“President Trump’s repeated downplaying of the coronavirus threat has increasingly come back to haunt him as the outbreak has truly taken hold. But in the most hard-hit area in the country, another top politician’s previous comments minimizing the threat are forcing a reckoning,” the New York Times reports.
“Throughout the crisis that has now hit New York City harder than any other area of the country, Mayor Bill de Blasio offered comments that, like Trump, downplayed the threat and suggested the city was ready for what lay ahead. The mayor also repeatedly told people that transmission of the disease was very unlikely in casual encounters and in public places.”
