De Blasio Defends Ban on Religious Services While Allowing Mass Protests

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) is defending his decision to place a ban on religious services as massive protests continue in various parts of the city.

During an appearance on CNN’s “New Day,” host John Berman asked de Blasio about a recent court decision that insists the mayor and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) violated residents’ Constitutional rights “by restricting religious services.”

The Democratic mayor quickly fired back to defend his previous decision banning religious services during the coronavirus pandemic.

“No. Just wrong. We worked with the religious leadership of this city for months,” de Blasio responded. “Cardinal Dolan and the Catholic church and so many other religious leaders who were in full agreement that it was not time to bring back religious services because of the danger it would cause to their congregants.”

De Blasio went on to argue the difference between mass protests and the ban on religious services as he described the arguments as a comparison of “apples and oranges.”

See de Blasio’s remarks below:

“The protests were an entirely different reality; a national phenomenon. That was not something the government could just say, ‘You know, go away,’” de Blasio said, adding, “It’s something that really came from the grassroots and obviously had profound meaning and we’re all acting on the meaning of those protests.”

He continued, “But it’s really apples and oranges. Our religious leaders were the first to say it was not time to bring back services. Now, we’re doing it carefully, smartly. So I think that decision profoundly misses what the very religious institutions, themselves, were saying.”

The mayor’s latest remarks came after more than 30 consecutive days of protests. Despite the ongoing pandemic and the accelerated uptick in new cases, people in more than 140 cities all over the country have hit the pavement to protest against police brutality and racial injustice.

Many of the protests, particularly in New York, have attracted thousands of participants which led to criticism about the ban on religious services. As of Tuesday afternoon, there are more than 417,000 known coronavirus cases in the state of New York and the death toll stands at 32,129 in the state.