N.Y. mayor’s trip to G-20 protest riles foes at home
Facing widespread criticism over his decision to fly to Hamburg, Germany, just after the shooting death of a police officer in his city, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said Americans’ views don’t align with President Donald Trump’s and need to be represented abroad.
“While the national governments will probably only make limited progress, the rest of us don’t have that choice. If we make only limited progress we’ll only be going backwards,” de Blasio told Bloomberg News before speaking at a Saturday protest that coincided with the Group of 20 summit attended by Trump and other world leaders in Germany. “We almost have Washington as an island ... unrepresentative of the views of the American people on many levels, and that’s going to take a different kind of politics to address.”
De Blasio’s speech at the protest, called “Hamburg Shows Attitude,” reflected a similar theme of citizens and localities defying the policies of the national government, specifically on issues such as climate change and marriage equality.
“American cities are signed on to the Paris accords. We will do it ourselves,” de Blasio said at the rally, according to tweets from his spokesman, Eric Phillips. De Blasio and other mayors from across the U.S. have vowed to uphold the Paris agreement, sidestepping Trump after he withdrew the country fromthe climate deal.
De Blasio left for Germany the day after Officer Miosotis Familia was fatally shot while sitting in a police vehicle in the Bronx early Wednesday. His trip, announced in a brief news release issued just hours before his Thursday evening flight, immediately raised questions from political opponents and New York City’s police union, which has a strained relationship with the mayor.
“You’ve chosen to leave while the city is mourning. I just don’t understand what he’s thinking,” said Ed Mullins, president of the Sergeants Benevolent Association.
De Blasio’s political opponent, Republican state lawmaker Nicole Malliotakis, has accused the mayor of ignoring the city’s problems to place himself on an international stage.
The New York Post delivered a stern message on its front page Friday: “DON’T COME BACK!”