‘Frustrated’ Bill snapped
HE WAS just having a bad day — maybe a lot of bad days.
City First Lady Chirlane McCray defended her husband’s press-bashing emails Wednesday, saying he was just lashing out in frustration.
“He is a human being and gets frustrated just like anyone else. I’m sure you have your days,” McCray told reporters at City Hall Wednesday.
In a trove of emails the city was forced to release last week, de Blasio called press outlets “pitiful” and “disgusting” when they covered criticism of him, and rooted for the demise of the city’s tabloid newspapers.
He doubled down on his diatribes in a visit to the City Hall press room Friday, expressing disdain for corporate-owned media.
McCray took a more diplomatic approach, but said she could understand why her husband gets fed up.
“I think it is just immensely difficult. And he gets frustrated — and who wouldn’t? He has a tough job. And it’s hard to figure out how to get it right. I think that is what you see here,” she said at an unrelated press conference. “He’s doing all this work, he works all the time. And I feel for him.”
The 4,000 pages of emails were released under the Freedom of Information Law after NY1 sued to get access to communications between de Blasio and outside advisers. City Hall tried to keep the messages secret on the grounds de Blasio’s pals, who were also representing private clients, were in effect “agents of the city,” but that argument was rejected in court.
McCray also defended her management of the Mayor’s Fund to Advance the City of New York, which she chairs, after a New York Times report that the group had faltered under her leadership.
The fund raised an average of $32 million a year under former Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a number that has since fallen to $22 million, the paper reported, while McCray has skipped the majority of board meetings and has not been to the group’s office for nearly a year.
“It’s not about who can raise the most money,” she said.
“The point is to raise as much money as we need to make sure that our programs function. And that is what we have done.”
The creation of a private office for her at the fund’s new office space, she said, was not her decision.