Mayor Bill de Blasio on Thursday defended having the city pay for his NYPD security detail last weekend in Nevada when he endorsed Bernie Sanders for president, claiming his predecessors have enjoyed the same privilege for decades.
“It’s a fair question, but the rules are the rules,” de Blasio told WNYC radio – even after coming under fire days earlier when The Post revealed these same cops racked up a $358,000 tab guarding Hizzoner during his failed 2020 White House bid.
“This is one of the most prominent public positions in America, being the mayor of our large city, and we live in a world where the security dynamics have become more and more challenging. The NYPD decides what kind of security I … need. I don’t make the decision. When the NYPD says I need security, I have to abide by it.”
De Blasio also insisted the same practice has gone on for “decades and decades” –- even though no other sitting mayor in the city has actively campaigned to become president since John Lindsay’s failed 1972 bid.
“New York City mayors are public figures who go around the country — certainly [former mayor and current presidential candidate] Michael Bloomberg did,” Hizzoner said.
“I don’t agree with Michael Bloomberg on many things, but I give him credit for some of the things he went around the country on that he thought were important.
“He was always given that protection. Every mayor has been given that protection. It’s just the way it is. “
A Post examination of over 1,500 pages of NYPD records found that cops on de Blasio’s detail racked up a $358,000-plus tab for last-minute campaign trips from May 16 to Sept. 20, when the mayor dropped out of the Democratic primary race.
Expenses — excluding cops’ salaries and overtime — included $191,621 for airfare to destinations like Denver, Colo., and Fort Lauderdale, Fla., $103,099 for hotels, $30,929 for car rentals, and $27,776 for meals.
New York City taxpayers also paid $490 so seven members of the mayor’s security detail could tag along with him to watch his beloved Boston Red Sox in Los Angeles last August while he was on the West Coast taping a political podcast.
Hizzoner appeared with Sanders in Nevada on Sunday and Monday to endorse the far-left-leaning Vermont senator for the Democratic presidential nomination.
It was a reversal from four years earlier, when de Blasio backed Hillary Clinton over Sanders, after famously waffling for months.
The mayor has since repeatedly said he believes Sanders would have defeated Republican Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election if Sanders had won the primary.
