He had real work to do.
New York City Mayor-elect Eric Adams ducked out early from a White House gathering on Tuesday — ditching a chance to greet President Biden to get back to work on his Big Apple transition.
Biden wasn’t scheduled to attend the West Wing gathering, but a presidential cameo was widely expected because Adams and nine other newly elected mayors gathered just feet from the Oval Office.
Adams sat through about four hours of administration pep talks — covering not only infrastructure funds, but issues such as racial equality and fighting climate change — before deciding against rebooking his flight home.
“He said he had to leave,” a mayor who was at the Roosevelt Room meeting said. “He had to get back to New York.”
The fellow mayor described Adams as “very engaged in the meeting” before his early departure.
Adams spokesman Evan Thies told The Post that “the meeting went long and he had to make a flight to return to New York City for transition business.”
“He regrets he had to miss the end of the meeting,” Thies added.
NYC Mayor-elect Adams was at the White House in July to discuss rising crime rates with President Biden. Ron Sachs – CNPThies could not say when Biden and Adams spoke most recently, but he said “they have spoken several times and share many of the same goals for the country and New York, especially when it comes to public safety.”
The mayoral summit featured presentations by Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Marcia Fudge and infrastructure coordinator Mitch Landrieu.
Vice President Kamala Harris also surprised the group at the end.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said at an early-afternoon briefing that Biden would not attend the mayoral summit — but a massive eight-hour gap in Biden’s public schedule between a 10 a.m. intelligence briefing and an evening holiday party for the Democratic National Committee fueled suspicions that he would indeed pay a visit.
“We were meeting in the Roosevelt Room and the president walked in. He didn’t quite say ‘Surprise!’ but he gave us a tour of the Oval Office,” one of the mayors told reporters afterward.
No meeting with Adams was on President Biden’s public schedule today, it only included his national security briefing and a Christmas party. Getty Images“— and a lot of good stories too, by the way,” another of the mayors chimed in.
In addition to Adams, attendees included Boston Mayor Michelle Wu; Atlanta Mayor-elect Andre Dickens; Mayor-elect Bruce Harrell; Cleveland Mayor-elect Justin Bibb; Cincinnati Mayor-elect Aftab Pureval; Chattanooga, Tenn., Mayor Tim Kelly; Arlington, Texas Mayor Jim Ross; and St. Petersburg, Fla., Mayor-elect Ken Welch.
An evening readout released by the White House glossed over Adams’ absence and incorrectly said that Biden met with all 10 new mayors.
“President Biden and Vice President Harris met with a bipartisan group of 10 newly-elected mayors and mayors-elect to congratulate them on their elections and emphasize the importance they place on strong partnerships with local governments,” the White House said.
The statement continued: “The President, Vice President, mayors, and mayors-elect discussed implementation of the American Rescue Plan and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to create millions of good-paying jobs and grow the economy from the bottom up.”
Adams previously visited the White House in July after winning the Democratic primary to talk with Biden about soaring violent crime in major cities. Adams is a former cop who has rejected left-wing demands to defund or abolish the police.
The then-Brooklyn borough president told reporters at the time: “This crime problem is destroying my borough and I’m happy that he allowed me to come in and share my insights.”
On a different DC trip in July, Adams visited Capitol Hill to meet with Democratic New York lawmakers about federal funding for the city.
