NEW YORK_New York Mayor Bill de Blasio's participation participate in a protest rally in Hamburg, Germany, during the gathering of the Group of 20 drew sharp criticism back home from conservatives who denounced him for caring more about his feud with President Donald Trump than his hometown.
De Blasio was the keynote speaker Saturday for an organization called Hamburg Shows Attitude and opened his talk with a spirited defense of the right to protest. "In America, we have a phrase we like to use: This is what democracy looks like.''
The criticism of the mayor came from mostly Trump supporters, including the president's son Donald Trump Jr. and Nicole Malliotakis, a Republican who is running for mayor.
It didn't help de Blasio that a police officer was shot dead early Wednesday.
In an interview with WNYC radio, de Blasio said he decided to accept the invitation to speak in Hamburg only after finding out that the policewoman's funeral would be next week and that he would be back in time to attend. He also said that it was part of his duties as mayor to redouble efforts to fight climate change and to resist Trump's campaign against illegal immigrants.
"I think it was incumbent on me as the leader of the biggest city in the country to set a tone and to say we're not going to be intimidated by President Trump and we're not going to turn away from our values,'' he said in the radio interview.
