New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio doesn't want to focus on the past.
CNN's Jake Tapper played some clips of de Blasio urging New Yorkers to go about their daily lives despite worries about the threat of the novel COVID-19 coronavirus in January, February, and March on Sunday's edition of State of the Union. Tapper then asked the mayor if he thinks his messaging may have had something to do with how fast the virus has spread in the city, which has become the U.S. epicenter.
There was no outright denial from de Blasio, but he said he was working with the information he had at the time, while trying to make sure people's livelihoods remained intact. Now that it's become clear New York was unable to evade the virus, de Blasio argues "none of us have time to look backward." He said the only thing that should be on people's minds is how to get through the next week.
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Tapper, though, pointed out that de Blasio himself has criticized President Trump for being behind the coronavirus curve, to which the mayor replied he was early in complaining about a lack of testing. But he also suggested now wasn't the moment to talk about that, either. "The time to deal with these questions is after this war is over," he said.
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