Holocaust survivor Mayor Adams compared to a ‘plantation’ owner claps back

Holocaust survivor Jeanie Dubnau, who Mayor Adams likened to a plantation owner earlier this week, struck back with her own comparison Friday — telling the Daily News in an interview that Adams’ remarks to her were “a little bit like Trump.”

Dubnau, a tenants rights activist, got into it with Adams during a Washington Heights town hall meeting Wednesday night as she grilled Adams on rent hikes recently approved by the Rent Guidelines Board, a body to which the mayor appoints members.

After questioning him about what she described as those “horrible rent increases,” Adams accused her of being “disrespectful” and told her “don’t stand in front like you treated someone that’s on a plantation that you own.”

Dubnau, who’s 84 and whose Jewish family fled Nazi persecution in Europe when she was a child, told The News on Friday that Adams’ response — what she described as a deflection — reminded her of someone else well known for his rhetorical exaggerations: former President Donald Trump.

“He is a little bit like Trump in that way, by lying and by bringing up totally irrelevant things instead of answering questions,” she said. “Trump is maybe even a bit more clever in how he does that … Eric Adams certainly tries to deflect whenever he doesn’t want to answer something.”

The initial issue that led to the exchange between Adams and the senior citizen from Washington Heights is the rent hike the Rent Guidelines Board approved last month for stabilized apartments. Adams appoints members to that body, and at Wednesday’s town hall event, Dubnau pointed directly at the mayor and demanded forcefully that he explain “why are we having these horrible rent increases last year and this year?”

Adams, who had previously talked about the fact that landlords of multi-family houses had been struggling with increasing costs, demanded that she not point at him.

“I’m the mayor of this city. Treat me with the respect which I deserve to be treated,” the clearly peeved mayor said. “I’m speaking to you as an adult. Don’t stand in front like you treated someone that’s on a plantation that you own. Give me the respect I deserve.”

Dubnau wouldn’t say Friday whether she considered Adams’ response offensive, contending that such speculation would distract from “the major issue.”

“I wasn’t even thinking about whether it was offensive,” she said. “The major issue is that he was elected by being supported by millions of dollars from real estate, and now he is going to cause the evictions of thousands and thousands of New Yorkers.

“They are only thinking about how they can increase the profit of real estate,” she added.

Adams also spoke about his exchange with Dubnau on Friday — and continued to defend his rhetoric.

“Her behavior was acting in a disrespectful way,“ he said during a morning appearance on 1010 WINS. “I’m just seeing this disrespect that we are displaying, not only locally, but nationally. Disrespect to police officers, disrespect to religious groups when they are in our city, disrespect to everyday people delivering services — and it needs to stop.”

Adams added that his mother taught him “to never allow someone to be disrespectful to you” and that Dubnau “disrupted a meeting where all the participants were acting respectfully and cordially.”

“She disrupted that, and then she was degrading in how she communicated with me,” he said.

But Dubnau has a different perspective on how the exchange went down.

She defended the tone she took, saying she spoke loudly only because she didn’t have a microphone.

“I was far from him and I wanted everyone to hear what I was saying,” he said. “It wasn’t rowdy at all.”

She dismissed the substance of Adams’ response as well.

During the hearing, Adams, who owns a townhouse in Brooklyn and is a landlord himself, said while he appoints members to the rent Guidelines Board, he doesn’t control the board’s decisions. Advocates have argued such a response ignores the fact that his appointees are charged with making decisions that impact thousands of working class tenants.

Dubnau agrees.

“Everyone knows that’s a lie,” Dubnau said of Adams’ claim that he doesn’t hold sway over the Rent Guidelines Board. “Eric Adams is an enemy of all tenants in the entire city.”