By Bill Parry
After denigrating one another during the year-long presidential campaign, Mayor Bill de Blasio and President-elect Donald Trump met face-to-face — alone — for 62 minutes Wednesday morning.
De Blasio said he arrived at Trump Tower to “assert to him the concerns and the needs of all New Yorkers,” and help him to understand “what is being said in the streets and subways of our city and why people are do deeply concerned.”
The two leaders spoke by phone Monday and arranged for the meeting to take place in Trump’s office. Afterward, the mayor refused to discuss any of Trump’s positions or responses, but he said he left the substantive and very candid meeting “with the door open” for more dialogue.
“It’s well known we have very, very substantial differences in beliefs and ideology, but at the end of the meeting, we agreed that this was a conversation that would continue,” de Blasio said. “I reiterated to the president-elect that I would be open-minded as we continue substantive discussions, but I would be vigilant. And I would be swift to react anytime an action is taken that will undermine the people of New York City. I also know New Yorkers will stand together. We’re going to stand up for anyone who because of any policy is excluded or affronted, be they members of the Muslim community, or the Jewish community, members of the LGBT community, women—anyone who feels policies are being undertaken that undermine them.”
Trump’s former campaign manager described the meeting as “very productive” to rporters waiting outside Trump Tower.
De Blasio also spoke about Stephen Bannon, who Trump named as his chief strategist and senior counselor. Bannon ran the right-wing Breitbart News and his ties to the White Nationalist movement has been well documented.
“I made my views clear and my deep concerns about Mr. Bannon and the fact that I had thought many people were afraid because of the things they had seen in Breitbart News and the fear that suggested divisive policies,” de Blasio said.
Meanwhile, Gov. Andrew Cuomo acted swiftly Tuesday to set up a toll-free hotline for people to report incidents of bias and discrimination across the state. The move came one day after the Anti-Defamation League expressed deep concern over a wave of anti-Semitic vandalism that has occurred in New York since Election Day.
“There has been an explosion recently in the number of hate crime incidents. They are being investigated and it’s not a crime until we have evidence of it being a crime,” Cuomo said. “But circumstantially, they were very, very troubling and we want to make a very clear statement in this state: that there is no place for racism, there is no place for hate, there is no place for swastikas, there is no place for racially inflammatory and divisive rhetoric or acts. This is New York. This is America.
Anyone who thinks they may have been the victim of a bias crime can call (888) 392-3644 and report it.
“We have very a strict hate crime law that we take seriously and I want the people of New York to know that we’re going to enforce it,” Cuomo said. “I understand the political environment out there, and I understand the sentiments that have been raised, but the law is the law. The hate crimes legislation and the hate crimes laws will be enforced.”
Reach reporter Bill Parry by e-mail at bparr
