Cuomo threatens NYC mayor de Blasio with ‘displacement’ over refusal to deploy National Guard against looters

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo slammed New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s refusal to deploy the National Guard against looters who’ve run wild for two nights, briefly mulling “displacing” the mayor and taking over himself.

“The NY [Police Department] and the mayor did not do their job last night. I believe that,” Cuomo raged during a press conference on Tuesday, calling the late-night looting that took place in the Bronx despite an 11pm to 5am curfew “inexcusable.” 

“I am disappointed and outraged at what happened in New York City last night. Those looters, that criminal activity hurt everyone,” he snarled. Cuomo excoriated his city nemesis for refusing to send in the National Guard, noting that he would have to “displace the mayor” and “basically take over the mayor’s job” in order to send in the Guard himself.

However, he backed away from that possibility quickly, demurring that “I don’t think we are at that point.” Sending in troops on top of the NYPD would just create “chaos and mayhem,” he said.

After Monday’s curfew failed to stop looters, de Blasio extended the curfew through Sunday and moved the start time up to 8pm. New Yorkers have thus far taken a dim view of the regulation, noting that Monday night’s seemed to be selectively enforced and that looters who refuse to obey laws about theft are unlikely to obey curfew regulations either.

Both de Blasio and Cuomo have made a point of differentiating between the riots and the much larger, peaceful protests against police brutality, calling out the former for “opportunistically” using the latter as cover.

After news of the arrest of de Blasio’s daughter Chiara during a demonstration in lower Manhattan leaked on Monday, the mayor announced he was “proud” of his daughter - while condemning the police union sources who made the arrest public. Over 250 people were arrested on Sunday night alone as looters - whom witnesses claimed were acting in an organized manner - descended on the city’s ritzy Soho district to raid luxury stores, leaving utter destruction in their wake.

Cuomo’s support for sending in the National Guard was notable in light of his longstanding performative animosity toward President Donald Trump, who announced on Monday he would make the Guard available to all governors and strongly encouraged them to deploy troops.

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