{"id":46848,"date":"2017-10-11T06:45:25","date_gmt":"2017-10-11T06:45:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/?p=46848"},"modified":"2017-10-11T06:45:25","modified_gmt":"2017-10-11T06:45:25","slug":"five-takeaways-from-the-new-york-city-mayoral-debate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/news\/five-takeaways-from-the-new-york-city-mayoral-debate.html","title":{"rendered":"Five Takeaways From the New York City Mayoral Debate"},"content":{"rendered":"

Five Takeaways From the New York City Mayoral Debate<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

Five Takeaways From the New York City Mayoral Debate:- 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.<\/span><\/p>\n

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.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI think that\u2019s going to do it,\u201d Mr. Louis said.<\/span><\/p>\n

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.<\/span><\/p>\n

1. The debate did not shake up the race<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr. de Blasio came in as a heavy front-runner \u2014 he led his closest challenger, Ms. Malliotakis, by more than 40 percentage points in recent polls \u2014 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 \u2014 Ms. Malliotakis and Mr. Dietl barely addressed one another \u2014 the mayor mostly stayed calm as he swiped away their charges, escaping without any crippling sound bites.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThese are serious issues and we have to deal with them seriously,\u201d the mayor said at one point.<\/span><\/p>\n

The three candidates sparred extensively over crime, affordable housing, and the size and scope of the city\u2019s budget, which has grown by roughly $15 billion during Mr. de Blasio\u2019s tenure.<\/span><\/p>\n

Continue reading the main story<\/span>
\nMs. Malliotakis called the budget growth \u201cthe epitome of mismanagement.\u201d But when pressed what she would cut, she offered few specifics, only a vague, \u201cYou have to streamline these agencies.\u201d The mayor defended the spending increases as \u201cfiscally sound\u201d because the city still has the \u201cbiggest reserves in history.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

On homelessness, Mr. de Blasio was more on the defensive. \u201cThis man has done nothing for the homeless,\u201d Mr. Dietl said. \u201cHe has turned homelessness into a business,\u201d Ms. Malliotakis said, referring to the fact that some homeless people are housed in hotels.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr. de Blasio acknowledged the \u201chomelessness crisis,\u201d but claimed he has undertaken \u201cthe biggest affordable housing initiative in our history.\u201d He said the use of hotels was \u201cnot fair to the homeless or the taxpayers\u201d but a necessary stopgap.<\/span><\/p>\n

Early on, Ms. Malliotakis tried to turn the signature slogan of Mr. de Blasio\u2019s first mayoral run \u2014 that New York is \u201ca tale of two cities\u201d \u2014 against the incumbent. She said the real tale is that \u201chis friends and donors have gotten richer while the rest of us continue to struggle.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

But she seemed to lose that thread as the debate wore on.<\/span><\/p>\n

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.<\/span><\/p>\n

2. The debate was ugly \u2014 on stage and off<\/span><\/p>\n

In his introduction, Mr. Louis promised the audience that the evening would be \u201can uninterrupted conversation about issues.\u201d That did not last long. \u201cFirst of all, I\u2019ve got to say, go Yankees!\u201d Mr. Dietl screamed in his opening statement, pointing at the mayor and adding, \u201cMayor de Blasio\u2019s a Boston Red Sox fan!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

That set the tone.<\/span><\/p>\n

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, \u201cFour more years.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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 \u201csidewalk.\u201d Moments later, at least one person was ejected. \u201cGoodbye, goodbye,\u201d Mr. Louis waved.<\/span><\/p>\n

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.<\/span><\/p>\n

3. The mayor would rather be running against President Trump<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr. de Blasio immediately dismissed his two opponents and tried to lump them together as \u201cright-wing Republicans who voted for Donald Trump.\u201d 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.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMr. Mayor, this election is not about Donald Trump. This election is about you,\u201d she responded, accusing him of trying to \u201cdeflect from your lousy record.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr. Dietl acknowledged, \u201cI did vote for him,\u201d but said that he has since soured on the president, calling Mr. Trump a \u201clying narcissist.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

When the topic came up again, this time from one of the media questioners, Ms. Malliotakis appeared exasperated. \u201cI feel like you\u2019re carrying the mayor\u2019s water right now,\u201d she said, as Mr. Dietl walked across stage and offered his bottle of water to the mayor in jest.<\/span><\/p>\n

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.<\/span><\/p>\n

4. The mayor wrapped himself up with the police<\/span><\/p>\n

Tempers flared and tensions increased during the discussion on crime. Mr. de Blasio kept repeating that New York is the \u201csafest big city\u201d in America. Both his opponents objected. \u201cThat is not true if you\u2019re a woman in this city,\u201d Ms. Malliotakis said, citing a \u201c25 percent increase in felony sex crimes.\u201d Mr. de Blasio slashed back that she was engaged in a \u201cclassic right-wing Republican scare tactic.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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 \u201cdenigrating the hard work of\u201d the New York Police Department.<\/span><\/p>\n

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.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d like a little more respect of the hard work of our officers,\u201d Mr. de Blasio scolded his rivals.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ms. Malliotakis later interrupted to question whether the mayor thought the women who were suffering sex crimes were \u201cnot real human beings?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou know better than that,\u201d Mr. de Blasio replied.<\/span><\/p>\n

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.<\/span><\/p>\n

5. Bo Dietl was loud, but maybe not heard<\/span><\/p>\n

From his opening Yankees line to his disagreement with the mayor about the state of the city (\u201cDo you think the people of New York are idiots?\u201d), 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 \u201ccriminal enterprise\u201d \u2014 all in the course of trying to ask him a single question.<\/span><\/p>\n

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, \u201cWhat\u2019d you make last year? I made $1.8 million.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr. Dietl had his microphone cut off eventually, and Mr. Louis accused him of \u201cfoolishness.\u201d Mr. Dietl was undeterred, shouting into the auditorium at one point without the aid of his microphone as his opponents waited for their turn.<\/span><\/p>\n

Source:-\u00a0https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2017\/10\/10\/nyregion\/mayoral-debate.html<\/span><\/p>\n

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