NYC Mayor Adams lashes out at Comptroller Brad Lander over migrant crisis, calls him ‘loudest person in the city’

Mayor Adams launched into an unprompted rant against City Comptroller Brad Lander on Thursday that featured an impression of the fiscal watchdog as well as criticism of how he’s helped with the city’s migrant crisis.

“Brad Lander, the loudest person in the city, has yet to go down to Washington to deal with the No. 1 issue that this city faces. Think about that for a moment,” said Adams at a press conference, then apparently mocked Lander with a high-pitched imitation of his voice saying, “I think Eric should ... ”

“Should I be asking the comptroller that determines our financial stability, ‘Hey Brad, how about going to Washington and tell them we should get our share?’” Adams continued before turning to the camera as if addressing Lander personally.

“Stop trying to be the shadow mayor and be the comptroller and go to Washington, D.C., Brad, and get us our fair share,” Adams said.

The mayor was responding to a question about a delegation of City Council members who traveled to Washington earlier this week to meet with White House officials and members of the city’s Congressional delegation to discuss the migrant issue and several other priorities.

The question did not include any mention of Lander — but it spurred the rare personal attack by Adams on another elected leader.

Lander has been critical of Adams when it comes to transparency around the city’s spending on migrants. He’s also called on Adams to put more money toward legal services for migrants, who aren’t eligible to work legally until they go through the highly bureaucratic and legalistic process of submitting applications for asylum.

Adams has regularly said getting migrants to work is a key priority to addressing the situation and has called on President Biden to lessen the waiting period for them to gain work authorization.

Lander owned Adams’ description of him as “loud” Thursday and doubled down on his push for the city to spend more on legal services.

“What I’ve consistently been loud about is the mayor’s failure to focus on the most urgent thing that City Hall can do to help people move out of shelter: Legal services to help people file their asylum applications so they can get work authorization,” Lander said.

“In fact, it was my conversations with federal officials as I have been pushing for more resources over many months that highlighted the urgency of that work. Encouraging those charged with oversight to leave the city or take their focus off City Hall will not help us take effective action to reduce the shelter population or enable asylum seekers to contribute to the long-term thriving of our city.”

Lander’s spokeswoman Chloe Chik added that Adams’ mocking her boss merely revealed how thin-skinned the mayor is when it comes to a little criticism.

“The mayor doing an impression of the comptroller shows hypersensitivity to criticism rather than the mayoral leadership needed to navigate an emergency,” she said.

After the mayor’s remarks, Lander also announced he’s declining to register a Medicare Advantage contract, which is crucial to the mayor’s controversial plan to revamp the way health insurance is provided to retired city workers. An Adams spokeswoman said the mayor’s team was “reviewing the letter from the comptroller’s office.”

In recent weeks, the mayor has made a point of highlighting whether or not city elected officials have traveled to Washington to pressure lawmakers for more migrant help. In April he praised Public Advocate Jumaane Williams for making the trip.

In Thursday’s press conference Adams said he was “happy” a City Council delegation — which included Speaker Adrienne Adams, Deputy Speaker Diana Ayala and Finance Chairman Justin Brannan — made the trip to D.C. to lobby on the city’s behalf for more migrant assistance, but he also threw shade their way for taking a several months to do it.