Did Eric Adams Maybe Drop Out Because of His Secret Ex-Girlfriend’s Memoir?
Barf Bag: NYC's Mayor knew his former lover, Jasmine Ray, was working on a book about him that could damage his career, but now that it's over, she's releasing it!
As we informed you in the Monday edition of Barf Bag, New York City Mayor Eric Adams suspended his re-election campaign over the weekend, leaving Zohran Mamdani to duke it out against Republican Curtis Sliwa and former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a sex pest running as an independent. Adams claimed in a video posted on social media Sunday that he couldn’t continue in the race due to “constant media speculation about my future and the Campaign Finance Board’s decision to withhold millions of dollars,” which have both “undermined my ability to raise the funds needed for a serious campaign.”
Actually, I’d argue that he was just politically toxic in the city, in part stemming from a scandal over his campaign seeking illegal contributions to unlock matching funds from the city’s Campaign Finance Board. Adams, who was elected as a Democrat, chose to skip the primary and run as an independent after a scandal in which the Trump administration recommended dismissing his federal corruption charges because, the Justice Department claimed, they needed his cooperation on their mass deportation plan. But the Justice Department said it wanted charges dismissed “without prejudice,” meaning they could be reinstated later, and it became clear this was a favor as part of a quid pro quo.
In February, Adams agreed to allow federal immigration officials into the city’s Rikers Island jail. The day after, he appeared on Fox News with border czar and man apparently bribe-able for $50,000, Tom Homan, who said, “If he doesn’t come through…I’ll be in his office, up his butt saying, ‘Where the hell is the agreement we came to?'”
But things got more interesting on Tuesday as news outlets reported that a City Hall staffer who recently resigned was about to publish a memoir alleging that she dated Adams in 2015 and 2016. Until last Friday, Jasmine Ray, 42, was the director of the Mayor’s Office of Sports, Wellness and Recreation, or “sports czar.” She made a $161,000 salary for almost three years, having served in the job since November 2022. She posted on social media that she was self-publishing a book titled Political Humanity: A Memoir of Love, Legacy and New York City Politics. Ray is selling an e-book for $7.99 and an audiobook for $9.99.
The New York Daily Newssummarized a statement from an Adams spokesperson as acknowledging that the pair “had a dating relationship roughly a decade ago and haven’t had any romantic engagements since they both started working at City Hall.” The spokesperson also said that Adams’ longtime partner, Tracey Collins, a former senior Department of Education official, was aware of his relationship with Ray.
But the two were apparently close enough that Ray said federal prosecutors interviewed her in his corruption case and she testified before a grand jury. The New York Times says that the book describes the charges as being politically motivated. And apparently Adams knew about the book, which Ray started writing during the pandemic—he even told her not to publish it because he worried it would hurt his career. Ray told the Times she decided to release it once polls became clear he wouldn’t win re-election.
Ray reportedly writes that she perceived a double standard in reactions to Adams trying to remain in politics compared to Cuomo. “So why is it that when Cuomo steps into the arena, he’s met with solidarity and second chances, but when Eric does, the reaction is often skepticism and dismissal?” It’s true that city and state leaders called on Adams to resign in February following his cooperation with the Trump administration, and then Cuomo slithered in weeks later to announce his candidacy after more than three years out of the spotlight. While Cuomo did get an alarming amount of endorsements, he lost the primary to Mamdani, and is about a month away from being sent back to the suburbs.
Don’t fuck this election up, New Jersey. (PSA: GOP nominee Jack Ciattarelli supports restrictingabortion access in the state…)
In tonight’s New Jersey Lt. Gov debate, Jack Ciattarelli’s running mate Jim Gannon said – out loud – that new taxes are on the table for NJ residents…EXCEPT FOR MILLIONAIRES!!!Clip via @umichvoter.bsky.social on X.
We are officially in a government shutdown and the Trump administration has not only forced all agencies to put up website messages blaming Democrats, but it has also changed people’s out-of-office messages. [The Handbasket/NBC News]
Unlike during previous shutdowns, immigration courts will remain open. Lovely. [NOTUS]
A Chicago horror show: U.S. Border Patrol said snipers rappelled down from helicopters onto the top of an apartment complex to conduct a raid in the middle of the night and pulled some people out of the building “buck naked.” [New York Times/WBEZ]
Apple and Google removed ICE-tracking apps from their app stores following pressure from Attorney General Pam Bondi. [CNBC]
Federal drug prosecutions dropped to the lowest level since at least the late ’90s after the Trump administration ordered enforcement agencies to focus on deportations. [Reuters]
Trump’s mass deportation effort is set to harm farmers who are already hanging on by a thread. [Fortune]
The administration’s new $100,000 fee for H-1B visas could hit red-statehospitals particularly hard. Iowa, North Dakota, and West Virginia employ the highest percentage of physicians on H-1B visas, and all three states voted for Trump. [Politico]
FBI director Kash Patel fired an agent trainee for displaying a pride flag on their desk, claiming it was an improper “political” message. [MSNBC]
Patel also recently gave New Zealand officials as a “gift” inoperable, 3D-printed guns, as a “gift,” that are illegal to possess in the country. [Associated Press]
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. fired Jeanne Marrazzo, a National Institutes of Health scientist who filed a whistleblower complaint against the Trump administration. [New York Times]
Headline: “MAGA’s Top ‘Voter Fraud’ Watchdog [Jack Posobiec] Votes in a Swing State. He Doesn’t Live There.” [Slate]
Teslo CEO Elon Musk, who lost his mind when his daughter Vivian came out as transgender, is urging people to cancel their Netflix subscriptions due to an animated show with a trans character. The show’s creator is now getting “extremely nasty weird homophobic and antisemitic emails.” [Variety]
YouTube will pay $24.5 million to settle a lawsuit from Trump over the platform temporarily suspending his account after January 6—and $22 million of that will go to the dumbass White House ballroom. [CBS News]
The head of the Eisenhower Presidential Library was forced out of his job after he refused to give the Trump administration a sword from the museum’s collection. Trump wanted to gift it to King Charles III during a recent state visit to the U.K. [KCUR]
A disgraced megachurch pastor and ex-Trump adviser pleaded guilty to sexually abusing a 12-year-old girl in the 1980s. [The Guardian]
Former North Carolina Rep. Madison Cawthorn, who lost his 2022 primary amid multiple scandals, is running for Congress again, but this time in Florida. [NBC News]
This has been your Friday Barf Bag, thanks for reading!
