New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio Bill de BlasioModerna says COVID-19 vaccine is 100 percent effective in 12- to 17-year-olds The Hill's Morning Report - Presented by Uber - One year later — has George Floyd's killing changed the world? De Blasio: NYC schools to reopen 'all in-person, no remote' in September MORE (D) was heckled Monday during a press conference in the lower part of Trump Tower, where the mayor was introducing new regulations curbing energy use by buildings in the city. The New York Times reported de Blasio's news conference was marred by supporters of President Trump Donald TrumpTrump lashes out after grand jury seated for New York criminal probe Schumer tees up vote on Jan. 6 commission bill Senators struggle to save Jan. 6 commission MORE holding signs mocking the mayor and promoting Trump's 2020 reelection campaign as they rode up and down the escalators of the lobby of Trump Tower in the background of de Blasio's speech. ADVERTISEMENT Building staff also blasted famous hits from Tony Bennett during the event, according to the Times, while Trump supporters booed and whistled at the mayor. De Blasio is considering a bid for the presidency in 2020 and is set to announce this week whether he will join a crowded field of more than 20 Democrats vying for the party's nomination to take on Trump. The New York City mayor threatened the Trump Organization and other businesses in the city with fines at Monday's press conference if they do not reduce their carbon emissions by 2030, a provision of his newly passed citywide law. “It doesn’t matter who you are, even the president of the United States, you have to obey the laws of New York City,” he said Monday. On Twitter, the mayor responded to the Trump Organization's antics, calling the scene a "temper tantrum." ". @realDonaldTrump is running scared from NYC’s Green New Deal. The temper tantrum his organization threw at Trump Tower today is proof," de Blasio wrote. "You're on notice, Donald: we won't let you mortgage our future for your real estate. Fix your buildings or pay the price," he tweeted.<doc-sep>[What you need to know to start the day: Get New York Today in your inbox.] Inside Trump Tower, at the foot of a set of escalators in the marble-lined lobby, Mayor Bill de Blasio was nearly ready to begin a news conference on Monday, when the first of many signs of trouble could be heard. Seven minutes before Mr. de Blasio was to speak, the lobby’s sound speakers suddenly sprung to life. It was Tony Bennett. “Because of You.” “Rags to Riches.” And other gems, all delivered at peak volume. Mr. de Blasio showed up at 12:04 p.m. A group of activists and city workers chanted, “Our planet. Not your profit.” He stood at a lectern bearing a sign that said “NYC Green New Deal.” Behind him was another set of other signs — “Worst Mayor Ever,” “Failed Mayor” and “Trump 2020” — that a group of seven men and a woman held aloft, riding up and down the escalators in view of the cameras, as they booed and whistled and heckled and catcalled.<doc-sep>Following his silly stunt Monday, any more questions about why I call him Mayor Putz? Is there any doubt he is the Worst Mayor Ever? Bill de Blasio’s press conference inside Trump Tower was clownish without being funny, a joke without a punchline. The jackass move disgraced the Office of the Mayor and the City of New York. The mayor’s aim, pure and simple, was to get attention by singling out President Trump in a dopey bid to tout himself as greener-than-thou because of a new law on skyscraper emissions. The ruse was absurd, given that owners have until 2030 to meet the new standards. And it was doubly absurd given that officials acknowledge that many other owners would face fines far larger than the estimated $2 million Trump would face, assuming the law takes effect as written and buildings don’t comply. De Blasio knew all that before he jumped in his SUV to ride to the building and lecture others about environmental apocalypse. Justice of a sort prevailed, however, because the landlord cranked up the music system in the public atrium and demonstrators forced the Putz to practically shout to be heard. Not that he had anything to say except, “Cut your emissions or we will take your money, we will fine you.” That’s his thing — telling other people how to spend their money and taking it from them. Recall his socialist shout-out last January: “Here’s the truth, brothers and sisters, there’s plenty of money in the world. Plenty of money in this city. It’s just in the wrong hands!” But as he has proven repeatedly, putting money in de Blasio’s hands is as useful as flushing it down the toilet. From the sinkhole known as Thrive that his wife sort of runs to his Renewal school plan, more than $1 billion has vanished without doing much good for anyone except the mayor’s union pals. De Blasio fancies himself a national figure and so comparisons to the owner of Trump Tower are inevitable but not favorable. Nor does it help de Blasio that he chose the same spot for his stunt where Trump announced his presidential run. The two men are similar in one way: Both are tall. The Putz says he’ll make his decision about running for the Democratic nomination this week, but he’s said that before. Whether he runs or not won’t matter because a snowball has a better chance in hell than de Blasio has of becoming president. Unfortunately, he’s not the only New York official trying to piggyback on Trump for a career boost. State Attorney General Letitia James campaigned on a promise to take on Trump, whom she calls an “illegitimate president,” and acts as if she’s a special prosecutor with a single target. In one interview, she said she would use “every area of the law to investigate President Trump and his business transactions and that of his family.” And she has by, among other things, sending subpoenas to Deutsche Bank for its records on loans to the Trump Organization. Naturally, James’ office leaked the subpoena news to a Trump-hating New York newspaper. James also wants legislation allowing her to file state charges against anyone Trump might pardon over federal charges, and joined other states in suing to block a border wall and opposing a citizenship question on the Census. In short, whatever Trump is for, she is using her government office to oppose it. Then there’s the state Legislature, which is likely to approve a bill that would allow Congress to get the state tax returns of any New York taxpayer. There is no secret about which taxpayer lawmakers have in mind. One pol conceded it was a “workaround” because the federal treasury is refusing to give Trump’s tax returns to House Democrats. Gov. Cuomo, no stranger to kneecapping Trump when he’s not begging for federal money, says he will sign the bill if it passes both houses. The measure is another illustration that with Democrats running all of Albany, the Trump resistance has a new home and governing is an afterthought. The state Senate’s Web site declared that it “Stands up to President Trump,” as if that’s the job members were hired to do. If only New Yorkers could get Albany to stand up against the unions and other organized kleptocrats robbing taxpayers blind. The MTA is a state agency and it’s bleeding billions in waste and fraud, yet the Legislature shows no interest except to sock a congestion-pricing tax on Manhattan motorists to replace the lost money. As I have noted, New York state spends $175 billion on public services for 19 million people, while Florida gets by with spending $90 billion on 21 million people. Where does all the extra New York money go? Oh, let me guess: It’s Trump’s fault. Praising the barr on FBI probe A real attorney general — that’s what Bill Barr is. The news that Barr appointed a top federal prosecutor to examine the origins of the Russia investigation is more than just a single promise kept. It is a sign that Barr, who came to the job just three months ago, recognizes that the disgraced Jim Comey and other anti-Trump zealots damaged the FBI’s credibility, and is doing something about it. Barr has insisted on calling the surveillance of the 2016 campaign what it clearly was — spying. Now he has taken a forceful step to learn whether it was legitimate or a cooked-up bid to stop Trump’s election. Barr’s choice is John Durham, the federal prosecutor in Connecticut, a man well versed in revealing government scandals. He probed the FBI’s corrupt handling of Boston gangster Whitey Bulger and the CIA’s destruction of videotapes showing its interrogation of terror suspects in Iraq. Fox News reports that Durham started working on the case “weeks ago,” a sign that Barr has a sense of purpose. With Barr’s hapless predecessor, Jeff Sessions, sidelining himself in the Russia probe and deputy Rod Rosenstein in over his head and swamped by conflicts of interest, President Trump made a brilliant choice in giving Barr a second run as AG.<doc-sep>It was pure poetic justice that the weather ruined Mayor de Blasio’s latest stunt — turning his plans to preen about his Green New Deal efforts outside Trump Tower into a humiliating debacle inside the building. Forced indoors by rain, the mayor found his remarks drowned out by lobby music and protesters, some of whom ruined every picture by holding up “Trump 2020” and “Worst Mayor Ever” signs. It’s justice because de Blasio’s approach is so cynical. The stunt targeted Trump buildings for their greenhouse-gas emissions even though several other edifices — Mount Sinai Medical Center, the Time Warner Center, the MetLife building — have bigger problems by the same standard. And the standard itself is junk: It only threatens fines in 2030 — 11 years in the future, if buildings don’t refit to cut their emissions. Plus, more than half the city is exempted. Indeed, the scheme effectively targets industries that use a lot of energy, such as tech, media and life sciences — sectors that provide good jobs. Anyway, the initiative for the law came from the City Council; de Blasio just rushed to take the credit and then to pretend that Trump buildings are particular trouble. Yet the mayor’s green hypocrisy doesn’t end there. He has also come out against the proposed Williams pipeline, a billion-dollar project to bring natural gas to Brooklyn, Queens and Long Island. Without it, National Grid warns it will immediately have to start refusing new gas customers. And the mayor’s own aides warned last month that nixing the pipeline would increase the city’s reliance on higher-carbon oil — for a net loss in fighting climate change. De Blasio is claiming that his Green New Deal will somehow make up the difference, but its promised payoffs are years in the future, and he’ll be long gone from office when those promises prove false. The mayor, in short, is doing nothing about the real issues facing the city, just trying to polish his own image. He totally earned those “Worst Mayor Ever” signs.<doc-sep>
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio says he'll announce this week whether he's running for president NEW YORK -- New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio staged a chaotic news conference in the lobby of Trump Tower on Monday in which he touted a city anti-pollution law, was heckled by President Donald Trump's supporters and said he will announce this week whether he's running for president. Speaking at a podium steps from the spot where Trump announced his own run in 2015, the Democrat said he had come to warn the president that Trump Organization buildings could face a combined $2.1 million in annual fines by 2030 if they don't comply with a new law requiring skyscraper owners to cut greenhouse gas emissions. "President Trump, you're on notice. Your polluting buildings are part of the problem," he said. But de Blasio's speech was all-but drowned out by a throng of Trump supporters who demonstrated behind him on the building's escalators, booing, whistling, chanting and holding up signs with messages including, "Failed mayor" and "Worst mayor ever." Loud music also played over the building's sound system for part of the event. De Blasio had to shout to be heard over songs including a Frank Sinatra rendition of "I've Got You Under My Skin." "It's so nice of them to serenade us at Trump Tower. Clearly, they are uncomfortable with the truth," he said. Under a deal Trump struck with the city decades ago, the skyscraper's lobby is considered a public space for much of each day. Responding to a reporter's question, De Blasio — still straining to be heard — said he was discussing a possible presidential run with his family. "We will make a final decision this week and we will announce it this week," he said. De Blasio, who is in his second term as mayor, has openly discussed his desire to run for several months and has made exploratory trips to several early primary states. De Blasio said he initially intended to hold Monday's news conference outside Trump Tower but moved it indoors because of the weather. As for the hostile reaction inside the tower, he said he wasn't concerned. "One of the things you have to be when you're mayor is unflappable," he said. "You can't let anything bother you because you have to make tough decisions all the time. So, as I say, this is music to my ears."