#De Blasio pulls race card to defend wife Chirlane McCray’s administrative role

Mayor Bill de Blasio pulled the race card to defend wife Chirlane McCray’s prominent role in his administration on everything from the city’s coronavirus response to slashing the NYPD’s budget.

“There have been critics from the beginning,” de Blasio said during his daily briefing Thursday when asked about concerns that he’s crediting her with the decision to shift money from cops to youth services to boost her future political career.

“I don’t know if they’re uncomfortable because she’s a woman or an African American or an African American woman,” he said.

McCray, who was at the briefing trumpeting her new plan to help mom-and-pop restaurants in minority communities recover from the coronavirus pandemic, said she actually doesn’t enjoy the public platform.

“I’m not someone who thrives in the limelight. I don’t, like, need the attention of both being in front of the cameras. In fact, it’s very difficult for me,” she said.

“I do what I do because I care about people. I care deeply about these brown and black communities that have been affected disproportionately by the COVID-19 virus,” McCray said.

Before the coronavirus pandemic hit the city McCray said she was considering running for Brooklyn borough president and began launching city-funded initiatives in Kings County.

One of her most vocal critics is Councilman Antonio Reynoso (D-Brooklyn), who’s also running to become the next Brooklyn borough president.

Reynoso, who is of Afro-Caribbean descent, blasted the couple.

“While the mayor continues to play politics with his family and ignores the demands of New Yorkers, I have been on the steps of City Hall since I took office, standing side by side with New Yorkers of good conscience, demanding repeal of 50-A, demanding the firing of Daniel Pantaleo, demanding the passage of the Right-Know-Act and the chokehold bill.

“The mayor fought us at every turn and Chirlane stayed silent,” Reynoso said.

A council source, who asked for anonymity because he was afraid of making McCray an underdog in the race, called de Blasio’s use of race to answer the question “ridiculous.”

“If you look at where the loudest criticism has come, I don’t think that’s true,” the source said.

He noted that Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, who is also black, accused the mayor of using his biracial family as a political shield last week.

“This is me talking, like, you can no longer hide behind your black wife and children, not anymore,” Williams said during a press conference live-streamed on Facebook Friday. Williams’ rebuke came a day after de Blasio was booed off the stage at a George Floyd memorial in Brooklyn for his handling of anti-police brutality protests in the Big Apple.

Female minority members of de Blasio’s staff recently penned a letter lobbing similar attacks on the mayor.

“Several of de Blasio’s ex and current staffers said that he has a penchant for naming his black wife and children in staff emails and public statements when he wants to shield himself from criticisms from people of color on his staff,” according to The Root, which obtained an exclusive copy of the missive.