It was well past midnight on Sunday when Eric Adams finally walked down the echoing stairs of Gracie Mansion and, carrying a blown-up portrait of his mother, sat on a bottom step and looked into a camera to finally tell New Yorkers that he was dropping out of the mayoral race.

The late hour was reflective of a mayor who always kept odd hours, but also of someone who was, aides and allies say, genuinely torn over whether or not he should keep campaigning, losing sleep and unable to come to a final decision.

“He was just really struggling, really doing some soul-searching,” says John Catsimatidis, the supermarket magnate and a longtime Adams ally. “He just finally reached a ‘fuck you’ level and realized that he couldn’t turn it around.”

In the end, there was no one moment that made the

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