Former New York City Mayor Eric Adams took his traveling pitchman routine to Wisconsin, and the locals did not exactly roll out the red carpet.
A newly surfaced video shows Adams getting booed, heckled, and shouted down during a Saturday meeting in Wisconsin Rapids, where he attempted to sell residents on a proposed artificial intelligence data center.
The scene was ugly, awkward, and very much on brand for Adams, whose political career after City Hall has become a strange blend of salesmanship, scandal residue, and public confusion.
As Adams introduced himself to the crowd, his name drew a blast of boos from attendees who were clearly not interested in being charmed by the former mayor of America’s most chaotic blue city.
“You belong in prison!” one attendee shouted, a blunt reference to Adams’ federal corruption case, which was controversially dismissed before he left office.
That line seemed to set the tone for the rest of the meeting, where residents treated Adams less like a respected civic figure and more like an unwanted salesman who wandered into the wrong town hall.
Adams was appearing on behalf of PNK Group, an industrial engineering and construction company seeking to build a data center on 209 acres along the Wisconsin River.
The proposed site was once home to a paper mill that closed in 2020, taking about 900 local jobs with it and leaving the community understandably sensitive to big promises from outside interests.
PNK has reportedly said the project could create between 50 and 150 permanent jobs, but the company has not publicly identified who would occupy the building.
For many residents, that did not appear to be enough, especially when the pitch came from Adams, a Democrat whose own tenure in New York was marked by scandals, theatrics, and a talent for making headlines for all the wrong reasons.
“Whether we like it or not, folks, data centers are going to be here,” Adams told the crowd.
That argument landed with all the grace of a campaign speech at a tax revolt, as attendees fired back with anger about water, land use, and why this project should be dropped into their backyard.
“Get out of here! Put it in your backyard!,” one resident spouted off.
“You’re here to steal our water!” another yelled.
“How many bribes did you pay in this town?” yet another shouted.
Adams tried to pivot into a more personal appeal, telling a story about artificial intelligence helping a friend receive a breast cancer diagnosis.
But even that attempt at humanizing the issue failed to quiet the room, with one skeptical attendee asking, “Is this story true?”
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That question was especially brutal given Adams’ long history of odd public tales, including one about a childhood pet rat named “Mickey,” which became part of his famously bizarre political folklore.
Since leaving Gracie Mansion, Adams has managed to keep the headlines coming, becoming an Albanian citizen, appearing in strange Chinese AI videos, and watching close adviser Frank Carone get hit with a corruption indictment of his own.
He has also launched a new life as a business development consultant, pitching products and services ranging from green rebar to fire retardant.
Adams recently bragged to The Real Deal about his portfolio and claimed an 80 percent close rate while helping companies sell everything from cleaning services to health monitoring technology.
That sales record apparently did not impress Wisconsin Rapids, where the former mayor’s big city swagger met small town skepticism and a room full of people who were not buying the glossy tech pitch.
After Hell Gate reported on the chaotic meeting, Adams spokesman Todd Shapiro argued the video did not tell the whole story.
“A short video clip cannot accurately portray an event that lasted much longer,” Shapiro said.
“It omits the many attendees who approached Mayor Adams afterward to thank him, ask questions, and express appreciation for his willingness to engage directly with the community. Reasonable people can have different views on individual projects, but the facts are clear: AI is transforming the global economy, and data centers are the infrastructure that powers it.”
PNK representatives also defended Adams’ role, saying he had been brought in to assist with local outreach.
“We have retained him on a paid consulting basis to advise us on community engagement strategy and best practices,” the reps said.
“His experience is valuable as we work to engage openly and constructively with the communities where we are evaluating future projects.”
The company may see Adams as a seasoned communicator, but the Wisconsin crowd seemed to see something else entirely, a former big city mayor with political baggage trying to sell a massive project they do not trust.
For Adams, it was another reminder that leaving office does not erase the reputation voters remember, especially when the next act involves telling skeptical citizens that a mysterious data center is simply the future coming to town.
