CHOKE CASE BURNS BLAZ
Pantaleo protesters rip mayor at Dem debate
watch that thing on television as I did …,” Reagan said in the call, which was taped by Nixon. “Yeah,” Nixon (inset l.) said. “To see those monkeys from those African countries,” Reagan said. “Damn them, they’re still uncomfortable wearing shoes!”
Nixon responded with boisterous laughter. Earlier in the conversation, Nixon had said he was most disappointed in the votes from African nations.
Nixon then reached out to his secretary of state, William Rogers, according to The Atlantic.
In Nixon’s version, Reagan, who would later become the 40th president, had referred to the delegations as “’these, uh, these cannibals on television last night,’” he told Rogers. “And he says, ‘Christ, they weren’t even wearing shoes, and here the United States is going to submit its fate to that,’ and so forth and so on.”
Later that day, Nixon restated a slightly altered version for Rogers: “‘These cannibals jumping up and down and all that.’ And apparently it was a pretty grotesque picture.”
“Apparently, it was a terrible scene,” Rogers agreed. Neither man had actually watched it. Mayor de Blasio couldn’t escape his problems at home during a raucous Democratic presidential debate in Detroit on Wednesday, with candidates onstage and protesters in the audience taunting him over his failure to fire NYPD officer Daniel Pantaleo for his role in Eric Garner’s death.
Protesters nearly drowned out the mayor’s opening statement by chanting “Fire Pantaleo!” Then, targeting de Blasio again, they drowned out Cory Booker’s opening statement with the same chant, forcing the New Jersey senator to take a break from speaking.
One of those protesters, Brooklyn Minister Kirsten John Foy, said he and his comrades from New York weren’t going to let de Blasio run away from the city he serves.
“This mayor has failed to hold Daniel Pantaleo accountable for the killing of Eric Garner, and since he has failed to hold Daniel Pantaleo accountable, we are going to hold him accountable,” Foy told the Daily News after being escorted out of the Fox Theater by police.
De Blasio tried to flip the script by pointing fingers at Joe Biden when asked about Pantaleo still being on the force.
“Mr. Vice President, tell us what did you do to try and spur on the Justice Department to act in the Garner case?” said de Blasio, who can’t personally fire Pantaleo but could put pressure on NYPD Commissioner James O’Neill to get him out.
Biden, who has taken heat for his record on criminal justice and served as a progressive punching bag on a slew of hot-button issues Wednesday, tried to dodge the question by dredging up his connection to Barack Obama.
“I find it fascinating that everybody is talking about how terrible I am on these issues,” said Biden, who was vice president at the time of Garner’s July 2014 death outside a Staten Island bodega. “Barack Obama knew exactly who I was. He had 10 lawyers do a background check and everything about me on civil rights and he chose me, and said it was the best decision he ever made.”
But that wasn’t it for de Blasio, as Kirsten Gillibrand picked up where Biden left off.
“No,” the New York senator deadpanned when asked if she