NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio Denounces Trump’s Anti-Muslim Attack On London Mayor Sadiq Khan

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[European News]
Mayor Bill de Blasio denounces Trump’s anti-Muslim attacks on London Mayor Sadiq Khan…
Photo: Facebook

London Mayor Sadiq Khan latest target of bigoted attacks by Donald Trump

Well, when I woke up this morning I did not expect to be speaking to you about international affairs. But something happened that is, just to me, very troubling and just wrong in every sense.

The President of the United States goes to England and, before landing, insults and attacks one of the key leaders of that country. He chose to attack Mayor Sadiq Khan of London, who I consider a friend, who is someone I respect and value greatly, who is doing extraordinary work on behalf of all of the people of London. He attacked Mayor Kahn in a way that was insulting and demeaning, and sends a message to all the people of Great Britain that the President of the United States does not respect them, does not respect their choices, does not respect the democratic process of one of our great allied nations.

But let’s be very clear, what’s happening here is part of a pattern. It’s not normal. It’s not okay to have the President of United States attack duly elected foreign leaders on a regular basis. It undermines our standing in the world in a profound way because it goes to the heart of what people feel about this country when they see our – our president attacking who they chose to lead them.

If that was all that was happening here, it would be bad enough. But it’s worse, because it’s not even a veiled attack on Muslim people – it’s a very purposeful attack on Muslims. To choose to attack one of the most prominent Muslim leaders on this earth – an exemplary leader in a western democratic nation, someone whose story is one we all would admire, the son of a bus driver who worked hard and became the mayor of his hometown, a person who believes in unity and respect for all people.

I know Sadiq Khan. I’ve spent a lot of time with them. I had him to dinner at Gracie Mansion. This is someone we should all respect, and our president attacked him in a way that was meant to demean, and it was meant to demean all Muslims. So, this has to end.

And I’ll tell you something, what President Trump is doing is making our country less secure, because he’s turning people all over the world against us. It’s petty and it’s nasty, but what it’s really doing is showing that his insecurities as a person are making us insecure as a nation. And it has to end. We’ve seen this behavior from President Trump before. He reserves special glee for attacking Muslim people.

And if you look at Sadiq Khan’s leadership, including some very tough situations in London that he’s handled with tremendous strength and dignity, there’s nothing there to attack. You know, he – President Trump thought that comparing me to Sadiq Khan was somehow a mutual insult. I’m honored to be compared to Sadiq Khan. I’ve seen the work he’s done, it is deserving of great praise. But yes, it was a very purposeful effort by this president to continue to foster negative feelings towards Muslim people in this country and all over the world.

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