New York City mayor Bill de Blasio is apparently rethinking his numerous attacks on President Trump’s response to the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak. After spending days bashing the president, de Blasio was confronted with his own response and the subsequent appearance of hypocrisy in blasting Trump.
On Sunday, de Blasio appeared on Jake Tapper’s State of the Union and changed course on finger-pointing, saying that no one should be looking at his, or anyone’s, past actions and statements regarding coronavirus. Quite the turnaround.
With the Big Apple now the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak in the United States, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said Sunday that critics should not be “focusing” on “anything looking back on any level of government right now” — including his previous statements urging his constituents to go about their lives and not worry about the virus.. . . . Confronted with his previous soundbites on CNN’s “State of the Union,” de Blasio initially downplayed the comments before ultimately acknowledging that the questions were “fair.””This is just about how we save lives going forward. Everyone was working with the information we had, and trying of course to avoid panic,” de Blasio began. “The bottom line is none of us have time to look backwards. I’m trying to figure out how we get through next Sunday, and what we do the week after that.”When anchor Jake Tapper reminded the mayor that he has harshly criticized President Trump’s response to the crisis, de Blasio insisted that he had argued in real-time that coronavirus testing was insufficient.At the same time, de Blasio continued: “There’s no time to go back over that; there’s only time to focus on getting through the next week and the week after that. You can ask all the questions you want. They’re fair. But I think the time to deal with these questions is after this war is over. Because literally here in New York City, it feels like a wartime environment.”
Watch the clip:
De Blasio spent weeks telling New Yorkers to carry on carrying on, and in one memorable moment was seen going to the gym at the YMCA in Brooklyn on March 16th. The move did not go over well, including among his own former staffers.
Broadway is dark, the city’s 1.1 million public school students are home from school, and the Big Apple’s 27,000 restaurants will close their doors to diners Tuesday — but none of those warnings could keep Mayor Bill de Blasio from a trip to his favorite public gym in Brooklyn on Monday morning.. . . . The Mayor’s actions today are inexcusable and reckless,” tweeted Rebecca Katz, a longtime de Blasio confidante.“She right. It’s pathetic. Self-involved. Inexcusable,” another longtime adviser to the mayor, Jonathan Rosen, chimed in on Twitter.“He went to the f–king gym? Jesus!” said one shocked ex-staffer.Another former City Hall employee told The Post, “Every New Yorker’s regular routine has been put on hold. His should be, too. Get to work. Set an example. This is embarrassing.”Paul MartinkaA third ex-mayoral staffer added, “I’m offended … horrified.“Didn’t the CDC recommend no gatherings of 50 people or more? … Will he be counting the amount of people there and leaving if it’s over 49?“If we’re supposed to be social distancing, then what does that even mean if he gets to play by his own rules? Leaders are supposed to set by example. What kind of example does this set?” the former worker said.“Also, why is he at the gym and not hunkered down 24/7 working on this? It’s a pandemic, and people are dying. Stunning.“How many people have to die before he stops getting chauffeured to the gym is my question. What’s the appropriate number of deaths before he finds it uncouth,” the staffer continued.
Tom Elliott, founder of Grabien media, has a great Twitter thread documenting the timeline of various statements by Democrat officials in New York City, all following de Blasio’s own downplaying of the potential impact of the coronavirus.
The National Review also did a detailed timeline of New York City officials’ response to the Wuhan coronavirus.
Memory-holing his own—and his administration’s—downplaying of the crisis while bashing Trump didn’t work, so it’s no wonder de Blasio now wants to move on and not “look backwards.”
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