Thursday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) said President Donald Trump was using MS-13 “to paint Latinos as dangerous in our country.”

De Blasio said, “Let’s talk about the speech in Long Island. That was painful. I went over the transcript again because I couldn’t believe it. It’s not about MS-13. It’s about an attempt to paint Latinos as dangerous in our country. Our police department rejects that. We became the safest big city in America because we worked with immigrant communities, they helped police make the city the safest big city in America. The last time we had this few murders in New York City the Dodgers were playing at Ebbets Field. That happened with immigration and police cooperation.”

He added, “Donald Trump has told me repeatedly in conversation, he’ll often say things are great in New York City, they’re great, crime is down, things are great. He’ll acknowledge openly that New York City has gotten safer, then he’ll turn around and attack immigrants and paint a very few disgusting gang members, don’t get me wrong, I want to get them all in jail and deported, but he’ll paint them as the exemplar of all Latinos. That’s what’s going on and we shouldn’t accept it because the facts speak against it. He knows this is a safe city and it’s a city of immigrants.”

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