Kansans demand apology from Mayor Adams for belittling the capital, Topeka

He can kiss them Kansas.

Kansans are demanding that New York City Mayor Eric Adams apologize to the Midwestern state after he snubbed their capital when he came to power earlier this week.

Speaking at a prayer breakfast Tuesday, Adams said he believes divine intervention played a role in his rise to mayor in the country’s largest and most important city, not some C-list city like Topeka. , Kansas.

“God said, ‘I will take the most broken man and raise him up to be the mayor of the most powerful city on earth,'” Adams said with faith at the annual event. leaders in Manhattan.

“He could make me mayor of Topeka, Kansas. He could make me the mayor of some town or village somewhere.”

The comments prompted an immediate backlash from the Jayhawkers, including Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly, who demanded that he apologize for offending Kansas a second time.

“I was in New York visiting my granddaughter when you insulted my hometown Topeka, K.S.” she tweeted. “It was this granddaughter, along with her parents, who did you Kansas kindness at the Gracie mansion when you humiliated my condition last September. Enough already. You must apologize to Kansas.

In response to Adams’ dismissal from Topeka, which has a population of just over 125,000, the city’s Department of Tourism offered an all-inclusive 3-day, 2-day Topeka trip for four New Yorkers living in any of the five boroughs.

The visit includes round-trip flights from nearby Kansas City, hotel accommodations, tickets to local attractions and $500 gift certificates to local restaurants and shops, Visit Topeka reported.

Topeka Mayor Mike Padilla, who is also a Democrat, was no less upset. He said Adams’ comments “minimized Kansas” and called his words “alarming and unprofessional”.

“One of the best lessons I have learned during my time as mayor is the value of humility,” Padilla told KSN. “I have personally been to New York many times and have always spoken highly of New Yorkers, never stooping to assumptions or stereotypes. I would suggest that the mayor of New York get to know our beautiful city and its people before judging a community he seems to know little about.”

The mayor’s spokesman insisted that the mayor not insult the Kansas capital.

“The mayor never did and never intended to offend Topeka, Kansas,” Fabien Levy told The Post. “All he said was that he was the mayor of the greatest city in the world. That remains true, but Topeka is a beautiful place that the mayor hopes to visit one day.”

This isn’t Hizzoner’s first feud with Sunflower State.

In September, Midwesterners criticized Adams after he said Kansas “has no brand” while discussing his trips to Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic.

Adams boasted of the positive reaction he received when locals saw him wearing a government polo shirt with the word “mayor” written on the back.

“We have a brand. New York City has a brand and when people see it, it means something,” Adams said.

“Kansas has no brand,” he said at the time, breaking himself. “When you go there, okay, you’re from Kansas. No. Ah, well, you know what? But New York has a brand. He has a brand, and that brand means diversity. This brand means we care. This brand means we are compassionate.”