Bill de Blasio

Bill de Blasio

Photo from Wikimedia Commons / Author of Photo: Gage Skidmore

Overview

* Was an ardent supporter of Nicaragua’s Marxist Sandinista government in the 1980s
* Describes himself as an advocate of “democratic socialism”
* Was executive director of the New York branch of the pro-socialist New Party
* Served as the New York/New Jersey regional director of the Clinton administration’s Department of Housing and Urban Development from 1997-99
* Was campaign manager for Hillary Clinton’s 2000 U.S. Senate bid.
* Served on the New York City Council from 2001-09
* Was elected as New York City’s third Public Advocate in 2009
* Was deeply influenced by liberation theology
* Was elected mayor of New York City in 2013


De Blasio’s Radical Roots

Bill de Blasio was born Warren Wilhelm Jr. on May 8, 1961 in New York City and grew up in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Shortly after graduating with a bachelor’s degree in Metropolitan Studies from New York University in 1983, he legally changed his name to Warren de Blasio-Wilhelm, adding his mother’s maiden name to his identity. In 2002 he changed his name for a second time and became Bill de Blasio.

Historian Ron Radosh describes de Blasio as: (a) “a far left radical whose ancestors are the New Left and the Communists”; and (b) “a bona fide red diaper baby” who, “like many of his generation … kept his parents’ … pro-Communist politics not far from his heart.” Both of de Blasio’s parents were far leftists—most likely, members of the Communist Party USA or some of its numerous front groups. His mother, Maria de Blasio, worked in the early 1940s at the Office of War Information—a U.S. government agency staffed largely by pro-Soviet leftists who depicted the USSR in a positive light.

Supporter of Communist & Anti-American Causes in the 1980s

In 1983, while he was still at NYU, Bill de Blasio toured parts of the Communist Soviet Union. This was a period of significant Cold War tension between the United States and the USSR, as the Soviets were attempting to permanently solidify their nuclear superiority over the U.S.  Notably, de Blasio at one time served as an organizer with the anti-nuclear, anti-American organization Physicians for Social Responsibility.

In 1984 De Blasio took a job with the NYC Department of Juvenile Justice. Three years later, having recently earned a master’s degree at Columbia University‘s School of International and Public Affairs, he was hired to work as a political organizer by the Quixote Center (QC), a Maryland-based, Catholic social-justice organization with Marxist leanings.

In 1988 de Blasio, an ardent supporter of Nicaragua’s Marxist Sandinista government—which ruled Nicaragua from 1979-1990 and was backed by the Soviet Union, Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, and Yasser Arafat‘s Palestine Liberation Organization—joined a number of his QC colleagues in a ten-day trip to Nicaragua to help distribute food and medicine to people who had been affected by the violent revolution that was raging there. (The Reagan administration, meanwhile, was giving financial and military aid to the Contras, who were seeking to overthrow the Sandinista regime.)

Upon returning home from Nicaragua, de Blasio began working for a New York-based nonprofit organization dedicated to improving health care in Central America. Continuing, moreover, to support the Sandinistas in whatever way he could, he joined the Nicaragua Solidarity Network of Greater New York,[1] an organization that held meetings and fundraisers on their behalf. De Blasio also subscribed to the Sandinista party’s newspaper, Barricadda.

In November 1991, de Blasio was one of four signatories to a letter lauding the “Nicaraguan revolution” as a “movement to build a new Nicaragua”; vowing to “defend the [Sandinista-led] gains of the past ten years — education, health care, land reform — against constant attack”; and declaring that “we at the Network have taken inspiration from the Sandinistas.”

De Blasio continues to speak admiringly of the Sandinistas to this day, lauding the “humble” and “really inspirational” blend of “youthful energy and idealism” that they brought to the task of “trying to figure out what would [make their society] work better.” “I’m very proud to have been deeply involved in a movement that rightfully thought U.S. policy toward Central America was wrong-headed and counter-productive and not in line with our values,” de Blasio said in September 2013. “I’m proud to have been involved in the effort that was challenging that.”

Political Alliances, 1989-2000:

  • David Dinkins

In 1989 de Blasio served as a volunteer coordinator for the NYC mayoral campaign of Democrat David Dinkins. Following Dinkins’ victory, de Blasio became an aide in City Hall.

  • The New Party

When asked in 1990 to describe his political views, de Blasio replied that he was an advocate of “democratic socialism.” In the mid-nineties, he served as executive director of the New York branch of the New Party, a pro-socialist, ACORN-affiliated entity to which Barack Obama likewise belonged.

  • Charles Rangel; Cuba

In 1994 de Blasio managed New York Congressman Charles Rangel‘s re-election campaign. When de Blasio married former lesbian activist Chirlane McCray that same year, the couple honeymooned in Fidel Castro‘s Cuba, in violation of the U.S. ban on travel to that country.

  • Bill Clinton & Al Gore

In 1996 de Blasio ran the New York state operation for the ClintonGore re-election campaign.

  • Andrew Cuomo

From 1997-99 de Blasio was the New York/New Jersey regional director of the Clinton administration’s Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), where he served under HUD Secretary Andrew Cuomo. During that period, said HUD inspector general Susan Gaffney, de Blasio’s region lost approximately $23 million to scams perpetrated by public-housing officials, mortgage companies, and nonprofit groups that received grants from HUD. The New York Times, meanwhile, reported that in 1998-99, several people had defrauded HUD of $70 million in federally insured loans on more than 250 New York properties.

  • Hillary Clinton

De Blasio left HUD in 1999 to become campaign manager for Hillary Clinton‘s 2000 U.S. Senate bid.

De Blasio’s Activities from 2000-2011:

New York City Council

From 2001-09, de Blasio served on the New York City Council, representing District 39 in Brooklyn.

Honoring Robert Mugabe

In 2002 de Blasio joined a number of fellow legislators—mostly from the City Council’s Black, Hispanic, and Asian Caucus—in a City Hall ceremony honoring Robert Mugabe, the openly anti-white, Marxist dictator of Zimbabwe.

Public Advocate

In 2009 de Blasio was elected as New York City’s third Public Advocate. His candidacy was supported by the SEIUUNITE HERE!, and the pro-socialist Working Families Party.

Supporter of ACORN

In September 2009, when the community organization ACORN was engulfed in several major scandals involving voter-registration-fraud, embezzlement, money laundering, and racketeering, de Blasio wrote a letter to ACORN’s leaders reaffirming his support for the organization, though noting that he was “troubled” by the recent revelations.

Opposed the Citizens United Supreme Court Decision

De Blasio was a vocal opponent of the January 2010 Supreme Court ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Elections Commission, which: (a) struck down a ban on corporations and labor unions using money from their general funds to produce and air campaign ads in races for congressional and presidential races, and (b) overturned a prohibition against corporations and unions airing campaign ads during the 30 days immediately preceding a primary or the 60 days preceding a general election.

Supporter of Occupy Wall Street

In the fall of 2011 de Blasio expressed solidarity with the anti-capitalist Occupy Wall Street movement.

Running for NYC Mayor:

Support from Prominent Leftists

In January 2013 de Blasio announced his candidacy for Mayor of New York City. His campaign received endorsements from such notables as Alec Baldwin, Harry Belafonte, Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, Howard Dean, Jerrold Nadler, Barack Obama, Sarah Jessica Parker, Susan Sarandon, Charles Schumer, George Soros, Kathleen Turner, and many others. After de Blasio won the Democratic primary that September, it was announced that he would also be the nominee on the Working Families Party line in the general election.

Patrick Gaspard, a former New Party staffer and Obama administration official with significant ties to ACORN, is a close friend of de Blasio and played a key role in shaping the latter’s mayoral campaign.

In August 2013, de Blasio received the endorsement of the billionaire financier George Soros, who contributed the legal limit of $4,950 to the campaign. Soros’ relationship with de Blasio actually dated back to 2011, when Soros had given $400,000 to de Blasio’s Coalition for Accountability in Political Spending.

After de Blasio’s primary victory in September 2013, longtime ACORN leader Bertha Lewis, who said that her political and ideological ties to de Blasio “go back a long time,” predicted a comeback for ACORN’s successor group in New York—New York Communities for Change—under a de Blasio administration. According to a Democratic insider, “ACORN’s long-range plan since 2001 was to elect de Blasio mayor. De Blasio was a big ACORN project.”

A Self-Described “Progressive” Influenced by Liberation Theology

As he pursued the office of NYC mayor, de Blasio was a self-described “progressive” whose political views represented a blend of European social democracy, Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal, and liberation theology. (The latter was a Soviet KGB creation in the late 1960s, designed to infiltrate Christianity with Marxist principles.) “I’m … very deeply influenced by liberation theology, which I learned a lot about in the years I worked on Latin America,” said de Blasio in 2013.

Openly Advocating for “The Heavy Hand of Government”

Several weeks before the mayoral election, de Blasio delivered an hour-long presentation to some of the city’s largest real-estate developers. Describing how he planned to govern, he stated flatly: “Everything you heard about me is true…. I am not a free-marketeer…. I believe in the heavy hand of government.”

Lauding Al Sharpton

In early October 2013, de Blasio made a campaign appearance at Al Sharpton‘s National Action Network in New York. In the course of his remarks, the mayoral candidate said “we do need to tax the wealthy … to be able to fix our schools,” and added: “The voices that speak so passionately about addressing inequality head-on are in fact the greatest patriots in our nation, and none greater than Reverend Sharpton.”

Settling a Lawsuit by Defendants in the Central Park Jogger Case

Also during his campaign, de Blasio called for New York City to settle a $250 million lawsuit filed by five black males whom Sharpton had defended a quarter-century earlier, when they were convicted of the 1989 rape of a white female jogger in Central Park. That conviction, however, was overturned in 2002 when another man, Matias Reyes, who was already serving a life prison sentence, confessed to having committed the crime alone.

For explicit details about the confessions of the five youths in question — and about their obvious involvement in the 1989 assault — click here. (The case was eventually settled for $40 million, dwarfing past wrongful-conviction payouts by New York City.)

Real Estate Impropriety

In October 2013, the New York Post reported that de Blasio, who owned two row houses in New York City worth over $1.1 million apiece: (a) had not registered his two-unit Brooklyn rental property with the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development as required by law, and (b) had failed to report his rental income in his annual financial-disclosure filings, as also was required by law. Said the Post, de Blasio “has not disclosed any rental income on filings dating back to 2007, according to records from the city’s Conflicts of Interest Board.” In response to the Post‘s revelations, de Blasio campaign spokesman Wiley Norvell said: “He declares the property as an asset on his filing, but the property has a negative income when you add up the depression of water and upkeep.” Crain’s reported that de Blasio’s 2011 tax return showed $47,500 in rental income and $62,200 in deductions for the property.

Mayor De Blasio:

Election Victory

On November 5, 2013, de Blasio was elected mayor of New York in a landslide victory that saw him capture 73% of all votes. At a post-election celebration, he told a group of supporters: “My fellow New Yorkers, today, you spoke out loudly and clearly for a new direction for our city. Make no mistake: The people of this city have chosen a progressive path, and tonight we set forth on it, together.”

CPUSA Celebrates De Blasio Victory

De Blasio’s election was welcomed by the Communist Party USA publication People’s World, which celebrated the “joy of a new day for New York”; stated that “the De Blasio victory has offered new hope that a national progressive shift on tackling the wealth and racial inequities plaguing our country’s cities is in the making”; and noted that “the crisis of the cities is rooted in capitalism.”

“Talking Transition”

In the immediate aftermath of de Blasio’s election victory, a George Soros-funded project known as Talking Transition sprang into action to promote the mayor-elect and to invite New Yorkers to communicate their ideas and concerns to him.

Lauding Al Sharpton

In one of his first speeches as mayor-elect, de Blasio again visited Al Sharpton’s National Action Network and stated: “Every year Reverend Sharpton is becoming stronger as a leader, is reaching farther as a leader. You never have to wonder if he will remember where he came from, and he’ll be the first one up to stand up for justice. I gotta tell you guys, he’s a blessing for all of us. Let’s thank Reverend Sharpton.”

Defending the Welfare State

As he prepared to take the reins of New York City government, de Blasio made it clear that he rejected virtually every key element of welfare reform. For example:

  • He derided the notion that able-bodied, childless welfare recipients should work (or at least look for work) in exchange for their benefits, as an “ideological hang-up” that blocked a “path out of poverty.”
  • He vowed to “stop efforts” by city case workers “to divert individuals from accessing cash assistance” rather than seeking employment.
  • He planned to use Obamacare outreach workers to enroll more New Yorkers into a multitude of government welfare programs.
  • He stated that New York’s total of 1.9 million food-stamp recipients—21% of the city’s population—was at least 250,000 too low.
  • He condemned eligibility-verification measures such as finger-imaging and in-person interviews of welfare applicants—practices designed to combat welfare fraud—as “stigmatizing.”
  • Rejecting an ethos of personal responsibility and self-sufficiency, de Blasio’s mayoral blueprint declared: “Providing basic income and food security to all New Yorkers [is] a key responsibility of government.”

Inauguration

Bill and Hillary Clinton both attended de Blasio’s swearing-in ceremony as New York City mayor on January 1, 2014.  Mr. Clinton, in fact, officially administered the oath-of-office to de Blasio, using a bible once owned by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

At de Blasio’s inauguration, a prayer was delivered by prison chaplain Askia Muhammad, a former Nation of Islam member and a supporter of Louis Farrakhan. Also at the inaugural ceremony, Sanitation Department chaplain Fred ­Lucas Jr. prayed that “the plantation called New York City” might be transformed into “the city of God.” New York Public Advocate Letitia James lamented that “we live in a gilded age of inequality where decrepit homeless shelters and housing developments stand in the neglected shadow of gleaming multimillion-dollar condos.” And de Blasio himself declared:

“When I said we would take dead aim at the tale of two cities, I meant it. And we will do it. I will honor the faith and trust you have placed in me. And we will give life to the hope of so many in our city. We will succeed … as one city…. We will require big developers to build more affordable housing. We’ll fight to stem the tide of hospital closures. And we’ll expand community health centers into neighborhoods in need, so that New Yorkers see our city not as the exclusive domain of the 1 Percent, but a place where everyday people can afford to live, work and raise a family. We won’t wait. We’ll do it now.”

Appointing a Sharpton Ally

In one of his first moves as mayor, de Blasio appointed Zachary W. Carter as Corporation Counsel for the City of New York. Carter had previously represented Al Sharpton in his tax fraud case, and once moderated a panel titled “Closing Guantanamo: Terrorism and Civil Liberties in the Age of Obama” for Sharpton’s National Action Network.

Denouncing the “Inequality Crisis”

At a U.S. Conference of Mayors meeting on January 23, 2014, de Blasio said that the U.S. was “in the midst of an inequality crisis.” He added that because Washington, DC “has been gripped in a frustrating paralysis,” Americans were looking “to the mayors of this country to address the root causes of inequality.”

Illegal Immigrant Rights

In his first State of the City speech on February 10, 2014, de Blasio spoke forcefully on behalf of the rights of illegal immigrants: “We will protect the almost half-million undocumented New Yorkers, whose voices too often go unheard. We will reach out to all New Yorkers, regardless of immigration status — issuing municipal ID cards available to all New Yorkers this year — so that no daughter or son of our city goes without bank accounts, leases, library cards … simply because they lack identification. To all of my fellow New Yorkers who are undocumented, I say: New York City is your home too, and we will not force ANY of our residents to live their lives in the shadows.”

Legal Intervention on Behalf of Pastor Who Was a Key Political Supporter of De Blasio

On the night of February 10, 2014 (at 11:21 pm), Bishop Orlando Findlayter, a politically connected Brooklyn pastor who had played a key role in galvanizing black voters to support de Blasio’s 2013 mayoral campaign, was driving in East Flatbush (Brooklyn) when he was pulled over by police for making a left turn without signaling. The officer at the scene then ran Findlayter’s license number and discovered two outstanding warrants, issued nearly four weeks earlier, for failure to appear in court for prior arrests (which were made at public protest demonstrations). Thus Findlayter was arrested on the spot and was charged not only for the traffic violation, but also for driving without a license. Because his arrest came at an hour when it was too late to be arraigned, he should, by law, have spent the night in jail.

But Findlayter’s clergy friends, upon learning of the incident, quickly reached out to Mayor de Blasio, who in turn called top police officials and arranged for the bishop to be released immediately. Just hours later, on the morning of February 15, Findlayter sat with de Blasio at the head table at a Bedford-Stuyvesant breakfast, where Al Sharpton was a guest speaker.

Ed Mullins, president of the Sergeants Benevelent Association, subsequently objected to how the Findlayter matter had been handled: “If a guy has a warrant, you don’t let him go. Period. There is no ‘discretion.’ What if you release him [and] he drives a block, blows a red light and runs somebody over and kills him?… He [de Blasio] just confirmed that it really is a ‘tale of two cities’”—a reference to de Blasio’s oft-repeated campaign slogan.

DeBlasio Vehicle Is Filmed Speeding Through NYC Streets

On February 18, 2014, de Blasio publicly announced a new “Vision Zero” plan designed to eliminate traffic deaths in NYC by reducing traffic speeds within the city from 30 mph to 25 mph, and by cracking down aggressively on speeding by cab drivers. “The likelihood of a fatal crash, and this statistic is very powerful, the likelihood of a fatal crash drops significantly for speeds below 30 mph,” said de Blasio. “If we get those speeds down, it will be the difference between losing a life and saving a life.” “We’ve put a very bold plan before you,” the mayor emphasized, “and we want the public to know we’re holding ourselves to this standard—and we intend to achieve these goals.”

Just two days later, however, a CBS news crew filmed a two-car caravan that included de Blasio’s SUV (in which the mayor was riding in the front passenger seat) speeding through the streets of Queens, blowing through two stop signs without even tapping the brakes, and changing highway lanes without signaling.

At various points, de Blasio’s car was clocked going 40 to 45 mph in a 30 mph zone, and 60 mph in a 45 mph zone. CBS News’s Marcia Kramer reported that if a police officer had been following the mayor’s car, and had issued tickets for each of the various infractions that had been committed, the lead driver would have racked up 13 points on his license—more than the 11 points necessary for a license suspension.

Appointing Radicals to His Administration

In January 2014, de Blasio selected the NYC Department for the Aging’s then-deputy commissioner, Bill Chong, a former member of the Communist Workers Party, to serve as commissioner of New York’s Department of Youth and Community Development. Chong had previously been board president of Asian Americans for Equality and had worked on Jesse Jackson‘s 1984 presidential campaign.

In the spring of 2014 de Blasio appointed a woman named Kicy Motley, who had been a volunteer coordinator for his 2013 campaign, as a new mayoral aide. Motley had a history of publicly tweeting controversial — and sometimes obscene — messages regarding what she perceived to be matters involving racism, injustice, corporate greed, and police misconduct. For example:

  • On August 11 2012, after NYPD officers had shot and killed Darrius Kennedy, a 51-year-old, knife-wielding black man on Seventh Avenue, Motley wrote on Twitter: “NYPD fatally shoot knife-wielding man in Times Square. (VIDEO) F–k. The. Police.”
  • On another occasion she derided the NAACP for siding with soft-drink manufacturers against NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s ban on the sale of large sodas. Wrote Motley: “@NAACP aka corporate d–k riders. Standing with soda makers for a few bucks.”
  • In February 2013 Motley came to the defense of a deranged, black Los Angeles police officer named Chris Dorner, who at that time was the target of a massive manhunt because he had recently killed four people in a shooting rampage motivated by his belief that the LAPD had fired him because it was a racist agency. Motley tweeted: “There’s a part of me rooting for #Dorner. This racist, imperialist country gets the best of people sometimes. It makes some snap. #lapd.”

Lauding Al Sharpton

On April 9, 2014, de Blasio spoke on the opening day of the National Action Network’s annual conference in New York, saying: “I just want everyone to know I am proud to stand with Rev. Sharpton. Because to borrow a phrase from our youth, Reverend, ‘you’re the real thing’ … [Sharpton’s] work gets more powerful with every passing year: He reaches more people, he has a greater impact.”

Disbanding the NYPD Unit That Monitored Local Muslim Communities

On April 15, 2014—the first anniversary of the deadly Boston Marathon bombing—the de Blasio administration announced that it was disbanding the NYPD’s Demographics Unit, which, in an effort to detect budding terror threats, had been tasked with tracking the daily lives of Muslims and the content of the sermons that were delivered at mosques not only in New York City but in surrounding areas as well (including some mosques in New Jersey). As USA Today reported: “[The Unit] assembled databases on where Muslims lived, shopped, worked and prayed. Plainclothes officers infiltrated Muslim student groups, put informants in mosques, monitored sermons, and cataloged Muslims in New York who adopted new, Americanized surnames.”

De Blasio characterized the termination of the Demographics Units as “a critical step forward in easing tensions between the police and the communities they serve, so that our cops and our citizens can help one another go after the real bad guys.”

  • On October 31, 2017, Sayfullo Habibullaevic Saipov, a 29-year-old Muslim immigrant and ISIS supporter from Uzbekistan, used a rental truck to mow down and kill eight people (and injure at least twelve others) in a busy New York City bike path as an act of jihad. Saipov was reported to have been a worshiper at Masjid Omar Mosque in Paterson, New Jersey, which was one of the mosques that the NYPD surveillance program had previously (prior to 2014) targeted because of its extremist teachings.

De Blasio’s Small Income-Tax Payment

Also in April 2014, the Daily Caller reported that de Blasio, who in 2013 had earned $165,000 as the city’s public advocate and another $52,000 in rental income, had paid only 8.3% of his total income in federal taxes for that year. At the time, he owned two row houses in New York City worth over $1.1 million apiece.

Rolling Back Welfare Reform

In May 2014, New York City’s Human Resources Administration (HRA) announced that it was requesting—in compliance with Mayor de Blasio’s campaign pledge—a waiver from a federal law that required able-bodied, childless adults to work or to participate in a work-placement program for 20 hours per week in order to remain eligible for food-stamp assistance. In short, food stamps would now become an entitlement without any conditions.

The HRA also stated that, starting that summer, it would forbid food-stamp recipients in New York from seeking the assistance of job-placement agencies, even vountarily.

The Municipal ID Card Program for All New Yorkers, Including Illegal Immigrants

In July 2014, de Blasio signed into law a municipal ID-card program allowing all New Yorkers — including the estimated 500,000 illegal immigrants residing in the city — to access public services requiring identification. The mayor, who had consistently claimed that such a program would “bring dignity and peace of mind to many fellow residents currently living in the shadows,” now re-emphasized: “We want all New Yorkers to feel very comfortable working with the police. We want them to be very able to identify themselves to police and do it in an atmosphere of safety. This is going to play a crucial role in deepening the relationship between police and community, including a lot of our immigrant communities.”

New York City Council member Daniel Dromm, the Democrat who authored de Blasio’s ID-card legislation, acknowledged that the cards could possibly be used to allow non-citizens to vote. “It is a possibility that it may be a way we can have people for the first time when they come in to vote, if they are non-residents, non-citizens,” said Dromm in February 2014.

Conflict-of-Interest Mars De Blasio’s Civilian Complaint Review Board Appointee

In July 2014 de Blasio appointed trial attorney Richard Emery to head New York City’s Civilian Complaint Review Board (CCRB), the panel responsible for investigating allegations of misconduct by NYPD officers. But Emery was (still) a partner in the law firm of Emery Celli Brinkerhoff Abady, which boasts of having “successfully represented hundreds of clients in police misconduct cases against police departments throughout the Tri-State area, from high profile wrongful death cases to smaller false arrest and excessive force cases.” In February 2016 op-ed piece, the New York Post pointed out that this set of facts represented a serious conflict of interest for Emery: “Individuals certified as ‘victims’ of NYPD misconduct by Emery’s review board then turn around and hire Emery’s law firm to pursue civil suits against the NYPD.” Police union president Patrick Lynch put it this way: “How can the law firm of the sitting chairman of the CCRB earn money by suing the city over cases that the CCRB has substantiated against police officers?… [S]ubstantiating a citizen’s complaint against a police officer gives support to the civil suit. It’s an irreconcilable conflict of interest.”

Lauding Al Sharpton

At Al Sharpton’s 60th birthday celebration at the Four Seasons restaurant in New York City on October 1, 2014, de Blasio characterized Sharpton as “a blessing for this city,” adding: “The more people criticize him, the more I want to hang out with him.”

“Centuries of Racism”: De Blasio Smears the Police

On December 3, 2014, a Staten Island grand jury decided not to bring a criminal case against a white New York City police officer who, five months earlier, had tried to arrest a black man named Eric Garner. But the encounter ended tragically when Garner died from what a medical examiner subsequently described as an interplay between the officer’s chokehold and Garner’s multiple chronic infirmities. In response to the grand jury’s decision, de Blasio said: “This is now a national moment of grief, a national moment of pain and searching for a solution. And you’ve heard in so many places, people of all backgrounds utter the same basic phrase. They’ve said, ‘Black lives matter.’ And they said it because it had to be said…. It should be self-evident. But our history, sadly, requires us to say that black lives matter. Because as I said the other day, we’re not just dealing with a problem in 2014. We’re not dealing with years of racism leading up to it, or decades of racism. We are dealing with centuries of racism that have brought us to this day. That is how profound the crisis is.”

Added de Blasio: “We have to have an honest conversation in this country about a history of racism, we have to have an honest conversation about the problems that have caused parents to feel that their children may be in danger in their dynamics with police, when in fact police are there to protect them….We have to retrain police forces in how to work with communities differently, we have to work on things like body cameras that will provide a different level of transparency and accountability…. This is something systemic and we bluntly have to talk about the historical racial dynamics underlying [it].”

Moreover, de Blasio told ABC that he feared for the safety of his own teenage son, Dante, who is black, if the latter were to have an encounter with police. “What parents have done for decades with children of color, especially young men of color, is train them to be very careful, when they have a connection with a police officer, when they have an encounter with a police officer,” said the mayor. “It’s different for a white child, it’s just a reality in this country. And with Dante, very early on, my son, we used to say, look, if a police officer stops you, do everything he tells you to do, don’t move suddenly, don’t reach for your cellphone, because we knew, sadly, there is a greater chance it might be misinterpreted if it was a young man of color. There’s that fear that there could be that moment of misunderstanding with a young man of color, and that young man may never come back.”

At a press conference, de Blasio said, in a similar vein, that he and his wife had to “literally train [Dante], as families have all over this city for decades, in how to take special care in any encounter he has with the police officers who are there to protect him…. There are so many families in this city who feel that each and every night. Is my child safe? And not just from … crime and violence … but are they safe from the very people they want to have faith in as their protectors?”

In response to de Blasio’s comments, the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association (PBA) instructed both the mayor and and city council speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito (who likewise had been critical of police) not to attend the funerals of any officers killed in the line of duty. A letter posted on the PBA websites stated that de Blasio and Mark-Viverito’s “consistent refusal to show police officers the support and respect they deserve” would make their attendance an “insult.”

The mayor and the city council speaker, in turn, released a joint statement saying: “This is deeply disappointing. Incendiary rhetoric like this serves only to divide the city, and New Yorkers reject these tactics.”

Two NYPD Officers Are Assassinated; Police Shun De Blasio

On December 20, 2014, a black gunman/Islamic jihadist named Ismaaiyl Brinsley shot and killed two uniformed NYPD officers, Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos, execution-style as they sat in their marked police car on a Brooklyn street corner. Brinsley’s motive was to avenge the recent deaths of Eric Garner and Michael Brown — the latter of whom was a black teenager who had been shot and killed by a white police officer four months earlier when Brown assaulted the officer and tried to steal his gun. Just three hours prior to carrying out his double murder in Brooklyn, Brinsley posted the following message on Facebook: “I’m Putting Wings on Pigs Today. They Take 1 Of Ours…Let’s Take 2 of Theirs.” He used the hashtag #ShootThePolice, along with two other hashtags that referenced Garner and Brown.

When de Blasio entered Brooklyn’s Woodhull Hospital to pay respects to the two slain officers, police who filled the hallway silently turned their backs to the mayor as he walked by. Later that night, Ed Mullins, president of the Sergeants Benevolent Association, said in a statement to his union members: “Mayor de Blasio, the blood of these two officers is clearly on your hands. It is your failed policies and actions that enabled this tragedy to occur…. Ever since this mayor took office there has been a sense of lawlessness that is rampant in every borough.” Patrick Lynch, head of the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, concurred: “That blood on the hands starts on the steps of City Hall in the office of the mayor. When these funerals are over, those responsible will be called on the carpet and held accountable.”

“We’re all in this together,” de Blasio at one point told the grieving officers, prompting one of them to reply: “No we’re not.”

Some 23,000 police officers from all over the United States attended Rafael Romos’s funeral on December 27, 2014. So large was the crowd, that many of the officers had to observe the proceedings via a large video screen that was set up outside the church. When de Blasio eulogized Officer Ramos, hundreds of those officers (outside the church) turned their backs to the screen in a sign of disrespect for the mayor.

A week later, on January 4, 2015, approximately 28,000 police officers attended the funeral of Wenjian Liu. Once again, many thousands of the officers outside the church turned their backs to the video screen while de Blasio spoke. As one uniformed officer later explained: “I turned my back last week on [de Blasio], and I will continue to turn my back whenever I hear him speak because he disrespected me, Officer Ramos and Officer Liu when he said he warned his son, Dante, to be wary of cops.” Another officer said, “I can’t stand even looking at him [de Blasio]. He has no friends here.” Added another: “He’s a joke. Everything he says today, he’s doing it to cover his ass.”

Police Vow to Make Arrests Only if “Absolutely Necessary”

Also in response to the assassination of the two NYPD officers, an email was widely circulated among the city’s police which said: “At least two units are to respond to EVERY call, no matter the condition or severity, no matter what type of job is pending, or what the opinion of the patrol supervisor happens to be. IN ADDITION: Absolutely NO enforcement action in the form of arrests and or summonses is to be taken unless absolutely necessary and an individual MUST be placed under arrest. The mayor’s hands are literally dripping with our blood because of his words actions and policies and we have, for the first time in a number of years, become a ‘wartime’ police department. We will act accordingly.” (All emphases in original.)

The officers followed through on their warning. For the week beginning December 22, overall arrests in New York City were down 66% compared with the same period in 2013. Citations for traffic violations fell by 94% (from 10,069 to 587); summonses for low-level offenses like public drinking and urination also declined 94% (from 4,831 to 300); parking violations dropped by 92% (from 14,699 to 1,241); and drug arrests by the NYPD’s Organized Crime Control Bureau fell by 84% (from 382 to 63).

De Blasio Reappoints Judge Who Had Freed Two Men Who Threatened Police

On December 31, 2014, Mayor de Blasio reappointed Brooklyn Criminal Court Judge Laura Johnson, whose two-year term was slated to expire later that night. Johnson had recently freed, without bail, two men who had threatened New York police just hours after Officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu were assassinated on December 20 (see above). One of the men, 18-year-old gang member Devon Coley, had just been busted for posting a photo on Facebook that showed a gunman shooting into an NYPD cruiser, with the caption “73Nextt” — a reference to the 73rd Precinct that covered Coley’s Brownsville neighborhood. Coley had a criminal history that included theft, knife possession, gun possession, and felony assault for his role in an armed robbery. But Judge Johnson ignored a prosecution request to set a $250,000 bail for Coley.

Sergeants Benevolent Association president Ed Mullins said, “The mayor’s actions of reappointing this judge are completely hypocritical to his argument that he’s pro-police and counterproductive to what he claims to be an effort to open dialogue going forward. He had the opportunity to demonstrate good will and support for the police, and he once again has demonstrated the opposite.” The head of the state ­court officers union, Dennis Quirk, characterized de Blasio’s decision as “a disgrace” that “sends a strong message to every police officer and everyone in the law enforcement community that it’s OK to threaten the lives of cops.”

Praising NY State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, Who Was Arrested for Accepting Bribes

On January 22, 2015, Sheldon Silver — the powerful, longtime Speaker of the New York State Assembly — was arrested and charged in federal court with having taken several million dollars in bribes and kickbacks disguised as legal fees. Reacting to Silver’s arrest, de Blasio said: “Although the charges announced today are certainly very serious, I want to note that I’ve always known Shelly Silver to be a man of integrity, and he certainly has due process rights. And I think it’s important that we let the judicial process play out here….  I think, in my experience with Shelly Silver, I’ve seen integrity and public service.”

New Policy on Student Discipline

On February 13, 2015, the de Blasio administration announced that beginning in the spring, changes would be instituted to the disciplinary code governing New York City’s public schools. The move was made to comply with the wishes of student advocacy groups claiming that too many children — disproportionately blacks and Hispanics — were being unnecessarily suspended for long periods after committing relatively minor offenses. The new de Blasio regulations required school principals to get approval from the Education Department’s central office before any student could be suspended. The new rules also required the NYPD to track and report any instances in which a student was placed in handcuffs, a practice that many allies of the mayor had long condemned.

De Blasio Panel on Climate Change Releases Ominous Report

On February 17, 2015, Mayor de Blasio’s office released the New York City Panel on Climate Change’s 2015 report, which predicted that by the 2050s, annual temperatures would rise by 4.1 to 5.7 degrees, the sea level would rise by 11 to 21 inches, and annual precipitation would increase by up to 11 percent. To address these threats, the mayor pledged to cut the city’s greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent.

De Blasio Doubles Down on Anti-Police Smears

During a March 1, 2015 television appearance, de Blasio defended his controversial comments (from December 2014) about how he had “trained” his biracial son, Dante, to deal with police officers. Said the mayor: “A young man of color today needs to have that conversation in his family…. It’s something that everyone knows. And it’s not a comment that’s disrespectful to the police. We deeply respect our police, we need our police to protect us. But it’s a comment that refers to our history and some things we still haven’t worked out. That’s the reality.”

De Blasio Announces That NYC Schools Will Close for 2 Muslim Holidays

On March 4, 2015, de Blasio announced that New York City’s public schools would add two Muslim holidays to their vacation calendars, thereby fulfilling a promise he had made during his election campaign. “Hundreds of thousands of Muslim families will no longer have to choose between honoring the most sacred days on their calendar or attending school,” said the mayor.

Bribery and the De Blasio Administration

In 2015, New York City restaurateur Harendra Singh owed approximately $1.7 million in back rent and penalties for his Long Island City restaurant, the Water’s Edge, but rather than try to catch up on those payments, he attempted to bribe the de Blasio administration into granting him lucrative special favors. Specifically, by Singh’s own admission, he (Singh) and his associates contributed more than $33,000 to the de Blasio campaign in 2015; they also held a fundraiser for the mayor at Singh’s restaurant. On July 30, 2015, Singh was permitted to meet with a senior de Blasio aide as well as the head of a city agency in order to “pressure” that agency into securing a lease renewal for Singh’s restaurant. According to the New York Post: “The city and Singh were close to completing a sweetheart deal when he was arrested as part of a corruption investigation on Long Island.” Pleading guilty to charges of bribery, conspiracy, and wire fraud, Singh admitted: “I gave these donations to the elected official [de Blasio] in exchange for efforts by that official and other city officials to obtain a lease renewal from the city agency for my restaurant on terms that were favorable to me.”

De Blasio Pays 20.3% Tax Rate, Then Calls for Higher Taxes on “The Wealthy”

In April 2015, de Blasio — who paid a tax rate of 20.3% on his 2014 income, told a University of Nebraska audience that “millionaires” should be required to pay more in income taxes. “Whenever the wealthy aren’t paying their fair share of taxes there are consequences,” he said. “It means we’re shortchanging something else.”

DeBlasio Unveils “Progressive Agenda” for America

At a May 12, 2015 news conference held outside the U.S. Capitol, Mayor de Blasio publicly unveiled his “Progressive Agenda to Combat income Inequality” in America, a 13-point plan that read as follows:

1) Lift the Floor for Working People:

  • Raise the federal minimum wage, so that it reaches $15/hour, while indexing it to inflation.
  • Reform the National Labor Relations Act, to enhance workers’ right to organize and rebuild the middle class.
  • Pass comprehensive immigration reform to grow the economy and protect against exploitation of low-wage workers.
  • Oppose trade deals that hand more power to corporations at the expense of American jobs, workers’ rights, and the environment.
  • Invest in schools, not jails — and give a second chance to those coming home from prison.

2) Support Working Families:

  • Pass national paid sick leave.
  • Pass national paid family leave.
  • Make Pre-K, after-school programs and childcare universal.
  • Expand the Earned Income Tax Credit and protect and expand Social Security.
  • Allow students to refinance student loan debt to take advantage of lower interest rates, and support debt-free college.

3) Tax Fairness:

  • Close the carried interest loophole.
  • End tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas.
  • Implement the “Buffett Rule” so millionaires pay their fair share.
  • Close the CEO tax loophole that allows corporations to take advantage of “performance pay” write-offs.

Among those who also attended and participated in the May 12 news conference were former Vermont Governor Howard Dean, Connecticut Rep. Rosa DeLauro, and activist Al Sharpton.

Earlier in the day, de Blasio had met with Senator Elizabeth Warren and praised her “extraordinary” leadership on economic issues. Following the press conference, he had a White House meeting with President Obama.

Recruiting Muslims to the NYPD

In June 2015 it was reported that under Mayor de Blasio, who had already disbanded a police unit that investigated Islamic communities and mosques in New York City, the NYPD was working to recruit more Muslims into its ranks. At the time, approximately 900 of its 35,000 uniformed officers were Muslims.

De Blasio Creates Job for Girlfriend of His Aide

In August 2015, the New York Post reported that de Blasio had created — for the longtime live-in lesbian girlfriend of one of his most trusted aides, Emma Wolfe — an unadvertised $150,000-per-year job as “campaign director” in the mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs. “That’s just a made-up position,” said one Democratic insider. “It makes no sense. They create a position for her for $150,000 that’s a redundancy.” The position was initially to be funded by a private grant, but because of “delays,” the salary was instead paid with taxpayer dollars.

Key Muslim Supporter of De Blasio Posts a Pro-Jihad Tweet

In October 2015, Linda Sarsour, executive director of the Arab-American Association of New York, posted on Twitter a photo of a young Palestinian boy preparing to throw a rock at Israeli soldiers and labeled it “the definition of courage.” Prior to this, Sarsour’s organization had received $164,050 in New York City Council funding since 2012 and had campaigned for de Blasio in his mayoral run. Moreover, de Blasio’s office had repeatedly featured Sarsour in press releases supporting the mayor’s positions on education and other matters. When numerous Twitter users subsequently criticized Sarsour’s controversial post, she tweeted: “The Zionist trolls are out to play. Bring it. You will never silence me.”

Doubling Down on His Smears of Police Officers 

In February 2016, de Blasio reflected on the December 2014 comments he had made about having to “train” his biracial son, Dante, to “take special care” when dealing with police officers. “I said something that hundreds of thousands of American families acknowledge as their reality, that families of color know they have to do with their young people,” the mayor stated. “And, of course, it became a huge controversy — but it shouldn’t be a controversy, because it’s true.”

Executive Order Banning Gender Restrictions for City Bathrooms

In March 2016, Mayor de Blasio signed an executive order permitting people at city facilities (playgrounds, pools, offices, recreation centers) to use restrooms or locker rooms aligned with their gender identity — without being required to show identification documents or any other proof of gender. “Access to bathrooms and other single-sex facilities is a fundamental human right that should not be restricted or denied to any individual,” the mayor said. “Every New Yorker should feel safe in our city and this starts with our city’s buildings.”

De Blasio Lauds Socialism

In a March 2016 interview, MSNBC’s Chris Matthews asked de Blasio: “What’s a Socialist?” The mayor replied: “… [T]he problem in this country is, until this year, that word got so warped that we lost its essential meaning. I think, from my point of view, a Socialist is someone who believes in a role of government that’s redistributive. And that’s not the same thing as what would happen in a free market economy like this, but a Democratic Socialist, or a Social Democrat, like in Western Europe, is something I think actually is where a lot of Democrats are…. [A]nd it is a result of the Great Recession. The Great Recession, just like the Great Depression before it, has changed the politics and changed the terminology.”

NYPD Officers Detest De Blasio

In March 2016, the New York Post reported that in a Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association survey of 6,000 NYPD police officers, 96% said they had unfavorable opinions of de Blasio; 88% said their opinions of the mayor were “very unfavorable”; 97% said de Blasio had created an environment where criminals felt emboldened; 95% said the mayor had established an environment that was combative toward police; 97% said they felt less safe on duty than in the past; 97% said they felt less inclined to take action against certain offenses, for fear of being hit with lawsuits or complaints as a result; and 66% said that what they liked “most” about de Blasio was “nothing.”

Fining Employers and Landlords Who Use the Wrong Pronoun When Referring to Transgenders

On May 19, 2016, the New York Post reported the following on a new edict issued by the de Blasio administration:

“Employers and landlords [in New York City] who intentionally and consistently ignore using pronouns such as ‘ze/hir’ to refer to transgender workers and tenants who request them — may be subject to fines as high as $250,000. The Commission on Human Rights’ legal guidelines mandate that anyone who providing jobs or housing must use individuals’ preferred gender pronouns. As the regulations, updated late last year, point out, some transgender individuals prefer to use pronouns other than he/him/his or she/her/hers. Examples of less prominent pronouns that some transgender people may choose, according to the city, are: ‘ze,’ which is the third person singular, such as he and she; and ‘hir,’ which is the third person plural, similar to they.

“The legal enforcement is in line with the city’s guidance on discrimination based on gender identity or expression. ‘Gender expression may not be distinctively male or female and may not conform to traditional gender-based stereotypes assigned to specific gender identities,’ the city advises.

“The city insisted that accidentally misusing a transgender person’s preferred pronoun is not against the law and would not be subject to a fine. The updated regulations are meant to address ‘situations in which individuals intentionally and repeatedly target transgender and gender non-conforming people with this type of harassment,’ Commission spokesman Seth Hoy told the Post Thursday…. Penalties of up to $250,000 can be imposed for violations that are deemed to be the result of malicious intent.”

Decriminalizing Quality-of-Life Offenses

On May 26, 2016, the Daily Mail reported that: “Peeing in the street, loitering, littering, drinking alcohol out of a bagged bottle and other quality of life crimes are to be decriminalized in New York City. Under bills expected to be signed by Mayor Bill de Blasio soon, police will no longer automatically treat such crimes as criminal offenses, but instead serve civil summonses to pay a fine in court…. Those new fines will include $25 for alcohol offenses, $75-150 for a first noise offense, and $75 fines for litter and urination…. Rather than facing a criminal court, offenders will instead appear before a tribunal, as they would a parking ticket offense…. The bills, which make up a larger Criminal Justice Reform Act, are an attempt to reduce the numbers of people burdened with criminal records for misdemeanors.”

De Blasio Blames Gun, Not Islam, for Jihadist Mass Murder That Kills 50 in Orlando, Florida

On June 11, 2016, 29-year-old jihadist Omar Mateen committed the worst mass shooting ever to take place on American soil, when he opened fire at the Pulse — an Orlando, Florida gay nightclub — and murdered at least 50 people while wounding another 53. Mateen was a Muslim who had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State terrorist organization and mentioned the Boston Marathon jihad killers in a 911 call that he placed just before he began shooting. Shortly after the incident, Mayor de Blasio tried to make a case for rolling back Americans’ Second Amendment rights, tweeting: “We mourn with the people of Orlando and the LGBT community as a whole on the news that — once again — we have lost precious lives to the gun.”

Defending The Black Lives Matter Movement

In a July 11, 2016 interview with CNN, de Blasio praised the Black Lives Matter movement, saying: “I think that movement, just the very phrase ‘Black Lives Matter’ has changed the national discussion. Now, as with any movement, there are some people that I don’t agree with. But I have to tell you, they’ve changed the national discussion for the better.” Calling for police nationwide to be retrained in order to uncover their “implicit bias” and get it “out of our systems,” the mayor added: “I think all of us in ‘white America’ have to understand better that young men of color live in fear all of the time…. White America’ doesn’t understand the extent of the problem … I actually think ‘white America’ will participate in that change.”

Opposing the Deportation of Illegal Aliens Convicted of DWI

In a February 2017 interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper, de Blasio was asked about New York City’s status as a sanctuary city and its refusal to inform federal authorities about illegal immigrants who commit minor criminal offenses. When the mayor replied that he did not want to “see families torn apart” over something very minor, the following exchange ensued with Tapper:

TAPPER: “If you’re a drunk driver and you’re an undocumented immigrant, why should there be a place for you in this country?”

DE BLASIO: “Jake, there are 170 offenses in that law that are listed as serious and violent crimes that lead to automatic cooperation between the city of New York and our federal partners. So any serious and violent crime, we’re going to work with them.”

TAPPER: “Is grand larceny or drunk driving a very minor offense?”

DE BLASIO: “Drunk driving that does not lead to any other negative outcome, I could define as that.”

Defying the Trump Administration’s Policy Regarding Sanctuary Cities

In March 2017, de Blasio reacted angrily to the Trump Administration’s announcement that it would deny the dispensation of federal grants to any cities that continued to practice “sanctuary” policies in defiance of federal immigration laws. The mayor issued a directive instructing NYPD police officers not to permit ICE agents onto school grounds anywhere in New York City unless they had a “valid warrant.” Stating that “non-local law enforcement officers will not be permitted to proceed” beyond the reception desk at New York schools, the memo added that a senior NYPD official should be contacted if “there is a disagreement between a principal and non-local law enforcement officer regarding access to the school or an officer insists/demands access.”

De Blasio Refuses to Condemn Former FALN Terrorist

In mid-May 2017, de Blasio made headlines when he refused to condemn Oscar Lopez Rivera, who had formerly been a leader of the Marxist-Leninist terror group known as the Armed Forces of National Liberation (FALN), and who was slated to be honored as a “National Freedom Hero” in New York City’s upcoming Puerto Rican Day Parade.

During Lopez Rivera’s heyday, FALN members had carried out more than 100 bombings in a terror war whose purpose was to force the United States to grant full independence to Puerto Rico. According to historian Ronald Radosh: “Lopez Rivera was arrested in Chicago in 1981, with FBI agents finding over six pounds of dynamite in his apartment ready to be used in planned future bombings. He was convicted of transporting firearms and explosives with the intent to commit violent crimes, to kill and injure people, and to destroy government property.” For these crimes, Lopez Rivera, who proclaimed himself “an enemy of the United States Government” at his trial, was sentenced to 55 years in prison – a punishment that was increased to 70 years after he subsequently (and unsuccessfully) attempted to escape. When outgoing President Bill Clinton in 2001 offered Lopez Rivera clemency on the condition that he thenceforth renounce violence, the terrorist rejected Clinton’s offer. Sixteen years later, an outgoing President Barack Obama granted an unconditional clemency to the still-unrepentant Lopez Rivera.

When questioned about his plan to march right behind Lopez Rivera in the upcoming parade, de Blasio replied: “The organization he was affiliated with did things I don’t agree with … and they were illegal. I don’t agree with the way he did it. But he did serve his time.” That statement was untrue, however, given that Obama had released Lopez Rivera decades before the end of his prison term.

Ultimately, de Blasio decided to march in the parade, but not near or alongside Lopez Rivera. Joe Connor, whose father was killed by an FALN bomb in 1975, said: “It sounds to me like the mayor is just trying to avoid a really bad photo op. The optics were very clear to him that he didn’t [want to] see himself photographed [standing] next to a terrorist.”

Defying President Trump’s Decision to Withdraw U.S. From Paris Climate Accord

When President Donald Trump pulled the United States out of the Paris Climate Agreement in June 2017, de Blasio tweeted that Trump’s decision would be “horribly destructive for the planet, the country, and this city.” “But we’ll take matters into our own hands,” he added. “I plan to sign an executive order maintaining New York City’s commitment to the Paris Agreement.”

De Blasio Travels to Germany for Anti-G-20 Protests Shortly After the Murder of an NYPD Officer

At about 12:30 a.m. on July 5, 2017, Miosotis Familia, a 48-year-old female officer in the NYPD, was shot and killed in an ambush attack as she sat in a parked cruiser in the Bronx. The following day, Mayor de Blasio flew to Germany to participate in left-wing protests against the G-20 summit and against U.S. President Donald Trump. The mayor’s trip, which caused him to miss a vigil that was held in Officer Familia’s memory — and also to miss the swearing-in of more than 500 new NYPD officers — was kept secret until approximately 90 minutes before he took off from Newark Airport. Moreover, it sparked much public anger, not only for the poor taste and timing, but also because of concern over the cost (to taxpayers) of such an expensive trip. However, the mayor’s office issued assurances that the trip, which also included a visit with his son in Berlin, was being paid for by the activist organization Hamburg Shows Attitude. But that turned out to be untrue, as the New York Post explained:

“The city Conflicts of Interest Board gave Mayor de Blasio the green light for a free trip to Germany because it achieved a ‘city purpose’ — of opposing President Trump, a spokesman said Monday. An email from the … [B]oard’s lawyer, sent at 10 p.m. Friday — more than a day after de Blasio flew to Germany — said the [B]oard approved his itinerary based on a rule that allows acceptance of travel-related gifts if ‘the trip is for a city purpose and therefore could properly be paid for with city funds.’ Asked what city purpose was achieved by de Blasio giving the keynote speech at a G-20 protest rally in Hamburg, spokesman Eric Phillips cited Hizzoner’s self-appointed role as a progressive foil to the president. ‘He was representing New York City and our values, and providing an alternate American viewpoint to the deeply problematic vision of President Trump,’ Phillips said.”

While he was in Germany, de Blasio addressed a raucous protest that quickly turned violent and resulted in injuries to approximately 500 German police.

At Familia’s funeral in New York City on July 11, 2017, hundreds of NYPD officers demonstrated their disgust for their mayor’s behavior by turning their backs to him while he delivered a eulogy.

De Blasio Voices His Support for Socialism and “Very Powerful Government” As Vehicles for Combating American Racism

In an interview that was published in New York magazine in September 2017, de Blasio made the following comments:

  • “What’s been hardest is the way our legal system is structured to favor private property. I think people all over this city, of every background, would like to have the city government be able to determine which building goes where, how high it will be, who gets to live in it, what the rent will be. I think there’s a socialistic impulse, which I hear every day, in every kind of community, that they would like things to be planned in accordance to their needs. And I would, too. Unfortunately, what stands in the way of that is hundreds of years of history that have elevated property rights and wealth to the point that that’s the reality that calls the tune on a lot of development…. Look, if I had my druthers, the city government would determine every single plot of land, how development would proceed. And there would be very stringent requirements around income levels and rents. That’s a world I’d love to see, and I think what we have, in this city at least, are people who would love to have the New Deal back, on one level. They’d love to have a very, very powerful government, including a federal government, involved in directly addressing their day-to-day reality.”
  • “There’s two ways to address [income inequality]: Ask more from the wealthy in terms of their obligation to society, first and foremost from taxes. Or raise wages and benefits for everyday people. The good news in New York City is we do see some increase in wages as the economy strengthens. Paid sick leave reached another half million people. We helped to lead the charge to increase the minimum wage, and people are starting to feel that. The problem is the top end. In very few ways can we address the rampant growth of wealth among the one percent. The state and the federal government have the power to do that. I called for a tax on the wealthy to fund pre-K. We didn’t achieve that, but we did get the money for pre-K from the state. Now I’m calling for a millionaires tax to fix the subways and to provide the half-cost fare for low-income New Yorkers. If we’re going to have a strong social fabric, if people are going to have faith it’s a fair and open society, they need to see the wealthy paying their fair share. It frustrates me greatly that we don’t have the power here to tax the wealthy in this city.”
  • “If you want to talk about breaking down segregation, all of us have to honestly acknowledge it’s based in 400 years of American history, and it’s based in the way economics and race interact.”
  • “Then there’s some stuff we have to change at the state level. The specialized schools: It is absolutely unacceptable to me that, based on the results of a single standardized test, kids get into one of the greatest schools in America, and in the case of Stuyvesant, that school is over 90 percent white and Asian in a city that’s more than 50 percent black and Latino. That must be ended. It must be a multiple-measure system of admissions.”

Failed Presidential Campaign

On May 16, 2019, de Blasio announced that he would seek the Democratic nomination for president. During his campaign, he attempted to position himself as a progressive in contrast to the front-runner, former Vice President Joe Biden. But De Blasio’s campaign failed to gain traction. Due to his low poll ratings — which typically were below 1% — he was unable to qualify for Democratic primary debates in September and October. After failing to qualify for the third round of debates, de Blasio ended his campaign on September 20, 2019.

Echoing Che Guevara

At the end of a June 2019 speech in which he encouraged airport employees to unionize in protest of poor working conditions and low wages, de Blasio used the Spanish phrase “Hasta la victoria, siempre” — meaning “Ever on to victory” — a phrase that had been famously coined by the late Che Guevara. After an hour of furious public criticism sparked by his remark, the mayor claimed not to know that the phrase in question was associated with Guevara.

Condemning Racial Disparities in Coronavirus Deaths

In April 2020, while the U.S. and most other nations were battling a deadly coronavirus pandemic, de Blasio reacted with outrage to a report indicating that blacks and Hispanics in New York City were dying from the disease (called COVID-19) at rates that were disproportionately higher than those of whites. Specifically: Hispanics, who represented 29% of the city’s population, accounted for 34% of its fatalities from COVID-19; blacks, who were 22% of the population, accounted for 28% of the fatalities; and whites, who were 32% of the population, accounted for 27% of the fatalities. Notably, de Blasio said nothing about the fact that Asians — who accounted for 17% of the population but just 7% of the fatalities — were far less likely than whites to have died from COVID-19.

To address the situation, de Blasio announced a plan designed to reduce the racial and ethnic disparities in COVID-19 deaths. It included a grassroots outreach initiative, an expansion of telemedicine services, and a multimillion-dollar ad campaign in 14 languages. “One thing I think is clear … is that people who have had less health care available to them are more vulnerable,” said the mayor. “If throughout your life you haven’t gotten the care you deserved, or if you’ve had preexisting conditions that weren’t addressed the way they could’ve if you’d had more resources. Because, again, health care still in this country is based on how much money you have.” Added de Blasio: “It made me angry to see that the disparities that have plagued this city, this nation that are all about fundamental inequality are once again causing such pain and causing innocent people to lose their lives. It’s just abundantly clear. It’s sick. It’s troubling. It’s wrong. And we’re going to fight back with everything we got.”

Freeing Thousands of Criminals Due to Coronavirus Concerns

Between March 16 and May 6, 2020, New York City released over 2,650  criminals from prison to protect them from contracting the coronavirus pandemic from other inmates. But by early June, approximately 110 of them had been rearrested for their roles in some 190 serious crimes like burglary, robbery, and rape.

Defunding the NYPD & Disbanding Plainclothes Officers Unit

In the aftermath of the May 25, 2020 death of George Floyd — a black man who died after being physically abused by a white police officer in Minneapolis — a number of U.S. cities were overrun by violent riots led by Black Lives Matter and Antifa. That chaos gave birth to a movement demanding that police departments nationwide be defunded. De Blasio joined that movement when he announced, in a June 7 press conference, a plan to “mov[e] funding from the NYPD to youth initiatives and social services.” “The details will be worked out in the budget process in the weeks ahead,” he added. “But I want people to understand that we are committed to shifting resources to ensure that the focus is on our young people.” “This is a beginning,” the mayor continued. “I want it to be abundantly clear to all New Yorkers. These are first steps to what will be 18 months of making intense change in this city…. This is a transformative moment.” He also announced that street vendor enforcement would “no longer be the responsibility of the NYPD,” and that a civilian agency would thenceforth be responsible for policing citizens’ interactions with city vendors.

On June 15, 2020, the NYPD disbanded its anti-crime unit of some 600 plainclothes officers, reassigning them to new roles in detective bureaus, neighborhood policing, and other areas.

In late June 2020, de Blasio said he had agreed to shift more than $1 billion in annual funding out of the NYPD, thereby reducing its overall annual budget from $6 billion to $5 billion. Much of the diverted money, the mayor stated, would go instead toward the improvement of youth centers and public housing.

De Blasio Says the George Floyd Riots Are “Very Justified”

In early 2021, Manhattan Institute scholar Heather Mac Donald wrote the following about the rioters in New York City:

“Minneapolis was the first city to burn, and riots soon spread across the country. In New York City, caravans of looters smashed storefronts and made off with millions of dollars in luxury merchandise and dollar-store inventory alike; rioters burned police cars and attacked officers with bottles, bricks, cement blocks, and jagged metal pipes. Officers worked back-to-back shifts with no time to sleep; nearly 400 officers were injured. More than 200 police cars were vandalized. As darkness fell each night, the city cowered behind plywood barriers hastily erected over apartment building entrances and commercial storefronts. De Blasio called the unrest ‘very justified’ and asked the police to use a ‘light touch’ because people are ‘undeniably angry for a reason.’”

De Blasio Authorizes the Painting of the Words “Black Lives Matter” on Street in Front of Trump Tower

During a June 30, 2020 appearance on MSNBC’s Morning Joe program, de Blasio emphasized the “profound change” that would be taking place in New York City, so as to promote the creation of a “safer city in the future.” He also announced that some of the money that was being taken from the police department would be used to fund the painting of the words “Black Lives Matter” on Fifth Avenue in front of Trump Tower. “We’re going to take this moment in history and amplify it by taking the ‘Black Lives Matter’ symbolism and putting it all over this city, including right in front of Trump Tower,” said de Blasio. “It’s an important message to the nation, and, obviously, we want the president to hear it because he has never shown respect for those three words,” the mayor added. “When he hears ‘black lives matter,’ he presents a horrible, negative reality of something that doesn’t exist and he misses the underlying meaning that we’re saying we have to honor the role of African-Americans in our history and in our society…. So, we’re going to make it very clear to the president. It’s going to be right outside his doorstep.”

In a photo op, de Blasio himself actually helped paint the words on the street, as did his wife Chirlane McCray and activist Al Sharpton.

Skyrocketing Crime Rates in NYC

New York City was likewise turned into a cauldron of violence by BLM hatred:

  • In a 28-day period from mid-May through mid-June 2020, the incidence of murder, burglary and grand larceny auto crimes in New York spiked dramatically when compared to the same period in 2019. Particularly alarming was the homicide count – 38 murders in 28 days – a total twice as high as the corresponding figure from the year before.
  • From June 16-22, the number of shootings in New York City increased by some 358 percent compared with the same time frame in 2019 – from 12 shootings last year, to 55 this year. In those 55 most recent shooting incidents, a total of 74 people were wounded.
  • From June 19-27, more than 110 people in New York City were wounded or killed in 83 separate shootings.
  • In a 12-hour period during the weekend of June 27-28, eleven people were shot and wounded citywide. This spree of gunfire brought the number of shootings over the most recent seven-day period in New York to 59 – a figure that dwarfed the 26 shootings which had occurred during the same time frame in 2019.
  • Between June 15 and July 2, shootings in New York City soared by 205% above the corresponding figure for the same period in 2019, while gunshot injuries increased by 238%.
  • Between June 1 and June 30, the incidence of serious crimes in New York City increased dramatically when compared to the same period in 2019. This included a 130% increase in the number of shooting incidents, a 30% spike in murders, a 118% rise in burglaries, and a 51% increase in auto thefts.
  • All told, June 2020 became New York’s bloodiest month since 1996.

The NYPD’s Chief of Department, Terence Monahan, blamed these horrific trends largely on the fact that “the animosity towards police has been absolutely unbelievable.” “The violence, the shootings are up,” he said. “We haven’t seen this many [during a comparable time period] since 1996.” The animosity cited by Monahan was on full display in the wee morning hours of Sunday, June 28, when a mob of young people spent several hours hurling bottles and epithets at NYPD officers who tried to break up their massive street party following reports of gunfire at the gathering. The attendees defiantly and repeatedly demanded that the officers “Get the f–k out of here!” Others taunted the cops by launching aerial fireworks from atop a van, and by dancing lewdly in front of an NYPD vehicle. In a subsequent interview with reporters, one young black man summed up his attitude toward the police thusly: “The black people wanted the cops to know that this is our neighborhood and you’re not going to intimidate us.” Meanwhile, a dispirited police officer described the situation as “complete lawlessness.”

And because the administration of Mayor Bill de Blasio was highly sympathetic to the protesters and rioters – as evidenced by the enactment of a BLM demand calling for a $1 billion cut to the NYPD budget – many New York City officers decided that it was time to get out while they could. During the 30-day period from May 25 through June 24, no fewer than 272 uniformed cops announced that they were retiring – a 49 percent increase over the 183 officers who had filed for retirement during the same period in 2019.

De Blasio Permits Black Lives Matter Protests to Continue, but Cancels All Other Large Public Events Through September 2020

During a July 9, 2020 interview with CNN, de Blasio said that he would permit Black Lives Matter protesters to continue marching through city streets while all other large events in the city — e.g., the West Indian American Day Carnival, the Dominican Day Parade, and the San Gennaro Festival — were being cancelled through September. “This is a historic moment of change,” said the mayor. “We have to respect that but also say to people the kinds of gatherings we’re used to, the parades, the fairs — we just can’t have that while we’re focusing on health right now.” The de Blasio administration also said it would deny all permits for: (a) events in parks that it believed might “unreasonably diminish public use,” (b) street fairs and events covering an area larger than one block, and (c) gatherings requiring a sound system.

De Blasio Supports “COVID Relief” Payments of $15,600 Apiece to NYS Illegal Aliens 

On April 6, 2021, Governor Andrew Cuomo and New York State lawmakers agreed to the creation of a $2.2 billion program authorizing a one-time payment of up to $15,600 apiece to some 290,000 “excluded workers” — i.e., illegal aliens who resided in New York and were not eligible for other government aid. In order to receive this money, the migrants would be required to verify that in 2020 they had been New York State residents who lost income as a result of the COV-19 pandemic and were ineligible for federal unemployment benefits. For those who could prove their residency and identity but could not show that they had lost income because of COVID, a lower sum of $3,200 would be made available.

Mayor De Blasio defended the “excluded workers” measure, saying: “I know the people benefitting are New Yorkers. Half a million of our fellow New Yorkers happen to be undocumented. They are part of our city. They are part of the life of our city…. They have been suffering without a lot of the help other people have gotten. This is part of how we recover together, so I do think it was the right thing to do.”

Paying Criminals Not to Commit Crimes

In August 2021, Mayor de Blasio and NYC Public Advocate Jumaane Williams introduced a new $1 million program that would select potentially dangerous youths in areas of New York City with high levels of gun violence, and provide them with individual mentoring from ex-convicts. If those youths adhered to the program and refrained from committing crimes, the city would pay them a stipend of $1000 per month.

The program was based on something called the Advance Peace Model, which, according to its supporters, had been effective in other cities. But in fact, the program’s results in those cities had been inconclusive at best. For example, as Seth Barron, managing editor of The American Mind, explained, the Advance Peace Model program in Stockton, California “was a disaster. Murders rose from 28 in 2019 to 45 in 2020, up 60 percent, much higher than the 37 percent ­increase nationwide.”

De Blasio, however, assured New Yorkers that the model “will guarantee a safer and fairer New York for generations to come.”

De Blasio Condemns the Kyle Rittenhouse Jury Verdict

On August 25, 2020 — during a violent Black Lives Matter/Antifa riot which followed an incident where a white Kenosha, Wisconsin police officer had shot and permanently disabled a knife-wielding black criminal named Jacob Blake — Kyle Rittenhouse, a 17-year-old white youth from Antioch, Illinois, drove to Kenosha, where his father resided, with the intent of: (a) helping to prevent further vandalism in that city, and (b) providing medical aid to people injured in the melee. At the scene of the unrest, Rittenhouse was armed with a semi-automatic rifle that had been purchased (with his money) and held for him by his friend Dominick Black, a resident of Kenosha. When white rioter and Kenosha resident Joseph Rosenbaum — who had spent 15 years in prison for multiple child molestation convictions that included anal rape — chased Rittenhouse, threatened to kill him, and tried to take away his rifle, Rittenhouse fatally shot Rosenbaum. While subsequently being chased by a crowd of approximately a dozen rioters, Rittenhouse ran down a street toward police vehicles, in hopes that the officers might protect him from his pursuers. But the fleeing Rittenhouse tripped and fell to the ground, at which point he was struck on the head by a 39-year-old white man who jump-kicked him. Then, while Rittenhouse was still on the ground, white Silver Lake resident Anthony Huber — a domestic abuse repeater and an ex-convict who in 2013 had pleaded guilty to multiple felony counts of strangulation, suffocation, and false imprisonment — struck him on the head and neck with a skateboard and attempted to pull away his rifle, at which point Rittenhouse killed Huber with a single gunshot to the chest. And when white West Allis resident Gaige Grosskreutz — who had a long arrest history that included multiple misdemeanors and felonies — then approached the fallen Rittenhouse and pointed a handgun directly at him, Rittenhouse shot him once in the right arm, wounding but not killing the man. Rittenhouse was subsequently tried on six criminal charges which included homicide, reckless endangerment, and possession of a dangerous weapon by a person under the age of 18. A large number of leftists portrayed him as a racist, Trump-supporting white vigilante who had recklessly fired his gun at “social justice” and “racial justice” demonstrators in Kenosha.

After a jury found Rittenhouse not guilty on all counts on November 19, 2021, de Blasio tweeted: “Anthony Huber and Joseph Rosenbaum are victims. They should be alive today. The only reason they’re not is because a violent, dangerous man chose to take a gun across state lines and start shooting people.[2] To call this a miscarriage of justice is an understatement.”

De Blasio’s Views on Key Issues

For an overview of de Blasio’s views on a variety of key political and social issues, click here.

Footnotes:


  1. The Nicaragua Solidarity Network of Greater New York (NSNGNY) was formed by a number of New York groups and was active from 1983-2002. Its records are archived in the Tamiment Library at New York University. NSNGNY should not be confused with the Nicaragua Network, which was established in 1979 and remains active to this day.
  2. Rittenhouse did not transport his weapon across state lines.

Additional Resources:


The Progressive’s Progress
By Paul Kengor
November 8, 2013

The Mayor from ACORN
By Alec Torres
September 26, 2013

The Radicalism of Bill de Blasio
By Stanley Kurtz
September 23, 2013

Should ’70s, ’80s Nicaragua Matter to NYC Voters? Two Writers Make the Case
By Ron Radosh
October 7, 2013

The Triumph of the Left in New York City: How and Why De Blasio Won
By Ron Radosh
November 6, 2013

De Blasio’s Welfare Agenda
By Heather Mac Donald
December 3, 2013

Why Bill de Blasio’s Nicaraguan Work Worries Me
By Paul Berman
September 30, 2013

Bill de Blasio’s Communist Pals
By Paul Kengor & Spyridon Mitsotakis
November 1, 2013

A Mayoral Hopeful Now, de Blasio Was Once a Young Leftist
By Javier C. Hernandez
September 22, 2013

The 19 Most Revealing Documents From Bill De Blasio’s Socialist Past
By Buzzfeed.com
September 24, 2013

De Blasio’s Marxist Romance
By Spyridon Mitsotakis
October 7, 2013

Bill de Blasio’s Radical Socialist Ties
By Marjorie Romeyn-Sanabria
October 31, 2013

Comrade De Blasio Takes the Helm
By Ronald Radosh
January 3, 2014

De Blasio’s Nicaragua Fling
By Ronald Radosh
September 30, 2013

The Dangers of a De Blasio Victory In New York City’s Mayoral Race
By Ronald Radosh
September 27, 2013

New York City’s Next Mayor: A Stealth Socialist Who Loved Sandinista Nicaragua and Castro’s Cuba
By Ronald Radosh
September 23, 2013

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