RedState’s Sister Toldjah reported Thursday on how New York City Mayor Eric Adams completely lost his cool at a community meeting in Washington Heights, hurling inflammatory comments at an elderly woman who dared to disagree with him. What he said was disgusting:

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 that would deserve to be treated. I’m speaking to you as an adult. [Yet it sounds like he’s speaking to her as if she were a petulant child.]

Don’t stand in front like you treated someone that’s on the plantation that you own.

The plantation that you own? That’s a stunning, racist thing to say to a constituent (or anybody else, for that matter). Not surprisingly, she does not, in fact, own a plantation, although she does own a house she rents to tenants.

And it would seem unlikely that she’s the descendant of slave owners either—seeing as she and her family fled Germany to escape the Nazis in the 1940s.

Open mouth, Eric Adams—insert foot. Actually, insert both of them.

The woman, 84-year-old Jeanie Dubnau, is an assistant professor of biology at Rutgers University and is also a tenant advocate. She has a fascinating life history that Adams would have been wise to take into account:

Dubnau was born in Belgium shortly after her parents fled the terrors of the Nazi regime in Germany.

After hiding out in Belgium and France throughout World War II, she and her parents emigrated to New York City when she was 8 years old and has resided in the Big Apple ever since.

[She’s] now a volunteer tenant organizer since 1960 and the current chairwoman of Riverside Edgecombe Neighborhood Association…

My guess is she didn’t escape fascist Nazi Germany to be slurred by American political hacks.

that woman was Jeanie Dubnau, a housing activist w/ RENA. she helped my building unionize and sue our landlord over inconsistent heat/hot water, lack of repairs, and rent overcharges

she’s right and eric adams dodged this question bc he’s a coward who takes money from landlords

— aldo (@_alvendi) June 29, 2023

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Dubnau told the NY Post that Adams’ response to her was merely “to avoid accountability for his policies.” She went on to criticize him for supporting a proposal allowing landlords to hike rent on rent-stabilized apartments by up to 6 percent.

This article is not intended to be a discussion of the rent control issue in the Big Apple—it’s a complicated subject, and obviously, passions run high. Her positions might not align with the conservative viewpoint, but whatever Dubnau’s opinions are, she has the right to express them without being shamed in such a nasty way by a mayor who serves at the pleasure of voters. As Toldjah wrote:

If anything here it was Adams, who is in a position of power, treating Dubnau like she was subhuman, beneath him, not the other way around. I mean what what she supposed to do next, kiss his ring?

It was Adams himself who asked her to stand so he could hear her better. Although she was passionate about her views, she was not threatening or abusive in her language.

Asked if she thinks she’ll receive an apology, Dubnau was pointed:

Oh, he’s not going to apologize.

I mean, you know the mayor. He thinks he’s the greatest and doesn’t want to be criticized.

And, of course, she turned out to be correct in that assessment, as Adams spokesperson Fabien Levy indicated that no mea culpa would be forthcoming:

The mayor’s comments are the mayor’s comments. We stand by the mayor’s comments.

This simplistic, repetitive response sounds like VP Kamala Harris wrote it. But Brooklyn Democrat Councilwoman Sandy Nurse thought Adams was out of line:

There’s every justification for any New Yorker to enter a town hall and ask a question. Given her backstory and how much she’s been fighting for tenants and New Yorkers— it was just so disrespectful.

That reaction was an overreaction, and it was very condescending. I just don’t think it was justified by any measure.

I think he should apologize to her.

I don’t pretend to know the ins and outs of NYC rent control, but as someone who was partially raised in Manhattan, I was slightly hopeful that Adams would be an improvement over the tragi-comedy that was the Bill DeBlasio administration. It appears my hopes—along with those of many other people—have been dashed, as the mayor has shown himself to be a race-baiter with an alarmingly thin skin.

Tensions can run high at meetings like this, but Adams’ remarks were abhorrent. Each minute that goes by without an apology increases the stain on his reputation and legacy.