Bill de Blasio tells Sean Hannity to 'respect' the NYPD

Patrick Devine
Updated

On Wednesday, Sean Hannity welcomed his first 2020 Democratic presidential candidate and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio. Predictably, the conservative talk show host and the progressive mayor sparred over several partisan issues like gun control, abortion and climate change. But, their exchange really heated up when Hannity challenged De Blasio’s response to the recent water dousing of some New York police officers.

With Hannity demanding, “I want a promise from you that you’re going to identify every one of those people that attacked those guys.” And De Blasio responding, “That’s what we do.”

But Hannity wasn’t buying the answer, so he showed footage of the water attack and continued pressing the mayor, “I want you to look. Every single face we see. Will you arrest them?”

De Blasio fired back, “Sean, anybody the NYPD deems commits a crime will be arrested. Listen, I want to say, ‘Respect the professionalism of the NYPD.’”

After some heated back and forth, De Blasio accused Hannity of “playing a game,” and asked, “Do you think the NYPD is doing their job? Do you think they are doing their job?”

Hannity, who is a vocal supporter of the NYPD, avoided the question, so De Blasio answered it himself, “They know how to do their job. They have brought down crime consistently. We’re the safest big city in America. Why don’t you respect the fact that these guys know what they’re doing and they’re going to bring everyone to justice.”

Despite De Blasio’s controversial record with the New York Police Department, while speaking with Hannity, the mayor vigorously defended the police response and pointed to a decrease in the New York homicide rate for the third year in a row.

The New York water attack attracted national attention in July, with President Trump and De Blasio exchanging tweets over the matter.

But, their NYPD discussion wasn’t all contentious. Earlier in the interview, Hannity told De Blasio that he almost became a police officer. Hannity said he passed both the psychological and physical exams. To which De Blasio jokingly replied, “The standards were lower then.”

Hannity airs weeknights at 9 p.m. on Fox News.

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