Former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said his greatest regret was accidentally killing the Staten Island groundhog during his tenure, but blamed it on the zookeepers who gave the animal to him.
The incident happened at Groundhog Day at the Staten Island Zoo in February 2014, when de Blasio dropped the popular animal named Charlotte.
She died a week later from “acute internal injuries,” but the death was not known until seven months later, and zoo officials have been accused of trying to cover it up to avoid a public scrutiny.
But de Blasio has now said he shouldn’t have had the groundhog in the first place.
He blamed the accident on the fact that it was an early morning and he hadn’t expected to be caught.
Former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has admitted that one of his biggest regrets during his tenure was accidentally killing Staten Island groundhog Charlotte in February 2014 when he dumped her. She died a week later from acute internal injuries.
The incident happened at Groundhog Day at the Staten Island Zoo in February 2014, when de Blasio (pictured above in 2021) dropped the beloved animal named Charlotte
The former mayor said he regretted dropping Charlotte “100 percent” but blamed others for the incident.
“I’m just like, ‘Don’t make me hold a friggin’ groundhog.’ “I mean, what the hell?” he told New York Magazine in an interview published Wednesday.
“I go there and it’s seven in the morning, which means my motor skills aren’t at their best.”
“I put these gloves on and they say, ‘Here’s a groundhog,’ I say, ‘What the hell?’
But de Blasio criticized the zookeepers for leaving the rodent in his untrained hands.
“I’m like, ‘Don’t you have some more coaching for that or whatever?'” he added.
“It was idiocy. Why would an elected official keep a groundhog? I don’t know anything about keeping marmots.
“So the whole thing is just crazy.” There is original sin here. Don’t give anyone a groundhog, do you?’
He said he doesn’t know how to hold a marmot properly and wonders if you’re “squeezing it really tight.”
“I mean, what are you doing? So I think there’s a lack of prep work,” he added.
Looking back on his time as mayor, he said he regrets being so stubborn at times and not making compromises.
“Sometimes I was stubborn. I thought I was right about something, or I thought I was being misunderstood, and instead of saying, ‘Okay, let’s meet people halfway,’ I kind of delved in,” he said.
‘That was a mistake.’
De Blasio also admitted that he holds strong views that can be “preachy,” but that it wasn’t his intention to come off as condescending.
He said, “I think sometimes I have very strong views.” And I can preach, and preaching can be good, but preaching can be preaching.
“If you want to fight inequality, especially income inequality – then, amen. Preaching. That’s good.
“But if it came across as condescending or professorial or something to people, then that wasn’t the intent.”
“And certainly that’s not how people originally took it in 2012 and 2013.”
“So it’s kind of hard for me to blame anyone else.”
And he wished he could have balanced things better during his tenure.
“I’m very proud of our politics, but I wish I had balanced things better, and if I had balanced things better, I actually could have done more,” de Blasio said.
“And there is an element of naivety. There’s an element of stubbornness.’
He announced that he did not want to live in the Gracie Mansion, the official residence of the Mayor of New York City.
“I really didn’t like Gracie Mansion at all.” “I wish I’d never gone,” he said.
De Blasio added that he couldn’t have stayed at his home in Park Slope, Brooklyn, because the “logistics were overwhelming.”
He said, “The NYPD didn’t like it at all for security reasons.”
“But I wish I had stayed because my neighborhood was sort of the source.”
“Park Slope is obviously not representative of every neighborhood in New York City.
“It was more about being connected to public schools, being connected to little league, going to the supermarket, going to the park.”
“These were all grounding realities for me, but they also opened up a lot of dialogue on top of everything I did publicly.”
The groundhog incident wasn’t the only damaging moment during de Blasio’s tenure as the 109th mayor of New York City.
Since his election in 2014, his time has been one of controversy.
crime
Rising crime became a common blemish in de Blasio’s tenure.
Statistics showed that both shootings and criminal assaults had increased in 2021 compared to 2020.
The number of shootings in New York in April 2021 increased by 166 percent compared to the same month last year and the number of crimes increased by 35.6 percent.
While the number of rapes increased by 7.7 percent at the beginning of 2022 compared to the same period in 2021, and robberies increased by 25.1 percent.
Overall crime rose 35 percent last January compared to a year earlier.
Critics of de Blasio blamed his “gentle on crime” for the rising crime tide in New York City.
Rising crime became a common blemish in de Blasio’s tenure
Pictured in June 2020: Critics of de Blasio blamed his “gentle on crime” for the rising crime tide in New York City
coronavirus pandemic
The former mayor was also heavily criticized for his handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
In the second week of March 2020, he took no action to close public schools due to the rapid spread of the virus.
When he finally ordered the schools to close, he was confronted with being too slow.
New York state has the fourth highest number of Covid deaths in the United States, behind California, Texas and Florida, with 77,685 deaths.
And de Blasio caused angry backlash when he tightened Covid restrictions on 184,000 private companies in December 2021.
He introduced mandatory vaccination for private sector employees in the city and forced customers in indoor restaurants, fitness, entertainment and performance venues to show proof of two doses of vaccine.
And he required that children between the ages of five and eleven also had to show proof of vaccination to enter these rooms.
Pictured August 2021: De Blasio caused widespread backlash in December 2021 when he introduced compulsory vaccination for private sector employees in the city and required customers inside restaurants, fitness, entertainment and event venues to provide proof of two doses of the vaccine
Pictured February 2014: He also required children aged five to 11 to show proof of vaccination to enter these rooms
BLM riots
During his tenure as mayor, BLM riots devastated the city, occurring in multiple locations in each of the five boroughs.
De Blasio canceled all major events that required city approval through the end of September to prevent a spike in coronavirus cases.
However, he did grant an exception for the Black Lives Matters protests, which became a mainstay on the streets of New York City following the death of George Floyd.
Hundreds of people have been arrested over alleged looting and rioting during the protests, mostly in Manhattan.
Looters raided the Macy’s Herald Square flagship store and other Times Square and Midtown businesses overnight, smashing windows and stealing merchandise.
As the demonstrations turned violent, a police cruiser was set on fire in Union Square.
But de Blasio repeatedly declined to enlist the help of the National Guard after the city was thrown into chaos.
Pictured June 2020: BLM riots devastated the city during his tenure as mayor, occurring in multiple locations in each of the five boroughs
Pictured May 2020: Hundreds of people have been arrested over alleged looting and rioting during the protests, mostly in Manhattan
Pictured June 2020: De Blasio canceled all major events that required city approval through the end of September to stave off a surge in coronavirus cases. However, he granted an exception for BLM protests
presidential election
De Blasio dropped out of the Democratic presidential race in September 2019 after his candidacy showed little sign of breakthrough in a crowded ballot box.
He announced that after returning from a weekend campaign switch, he would retire ten days before the deadline to qualify for the next national debate.
This comes after he failed to crack more than one percent in the polls and struggled to raise funds for his campaign fund.
The mayor spent just 11 hours at City Hall in the month after announcing his candidacy for the White House.
He later held a press conference outside the Gracie Mansion, the mayor’s home in New York, and stressed that he worked hard throughout his bid for higher office.
Pictured June 2019: De Blasio dropped out of the Democratic presidential race in September 2019 after his candidacy showed little sign of breakthrough in a crowded ballot box
Pictured April 2021: This came after he failed to crack more than one percent in the polls and struggled to raise funds for his campaign fund
Abused security detail
The former mayor was also in trouble over the sums of money he squandered abusing his security service.
He spent nearly $320,000 in taxpayer dollars abusing the NYPD-provided protection team.
De Blasio unfairly misused the city’s resources when he took his security personnel with him during his failed presidential bid in August 2019.
An investigation found that the NYPD spent at least $319,794 to guard him while he was out of state on the campaign trail.
He used his security while attending a Boston Red Sox game in California and “occasionally” had his guards transport his associates for the presidential campaign.
Pictured June 2019: The former mayor was also in trouble over funds he wasted abusing his security service
Pictured May 2020: An investigation found the NYPD spent at least $319,794 guarding him while he was out of state on the campaign trail