It seems as though New York politicians saying dumb things has now become a legitimate news category. Is anyone surprised? Nope, didn’t think so. In the most recent iteration of ‘New York politician says questionable thing’, Mayor Eric Adams has seemingly come up with one of the most bizarre conspiracy theories of late: that “outside agitators” had conspired to provide all of the pro-Palestine student protestors with, wait for it… identical tents. I know, terrifying stuff.

During a press conference on Tuesday 23 April 2023, Adams was questioned about the student encampment held at Columbia University. Interestingly, rather than properly considering the reasoning behind why so many students were pursuing this form of peaceful protest, the mayor decided to focus on a completely insignificant detail.

Adams stated: “Why is everybody’s tent the same? Was there a fire sale on those tents? There’s some organising going on. There’s a well-concerted organising effort and what’s the goal of that organising? That’s what we need to be asking ourselves.” Is it though?

.@NYCMayor repeated this claim, asking “why is everybody’s tent the same?” Some tents are similar but as you can see in the photo from @THECITYNY’s reporting today, there are multiple different tents https://t.co/TkIQzKsAq1 https://t.co/GbIIdpapDw pic.twitter.com/v7R94fWKUK

— katie honan (@katie_honan) April 24, 2024

Adams’ comments were spurred on following a statement from Kaz Daughtry, a deputy police commissioner, who had pondered a few days prior during an interview with Fox News: “If you look at the tents, where did they all get them from? The same place, the same person? Somebody is behind this, and we’re gonna find out who it is.”

I think it’s safe to say that if you simply did a quick Amazon search for “cheapest tent” you might likely solve this wild mystery. It’s sheer madness, I know.

If it makes Adams feel any better, New York Governor Kathy Hochul might actually beat him when it comes to the prize for the dumbest statement made by a politician, at least in the last two weeks…

According to Jezebel, Hochul—during an appearance at The Milken Institute, a nonprofit and nonpartisan think tank—stated in front of the audience: “Right now we have, you know, young Black kids growing up in the Bronx who don’t even know what the word ‘computer’ is. They don’t know, they don’t know these things.” Yep, these words actually left her mouth.

Hours later, after receiving an overwhelming amount of criticism for her blatantly racist and ignorant remarks, Hochul issued an apology, emphasising that she had “misspoke.” Okay hun, whatever you say.