Bongino on NY violence: 'Time to look in the mirror,' 'communist mayor' failed New York
Dan Bongino reacts to politicians blaming coronavirus for the surge in violence in New York and Chicago
Liberal mayors' attempts to blame violence over the Fourth of July weekend on coronavirus and the Trump administration is "grotesque and pathetic," former NYPD officer and Secret Service agent Dan Bongino said Tuesday.
In an interview on "Fox & Friends," Bongino specifically called out Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio.
FOURTH OF JULY WEEKEND SHOOTINGS RESULT IN THE DEATHS OF AT LEAST 6 CHILDREN
The Democrat-run cities both saw spikes in violent crime over the holiday weekend. According to the Chicago Police Department, there were 87 people shot and 17 killed from July 2 to July 5. There were at least 44 shooting incidents and 10 dead in New York City as the Big Apple saw its surge in violence continue. The NYPD reported that June shootings in NYC were up 130 percent from the same time last year.
Police work the scene where a 19-year-old man was shot in the 400 block of West 77th Street in Chicago on July 3, 2020. (Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
"I heard Mayor Lightfoot in Chicago also trying to pin this on Donald Trump somehow. How this was Donald Trump. And again, it was racist, of course. Everything is racist. God forbid you call out the fact that young Black children are being shot in the head…that you call that out," he remarked.
In response to a letter from the president criticizing her leadership, Lightfoot fired back on a plethora of issues including health care, affordable housing, and his "demonizing" of the LGBTQIA+ community.
"I will always honor the Office of the President, but please do not ask me to honor this occupant because I do not," she said.
"Let me just say something here," Bongino urged. "So, last night I was going on Sean Hannity's show. And, right before I was on the show [I was] doing a bit of homework and I’m scrolling through social media. I'm trying to get the body count for New York this weekend. This is not hyperbole. I'm not exaggerating because I want to be precise."
"And, as I’m on the air -- right [as I am] about to go on, I see another thing at The Daily Caller about another 14-year-old who was shot," he continued. "And, I thought to myself, ‘You know, this is insane.’ Like, that's not a rounding error. Like, if you go on and say, ‘Well, 44 people were shot. It’s actually 45.’ That’s not a rounding error."
"That's a human being who was killed and that's how we have to talk about on television now what's going on in the cities run by these two epic failures of mayors: Mayor Lightfoot and Mayor De Blasio. That if you don’t go on and check your Twitter feed before you come on there may be someone else dead you may have missed?" Bongino said. "These aren't rounding errors. These are people. These are people's kids."
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"So again, for all the liberals listening, it may be a time to seriously look in the mirror," he said.
"It's not President Trump that did this. It's that guy in City Hall, Bill de Blasio -- your Communist mayor who has failed you and -- as I said on this program and others, repeatedly for years now -- people will die because of the arguments going on over public safety," Bongino concluded. "And, tragically, I was correct."