Adams Bars Reporter From News Conferences for Being ‘Disrespectful'
Chris Sommerfeldt, who covers City Hall for The New York Daily News, spent the early part of Tuesday reporting on ICE agents' arrest of Brad Lander, the city comptroller, at a Manhattan courthouse.
Later in the day, Mr. Sommerfeldt was a subject of news coverage himself, after Mayor Eric Adams took the extraordinary step of barring him in the future from the weekly City Hall news conferences that are reporters' only regular chance to ask Mr. Adams whatever they want.
The mayor, whose interactions with reporters have often been contentious, imposed the ban after calling Mr. Sommerfeldt 'disruptive' and 'disrespectful' for shouting questions without being called on first, as is the custom at the so-called off-topic events.
Mr. Sommerfeldt, one of two Daily News reporters who cover City Hall, has not been called on at one of the weekly events in more than three months, the newspaper reported.
The exchange that preceded the mayor's unusual move came as he discussed his plans for the general election campaign.
Elected as a Democrat in 2021, Mr. Adams is skipping the party primary this year and has said he intends to run for re-election on two ballot lines of his own creation: EndAntiSemitism and Safe&Affordable.
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