, I think, is rapidly closing and things are getting worse by the day. I hope he’s doing a lot of soul searching.”