Left-wing New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio is reportedly “pissed” at MSNBC host Al Sharpton for showing him up at a city hall conference on police brutality and racism last week.
The New York Post reported on Friday that the mayor is regretting his decision to allow the longtime civil rights leader to sit at his side during a government conference to address the death of Eric Garner, an unarmed African-American man killed by a NYPD officer’s illegal chokehold.
Sharpton used his “seat of honor” at de Blasio’s left to lambaste the mayor, hinting that he has ignored his responsibility to African-Americans and threatening his future political prospects.
“If [de Blasio’s son] Dante wasn’t your son, he’d be a candidate for a chokehold,” he lectured the mayor. De Blasio is married to an African-American woman. “And we’ve got to deal with that reality.”
“If we’re gonna just play spin games, I’ll be your worst enemy,” Sharpton later warned. “Because I am tired of seeing people bury their kin.”
A source told The Post that de Blasio “was really pissed at what Sharpton did.”
“He felt [Sharpton] embarrassed him,” the source continued, “and he regrets now that he let the press in and that he moved Sharpton up [to the dais].”
“It’s obvious it was a mistake,” another source said. “It makes him look weak.”
De Blasio has faced a minor revolt over the death of Garner — particularly within the city’s African-American community — and has taken criticism over a perceived failure to hold the officer’s responsible to account.
Sharpton told The Post that he’d spoken with the mayor’s office since then and didn’t feel there was any bad blood between them.
And a de Blasio spokesman claimed that “while [the mayor] doesn’t always agree with Reverend Sharpton, he certainly respects him” and that he was “pleased Reverend Sharpton came to City Hall to participate in this important roundtable on police-community relations.”