Lhota Launches



Today Joe Lhota held a press conference responding to the emergence of Bill de Blasio as the virtually-certain Democratic nominee.  This morning, de Blasio joined Bill Thompson and Governor Andrew Cuomo at a press conference in which Thompson effectively conceded and indicated that, even if a runoff is held, he will not contest de Blasio’s nomination.

Lhota called de Blasio’s theme of “a tale of Two Cities” a “divisive device” that constitutes “class warfare.”  Somewhat paradoxically, Lhota then acknowledged that there is “income inequality … in the city” and that the question is “what programs we’re going to have to be able to deal with the income inequality” in order to make “New York affordable.”  He sounded, for a moment, like a Democrat.

Here is the full press conference.