Sunday on CNN’s "State of the Union," Jake Tapper asked NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio if his comments telling people to go about their normal lives during the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic could have contributed to the massive outbreak in New York.



"In retrospect, is that message at least in part to blame for how rapidly the virus has spread across the city?" Tapper asked, referring to clips from earlier this year.



"Jake, we should not be focusing, in my view, on anything looking back," he replied. "This is just about how we save lives going forward... This was a very different world just a short time ago."



"Mr. Mayor, weren’t your actions in this outbreak also far, far behind the curve?" Tapper stated.



"I think the big historical point here that will be looked back on is if this country had the testing we needed this could have been a very different reality," de Blasio said.