Metro

De Blasio: Trump would be arrested if he shot someone on Fifth Avenue

Here’s one hypothetical Mayor Bill de Blasio will answer!

Hizzoner said Thursday that President Trump would be arrested if he pulled a gun and shot someone on Fifth Avenue, despite the president’s attorneys arguing in Manhattan appellate court Wednesday that Trump would be immune from prosecution.

“If anybody shoots someone, they get arrested, I don’t care if you’re president of the United States, if you shoot someone, you should get arrested and we would arrest him,” de Blasio told reporters at an unrelated press conference.

“Anyone who says that and calls themselves a lawyer should not be a lawyer, let’s start with that,” the mayor added. “But if you shoot someone, that’s a crime and no one is above the law. He would be arrested, period.”





Hizzoner made the remarks a day after one of the president’s attorneys told a state appellate court judge in Manhattan that nothing could be done to Trump, even if he shot a man on ritzy Fifth Avenue.

The claim emerged during a back-and-forth between Trump attorney William Consovoy and Manhattan District Attorney’s Office lawyer Carey Dunne as they debated the Manhattan DA’s efforts to obtain Trump’s tax returns before Judge Denny Chin.

“If he did, for example, pull out a handgun and shoot someone on Fifth Avenue, what would be the impact of that? Would local police be disabled from restraining such a person? Or processing such a person,” Dunne argued. “Would we have to wait for an impeachment proceeding to be initiated?”





Chin then put the question to Trump’s attorney, asking for his “view on the Fifth Avenue example.”

“Nothing could be done,” asked Chin. “That’s your position?”

Consovoy replied, “That is correct.”

It’s a change of pace for de Blasio, who frequently attempts to duck uncomfortable questions by claiming he doesn’t answer hypotheticals.

For instance, in August, the mayor dodged a question on CNN about whether he would have fired Police Commissioner James O’Neill if O’Neill had not terminated the officer who choked Eric Garner, Daniel Pantaleo.

“I don’t deal with hypotheticals. I believed all along there would be a fair process and there would be accountability.”

And in September, he refused to say if he would allow New York City students to skip class to attend an anti-abortion protest after giving them permission to attend a massive climate change rally.

“I don’t deal with hypotheticals,” he told WNYC radio host Brian Lehrer.





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