Mayor Mike does not seem all that happy that Governor Cuomo is trying to shift the blame for SAFE onto him:
“… Asked about that criticism today, Bloomberg erupted in anger. “What did we do, put a gun to their head, if you pardon the pun, and force them to write legislation?” he said, during a press conference in Brooklyn about helping the unemployed get jobs. “Is that the allegation? That we were up there with automatic weapons with expanded capacity magazines forcing them to write a bill?” “That’s the kind of journalism that I find troublesome,” he continued. “You’ve got a source that isn’t willing to put their name on the bill and the reporting of it wasn’t in the context of, is that credible? But they were forced by guns, or a knife at their throat, to take our ideas. If they took our ideas, I’m flattered. I hope they did. And I don’t know whether they did or didn’t, and I don’t know whether they got it accurate or not.” …”
Let me see if I have this straight:
- Cuomo says SAFE was Bloomberg’s idea.
- Bloomberg says he’s flattered if Cuomo did accept his ideas.
- Bloomberg doesn’t know if Cuomo accepted his ideas.
- Bloomberg is angry.
What is wrong with this picture?
- There is no possible way for Bloomberg not to know if Cuomo accepted his ideas or not. Either they were passed into law or they weren’t.
Later one of his mouthpieces elaborates to the Capital New York reporter on Bloomberg’s involvements with SAFE:
“… Here’s a statement Bloomberg spokesman Marc LaVorgna sent over following the press conference. The Governor’s office reached out to us for advice. We advised them to include micro stamping—our well known, long-time top priority at the State level—but they choose not to include it. We did not advise them on the magazine issue, as it is not something we ever proposed in State legislation. Representatives from film industry informed us about the issue of movie and TV production the before bill passed, something we noted to the Governor’s office …”
Let me see if I got it all now:
- Cuomo says SAFE was Bloomberg’s idea.
- Bloomberg says he’s flattered if Cuomo did accept his ideas.
- Bloomberg says he wanted microstamping.
- Bloomberg denies he wanted magazine capacity limits.
- Bloomberg wants an exemption for Hollywood.
- Bloomberg does not know if Cuomo accepted his ideas.
- Bloomberg is angry.
Now what is wrong with this picture?
- There is no way for Bloomberg not to know that Cuomo did not accept his ideas. Either they were included in SAFE or they weren’t. Neither microstamping nor a Hollywood exemption are part of SAFE.
- Bloomberg lied in his first press conference about this.
- Someone is lying about the magazine issue, either Cuomo or Bloomberg or both.
It’s going to be interesting to see which one of these guys is going to lose his shit first. I’ll give Cuomo the edge as Bloomberg can always console himself by rolling around in a bed made of money.