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New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said Wednesday that doctors will begin including suspected COVID-19 deaths into their death totals, even if the patient was never tested for the virus.
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&#8220;Mayor Bill de Blasio said Wednesday the city would begin counting victims (suspected of having coronavirus) who weren&#8217;t tested, including those dying at home whose symptoms fit certain parameters,&#8221; The <a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/us/articles/2020-04-08/doctors-death-highlights-limits-of-coronavirus-death-count">Associated Press</a> reported.
The <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/nyt-calls-out-de-blasio-cuomo-for-coronavirus-failures-readers-thanks-for-finally-saying-something">much-criticized</a> mayor has suggested the city is currently undercounting COVID-19 deaths, pointing to a higher number in ambulance calls and corresponding deaths.
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“It’s just horrendous,&#8221; de Blasio told reporters. &#8220;The numbers speak for themselves. This used to be a very, very rare thing in New York City and suddenly it’s jumped up. The only thing that’s changed is COVID- 19.&#8221;
As highlighted by Dr. Harlan M. Krumholz in a piece published at <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/06/well/live/coronavirus-doctors-hospitals-emergency-care-heart-attack-stroke.html">The New York Times</a> on Monday, doctors have seen a plummet in heart attack and stroke patients at their facilities since the start of the pandemic. Dr. Krumholz suggested the massive drop is caused by folks experiencing non-COVID related symptoms being too afraid to go to the hospital, where they might catch the virus, to seek treatment.
&#8220;The most concerning possible explanation is that people stay home and suffer rather than risk coming to the hospital and getting infected with coronavirus,&#8221; the physician explained. &#8220;This theory suggests that Covid-19 has instilled fear of face-to-face medical care. As a result, many people with urgent health problems may be opting to remain at home rather than call for help.&#8221;
Dr. Deborah Birx, a leading voice in the White House coronavirus task force, acknowledged Tuesday that the United States is recording COVID-19 deaths in a &#8220;very liberal&#8221; manner.
“I think in this country, we are taking a very liberal approach to mortality. And I think the reporting here has been pretty straightforward over the last five to six weeks,” Dr. Birx told reporters at a press briefing.
“If someone dies with COVID-19, we are counting that,&#8221; she emphasized.
“There are other countries, that if you have a pre-existing condition, and let’s say the virus called you to go to the ICU (intensive care unit) and then have a heart or kidney problem,” explained the doctor. “Some countries are recording that as a kidney issue, or a heart issue, and not a COVID-19 death.” In the U.S., she added, “we’re still recording it” as a COVID-19 death.
However, Dr. Birx suggested COVID-19 deaths in January and February were likely underreported, due to a lack of testing. “When there wasn’t testing in January and February, that’s a very different situation and unknown,” she explained.
Guidance from Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says doctors should code all deaths as COVID-19 if &#8220;the disease caused or is assumed to have caused or contributed to death.&#8221;
“COVID-19 should be reported on the death certificate for all decedents where the disease caused or is assumed to have caused or contributed to death,” reads the <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvss/coronavirus/Alert-2-New-ICD-code-introduced-for-COVID-19-deaths.pdf">CDC guidance</a> issued in March. “Certifiers should include as much detail as possible based on their knowledge of the case, medical records, laboratory testing, etc. If the decedent had other chronic conditions such as COPD or asthma that may have also contributed, these conditions can be reported in Part II.”
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/watch-dr-birx-we-have-very-liberal-recording-of-covid-deaths-if-they-test-positive-we-are-counting-that">WATCH: Dr. Birx: We Have ‘Very Liberal’ Recording Of COVID Deaths; If They Test Positive, ‘We Are Counting That’</a>
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Mayor Bill de Blasio

De Blasio: NYC Will Include Suspected COVID Patients In Death Tolls Without Testing

Bill de Blasio

Coronavirus

New York City

After weeks of criticizing President Trump, often unfairly, for his response to the coronavirus pandemic, The New York Times published a lengthy and rather damning piece on Wednesday detailing the belated and at times counterproductive response of the two most prominent Democratic leaders in New York: New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo. For, finally, providing a more even-handed critique of the Democratic politicians calling the shots at the epicenter of the pandemic in the U.S., some of the Times&#8217; readers have thanked the paper, though many made a point of noting that the critique was coming rather late in the game.
The Times report has been given a conveniently equivocal title — &#8220;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/08/nyregion/new-york-coronavirus-response-delays.html">How Delays and Unheeded Warnings Hindered New York&#8217;s Virus Fight</a>&#8221; — which fails to directly point the finger at de Blasio or Cuomo, but its subtitle better summarizes the content of the piece: &#8220;The federal response was chaotic. Even so, the state&#8217;s and city&#8217;s own efforts failed to keep pace with the outbreak, The Times found.&#8221; Even that more direct criticism, however, does not accurately present just how badly the Times found that the two Democrats initially botched their response.
The report begins with the first confirmed case of the virus in New York City on March 1 — and both Cuomo and de Blasio vowing to take action that, the Times learned, was never taken (formatting adjusted):
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A 39-year-old woman took Flight 701 from Doha, Qatar, to John F. Kennedy International Airport in late February, the final leg of her trip home to New York City from Iran. A week later, on March 1, <a class="css-1g7m0tk" title="" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/01/nyregion/new-york-coronvirus-confirmed.html">she tested positive for the coronavirus</a>, the first confirmed case in New York City of an outbreak that had already devastated China and parts of Europe. The next day, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, appearing with Mayor Bill de Blasio at a news conference, promised that health investigators would track down every person on the woman’s flight. But no one did.
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&#8220;For many days after the first positive test, as the coronavirus silently spread throughout the New York region, Mr. Cuomo, Mr. de Blasio and their top aides projected an unswerving confidence that the outbreak would be readily contained,&#8221; the Times reports.
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There would be cases, they repeatedly said, but New York’s hospitals were some of the best in the world. Plans were in place. Responses had been rehearsed during “tabletop” exercises. After all, the city had been here before — Ebola, Zika, the H1N1 virus, even Sept. 11.
“Excuse our arrogance as New Yorkers — I speak for the mayor also on this one — we think we have the best health care system on the planet right here in New York,” <a class="css-1g7m0tk" title="" href="https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/video-audio-photos-rush-transcript-novel-coronavirus-briefing-governor-cuomo-announces-state" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Mr. Cuomo said on March 2</a>. “So, when you’re saying, what happened in other countries versus what happened here, we don’t even think it’s going to be as bad as it was in other countries.”
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While the Times makes sure to point to the federal response as also hampering New York&#8217;s attempts to combat the spreading virus, the picture is painfully clear by the end of the piece: Cuomo and de Blasio blew it, and New York has suffered as a result.
As Hot Air&#8217;s <a href="https://hotair.com/archives/john-s-2/2020/04/08/ny-times-readers-thank-paper-finally-noticing-failures-cuomo-de-blasio/">John Sexton</a> highlights, the Times&#8217; readers are thanking the paper for finally calling out the Democratic leaders. A few examples from a flood of similar responses in the Times&#8217; comments section:
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<li>&#8220;This is an honest article about the worst area affected in the U.S. by the new CoronaVirus. I’ve seen countless articles about Trump’s incompetence and while all true, NY leaders have to take ownership of their part in this disaster and learn from it, because there will likely be a second wave of cases at some point.&#8221;</li>
<li>&#8220;Wow somebody FINALLY acknowledged that Cuomo/De Blasio waited way too long for lockdown/shelter in place efforts. Being good at mitigation and communication does not and should not excuse Cuomo&#8217;s earlier inaction. Thank you for true journalism.&#8221;</li>
<li>&#8220;It is good to see the Times do a tough story like this. It is a needed corrective to the daily spotlight-basking Governor Cuomo revels in, when in fact he and other leaders, especially the President, were slow to respond to this crisis. Other governors and mayors, most notably those in California, Ohio, and Washington, set the standard for early, effective response. They personify good government.&#8221;</li>
<li>&#8220;There is nothing to explain New York&#8217;s skyrocketing rates of infections and deaths other than mismanagement at the highest levels. Cuomo demonstrated an early hubris&#8230;now he is admitting his mistakes and playing contrite. De Blasio was always out of his league.&#8221;</li>
<li>&#8220;Thank you for finally documenting the mistakes made by New York officials, including Mayor De Blasio, whose performance has been dismal. Yes, Trump shares blame, but it&#8217;s not all about Trump, and the truth is that everyone &#8211; Dem and Repub &#8211; were caught flat-footed by the crisis. A common enemy we should be blaming is the China government, which repeatedly lied and covered by the extent of the problem, aided by the corrupt WHO.&#8221;</li>
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NY Gov. Cuomo And NYC Mayor De Blasio

NYT Calls Out De Blasio, Cuomo For Coronavirus Failures; Readers: Thanks For Finally Saying Something

Andrew Cuomo

Donald Trump

New York Times

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has instructed the citizens of his city to stay home and avoid non-essential travel. That apparently has not stopped him from <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8194431/Bill-Blasio-hits-critics-jogs-Brooklyn-park.html">driving nearly 12 miles</a> to take a stroll in a park. It should be noted that de Blasio&#8217;s mayoral mansion is located on an 11-acre plot in the middle of a different park. There is no reason – certainly not an &#8220;essential&#8221; reason – why he needs to make the journey to another park well over 200 blocks away, especially as the other residents of the city have been warned against doing that sort of thing.
Mayor de Blasio defended his defiance of his own stay-at-home orders by saying the strolls &#8220;help him&#8221; and allow him to be &#8220;effective.&#8221; One can only shudder at the thought of what it must look like when de Blasio is ineffective.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot of Chicago is an even bigger and more blatant hypocrite. A few days ago, <a href="https://www.chicagotribune.com/coronavirus/ct-coronavirus-chicago-lori-lightfoot-haircut-20200406-jmyz2wtccnadlknya7hzbetevy-story.html">she got a professional haircut</a> and posed for a picture with her stylist, who was certainly standing much closer than six feet away. This is the same woman who forcibly shut down every hair salon and barber shop in the city, and reserves the right to fine or arrest anyone who does exactly what she just did. The good mayor even recorded a friendly quarantine PSA where she specifically said that getting your hair done &#8220;is not essential.&#8221;
Lightfoot has been applauded in the media for being especially strict in her stay-at-home orders. Strict to the other residents of the city, I mean, not to herself. She has not only shut down &#8220;non-essential&#8221; businesses and instated social distancing rules, but she also instructed the people of Chicago to only exit their homes for a &#8220;brief respite.&#8221; They are not allowed to jog for long distances because, she explained, &#8220;outside is not for 5Ks.&#8221; Yes, she has assumed the power to decide what outside is &#8220;for.&#8221;
Don&#8217;t worry. She has an excellent excuse for violating her supposedly lifesaving rules. When asked by a reporter, she explained that she just &#8220;needed to have a haircut&#8221; because she &#8220;takes personal hygiene very seriously.&#8221; She also insisted that her position as &#8220;public face of the city&#8221; and her frequent appearances on national television give her a special exemption.
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As to that latter assertion, isn&#8217;t it more important for the people of Chicago to see their mayor following her own social distancing directives? Indeed, the fact that she&#8217;s on TV as the &#8220;public face of the city&#8221; (whatever the hell that means exactly) is all the more reason to not get a haircut. She could set an example by sporting unkempt and overgrown hair like the rest of us. Instead, she prioritized her vanity over responsible leadership.
As to the claim that she &#8220;needed&#8221; a haircut due to her &#8220;personal hygiene&#8221; requirements, what precisely is she insinuating? That everyone else in Chicago doesn&#8217;t take hygiene seriously? That hygiene isn&#8217;t important to the unwashed masses? If a haircut can be essential for her, than it can be essential for anyone. Unless, of course, all of these shutdown orders are based more on the egocentric whims of people in power than any kind of coherent and objective standard.
What&#8217;s particularly frustrating is that, in a vacuum, the rationales offered by Lightfoot and de Blasio are perfectly reasonable. Why shouldn&#8217;t a man with a high stress job drive a few miles to a park and enjoy a nice stroll? Why shouldn&#8217;t a woman take care of her appearance and get a haircut if she needs one? As long as they take appropriate precautions and wash their hands frequently, it will probably be fine. But this is the sort of reasoning Lightfoot and de Blasio and the other petty tyrants running states and cities across the country have publicly and forcefully rejected. They tell us that even something as seemingly innocuous as a haircut or a walk in the park might put lives at risk. &#8220;Stay home and save lives,&#8221; they say.
So which is it? Did Mayor Lightfoot knowingly put lives at risk? Does she think that it&#8217;s dangerous and potentially deadly to get a haircut from a person who has no symptoms and is wearing a mask, yet did it anyway? Or does she realize that it&#8217;s reasonably safe to go about your day, so long as precautions are taken and social distancing is observed as much as possible within the context of daily life? If the former, then she is a reckless sociopath. If the latter, she is a liar, a hypocrite, and a charlatan. If I had to guess, I&#8217;d say the latter is the case. And it should concern us that a liar, hypocrite, and charlatan has been given so much power. Especially because she is far from the only one.

WALSH: Big City Mayors Are Blatantly Violating Their Own Social Distancing Rules. Here’s What That Tells Us.

COVID-19

Lori Lightfoot

New York City mayor Bill de Blasio has reassured panicked progressives that he will be monitoring Samaritan&#8217;s Purse, an evangelical Christian organization constructing a field hospital to help treat coronavirus victims in Manhattan, for signs of &#8220;discrimination&#8221; after leftists on social media noticed that the Franklin Graham-led organization opposes gay marriage.
Samaritan&#8217;s Purse, which is a global relief organization, has volunteered its time to assist New York City&#8217;s healthcare workers, constructing a 60-bed assistance center in Central Park. The organization, like many Christian relief organizations, opposes abortion and gay marriage on Biblical grounds, and largely requires those working for it to ascribe to its foundational beliefs, leaving some NYC leftists &#8220;very concerned.&#8221;
&#8220;Mayor Bill de Blasio said the city will keep a close eye on the Christian fundamentalist group operating a field hospital in Central Park, amid growing fears that some New Yorkers could face discrimination and substandard care from the religious organization,&#8221; NYC blog <a href="https://gothamist.com/news/de-blasio-samaritans-purse-central-park-coronavirus-hospital">Gothamist</a> reported earlier this week.
Jonathan Merritt, a &#8220;contributing writer&#8221; to the Atlantic, catalogued his terror at Samaritan&#8217;s Purse being tapped to handle at least some aspects of New York City&#8217;s coronavirus response <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/new-yorkers-are-right-to-be-skeptical-of-samaritans-purses-evangelical-coronavirus-ward-in-central-park?source=articles&amp;via=rss">in The Daily Beast</a>, adding that such efforts &#8220;blur[] the lines between church and state,&#8221; and could lead to violence against LGBT individuals.
The concerns eventually reached De Blasio who has reassured New Yorkers living in fear of evangelicals that city resources, already stretched thin, will be dispatched to &#8220;monitor&#8221; the situation at the tent city in Central Park, according <a href="https://nypost.com/2020/03/31/evangelical-central-park-hospital-wont-discriminate-de-blasio/">to the New York Post</a>.
“I said immediately to my team that we had to find out exactly what was happening,” de Blasio said in a press conference. “Was there going to be an approach that was truly consistent with the values and the laws in New York City, that everyone would be served and served equally?&#8221;
“We’ve received those assurances from the organization,” de Blasio said, clearly skeptical. “I spoke earlier today with the CEO of the Mount Sinai system, Dr. Ken Davis, who was adamant that they will only continue their relationship with the organization if those rules are followed, that they have a written agreement, that there’s going to be no discrimination whatsoever.”
&#8220;We&#8217;re going to send people over from the Mayor&#8217;s Office to monitor,&#8221; de Blasio concluded. &#8220;I am very concerned that this is done right. But if it is done right, we need all the help we can get.&#8221;
A number of New York City councilmen also noted that they would be checking in Samaritan&#8217;s Purse and may also send aides to monitor the situation on the ground in Central Park.
New York City is the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic in the United States, and the organization partnering with Samaritan&#8217;s Purse, Mount Sinai, is one of the hardest hit healthcare systems in the country.
&#8220;In order to meet the needs of the coming surge, we must work as a united front in order save as many lives as possible. We are grateful for the collaboration with Samaritan&#8217;s Purse who have come to the aid of the people of Italy and now New York. Through this partnership, we are leveraging our collective resources to care for our patients and community,&#8221; the hospital system said in a statement earlier this week.

bill de blasio

Bill De Blasio Says He Will Monitor Christian Charity Helping With Coronavirus Response After Leftists Complain About ‘Discrimination’

Christianity

Franklin Graham

New York City district attorneys are furious with NYC mayor Bill de Blasio over his decision to release a number of violent inmates amid concerns that coronavirus could spread like wildfire in the city&#8217;s prisons.
De Blasio unveiled the plan to release at least 300 inmates from the city&#8217;s notorious Rikers Island prison on Monday, but insisted that the &#8220;few hundred inmates&#8221; he was citing for early parole &#8220;are serving less than yearlong sentences for misdemeanors or non-violent felonies,&#8221; <a href="https://nypost.com/2020/03/25/nyc-to-release-300-more-rikers-inmates-amid-coronavirus-pandemic/">per the New York Post</a>.
The controlled release, De Blaiso said, would be done &#8220;with the goal of reducing health risks in a manner consistent with public safety&#8221; and, in a speech Monday, the NYC mayor suggested that inmates would have their release approved only if they have less than a year left on their sentences.
But New York City DAs, in a vicious letter sent to the mayor&#8217;s office Tuesday, say they&#8217;re receiving requests from inmates jailed for violent offenses, some of whom could be let free, but posed a significant risk to public safety.
“Our review of the lists provided to date has led us to consent to the release of many hundreds of individuals due to their age and/or health condition; the nature of their charged crime; or the length of their remaining sentence,” the letter begins.
“At the same time, we want to make clear that the categories of those proposed for release have, in some instances, included individuals who pose a high risk to public safety,&#8221; they note, adding that the mayor&#8217;s office hasn&#8217;t always been receptive to their input. They “have communicated our concerns,&#8221; they say, &#8220;but these concerns have not always been heeded.”
The problem, the DAs say, is that the mayor&#8217;s office is telling the public one thing &#8212; that no inmate with a violent history will be released &#8212; but that the paperwork indicates something very different.
“As an example, when we learned last week that [NYC DOC Commissioner Cynthia Brann] was about to use her authority to order an across-the-board release of hundreds of inmates serving city sentences, we were assured that the release would not include those serving time for domestic violence or sex offenses, given the risks to victims,” the prosecutors say. “Unfortunately, we later learned that such individuals were indeed included in the ranks of those to be released.”
&#8220;At this point,&#8221; the letter adds, &#8220;the seemingly haphazard process by which at-risk inmates are identified, and the reports that those released may include violent offenders, are creating a public perception that our city’s jails may be incapable of providing sufficient health care for the remaining population of inmates. We believe this perception is wrong.”
&#8220;Even at this difficult time, our society must have the ability to safeguard those who are incarcerated, to avoid violating their rights or endangering the community. In short, we should not have to make release decisions that we know will put communities at risk,&#8221; the DAs conclude.
Rikers Island poses a unique situation for New York City. The jail is decrepit and conditions there have concerned human rights organizations, even when a deadly pandemic is not sweeping across the country. Earlier in the week, the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/03/31/rikers-island-coronavirus-spread/">Washington Post</a> reported that some doctors fear Rikers Island could become a &#8220;public health crisis,&#8221; particularly given that coronavirus is known to spread quickly in closed quarters.
The New York Times reports that, as of Monday, &#8220;167 inmates, 114 correction staff and 23 health workers had tested positive&#8221; at Rikers Island and around 800 inmates and staff are under quarantine.

New York City Prosecutors Are NOT Happy With Bill De Blasio’s Plan To Free High Risk Inmates

The following is satirical.
Officials around the country are devising new plans to deal with the Chi-Com Flu. In New York City, Mayor Vladimir de Blasio has announced that, in order to halt the spread of the virus, he will from now on dress in a bright red military uniform with tremendous epaulettes decorated with a braided gold fringe.
De Blasio, or Generalissimo as he’ll now be known, will proceed to march back and forth on the balcony of Gracie Mansion, shouting commands at New Yorkers to remain indoors until everyone realizes that it is he who should be president and not someone else without a bright red uniform and golden epaulettes and who is not named de Blasio.
In California, Governor Gavin Newsom is dealing with the virus by grinning in a genuinely weird and sort of scary way that seems totally unrelated to the meaningless but high-sounding phrases coming out of his mouth.
After that, he plans to order California neighbors to spy on one another to make sure no one is taking more walks than he’s supposed to. He’ll also order police helicopters to fly overhead for no apparent reason in order to create a sense of futuristic paranoia and oppression.
Baltimore Mayor Jack Young has asked city residents to stop shooting each other in order to free up hospital beds for people with the virus. Baltimorans hope these restrictions will be lifted quickly so as not to harm the city’s economy, which mostly revolves around bullets.
The news media is also chipping in by screaming inflated disease numbers completely out of context and describing worst case scenarios as if they were inevitable while staring into cameras with wide-eyed, fear-haunted faces, before moving on to recount individual agonizing deaths from the virus hoping they will serve an example of how to irresponsibly spread unnecessary terror.
And of course, governors, mayors and the news media will all continue working together to blame Donald Trump for whatever happens next.
More satire from Andrew Klavan: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/flu-side-effects-include-shrinking-reporters-and-forgotten-democrat-candidates-satire">Flu Side Effects Include Shrinking Reporters And Forgotten Democrat Candidates </a>

New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio Accepts Resignation Of NYPD Commissioner O&#8217;Neill, And Names Predecessor

Officials Vow To Battle Chi-Com Flu With Completely Useless But Oppressive Measures [Satire]

China

Gavin Newsom

Satire

On Sunday, during a press briefing regarding the COVID-19 pandemic, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio stated that citizens can and will be fined if they fail to follow social distancing protocol.
De Blasio first spoke specifically about certain places where people might congregate.
<blockquote>I certainly do authorize the use of fines in parks and playgrounds if needed. Again, what we&#8217;re going to do to begin, as we&#8217;ve been doing is – and the weather has been such that there haven&#8217;t been too, too many people out – but all of our enforcement officers have been [giving] warnings, have been educating, there&#8217;s been loudspeakers telling people the update, all that.</blockquote>
The mayor then laid it out for anyone who might decide to flout social distance guidelines in New York City:
<blockquote>Now, it&#8217;s as simple as this. If someone is told by an officer [to] disperse, keep moving, you&#8217;re not distanced, and they don&#8217;t follow the direct instruction from our officer, or they say they&#8217;re doing it and then they come back right away, I&#8217;m comfortable at this point that they will be fined – my understanding is the fines are in the range of $250 to $500 – that’ll obviously be a &#8230; violation of summons that would be provided.
I don&#8217;t want to see that happen &#8230; I want to just let all New Yorkers know that what we&#8217;re trying to do is say, you&#8217;ve been warned and warned and warned again.
Now, if an officer comes up to you, if someone wearing official city uniform, official city identification, comes up and says, “Move along, disperse, etc,” if you ignore that order, they&#8217;re going to say, “If you ignore it, we&#8217;re gonna have to fine you.” They’re gonna give people every chance to listen, and if anyone doesn&#8217;t listen, then they deserve a fine at this point – and I don&#8217;t want to fine people when so many folks are going through economic distress, but if they haven&#8217;t gotten the message by now and they don&#8217;t get the message when an enforcement officer is staring them in the face, saying, “I don&#8217;t want to fine you, but if you don&#8217;t change what you&#8217;re doing, I&#8217;m gonna have to,” well, you know, that person then deserves the fine.
So, we are going to proceed with that as part of how we intensify our enforcement.</blockquote>
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COVID-19, which originated in China’s Hubei province, has infected over 721,800 people worldwide, and led to more than 33,900 deaths, <a href="https://www.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6">according to data</a> from Johns Hopkins Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) Global Cases map. 151,204 people have recovered.
In the United States, there have been more than 142,300 confirmed cases of COVID-19, and 2,489 deaths. As of publication, 4,767 individuals have recovered from the virus.
According to the New York State <a href="https://coronavirus.health.ny.gov/county-county-breakdown-positive-cases">website</a>, there have been 59,513 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the state, and 965 deaths. In New York City alone, there have been over 33,760 confirmed cases of COVID-19, and 776 deaths.
RELATED: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/gov-cuomo-says-tens-of-thousands-of-health-care-workers-have-volunteered-in-new-york-gives-other-updates">Gov. Cuomo Says Tens Of Thousands Of ‘Health Care Workers’ Have Volunteered In New York; Gives Other Updates</a>

De Blasio Authorizes Fines Of $250 To $500 For New Yorkers Who Defy Authorities Telling Them To Properly Distance

CNN&#8217;s Jake Tapper grilled New York City Democratic Mayor Bill de Blasio for attacking President Donald Trump&#8217;s response to the COVID-19 outbreak while de Blasio seemingly did even less to prepare New York City.
Tapper played a clip of de Blasio from just two weeks ago where the mayor encouraged people to go out in public and to not worry about the COVID-19 outbreak.
&#8220;In retrospect, is that message, at least in part, to blame for how rapidly the virus has spread across the city?&#8221; Tapper asked.
&#8220;Jake, we should not be focusing, in my view, on anything looking back on any level of government right now,&#8221; de Blasio responded. &#8220;This is just about how we save lives going forward. We all were working, everybody was working with the information we had, and trying, of course, to avoid panic, and at that point, for all of us, trying to keep – not only protect lives, but keep the economy and the livelihoods together, keep ensuring that people had money to pay for food and medicine.&#8221;
Several moments later, Tapper pressed de Blasio, &#8220;So – but, Mr. Mayor, you say you don&#8217;t think you should look backwards, but you have criticized President Trump for &#8216;actions that are far, far behind the curve.'&#8221;
&#8220;I mean, Mr. Mayor, weren&#8217;t your actions in this outbreak also far, far behind the curve?&#8221; Tapper asked.
&#8220;Jake, I, in real time, said – and this was weeks and weeks ago, as it was happening – that we were not being given the testing we needed,&#8221; de Blasio said. &#8220;I think the big historical point here that will be looked back on is, if this country had had the testing when we needed it, this could have been a very different reality.&#8221;
The New York Post <a href="https://nypost.com/2020/03/20/city-hall-didnt-order-covid-19-supplies-for-nyc-until-march-6/">reported</a> a little over a week ago that de Blasio’s New York City did not place &#8220;its first order for emergency protective gear until March 6.&#8221;
The New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/16/nyregion/coronavirus-bill-de-blasio.html">reported</a> that de Blasio&#8217;s response to the outbreak was so inadequate that members of his staff threatened to quit if he did not start taking it more seriously.
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
CNN’s Jake Tapper calls out NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio for his comments, handling of coronavirus <a href="https://t.co/kg11Bz9bmA">pic.twitter.com/kg11Bz9bmA</a>
&mdash; Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) <a href="https://twitter.com/SteveGuest/status/1244287658345594882?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 29, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
TRANSCRIPT:
<blockquote>CNN ANCHOR JAKE TAPPER: The CDC is issuing new domestic travel restrictions for the New York region, as New York City sets up makeshift morgues for the first time in that city since 9/11.
Joining me now is the mayor of New York City, Bill de Blasio.
Mayor de Blasio, thanks for joining us.
The CDC now telling residents of New York to refrain from nonessential domestic travel for 14 days, effective immediately.
What&#8217;s your reaction?
BILL DE BLASIO (D), MAYOR OF NEW YORK: Jake, actually, I don&#8217;t think it&#8217;s the most central question before us right now, because I&#8217;m just entirely focused on making sure we have what we need to save lives in New York City.
The only comment I&#8217;d have on it is, we have got to be mindful of families that, at this crucial moment, want to reunite, whether that means families coming back to New York or leaving New York to go to another place where they&#8217;re based.
We have got to be really respectful of, in the middle of a crisis, families have a right to be together. And this is going to be a long crisis, Jake. I think this whole discussion of how quickly we can restart is missing just how deep a crisis this is, not only in New York, but it&#8217;s going to spread around the country.
And we should get more girded for the sheer timeline here. But other than that concern, a travel advisory isn&#8217;t something I&#8217;m going to fixate on. I want to know where we&#8217;re going to get the ventilators and the PPEs and the doctors and the nurses to save lives here in New York that would be lost otherwise, because that&#8217;s the standards to me.
Are we going to be able to save every life we can, or do we risk that possibility &#8212; and I&#8217;m saying in a week or two &#8212; do we risk that possibility of losing lives that could have been saved if the equipment and the supplies and the personnel were there when we needed them?
TAPPER: So, let&#8217;s talk about that, because you have been calling for more ventilators, more ICU hospital beds, more masks, more PPE.
Your 911 system in New York City is overwhelmed, with almost twice as many calls as normal. What do you need from the federal government right now? And when do you think you&#8217;re going to run out of the capacity to care for any New Yorker who is sick?
DE BLASIO: So, Jake, I have told the president, the defense secretary, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, all of them &#8212; and I want to say they have all been very available, very responsive.
I have told them all the same thing, Sunday, April 5. We have enough supplies to get to a week from today, with the exception of ventilators. We&#8217;re going to need at least several hundred more ventilators very quickly.
But we have otherwise the supplies to get to next Sunday. We are going to need a reinforcement by Sunday, April 5, in all categories, especially ventilators, but in other areas as well. And personnel is becoming more and more of the issue.
And I want to say, the military has been very responsive on this. They have a lot of doctors and nurses. I have made a direct request to the president and to the military to find us immediately more military medical personnel and get them here by next Sunday, but also to start figuring out how to get civilian medical personnel from around the country here.
We&#8217;re talking about a sharp escalation ahead. We have got almost 30,000 cases now, over 500 deaths already. We are over a quarter of the nation&#8217;s cases here in New York City.
And I only can guarantee you the next week. That&#8217;s how difficult, that&#8217;s how challenging it is. And our front-line health care workers, Jake, are giving their all. They&#8217;re in harm&#8217;s way. And we need to get them relief. We need to get them support and protection, but also relief.
They can&#8217;t keep up at this pace for weeks and weeks and weeks ahead&#8230;
TAPPER: Right.
DE BLASIO: &#8230; and expect to save lives, the way we need them to.
TAPPER: So, let&#8217;s talk about the way that you have handled the response in New York City.
I want you to take a listen to yourself and your message to New Yorkers. These are three different clips. One is from January, one is from February, and one is from early this month.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DE BLASIO: It&#8217;s important. Just go about your lives. Continue living as you have.
New Yorkers should go about our lives. Continue doing what we do.
This should not stop you from going about your life, should not stop you from going to Chinatown and going out to eat.
We want people still to go on about their lives. We want people to rest assured that a lot is being done to protect them.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: The last clip was from March 13, just about two weeks ago.
In retrospect, is that message, at least in part, to blame for how rapidly the virus has spread across the city?
DE BLASIO: Jake, we should not be focusing, in my view, on anything looking back on any level of government right now.
This is just about how we save lives going forward. We all were working, everybody was working with the information we had, and trying, of course, to avoid panic, and at that point, for all of us, trying to keep &#8212; not only protect lives, but keep the economy and the livelihoods together, keep ensuring that people had money to pay for food and medicine.
[09:35:19]
I mean, this was a very different world just a short time ago.
But the bottom line is, none of us have time to look backwards. I&#8217;m trying to figure out how we get through to Sunday, next Sunday, and then what we do the week after that. And that&#8217;s the only thing we should be talking about in this country.
And, by the way, any other place in this country that thinks this is just going to pass them by and it&#8217;s going to be a nonissue, it&#8217;s in all 50 states now. And what we&#8217;re all learning at the front line is, this moves very, very fast, in a way none of us have ever experienced in our lives.
So, the focus has to be on getting the personnel, the ventilators, the supplies where they need to be. And then, when each region of the country starts to see that improvement, the way Dr. Fauci just described to you, when you actually see the caseloads go down, and you actually have the testing to know what&#8217;s going on, then send those personnel, send those ventilators to the next place that needs them most.
That&#8217;s what we&#8217;re going to have to do. And I think the military is the only part of our nation that can actually organize and engineer such a massive effort.
TAPPER: So &#8212; but, Mr. Mayor, you say you don&#8217;t think you should look backwards, but you have criticized President Trump for &#8212; quote &#8212; &#8220;actions that are far, far behind the curve.&#8221;
I mean, Mr. Mayor, weren&#8217;t your actions in this outbreak also far, far behind the curve?
DE BLASIO: Jake, I, in real time, said &#8212; and this was weeks and weeks ago, as it was happening &#8212; that we were not being given the testing we needed.
I think the big historical point here that will be looked back on is, if this country had had the testing when we needed it, this could have been a very different reality.
But there&#8217;s no time to go back over that. There&#8217;s only time to focus on getting through the next week and the week after that.
I mean, you can ask all the questions you want. They&#8217;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.
We &#8212; I&#8217;m talking to doctors, nurses, front-line public health leaders. They&#8217;re literally trying to figure out what&#8217;s going to happen just days from now. And they&#8217;re watching an escalation, Jake, that never &#8212; we have never seen in our lives.
The only comparison is to 100 years ago, the Spanish influenza pandemic. The only comparison in terms of our economy and our lives is to the Great Depression. None of us have ever experienced this. We have got to focus on today, tomorrow, next week, if we&#8217;re going to get through this.
TAPPER: Mayor de Blasio, thank you so much. Good luck dealing with the crisis. Our thoughts and prayers are with all of our brothers and sisters in New York City.
DE BLASIO: Thank you very much, Jake.</blockquote>

Jake Tapper

WATCH: Tapper Grills De Blasio For His Hypocrisy In Responding To Coronavirus Outbreak

New York City Democratic Mayor Bill de Blasio threatened late last week to permanently close places of worship if they broke social distancing efforts aimed at reducing the outbreak of COVID-19 in the hardest hit city in America.
&#8220;So, I want to say to all those who are preparing the potential of religious services this weekend – if you go to your synagogue, if you go to your church and attempt to hold services after having been told so often not to, our enforcement agents will have no choice but to shut down those services,&#8221; de Blasio told reporters. &#8220;I don&#8217;t say that with any joy. It’s the last thing I would like to do because I understand how important people&#8217;s faiths are to them, and we need our faiths in this time of crisis, but we do not need gatherings that will endanger people.&#8221;
&#8220;No faith tradition endorses anything that endangers the members of that faith,&#8221; de Blasio continued. &#8220;So, the NYPD, Fire Department, Buildings Department, and everyone has been instructed that if they see worship services going on, they will go to the officials of that congregation, they&#8217;ll inform them they need to stop the services and disperse.&#8221;
&#8220;If that does not happen, they will take additional action up to the point of fines and potentially closing the building permanently,&#8221; de Blasio concluded. &#8220;Again, that will begin this weekend. Again, I&#8217;m sorry I have to tell you this, but anyone who&#8217;s hearing this, take it seriously. You&#8217;ve been warned, you need to stop services, help people practice their faith in different ways, but not in groups, not in gatherings that could endanger people.&#8221;
De Blasio&#8217;s comments come as his city <a href="https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html">leads</a> the United States for the highest number of COVID-19 cases, 33,768+, and deaths from the disease, 776.
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
De Blasio: churches and synagogues that hold worship services may be closed permanently <a href="https://t.co/kdUsdbP2YO">pic.twitter.com/kdUsdbP2YO</a>
&mdash; Matthew Schmitz (@matthewschmitz) <a href="https://twitter.com/matthewschmitz/status/1244339404753289216?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 29, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
TRANSCRIPT:
<blockquote>Another area, and it pains me to say this and it&#8217;s probably a pretty limited phenomenon, but it has to be addressed. I&#8217;ve spoken to religious leaders of all backgrounds and I want to thank them. So many of our religious leaders have really taken a lead and said to their congregation, said to members of our faith communities that we have to act differently now.
A vast majority of houses of worship have stopped their traditional worship service. If they could, they went online, they went on the radio, whatever they could do, but they&#8217;ve stopped gathering people, understanding the nature of the crisis.
We&#8217;ve had extraordinary support from the leaders of major Christian denominations. We&#8217;ve had extraordinary across the board, rabbinical support from all the different elements of the Jewish community, and the same is true other faiths as well. A small number – a small number of religious communities, specific churches, specific synagogues are unfortunately not paying attention to this guidance even though it&#8217;s been so widespread.
So, I want to say to all those who are preparing the potential of religious services this weekend – if you go to your synagogue, if you go to your church and attempt to hold services after having been told so often not to, our enforcement agents will have no choice but to shut down those services. I don&#8217;t say that with any joy. It’s the last thing I would like to do because I understand how important people&#8217;s faiths are to them, and we need our faiths in this time of crisis, but we do not need gatherings that will endanger people.
No – no faith tradition endorses anything that endangers the members of that faith. So, the NYPD, Fire Department, Buildings Department, and everyone has been instructed that if they see worship services going on, they will go to the officials of that congregation, they&#8217;ll inform them they need to stop the services and disperse.
If that does not happen, they will take additional action up to the point of fines and potentially closing the building permanently. Again, that will begin this weekend. Again, I&#8217;m sorry I have to tell you this, but anyone who&#8217;s hearing this take it seriously. You&#8217;ve been warned, you need to stop services, help people practice their faith in different ways, but not in groups, not in gatherings that could endanger people.</blockquote>

New York Mayor Bill De Blasio Holds Press Conference On Coronavirus Response

Bill De Blasio Threatens To Permanently Close NYC Churches If They Don’t Comply With Social Distancing

freedom of religion

Religion

On Wednesday, White House Counselor Kellyanne Conway appeared on Fox News with host Martha MacCallum to discuss the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
During the segment, Conway brought up New York and the city’s Democratic mayor, Bill de Blasio.
<blockquote>I do have to say because we&#8217;re all talking about New York as being the epicenter, that’s the New York metropolitan area at this point – many more cases and deaths than, say, the suburbs of New Jersey and Long Island and the like, and you had Mayor de Blasio on last night and just, he said – he lied to America. He said that he&#8217;s been on top of this from the beginning.
On March 2, he said because “I&#8217;m encouraging New Yorkers to go on with their lives and get out on the town despite coronavirus,” and then he told everybody what show to go see. That was on March 2. On March 16th, he went to a gym. On March 5, he&#8217;s taking the subway, telling people – it&#8217;s totally irresponsible, and it is the epicenter now, and I think it shows you the contrast in leadership when you have feckless leaders, or you have a president who&#8217;s publicly-facing every single day giving people information engagement they need. That&#8217;s why the president is at 60% approval on the coronavirus.</blockquote>
MacCallum pushed back on Conway’s contrast between the early response of Mayor de Blasio versus the early response of President Trump.
“I think that&#8217;s absolutely true, and I think that last night he demonstrated that he is not giving people a very positive message in terms of, you know, how he&#8217;s going to guide the city through all of this,” MacCallum said. “And I think that that &#8230; stood out, I think, to a lot of people last night in our discussion. But in terms of the things that you&#8217;re mentioning, you could probably match up some of those early-March statements from him with also similarly optimistic statements from President Trump, although they&#8217;ve handled it very differently since then.”
Conway hit back. “There’s no comparison between the two leaders. There’s no comparison.”
The host pressed further: “In terms of get out, and live your life, and go ahead and do what you&#8217;re doing, back in early March?”
Conway continued, stating why she wouldn’t compare Trump to de Blasio:
<blockquote>Well, I will tell you, in this White House, my very chief of staff started doing meetings on this on January 12. There have been groups meeting on this all along, and in fact, today is the one-month anniversary of, I think, the task force being announced &#8230; so, we&#8217;ve been on top of this, and I will not compare Mayor de Blasio to President Trump, and neither do Americans &#8230; he has high marks because he&#8217;s handling a health crisis that came out of nowhere and people appreciate the fact that every single day they&#8217;re hearing from the task force.</blockquote>
MacCallum cleared the air, noting that she wasn’t making an overall comparison, but one in the early stages of the outbreak: “Let me just be clear that I&#8217;m referring to sort of early statements about, you know, get out there, keep living your life &#8230; not the handling of the crisis overall by any means of imagination.”
<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/HhKW38nHgE0?start=269" width="720" height="385" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen">﻿</iframe>
As documented by Conway, Mayor de Blasio’s actions and statements, including his March 2 tweet about New Yorkers getting on with their lives, have been the subject of much scrutiny.
President Trump has been under intense scrutiny by the press as well, with reporters and media outlets criticizing the president for his demeanor during the coronavirus task force briefings, as well as his tendency to compare COVID-19 with the seasonal flu.
During a March 2 Coronavirus Task Force meeting, the president <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/remarks-president-trump-members-coronavirus-task-force-meeting-pharmaceutical-companies/">stated</a>:
<blockquote>The White House Coronavirus Task Force, led by Vice President Mike Pence, has been meeting daily and coordinating closely with the state and local governments. Mike had a call today with 53 governors, and I heard it was a very good call, and everybody is very well coordinated. And the governors and the states – all of them, I can’t think of an exception – they’ve been really working closely with us. It’s been a very good relationship. We will confront this challenge together, and we will continue to do exactly what we’re doing. And we’re going to be very successful. A lot of things are happening. A lot of very exciting things are happening, and they’re happening very rapidly.</blockquote>
The president also spoke about the flu, and noted that coronavirus had infected far fewer people than the flu at that time. However, the president added that he hoped the illness would stay “small,” but that the task force was “prepared for anything.”
<blockquote>You know, interestingly, we were discussing – and a question I get asked a lot by people is, on average, you lose from 26,000 to 70,000 or so and even some cases more from the flu. We lose – we have deaths of that per year. Worldwide, it’s hundreds of thousands of deaths from the common flu. And they ask, you know, what’s the difference and how does this differ, and I guess there are things that are similar and things that are different. Every one of them is different.
It might not be a bad question to ask. Because I get that all the time. So, so far we have six here. You have, in other countries, very – I mean, China, obviously, got hit the hardest. I noticed that South Korea is hit very hard. Italy is being hit very hard.
&#8230;from around 26-, 27,000, up to 60- or 70,000 deaths per year.  That’s a lot of deaths.  And here we’re talking about a much smaller range. Now, hopefully, it stays at a much smaller range. And, again, we’re prepared for anything.</blockquote>
During a <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/remarks-president-trump-meeting-republican-senators-2/?utm_source=link&amp;utm_medium=header">press briefing</a> on March 10, the president once again brought up the flu and compared the deaths from COVID-19 to those from the flu, but stressed that the administration was “taking this unbelievably seriously.”
<blockquote>Look, right now, I guess we’re at 26 deaths, and if you look at the flu – the flu, for this year – we’re looking at 8,000 deaths. And, you know, hundreds of thousands of cases, but we have 8,000 deaths. So you have 8,000 versus 26 deaths, at this time.
With all of that being said, we’re taking this unbelievably seriously, and I think we’re doing a really good job. And, again, the task force, headed up by the Vice President, has been fantastic.</blockquote>
When asked by a reporter about potential economic damage, the president replied in part:
<blockquote>Well, this was unexpected. This was something that came out of China, and it hit us and many other countries. You look at the numbers; I see the numbers with just by watching you folks. I see it – it’s over 100 different countries. And it hit the world.
And we’re prepared, and we’re doing a great job with it. And it will go away. Just stay calm. It will go away.
We want to protect our shipping industry, our cruise industry, cruise ships. We want to protect our airline industry – very important. But everybody has to be vigilant and has to be careful. But be calm. It’s really working out. And a lot of good things are going to happen. The consumer is ready, and the consumer is so powerful in our country with what we’ve done with tax cuts and regulation cuts and all of those things. The consumer has never been in a better position than they are right now.</blockquote>
The day before on March 9, President Trump tweeted:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
So last year 37,000 Americans died from the common Flu. It averages between 27,000 and 70,000 per year. Nothing is shut down, life &amp; the economy go on. At this moment there are 546 confirmed cases of CoronaVirus, with 22 deaths. Think about that!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1237027356314869761?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 9, 2020</a></blockquote>
On Tuesday, during a virtual town hall with Fox News, President Trump again brought up the seasonal flu when asked about when to reopen the economy, <a href="https://youtu.be/wy3NrqNN9uU">saying in part</a>: “We lose thousands and thousands of people a year to the flu. We don’t turn the country off. I mean, every year. When I heard the number, you know, we average 37,000 people a year. Can you believe that? &#8230; we lose thousands of people a year to the flu. We never turn the country off. We lose much more than that to automobile accidents. We didn’t call up the automobile companies and say, &#8216;Stop making cars, we don’t want any cars anymore.’ We have to get back to work. Now, with all of that being said, it’s incredible what the American people have done.”

Kellyanne Conway

WATCH: Kellyanne Conway Slams De Blasio, Defends Trump Over Early COVID-19 Response

trump

New York City is desperate for coronavirus supplies, but it may because Mayor Bill de Blasio failed to heed warnings and stock up on supplies and not because the Federal government has been slow to send materials to areas heavily affected by coronavirus.
De Blasio laid into President Donald Trump Monday morning on CNN, excoriating the Federal government for failing to declare a national emergency and assume of medical device production.
“If we don’t get ventilators this week, we’re going to start losing lives we could have saved,” de Blasio warned on CNN&#8217;s &#8220;New Day.&#8221; “If we don’t get a supply of ventilators quickly, literally after a week, we won’t have enough ventilators to keep people alive.&#8221;
De Blasio also appeared on a radio program, where he complained about the Trump Administration, telling hosts he was still waiting for an answer on when ventilators and masks would be made available for New York City hospitals and blaming President Donald Trump for causing a life-threatening supply delay.
But <a href="https://nypost.com/2020/03/20/city-hall-didnt-order-covid-19-supplies-for-nyc-until-march-6/">the New York Post reported</a> Monday that Bill de Blasio, who was reticent to believe that the coronavirus would prove a difficult problem for New Yorkers, that failed to place a supply order on time, leaving New York City&#8217;s healthcare workers dangerously short.
&#8220;Mayor Bill de Blasio has blamed President Trump for the city’s severe shortage of COVID-19 supplies even though City Hall didn’t secure its first order for emergency protective gear until March 6,&#8221; the outlet reported. &#8220;Officials with the city’s Office of Emergency Management tried to purchase nearly 200,000 n95 masks on Feb. 7, but weeks later they learned the vendors had already run out.&#8221;
&#8220;It was not until March 6 and March 10 — over two months after the coronavirus outbreak first hit China — that they finally secured the first emergency procurements of masks and hand sanitizer, according to the city comptroller’s office,&#8221; the Post continued.
When the orders were finally placed, NYC&#8217;s Department of Citywide Administrative Services, held up purchases with &#8220;bureaucratic red tape&#8221; and failed to complete payments, resulting in delays, per the Post&#8217;s investigation.
New York City authorities seem to believe that supplies are now on their way, though fulfillment times &#8220;vary significantly:&#8221; &#8220;Since the outbreak, the city has ordered 25 million masks, 2 million bottles of sanitizer, 12,000 thermometers and 2,000 ventilators.&#8221; The city, de Blasio said Monday, &#8220;3 million more N95 masks, 50 million more surgical masks, 15,000 ventilators and 45 million surgical gowns, coveralls, gloves and face shields.&#8221;
New York is largely considered the epicenter of the United States&#8217; battle with the novel coronavirus, COVID-19. The state has 20,875 cases of coronavirus. New York City alone has 12,305. Around 160 people have died from the disease.
Bill de Blasio has been slow to lead efforts to address the pandemic. As of last Monday, de Blasio was reportedly still dithering on whether to close schools and shutter businesses, even though other states were taking drastic measures and his own staff was so frustrated with his lack of attention that some even threatened to quit. Monday morning, de Blasio defied Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines, taking one last opportunity to work out at his preferred Brooklyn YMCA.

REPORT: NYC Short On Coronavirus Supplies Because Bill De Blasio Delayed First Order

Democrats, unsatisfied with the two frontrunners for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination &#8212; one of whom has disappeared into the Senate and another who hasn&#8217;t been seen in public for more than a week &#8212; are trying to start a viral movement to replace Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and former Vice President Joe Biden with New York governor Andrew Cuomo.
Cuomo has earned plenty of praise for his handling of the coronavirus, which seems to have made New York City its ground zero in the United States. He&#8217;s been complimentary to President Donald Trump, largely calm during the crisis, open in communication and, perhaps most importantly, more reliable for New Yorkers than NYC mayor Bill de Blasio who, last Monday, was still reticent to order a school closure and working out at a Brooklyn YMCA. De Blasio was finally motivated to action when his staff reportedly threatened to quit.
Now that Cuomo&#8217;s &#8220;star status&#8221; is rising, <a href="https://nypost.com/2020/03/21/presidentcuomo-trends-as-governors-star-status-rises-over-coronavirus-response/">the New York Post reports</a>, so are his chances at challenging Trump for the White House in 2020.
&#8220;Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s daily televised press briefings on the coronavirus have him looking presidential, according to some social media fans,&#8221; the Post reported Sunday, adding that many have begun using the #PresidentCuomo hashtag while the New York governor issues his daily press briefings.
“President Cuomo is really raising the bar for leadership [right now], and I’m here for it. #PresidentCuomo#CoronavirusPandemic,” one Twitter user said, echoing the trending topic.
Cuomo earned widespread praise for a commanding speech he gave Saturday, chastizing &#8220;Millennials&#8221; and &#8220;Gen Z&#8221; for continuing to go out to bars and restaurants during what is supposed to be a statewide lockdown, and lashing out at those defying orders to shelter in place to keep coronavirus from spreading further and taxing New York hospitals.
“There’s a significant amount of non-compliance, especially in New York City, especially in parks. I’m gonna go down there today, I want to see what the situation is myself,&#8221; Cuomo said, suggesting that he may go into Manhattan on Sunday to yell at people defying lockdown himself. “You are wrong.”
On Sunday, Cuomo urged President Donald Trump to &#8220;nationalize&#8221; the effort to collect and distribute much-needed medical and personal protective equipment for first responders and hospital staff who are on the front lines of the coronavirus response. States have complained that leaving the job of obtaining much-needed supplies to governors and state-level agencies forces states to compete with each other. The Trump Administration responded Sunday that even a nationalized response would not solve the shortage since its a global need, not a national one.
Cuomo may be able to fill a hole for needy Democrats who are concerned that neither of the two frontrunners, Sanders and Biden, are within striking distance of winning a majority of delegates and the Democratic nomination outright, particularly if states postpone or cancel upcoming primaries.
Democrats also seem concerned that neither Sanders nor Biden seems particularly presidential amid the coronavirus crisis. Biden says he&#8217;ll change that this week with a series of &#8220;shadow briefings&#8221; following President Donald Trump&#8217;s White House briefings, but it&#8217;s unlikely Biden, who must rely on former Obama Administration officials who have no insight into the Federal government response, will have much to say that is not a direct criticism of Trump, unhelpful in an emergency situation and potentially disasterous to a presidential bid.

andrew cuomo

#PresidentCuomo: Dems Now Demanding NY Governor Replace Sanders And Biden As Nominee

2020 Election

New York

Teachers in Brooklyn are blasting New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza for failing to close public schools early enough, which the teachers claim facilitated the spread of coronavirus at one particular school.
At least five teachers from Brooklyn Technical High School teachers have called their union chapter leader, Nate Bonheimer, to tell him they had tested positive for COVID-19, the New York Post <a href="https://nypost.com/2020/03/21/blood-on-their-hands-teachers-say-de-blasio-and-carranza-helped-spread-coronavirus/amp/">reported</a>. Even with the information, the Brooklyn Department of Education ordered staffers at BTHS to go to work last week, claiming the building had been cleaned.
“The DOE did not close the school for any of the cases,” Bonheimer told the Post, adding that the school’s demand that staffers still go to work may have exposed more people to the coronavirus.
On March 9, the New York Education Department directed schools to close for 24 hours “in order to begin an investigation to determine the contacts that the individual may have had within the school environment.” The Post reported that Brooklyn did not follow the directive, nor did its DOE try to figure out who may have had contacts with any individual that tested positive for COVID-19, according to Bonheimer.
“They did not alert the people who needed to know the most to protect themselves, their families and everyone else they came into contact with,” he said.
The outlet reported also that one infected teacher informed all his students that he had tested positive since the city was being so secretive.
The outrage among teachers has reached a point where some are calling the coronavirus the “Carranzavirus,” and criticizing Carranza and de Blasio for failing to close public schools.
“You say equity and excellence, but every other school district closed before you did. You had these kids like petri dishes spreading this to their families,” one administrator told the Post.
One DOE employee told the Post that some believe de Blasio and Carranza squashed information about the teachers testing positive for COVID-19, which put more people at risk, saying, “The blood is on their hands.”
More from the Post:
<blockquote>DOE staffers think the two city leaders tried to cover up the cases because they wanted to keep the 1.1-million-student system running despite <a href="https://nypost.com/2020/03/14/momentum-builds-for-nyc-teacher-sickout-mutiny-over-de-blasios-refusal-to-close-schools/">increasing pressure to shut it down</a>. Finally, with Gov. Andrew Cuomo about to do it, the mayor relented and closed the schools for students on March 16. They will remain shut until at least April 20, after the spring break.
An expert agreed the failure to notify health officials was dangerous.
“The chancellor was not properly following state policy,” said Aaron Carroll, a health sciences researcher and pediatrician at Indiana University School of Medicine.</blockquote>
Carranza sent an email – obtained by the Post – on March 10 that told school administrators not to tell city health officials about any students or staff members who tested positive for COVID-19.
“At the moment, there is no reason for any school to call [the Health Department] to report potential or confirmed cases,” Carranza wrote in the email.
He said the Health Department would get the information via test results from labs.

Bill De Blasio

Teachers Blame De Blasio, Schools Chancellor For Spread Of Coronavirus: ‘The Blood Is on Their Hands’

Education

New York City mayor Bill de Blasio reportedly &#8220;resisted drastic steps&#8221; on coronavirus until his staff, terrified that New York City could become ground zero in a devastating outbreak, threatened to quit &#8212; and despite a national outcry over his decision to break quarantine and work out at a gym in Brooklyn, in defiance of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines, de Blasio says he does not understand why his private schedule is so controversial.
&#8220;For most of last week, as Mayor Bill de Blasio continued to urge New Yorkers to mostly go about their daily lives — sending their children to school, frequenting the city’s businesses — some of his top aides were furiously trying to change the mayor’s approach to the coronavirus outbreak,&#8221; <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/16/nyregion/coronavirus-bill-de-blasio.html">the New York Times reported on Tuesday</a>. &#8220;There had been arguments and shouting matches between the mayor and some of his advisers; some top health officials had even threatened to resign if he refused to accept the need to close schools and businesses, according to several people familiar with the internal discussions.&#8221;
Eventually, de Blasio was &#8220;shown a graph depicting the sharp upward trajectory of the coronavirus epidemic curve&#8221; and a second visual aid that showed New York City hospitals&#8217; ability to treat and contain the virus. Both curves were shocking, the NYT says, and de Blasio was suddenly convinced that, in order to avoid an overwhelmed health care system, he needed to order school closures, restaurant closures, and quarantines.
But even as de Blasio seemed to be taking action to curb the spread of the virus, he didn&#8217;t appear to be taking the threat seriously. De Blasio &#8220;continued to travel from Gracie Mansion in Manhattan to work out at a Y.M.C.A. in Park Slope, Brooklyn, a longstanding routine that has garnered intense criticism,&#8221; and was even at the gym Monday morning, getting in one last workout before his own closure orders fell.
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Mayor de Blasio is indeed here at the Park Slope YMCA this morning. Passers by have commented negatively. One called him an idot. <a href="https://t.co/FIgEmlf4Gf">pic.twitter.com/FIgEmlf4Gf</a>
&mdash; andrew kaczynski🤔 (@KFILE) <a href="https://twitter.com/KFILE/status/1239566856832323585?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 16, 2020</a></blockquote>
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New Yorkers erupted in shock &#8212; a shock de Blasio says he simply cannot understand.
Appearing on CNN, de Blasio was clear: &#8220;I don&#8217;t get it.&#8221;
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.<a href="https://twitter.com/NYCMayor?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@NYCMayor</a> on outrage over his going to the gym during the coronavirus: “I don’t get it” <a href="https://t.co/gNk8HngAuC">pic.twitter.com/gNk8HngAuC</a>
&mdash; Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) <a href="https://twitter.com/tomselliott/status/1239880647067435008?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 17, 2020</a></blockquote>
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“I don’t get it, but we’ll move on with our lives,&#8221; de Blasio told host Alisyn Camerota. &#8220;The gyms are all closed now.”
“Is there any sense that you were late personally to get your arms around the sacrifice that’s required?” Camerota shot back.
De Blasio seemed stumped.
“No. Everyone will have to make sacrifices, but as our health commissioner said yesterday, people in new ways are going to have to get exercise,” he responded. “Whatever scenario we’re going to tell people how to stay healthy. It may be a walk, it may be a jog, but obviously socially distanced, until and unless we get to the point of literally ordering everyone indoors. So this is going in stages. Somehow people are going to have to stay healthy and sane through this and it’s going to take a lot of improvisation for sure.”
New York City followed other major cities Monday in declaring a dramatic business shutdown, after around 500 individuals were diagnosed with the virus. Seven people have died in New York City from coronavirus.

NYC Mayor Bill De Blasio ‘Resisted Drastic Steps’ On Coronavirus, Doesn’t Understand Outrage Over Gym Visits

New York City Democrat Mayor Bill de Blasio reportedly refused to take strict measures to combat the coronavirus until aides threatened to quit which came after he attacked President Donald Trump over the issue.
&#8220;There had been arguments and shouting matches between the mayor and some of his advisers; some top health officials had even threatened to resign if he refused to accept the need to close schools and businesses, according to several people familiar with the internal discussions,&#8221; The New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/16/nyregion/coronavirus-bill-de-blasio.html">reported</a>. &#8220;Teachers were threatening not to show up to school on Monday. A growing number of public health experts and politicians were calling for much of the city to be shut down to curb the spread of the virus.&#8221;
Bars and restaurants remained open over the weekend and were packed, something that caused a significant amount of criticism online from those who were closely tracking the spread of the coronavirus.
De Blasio, a far-left Democrat who supports socialist Bernie Sanders, has responded to the crisis by repeatedly stating that the federal government needs to take over the supply chain and that entire industries needs to be nationalized.
&#8220;It is quite clear that this crisis is growing intensely,&#8221; de Blasio said during a press conference on Sunday. &#8220;I&#8217;m very, very concerned that we see a rapid spread of this disease and it is time to take more dramatic measures and I will tell you that the issue that has been on everyone&#8217;s mind is our public schools.&#8221;
De Blasio said that he was closing New York City public schools to help prevent the continued spread of the virus.
De Blasio signed an executive order on Monday that shut down the ability of restaurants and bars to serve food inside their establishments, but did allow them to deliver food to people.
De Blasio was then widely criticized for going and working out at the gym, something that people said showed that he was not taking the outbreak seriously.
&#8220;The Mayor’s actions today are inexcusable and reckless,&#8221; <a href="https://www.politico.com/states/new-york/albany/story/2020/03/16/de-blasio-calls-for-massive-federal-relief-as-city-economy-grinds-to-a-halt-1267155">said</a> his former adviser Rebecca Katz.
&#8220;It’s pathetic. Self-involved. Inexcusable,&#8221; former adviser Jonathan Rosen added.
De Blasio responded to the criticism by saying that he needed to go workout so that he could be healthy and take care of the city.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Mayor de Blasio is indeed here at the Park Slope YMCA this morning. Passers by have commented negatively. One called him an idot. <a href="https://t.co/FIgEmlf4Gf">pic.twitter.com/FIgEmlf4Gf</a>
&mdash; andrew kaczynski🤔 (@KFILE) <a href="https://twitter.com/KFILE/status/1239566856832323585?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 16, 2020</a></blockquote>
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De Blasio has faced numerous questions over his work habits, or lack thereof, over the years including allegations that he sleeps on the job.
&#8220;Mayor Bill de Blasio’s daily exercise routine at a Brooklyn gym often leaves him too tuckered out to stay awake at City Hall, where he catches up on his shuteye by crashing on a couch in his office,&#8221; The New York Post reported in August 2017. &#8220;[De Blasio] regularly takes midday naps while everyone around him is busy at work, according to former aides with knowledge of the siestas.&#8221;
The Post reported the next month that de Blasio <a href="https://nypost.com/2017/09/20/de-blasio-refuses-to-answer-do-you-sleep-on-the-job/">refused</a> a &#8220;yes-or-no&#8221; answer on the matter and instead attacked the publications for asking.
This report has been updated to include additional information.

Mayor Bill de Blasio speaks at a Press Conference about COVID-19 and the closing of Public schools in New York, US

Bill De Blasio Refused Major Efforts To Combat Coronavirus Until Aides Threatened To Quit, Report Says

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Sunday afternoon that nearly all public schools in the country’s largest city would stop holding classes as normal this week, and instead transition to online-based learning to help combat the coronavirus epidemic.
According to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/15/nyregion/nyc-schools-closed.html">The New York Times</a>, the closure will affect the city’s 1,800 public schools and over 1 million students. The city plans to completely transition to online learning by March 23, with the exemption of several dozen schools that will be used by the children of essential city workers, such as healthcare employees, reports the news agency.
“We are dealing with a challenge and a crisis that we have never seen in our lifetimes, and it has only just begun,” announced de Blasio in a press conference Sunday, when he revealed that schools would be closed until at least April 20, 2020.
“There is a real possibility that by closing our schools now, we may not have the opportunity to reopen them in this school year,” said de Blasio.
The mayor’s acknowledgment that schools may not reopen until the next academic year comes only a day after the <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/downloads/considerations-for-school-closure.pdf">Centers for Disease Control</a> released new school closure guidelines, which suggest that closures may only be effective when implemented for long periods of time, such as eight weeks.
De Blasio was initially hesitant to shut down schools, in part, because many students rely on the district to provide them with free or reduced-price meals, reports <a href="https://twitter.com/CNNPolitics/status/1239186368892370946">CNN</a>.
&#8220;I&#8217;m very reticent to shut down schools for a variety of reasons,&#8221; de Blasio said Saturday morning. &#8220;Not just because that&#8217;s where a lot of kids get their only good meals, where they get adult supervision, especially teenagers, who otherwise would be out on the streets.”
The Times reports that the closure will be particularly challenging for the city because approximately <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/11/19/nyregion/student-homelessness-nyc.html">114,000 students</a> in the school system are homeless. The city has agreed to devise a strategy for students who have limited access to receive food from the district.
Students without internet access or computers at home will be lent a laptop, so that they can effectively transition to online learning, reports the news agency. The city also has plans to provide internet access to students who do not have it, but the details of that project are unclear. 
The decision to shut down the New York City school system was made hours after several local politicians raised the alarm that the public wasn’t taking the coronavirus threat seriously enough. 
“I am alarmed at the cavalier attitude of most New Yorkers who still don’t seem to understand what’s about to hit us and what we need to slow it,” Councilman Mark Levine, who is chairman of the Council Health Committee, told the Times on Sunday morning. 
“The way to get out of crisis is to act logically and strategically,” said Comptroller Scott Stringer, reports <a href="https://nypost.com/2020/03/15/comptroller-scott-stringer-calls-for-near-total-city-shutdown-over-coronavirus/">The New York Post</a>. “That is why today, out of an abundance of caution, I am calling for a city shutdown.”

First Tenant Conde Nast Moves Into New World Trade Center

Public Schools In New York City To Shut Down

public schools

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio manned the phones at a local helpline call center Wednesday, taking questions from reporters and sharing that, so far, New York City will not be canceling large events — as cities such as San Francisco have. 
“We could get there, but we’re not there yet,” de Blasio told reporters while at the call center, reports the <a href="https://nypost.com/2020/03/11/bill-de-blasio-resists-closing-msg-broadway-amid-coronavirus-pandemic/">New York Post</a>. 
But the mayor’s act of public service has been partially overshadowed by his response to a woman who called the helpline asking for coronavirus advice, but instead received false information from the mayor himself. 
“No symptoms of any kind?” de Blasio asked the caller, reports the <a href="https://nypost.com/2020/03/11/de-blasio-defies-cdc-coronavirus-protocol-in-311-call-with-constituent/">Post</a>. The caller had told the mayor she had just returned from a trip to Italy, the country that has become a coronavirus hot zone and since taken the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/11/world/coronavirus-news.html?action=click&amp;pgtype=Article&amp;state=default&amp;module=styln-coronavirus&amp;variant=show&amp;region=TOP_BANNER&amp;context=storyline_menu">unprecedented step</a> of quarantining its 60 million citizens.  
“If you experience any symptoms at any moment, at that time adjust your approach,” said de Blasio, reports the Post. “The important thing is to really be sensitive that if anything changes at all, stay home immediately.”
According to the <a href="https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/notices/warning/coronavirus-italy">CDC’s website</a>, Italy currently holds a level three travel advisory and the department recommends that prospective travelers “avoid all nonessential travel” to the country. 
Furthermore, the department has issued specific guidelines to anyone who has traveled to the country in the last two weeks, including a recommendation that people returning “stay home for 14 days from the time you left Italy and practice social distancing.”
In response to the mayor’s botched helpline advice, the Post reached out to de Blasio’s office, which acknowledged that the mayor had given the woman incorrect information and had since reached out to provide the correct guidelines. 
“The mayor misspoke,” Freddi Goldstein, a spokesperson for the mayor, told the news agency. “If you return from Italy you should self-quarantine regardless of symptoms. We have made contact with the caller and clarified and the mayor will be issuing a clarification, as well.”
According to <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/03/11/814460233/coronavirus-1-000-cases-now-in-u-s-and-it-s-going-to-get-worse-fauci-says">NPR</a>, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases, told a congressional committee Wednesday that Americans should prepare to see an increase in coronavirus cases. 
&#8220;I can say we will see more cases, and things will get worse than they are right now,&#8221; said Fauci, reports the news agency. &#8220;How much worse we&#8217;ll get will depend on our ability to do two things: to contain the influx of people who are infected coming from the outside, and the ability to contain and mitigate within our own country.&#8221;
“The flu has a mortality of 0.1 percent,” Fauci told the committee. “This has a mortality rate of 10 times that. That’s the reason I want to emphasize we have to stay ahead of the game in preventing this.&#8221;
The committee hearing Wednesday occurred the same day the World Health Organization declared a global pandemic, the first such declaration since the swine flu breakout in 2009, reports <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/11/who-declares-the-coronavirus-outbreak-a-global-pandemic.html">CNBC</a>. 
According to the <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/flu/pandemic-resources/2009-h1n1-pandemic.html">CDC</a>, the swine flu killed approximately 12,469 Americans in the first year and resulted in an estimated 274,000 hospitalizations nationwide.

De Blasio Pops In At NYC HelpLine, Botches CDC Advice To Caller Who Should Stay Home

The founder of the Guardian Angels, Curtis Sliwa, asserting, “I am the only candidate with the onions to take back the city,” is running for mayor of New York City.
Sliwa tweeted on Sunday, “I am the anti-de Blasio candidate. The part time Mayor &#8216;Dope from Park Slope’ has single-handedly destroyed our city. Roll with Sliwa through the subways &amp; streets &amp; you’ll see why I’m the only one who can #SaveOurCity.”
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I am the anti-de Blasio candidate. The part time Mayor &quot;The Dope from Park Slope&quot; has single-handedly destroyed our city. Roll with Sliwa through the subways &amp; streets &amp; you&#39;ll see why I&#39;m the only one who can <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/SaveOurCity?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#SaveOurCity</a><a href="https://t.co/pDQ0nGTb0a">https://t.co/pDQ0nGTb0a</a> via <a href="https://twitter.com/nypost?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@nypost</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/karol?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@karol</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/mta?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#mta</a>
&mdash; Curtis Sliwa (@CurtisSliwa) <a href="https://twitter.com/CurtisSliwa/status/1236853384164114433?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 9, 2020</a></blockquote>
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Sliwa, who is now 65 and plans to register as a Republican, told the <a href="https://nypost.com/2020/03/08/guardian-angels-founder-curtis-sliwa-vows-to-run-for-mayor/?utm_campaign=iosapp&amp;utm_source=mail_app">New York Post</a>, “I am the only candidate with the onions to take back the city. I have the street cred. I have bled in the streets. I’ve given seven lives. I have two left. I’ll use them for the City of New York.”
Sliwa founded the Guardian Angels 40 years ago in order to patrol the subways and streets around New York City. He <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ddqkizk06RI">has said</a>, “When I started the Guardian Angels on February 13, 1979, I thought we’d be earning the Congressional Medal of Honor. I just felt nobody was really doing anything; everybody was just gripped in depression, a lot of anxiety. I said, ‘Look, I’m single; I don’t have a family; I have to ride these trains; I’m coming from Brooklyn,’ which was renamed Crooklyn into the Bronx, which was the belly of the beast. Why not give a try and begin patrolling the trains late at night when we’ve closed the McDonalds and I’m on my way back to Brooklyn? And for years we began to patrol as we do every time this season, right through the summer.&#8221;
Citing the city’s new bail-reform law, which has been blamed by the NYPD for the city’s rising crime rate, Sliwa stated, “It took us a long time to crawl out of the belly of the beast of the 1970s through 1990s. Bill de Blasio and the Democrats are bringing us back in.”
Sliwa said he would get rid of the mayor’s security detail, add more police, bring back “pro-active” foot patrols and encourage more organizations like his own to cooperate with the NYPD. The Post added, “He also wants to keep open and refurbish Rikers Island and <a href="https://nypost.com/2020/02/12/south-bronx-group-sues-nyc-over-plan-to-shutter-rikers-island/">thwart plans to open jails</a> in the boroughs, as well as opening more psychiatric facilities to aid mentally ill homeless people — calling it an ‘absolute sin’ to leave them in the streets.” Sliwa would champion charter, vocational and trade schools and eject bullies from public schools.
Noting that incidents from his past might work against him, he said, “The only skeleton I have left is the one under my skin.”
Sliwa was shot and seriously wounded in 1992; he claimed that the shooting was prompted by his criticism on his radio show of crime family boss John Gotti Jr’s father. The Post noted. “He’s also survived prostate cancer, painful colitis and Crohn’s disease, which he <a href="https://nypost.com/2017/12/22/25-years-later-curtis-sliwas-gunshot-wounds-return-to-haunt-him/">blamed on the gunshot wounds</a> to the stomach. He underwent stomach surgery after his weight plummeted from 220 to 140 pounds. He said he is now a healthy 200 pounds.”
Sliwa, who has hosted various shows on WABC radio since 1996, concluded, “I feel great. I’m ready to go. I took a licking but keep on ticking.”

2018 New York City Pride March

Founder Of Guardian Angels Runs For NYC Mayor: ‘I Am The Only Candidate With The Onions To Take Back The City’

Curtis Sliwa

Guardian Angels

The far-left, borderline socialist Mayor of New York City, Bill de Blasio, has endorsed the openly socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) for the 2020 Democratic Party presidential nomination.
According to <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/02/14/politics/bill-de-blasio-endorsement-bernie-sanders/index.html">CNN</a>, the New York mayor will be campaigning with Sanders in Nevada prior to the state&#8217;s caucuses next week, joining the socialist at a rally in Carson City on Sunday. In a statement on Friday, Sanders praised de Blasio for understanding that the &#8220;only way&#8221; to defeat President Trump is to hammer an agenda that helps working families.
&#8220;Mayor Bill de Blasio knows that the only way we can defeat Donald Trump is by uniting people from all backgrounds around an agenda that speaks to the needs of working families,&#8221; Sanders said in a statement to CNN. &#8220;Jane and I grew up in Brooklyn, and we are so proud to have the support of a New York City mayor fighting every day to improve the lives of New Yorkers. Bill is a leading example of what bringing the Democratic Party together around so-called &#8216;radical ideas&#8217; like universal pre-K, paid family and sick leave, and defending immigrant neighbors can do for our country.&#8221;
With the endorsement of de Blasio, Sanders has all-but-shored up his support from the Democratic Party&#8217;s far-left progressive base, which began in October 2019 when Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) endorsed him over Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and former Vice President Joe Biden.
&#8220;I have grown to appreciate the enormous consistent and nonstop advocacy of Sen. Bernie Sanders,&#8221; said AOC.
Far-left documentary filmmaker Michael Moore also endorsed Bernie Sanders at the same rally, bashing the out-of-date politics of yesteryear.
“They are doing everything they can to throw everything they can come up with to get people to think differently about Bernie,” Moore <a href="https://deadline.com/2019/10/michael-moore-endorses-bernie-sanders-saying-for-2020-1202764460/">told the crowd</a>. “So what do they say? Bernie’s too old. Yeah. Well, here’s what’s too old. The electoral college is too old. That’s what’s too old. A $7.25 minimum wage. That’s too old. Women not being paid the same as men. That’s too old. Thousands and thousands of dollars of student debt. What is that? Too old.”
“It’s actually a gift that we have a 78-year-old American running for president of the United States,” he continued. “Bernie has seen the things many of us have never seen – a pay raise! How about that?”
As <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/new-national-poll-gives-bernie-sanders-double-digit-lead">reported</a> by The Daily Wire&#8217;s Ashe Schow, Bernie Sanders is well on his way to securing the Democratic nomination, with one major national poll putting him ahead of his competitors by double-digits.
<blockquote>A new Morning Consult <a href="https://morningconsult.com/2020/02/13/sanders-cements-front-runner-status-after-new-hampshire-win/">poll</a> found Sanders now has a 10-point lead over his closest challenger, former Vice President Joe Biden. Biden has obtained only six delegates so far in the primary.
“The latest <a href="https://morningconsult.com/2020/02/13/sanders-cements-front-runner-status-after-new-hampshire-win/">Morning Consult poll</a> finds Sanders at 29 percent support, followed by former Vice President Joe Biden at 19 percent and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg at 18 percent. Sanders gained 3 points in the poll after winning the New Hampshire primary this week, while Biden lost 3 points after a disastrous fifth-place showing,” The Hill <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/482969-sanders-builds-double-digit-national-lead-poll?amp">reported</a>.
The outlet noted also that Sanders received more votes in the Iowa caucuses while receiving one less delegate than Buttigieg – a microcosm of the Democrats’ complaints about the national popular vote vs. the Electoral College.</blockquote>
Establishment Democrats have increasingly grown anxious over the prospect of a Bernie Sanders candidacy, fearing that his extremism could secure President Trump an easy victory. Longtime Democratic strategist James Carville has openly worried if the party has gone too far.
“We have candidates on the debate stage talking about open borders and decriminalizing illegal immigration,” <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/top-democrat-strategist-james-carville-on-2020-elections-were-losing-our-damn-minds-people-dont-want-to-hear-this-st">Carville said</a>. “They’re talking about doing away with nuclear energy and fracking. You’ve got Bernie Sanders talking about letting criminals and terrorists vote from jail cells. It doesn’t matter what you think about any of that, or if there are good arguments – talking about that is not how you win a national election.”

BlasingBernie

Shocker: Far-Left New York Mayor Bill De Blasio Endorses Socialist Bernie Sanders

Bernie Sanders

Democratic Party

Socialism

Former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg, who is (<a href="https://nypost.com/2020/02/06/bloombergs-naked-bid-to-buy-the-white-house-is-an-assault-on-democracy/">quite literally</a>) currently attempting to buy the 2020 Democratic Party presidential nomination, has found himself in seriously hot water this week. A resurfaced audio clip from 2015 depicts the multibillionaire discussing in rather stark and unartful terms one key aspect of the famously aggressive policing policy he oversaw as New York City mayor. The clip can be <a href="https://twitter.com/BenjaminPDixon/status/1227067093692055553">heard here</a>, and The Daily Wire&#8217;s James Barrett <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-tweets-deletes-newly-uncovered-audio-of-bloomberg-total-racist">wrote it up</a> yesterday:
<blockquote>“95% of your murders — murderers and murder victims fit one M.O.,” Bloomberg allegedly states in the audio. “You can just take the description, Xerox it and pass it out to all the cops. They are male, minorities, 16–25. That’s true in New York, that’s true in virtually every city and that’s where the real crime is.” &#8230;
“So, one of the unintended consequences is people say, ‘oh my God, you are arresting kids for marijuana that are all minorities.’ Yes, that’s true. Why? Because we put all the cops in the minority neighborhoods,” he stated. “Yes, that’s true. Why do we do it? Because that’s where all the crime is. And the way you get the guns out of the kids’ hands is to throw them up against the walls and frisk them. And then they start say[ing], ‘Oh I don’t want to get caught.’ So they don’t bring the gun. They still have a gun, but they leave it at home.”</blockquote>
There is a lot to digest and break down here. First, Bloomberg&#8217;s statistics are <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/why-bloombergs-2015-stop-and-frisk-remarks-are-riddled-with-inaccuracies-john-lott">likely somewhat off</a>, at least using the FBI&#8217;s national Uniform Crime Reports as a helpful proxy for the local statistics in New York City itself. Second, Bloomberg&#8217;s line about &#8220;taking[ing] the description&#8221; of a suspect, &#8220;Xerox[ing] it, and pass[ing] it out to all the cops&#8221; is ugly and plays on some rather unsavory stereotypes. Third, and perhaps most importantly for those of us conservatives of a pro-police bent, Bloomberg&#8217;s rhetoric about &#8220;throw[ing]&#8221; kids &#8220;up against the walls&#8221; paints cops in an unfortunate light and does the thin blue line little in the way of justice or charity.
It would not be improper to describe this as racially charged rhetoric, even if it <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/walsh-bloomberg-isnt-racist-but-he-is-a-nanny-state-megalomaniac-control-freak">not per se racist rhetoric</a> because it is far likelier than not that Bloomberg simply exaggerated/misstated his statistics to make an overarching point. The <a href="https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2018/crime-in-the-u.s.-2018/topic-pages/expanded-homicide">FBI&#8217;s 2018 Uniform Crime Reporting Program states</a> that &#8220;[w]hen the race of the offender was known&#8221; in federal murders, &#8220;54.9% were Black or African American, 42.4% were White, and 2.7% were of other races.&#8221;
The underlying policing policy at issue is stop-and-frisk, which was largely implemented in the 1990s during then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani&#8217;s historic crime reduction in the Big Apple, and which was largely continued by then-Mayor Bloomberg during New York City&#8217;s tumultuous post-9/11 years. Contrary to Bloomberg&#8217;s inflammatory description in the leaked audio clip, here is how <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/stop_and_frisk">Cornell Law School&#8217;s Legal Information Institute (LII) describes</a> a cop&#8217;s stop-and-frisk procedure: &#8220;A stop-and-frisk refers to a brief non-intrusive police stop of a suspect. &#8230; If the police reasonably suspect that the suspect is armed and dangerous, the police may frisk the suspect, meaning that the police will give a quick pat-down of the suspect&#8217;s outer clothing.&#8221;
I understand that conservatives, (<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-here-are-three-reasons-why-i-plan-vote-josh-hammer">properly</a>) unified as the overwhelming majority of us are around Donald Trump&#8217;s hopeful re-election as president of the United States, see in Bloomberg&#8217;s audio clip an easy opportunity to score a cheap political shot. I also understand, as previously mentioned, that Bloomberg&#8217;s rhetoric is neither helpful nor (in all likelihood) truly statistically spot-on.
But conservatives, who largely defended stop-and-frisk policy while it was implemented by Giuliani and Bloomberg, must not now turn on it. Stop-and-frisk is (1) constitutional, (2) effective, and (3) proper.
The 1968 U.S. Supreme Court case of <a href="https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/392/1/">Terry v. Ohio</a> upheld standard stop-and-frisk procedure on Fourth Amendment grounds. &#8220;According to the Terry court,&#8221; LII notes, &#8220;a reasonable stop-and-frisk is one &#8216;in which a reasonably prudent officer is warranted in the circumstances of a given case in believing that his safety or that of others is endangered, he may make a reasonable search for weapons of the person believed by him to be armed and dangerous.'&#8221; The key words here are the multiple times &#8220;reasonable&#8221; (or some close derivative of it) is used. It is almost assuredly true that, while &#8220;probable cause&#8221; is traditionally required for the issuance of most search warrants, &#8220;reasonable suspicion&#8221; suffices as a legal standard to justify a mere stop-and-frisk of suspect believed to be armed and readily dangerous. The text of the Fourth Amendment, after all, prohibits &#8220;unreasonable searches and seizures&#8221; (emphasis added), and here there is necessarily &#8220;reasonable suspicion&#8221; for a Terry stop to be lawful. Some more libertarian-leaning conservatives may <a href="https://twitter.com/jonathanurick/status/1227435098879995904">disagree</a>, but I recall well my criminal procedure professor at the University of Chicago Law School, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Epstein">Richard Epstein</a>, announcing to our class his belief in the constitutional soundness of Terry. And Richard Epstein, for what it&#8217;s worth, is the single most influential libertarian legal theorist of the past century.
Stop-and-frisk policy in New York City, furthermore, was undoubtedly effective. &#8220;Since 1990, major crimes have fallen 81.9% in a period that spanned the administrations of four mayors, both Republican and Democratic, including Michael Bloomberg, who switched from being a Republican to an independent during his three terms in office,&#8221; Reuters <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-new-york-crime/murders-in-new-york-city-rose-in-2019-defying-long-term-decline-in-crime-rate-idUSKBN1Z525V">reported</a> last month while lamenting the fact that murders in the Big Apple actually rose last year under the infamously anti-cop reign of Mayor Bill de Blasio. While it is ultimately impossible to disentangle stop-and-frisk from other aspects of the Giuliani/Bloomberg anti-crime public policy portfolio, such as so-called &#8220;broken windows policing,&#8221; the reality is that New York City became one of the safest big cities in America over the exact same time span that stop-and-frisk proliferated in popularity. It is nothing short of tragic that <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/jailbreak-is-to-blame-for-spike-in-nyc-crime-de-blasio-admits">de Blasio has reversed</a> these salutary trends.
Finally, stop-and-frisk, as implemented by Mayors Giuliani and Bloomberg, was a generally sound public policy initiative. It is simply true that law enforcement is beset by limited resources, and that police therefore have to routinely make decisions about how to maximize results — here, measured in terms of less crime and fewer criminals on the street — given those constraints. For example, prosecutorial discretion as a law enforcement concept has a centuries-long history in the Anglo-American tradition (that, of course, does not mean that prosecutorial secretion is not <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/jeff-sessions-right-end-obamas-unlawful-approach-josh-hammer">sometimes bastardized</a>). Similarly, cops — the procedural antecedents, in a sense, to prosecutors — need to make on-the-ground decisions about where to best deploy resources in order to safeguard the public safety and the common weal. It is simply common sense that they would disproportionately target the neighborhoods where there is actually disproportionate crime committed.
By all means, conservatives can find proper bones to pick with Bloomberg&#8217;s resurfaced audio clip. But please do not lump in all of stop-and-frisk policy with those criticisms.

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