The Gateway Pundit previously reported on the offensive comments by New York City Mayor Eric Adams to an elderly woman who posed a question about rent increases in New York. The exchange occurred on Wednesday at a town hall meeting in Washington Heights, Manhattan.
In response to questions raised by Jeanie Dubnau, 84, an assistant professor of biology at Rutgers University and decades-long tenant advocate, Mayor Adams went on a tirade.
“Okay, first, if you’re going to ask a question, don’t point at me and don’t be disrespectful to me. I’m the mayor of this city and treat me with the respect I deserve to be treated.”
“I’m speaking to you as an adult. Don’t stand in front like you treated someone that’s on the plantation that you own,” Adams added.
“Give me the respect I deserve and engage in the conversation up here in Washington Heights. Treat me with the same level of respect I treat you, so don’t be pointing at me. Don’t be disrespectful to me. Speak with me as an adult, because I’m a grown man. I walked into this room as a grown man, and I’m going to walk out of this room as a grown man,” he concluded.
Adams’ comments, disgusting in any circumstances, are even more offensive as the circumstances of Dubnau’s immigration to the United States decades ago came to light. Dubnau and her family were forced to hide and flee from the Nazi regime in Europe before arriving in New York.
In a phone interview with Forward, Dubnau said she “was born in Brussels after her parents fled Nazi Germany. They managed to survive the war in France in hiding and ‘were lucky enough to come here,’ to the U.S., sponsored by her mother’s uncle.”
Dubnau has more than 40 years advocation for low-income NYers of all races as Co-Founder of the Riverside Edgecombe Neighborhood Association.
This woman is Jeanie Dubnau, the Co-Founder of the Riverside Edgecombe Neighborhood Association (RENA), a tenants & housing rights advocacy organization in Upper Manhattan. She has +40 years advocating for low income NYers of all races. Jeanie is not a racist & this was wrong. https://t.co/KA3lEQDlYu
— Juan Rosa (@JuanRosa_NYC) June 29, 2023
During an interview on 1010 WINS Friday morning, New York City Mayor Eric Adams defended his controversial remarks made towards an 84-year-old tenant whom he had compared to a ‘plantation owner’.
Adams justified his rhetoric, saying, “Well, some can say that, and her behavior was acting in a disrespectful way, and I’m just seeing this disrespect that we’re displaying, not only locally but nationally. Disrespect to police officers, disrespecting religious groups when they are in our city, disrespect to everyday people who deliver services — and it needs to stop. You know, I came from a family that — mom made it clear, never allow someone to be disrespectful to you.”
He continued, “That woman disrupted a meeting where all the participants were acting respectfully and cordially, to get their issues heard — she disrupted that. And then she was degrading in how she communicated with me. I’m not going to allow civil servants to be disrespected, and I’m not going to be disrespected as the mayor of this city. I’m the representative of this city, and we need to start having a better dialogue on how we communicate with each other, both locally and nationally, on how we communicate.”
The Blaze reported:
In response, Dubnau maintained her criticism of Adams, telling the Post that his response proves he wants “to avoid accountability for his policies.”
“He didn’t have an answer,” she asserted. “That was just a deflection that’s all, because he doesn’t have any answers.”
“He’s a landlord himself. He said, ‘Oh, I don’t raise the rent on my own tenants.’ Who cares about his own personal tenants? He’s raising the rents on thousands and thousands of people in New York City,” she added, calling Adams “a landlord stooge and the enemy of tenants in New York City.”
Dubnau, moreover, said she is not waiting for an apology.
“Oh, he’s not going to apologize,” she told the Post. “I mean, you know the mayor. He thinks he’s the greatest and doesn’t want to be criticized.”