It’s a progressive civil war.
A hot-under-the-collar Mayor Bill de Blasio tore into Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Friday as he blistered both the online giant and local politicians who opposed bringing it to Queens.
“As a progressive my entire life — and I ain’t changing — I’ll take on any progressive anywhere that thinks it’s a good idea to lose jobs and revenue because I think that’s out of touch with what working people want,” the mayor said on WNYC radio.
Ocasio Cortez (D-Bronx/Queens) — who lobbed bombs at the $3 billion incentives package offered by city and state leaders — said Thursday that Amazon’s withdrawal from the deal showed that “everyday Americans still have the power to organize and fight for their communities and they can have more say in this country than the richest man in the world.”
The audio clip, played by WNYC host Brian Lehrer as he questioned de Blasio over Amazon’s shocking decision to withdraw, set the mayor on a tear.
“I came up watching the mistakes of progressives of the past, unfortunately what happened in this city when it almost went to bankruptcy in the 1970s,” said a boiling de Blasio. “I saw all the times progressives did not show people effective governance and all the times progressives made the kinds of mistakes that alienated working people.”
“Working people are very smart and very discerning. They want jobs, they want revenue, they want the kinds of things that government can do for them,” he added. “They understand they have to be paid for.”
City and state politicians promised Amazon $2.5 billion in tax credits, a $500 million state construction subsidy and the ability to sidestep the city’s laborious zoning process to bring the company’s promised new campus and its 25,000 jobs to the Long Island waterfront.
The company stunned New York on Thursday when it announced it was pulling out in the face of opposition from local neighborhood groups and some local Queens politicians.
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