Former Democratic New York City Mayor Eric Adams accused the Biden-Harris administration of treating public safety as a “political game” after it placed a $25 million bounty on Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro before leaving office.
Adams fired back at critics of recent U.S. action against Maduro in a post on X Saturday. The mayor argued that labeling someone a “narco-dictator” one year and then objecting when action is taken the next is “cynical and irresponsible.”
“Public safety is not a political game,” Adams wrote. “You do not label someone a narco-dictator one year and then pretend he is no longer a threat the next simply because a different president is in office.” (RELATED: ‘Full Wrath Of American Justice’: Trump Admin Announces Indictment of Venezuelan Socialist Dictator Nicolás Maduro)
On January 10, 2025, the Biden-Harris administration put a $25 million bounty on Nicolás Maduro for information leading to his arrest or conviction.
Public safety is not a political game.
You do not label someone a narco-dictator one year and then pretend he is no longer a… https://t.co/KC8qzUFTLc pic.twitter.com/iPHSm2DppQ
— Eric Adams (@ericadamsfornyc) January 4, 2026
Adams pointed to the human toll of Maduro’s drug trafficking operations, citing the 2023 death of 2-year-old Nicholas Feliz Dominici from fentanyl poisoning at a Bronx daycare.
“Maduro’s drugs have killed thousands of Americans and continue to endanger our children,” Adams said. “America is safer today because Maduro is no longer in power.”
His remarks came after former Vice President Kamala Harris criticized President Donald Trump’s Venezuela actions as “unlawful and unwise” in a post on X Saturday. Harris called the move regime change motivated by oil rather than drugs or democracy.
The Biden administration raised the bounty on Maduro from $15 million to $25 million in January 2025. The State Department increased the reward after Maduro assumed a third term despite presenting no evidence he won the July 2024 election, The New York Times reported at the time.
Federal prosecutors had indicted Maduro on narco-terrorism and cocaine trafficking charges in 2020.