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Highlights From the New York City Mayoral Debate Five Takeaways From the New York City Mayoral Debate
(about 3 hours later)
In the first general election debate of his campaign for a second term, Mayor Bill de Blasio, a Democrat, faced off Tuesday against Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis, a Republican, and Bo Dietl, a former police detective running as an independent on the Dump the Mayor line. Mayor Bill de Blasio sparred for 90 minutes on Tuesday with his two main rivals in a rowdy and rambunctious debate that devolved into shouting, finger-pointing and cut-off microphones.
Here are the highlights: The candidates talked over each other. The crowd shouted them down. And it ended with an exasperated moderator, Errol Louis of NY1, spinning his finger in the air in a mercy-rule declaration that the debate was done.
• The debate spiraled out of control on several occasions, both for the candidates on stage and the moderators, as a raucous crowd cheered, booed, hooted and hollered. “I think that’s going to do it,” Mr. Louis said.
NY1’s Errol Louis paused the debate and threatened that security officials would be escorting misbehaving audience members to the “sidewalk.” That threat appeared to be carried out moments later, as at least one person was ejected. None of the candidates were removed, although Mr. Dietl’s microphone was cut off at least twice. Here are five takeaways from the first mayoral clash between Mr. de Blasio, Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis, a Republican, and Bo Dietl, a former police detective running as an independent on the Dump the Mayor line.
• All three candidates got to ask one question to a rival. Ms. Malliotakis asked the mayor why he traveled to Germany not long after the death of a police officer, a train derailment and a report on growing homelessness over the summer. Mr. de Blasio came in as a heavy front-runner — he led his closest challenger, Ms. Malliotakis, by more than 40 percentage points in recent polls — and the political imperative for both his opponents was to take him down a notch. And while they focused almost all of their rhetorical fire on the incumbent — Ms. Malliotakis and Mr. Dietl barely addressed one another — the mayor mostly stayed calm as he swiped away their charges, escaping without any crippling sound bites.
“What kind of person are you, what kind of mayor are you that you would leave your city at a time like that?” she asked. “These are serious issues and we have to deal with them seriously,” the mayor said at one point.
He disagreed with her premise, saying he spent time with the fallen officer’s family and at the hospital. The three candidates sparred extensively over crime, affordable housing, and the size and scope of the city’s budget, which has grown by roughly $15 billion during Mr. de Blasio’s tenure.
Mr. de Blasio asked her why she supported Mr. Trump last year. She came prepared with a retort, if not an answer. “Mr. Mayor, this election is not about Donald Trump. This election is about you,” she said, accusing him of trying to “deflect from your lousy record.” Ms. Malliotakis called the budget growth “the epitome of mismanagement.” But when pressed what she would cut, she offered few specifics, only a vague, “You have to streamline these agencies.” The mayor defended the spending increases as “fiscally sound” because the city still has the “biggest reserves in history.”
The exchange was among Mr. de Blasio’s most aggressive of the evening, as he interrupted and pushed her over and over to explain her support for the president. On homelessness, Mr. de Blasio was more on the defensive. “This man has done nothing for the homeless,” Mr. Dietl said. “He has turned homelessness into a business,” Ms. Malliotakis said, referring to the fact that some homeless people are housed in hotels.
• Tensions increased during the discussion on crime as Mr. de Blasio kept repeating that New York is the “safest big city” in America. Both his opponents objected. Mr. de Blasio acknowledged the “homelessness crisis,” but claimed he has undertaken “the biggest affordable housing initiative in our history.” He said the use of hotels was “not fair to the homeless or the taxpayers” but a necessary stopgap.
“That is not true if you’re a woman in this city,” Ms. Malliotakis said, citing a “25 percent increase in felony sex crimes.” Mr. de Blasio slashed back that she was engaged in a “classic right-wing Republican scare tactic.” Early on, Ms. Malliotakis tried to turn the signature slogan of Mr. de Blasio’s first mayoral run — that New York is “a tale of two cities” — against the incumbent. She said the real tale is that “his friends and donors have gotten richer while the rest of us continue to struggle.”
Then Mr. de Blasio said that anyone who disagreed with the statistics that crime is down was “denigrating the hard work of the N.Y.P.D.” — an interesting stance given the mayor’s once-fraught relationship with the department’s rank-and-file. But she seemed to lose that thread as the debate wore on.
“I’d like a little more respect of the hard work of our officers,” Mr. de Blasio scolded his rivals. Despite some heated back and forth, no one ever knocked the mayor off his talking points. And for all their attacks, Ms. Malliotakis and Mr. Dietl could not sidestep the reality that with each strong answer of their own, they were dividing the anti-de Blasio vote with each other.
Ms. Malliotakis later interrupted to question whether the mayor thought the women who were suffering sex crimes were “Not real human beings?” “You know better than that,” he replied. In his introduction, Mr. Louis promised the audience that the evening would be “an uninterrupted conversation about issues.” That did not last long. “First of all, I’ve got to say, go Yankees!” Mr. Dietl screamed in his opening statement, pointing at the mayor and adding, “Mayor de Blasio’s a Boston Red Sox fan!”
• The three candidates sparred over the size and scope of the city’s budget, which has grown by roughly $15 billion during Mr. de Blasio’s tenure. Ms. Malliotakis called it “the epitome of mismanagement.” But when pressed what she would cut, she offered few specifics, only a vague, “You have to streamline these agencies.” That set the tone.
The mayor defended the spending increases as “fiscally sound” because the city still has the “biggest reserves in history.” He said that extra funding for key programs in education and policing were necessary and effective. “Do you think you get to be the safest big city without making fundamental investments?” he asked.
• Mr. de Blasio repeated his first-term achievements, from universal prekindergarten to lower crime rates. Mr. Dietl was largely unimpressed, although he did offer one note of comity with the mayor: “The only good thing he ever did — I like that pre-K stuff,” he said. “Maybe I’ll put you in charge of that?”
• All three candidates argued over the issue of homelessness in New York City and Mr. de Blasio’s record. “This man has done nothing for the homeless,” Mr. Dietl said. “He has turned homelessness into a business,” Ms. Malliotakis said, referring to the fact that some homeless people are housed in hotels.
Mr. de Blasio acknowledged the “homelessness crisis” but claimed he has undertaken “the biggest affordable housing initiative in our history.” He said the use of hotels was “not fair to the homeless or the taxpayers” but a necessary stopgap.
• Mr. de Blasio immediately dismissed his two opponents and tried to lump them together as “right-wing Republicans who voted for Donald Trump.” Mr. Dietl acknowledged, “I did vote for him,” but said that he has since soured on the president, calling him a “lying narcissist.” Ms. Malliotakis ignored the charge.
• Mr. Louis promised “an uninterrupted conversation about issues” in his introduction. That promise did not last long. “First of all, I’ve got to say, go Yankees!” Mr. Dietl screamed in his opening statement, pointing at the mayor and adding, “He’s a Boston Red Sox fan!”
When Mr. de Blasio began his opening statement, the crowd booed so loud that the mayor was forced to stop, as his supporters shouted back, “Four more years.”When Mr. de Blasio began his opening statement, the crowd booed so loud that the mayor was forced to stop, as his supporters shouted back, “Four more years.”
The crowd cheered, hooted and hollered as if attending a sporting event. Mr. Louis paused halfway through and threatened that security officials would escort misbehaving audience members to the “sidewalk.” Moments later, at least one person was ejected. “Goodbye, goodbye,” Mr. Louis waved.
The candidates took their cues from the chaos, as they diverted from substantive discussions to talking over one another, often egged on by the loudmouthed Mr. Dietl.
Mr. de Blasio immediately dismissed his two opponents and tried to lump them together as “right-wing Republicans who voted for Donald Trump.” It was a charge he repeated, especially with Ms. Malliotakis, whom he asked about supporting the president in his one question to an opponent. She came prepared with a retort, if not an answer.
“Mr. Mayor, this election is not about Donald Trump. This election is about you,” she responded, accusing him of trying to “deflect from your lousy record.”
Mr. Dietl acknowledged, “I did vote for him,” but said that he has since soured on the president, calling Mr. Trump a “lying narcissist.”
When the topic came up again, this time from one of the media questioners, Ms. Malliotakis appeared exasperated. “I feel like you’re carrying the mayor’s water right now,” she said, as Mr. Dietl walked across stage and offered his bottle of water to the mayor in jest.
For Mr. de Blasio, any minute spent discussing Mr. Trump marked a strategic victory in a heavily Democratic city that strongly disapproves of the president. And there were multiple minutes devoted to Mr. Trump.
Tempers flared and tensions increased during the discussion on crime. Mr. de Blasio kept repeating that New York is the “safest big city” in America. Both his opponents objected. “That is not true if you’re a woman in this city,” Ms. Malliotakis said, citing a “25 percent increase in felony sex crimes.” Mr. de Blasio slashed back that she was engaged in a “classic right-wing Republican scare tactic.”
Then, in a fascinating maneuver for a mayor who has at times had a fraught relationship with rank-and-file police, Mr. de Blasio said that anyone who disagreed with the statistics that crime is down was “denigrating the hard work of” the New York Police Department.
Early in his tenure, police officers had turned their backs on the mayor at the funeral of an officer killed in the line of duty, angry at his rhetoric and his emphasis on the problems with stop-and-frisk. But at this debate, the mayor used the police force he controls as a bit of a political shield.
“I’d like a little more respect of the hard work of our officers,” Mr. de Blasio scolded his rivals.
Ms. Malliotakis later interrupted to question whether the mayor thought the women who were suffering sex crimes were “not real human beings?”
“You know better than that,” Mr. de Blasio replied.
And when she brought up his trip to Germany not long after a police officer was killed last summer, the mayor emphasized his law enforcement credentials, saying he had spent time with the family of the fallen officer.
From his opening Yankees line to his disagreement with the mayor about the state of the city (“Do you think the people of New York are idiots?”), Mr. Dietl certainly won the pithy sweepstakes. He bounced from topic to topic, accusing the mayor of building a wall around the mayoral mansion, waking up late, and running a “criminal enterprise” — all in the course of trying to ask him a single question.
His interruptions won him valuable screen time, but it was not clear if his constant, almost Trumpian bombast would break through. When he was asked about concerns over how he has managed his own finances, Mr. Dietl challenged one of the media question-askers, “What’d you make last year? I made $1.8 million.”
Mr. Dietl had his microphone cut off eventually, and Mr. Louis accused him of “foolishness.” Mr. Dietl was undeterred, shouting into the auditorium at one point without the aid of his microphone as his opponents waited for their turn.