New York City mayor Eric Adams (D.) told a woman not to treat him "like you treated someone that's on the plantation that you own" after she asked him about "horrible rent increases" at a town hall Wednesday night.
"If you're going to ask a question, don't point at me, and don't be disrespectful to me," Adams said. "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, elected in 2021, has become increasingly unpopular among New Yorkers. A February Quinnipiac poll found Adams has just 37 percent approval and 43 disapproval.
"Don’t be pointing at me. Don’t be disrespectful to me," Adams told the woman. "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."
Adams's reference to the plantation is not the first by a Democrat in recent years. CNN analyst Keith Boykin in 2017 said then-president Donald Trump was "a white supremacist president of the United States" who thinks "he is a slavemaster of black people." He also said Trump was "fanning the flames of racial hatred" and is playing "plantation politics."