New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio held a press conference Tuesday afternoon in which he demanded that the federal government and military rain money and military personnel on his fair city. In his rambling remarks he stoked fear and division as he painted an end-times vision of Gotham under martial law and a Great Depression type economy.

@NYCMayor is now talking about shelter in place for NYC! Mentions how bad the market is, comparing it to the Great Depression! Activating the military! Forcing all NYers to stop working, killing the NY economy. When the govt comes to help, we're all screwed! Over a cold virus! pic.twitter.com/dg8nksKedB

— Charles Scalzo (@CharlesScalzo) March 17, 2020

De Blasio said:

We will need quickly support from the federal government. Everything I’ve talked about so far keeps coming back to the federal government. There’s more the federal government can do to help us expand testing. There is obviously much that the federal government can do to ensure that the military is brought to bear to the fullest extent to help New York City and other areas that have been hard hit by the coronavirus. There is so much that the federal government can do to ensure that people have income….

https://twitter.com/NY1/status/1239983567096119296

What exactly does he mean when he says “ensure that the military is brought to bear to the fullest extent to help New York City”? We probably don’t want to find out, but beyond that, is De Blasio even aware that he can call the governor and ask for the National Guard to be deployed to NYC? This is not the time to just throw up your hands then make demands completely outside of the chain of command.

De Blasio then made predictions about the economy, claiming that what’s about to happen is going to be worse than the Great Depression. His baseless assertion is extremely harmful and could create a panic. Even worse, it was solely a run-up to asking for a handout.

It’s going to take direct income support on a vast scale. And I have said very clearly, the federal government found a way to come up with vast amounts of money to bail out the banking industry a few years ago, to bail out the auto industry, vast amounts of money for a tax cut for the wealthy and corporations, even vaster amounts of money for endless wars that have yielded little for the people of this country. Clearly the federal government knows how to spend money quickly and on a huge scale. It should be spent on the American people right now….

Mayor De Blasio, your actions and words today are the antithesis of responsible leadership. Get a grip, and maybe an endorphin rush. We hear that VIP’s can still go to the gym.