Exclusive | Hochuls running mate Adrienne Adams heckled, booed at NYC Dem forum
Gov.Kathy Hochul’s running mate, former City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams was heckled by pro-Israel protesters during a Brooklyn Democratic Party forum last week, The Post can reveal.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and state Attorney General Letitia James were also on-hand for the event at the Thomas Jefferson Democratic Club in Mill Basin hosted by scandal-plagued former local party boss Frank Seddio.“Jews are second class citizens,” pro-Israel activist Stephanie Benshimol shouted at Adams, who some Dems fault with not doing more to combat antisemitism when she served as council speaker.Adams, a former Queens councilwoman who was speaker from 2022 to the end of December, refused to take questions from The Post before she scampered out of the building.When Jeffries, a longtime Brooklyn rep, threw his support behind Adams, Benshimol started walking around the room, wanting to be heard on the issue dear to many Jewish New Yorkers.“I just have a question,” she said.
“Don’t tell me to go home.” But the crowd booed her, telling her she was “out of order,” and began forcing her out of the room.The fracas came as Adams appeared to be trying to mend fences with Brooklyn Dem bigwigs.Hochul, who is running for a second, full four-year term in November, picked Adams as her running mate in February, in the first all-female major-party gubernatorial ticket in state history.But the lieutenant governor pick was met with a temporary revolt from Brooklyn party bosses, with state Assemblywoman Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn and other leaders of the King County Democratic Committee initially withdrawing their support of Hochul in light of the announcement.Last year, Adams received a puny 6% of the first-round mayoral primary vote in the Assembly district surrounding the Jefferson Democratic Club, where she spoke to a crowd of about 50 attendees on Thursday.She was introduced by James, a former Brooklyn City Council member, who said that Adams has proven “t...