De Blasio Tells Hannity a Secret About Many NYC Residents: ‘People Get in with a Wall, Without a Wall’

Mayor of the Big Apple and a 2020 candidate for the Democratic nomination says everyone should get free health care no matter who they are or how they got here

By Maureen Mackey | August 8, 2019

It was a heated and compelling conversation.

Just ahead of his “Hannity” broadcast last night, host Sean Hannity of Fox News told viewers that he was “going to change format a little tonight. Buckle up.”

Then he announced that “far-Left New York City Mayor — I affectionately call him Comrade Bill de Blasio — and 2020 Democratic hopeful” would be appearing on the program.

De Blasio (shown above at left) joined Hannity for an exclusive interview — and across various segments, the mayor shared his controversial views on a wide range of topics, including immigration, health care and more.

In part one of their conversation, the Fox News host asked the liberal leader if he supports “walls on our border.”

“I support border security but not walls,” replied de Blasio.

“No walls?” said Hannity.

“I don’t think we need additional walls, because — OK, there’s 11 million people here right now, Sean—”

“There is more,” the Fox News host corrected him, referring to those in this country without documentation.

“Maybe. But this is what I don’t get about the whole discussion, bluntly, on this network and a lot of other places. Eleven million people are here. They’ve been here for decades. This is the biggest ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ in American history. Why are we allowing ourselves to be divided by the people when this already happened? … There is no invasion. These people here already are part of our community.”

Hannity focused on the criminal element — which is what’s of concern to so many millions of Americans. He said that “90 percent of the heroin that comes in to this country crosses the southern border. Fentanyl — a big percentage [of it] crosses the southern border. We’re losing 300 people a week [to that scourge]. You know all about the opioid epidemic in a big city like New York.”

“We fight it every day,” de Blasio interjected.

“We have to save these kids,” said Hannity. “And so, my question is, between — I think the 99 percent of people who want to come here want what we have, and I don’t blame them. There is 1 percent, though — [within a] two-year period, there were 4,000 homicides, 30,000 sexual assaults, [and] 100,000 violent assaults [committed] by illegal immigrant criminals. The 1 percent. I want to be very clear. My question to you is very simple: If you don’t have a wall, how are you going to stop them?”

“People get in with a wall, without a wall, that’s not how you do it,” de Blasio responded quickly. “What you do is you create an actual border security mechanism. You use every tool you need and you create a reality in our communities where … in our communities, where police and communities are working together. In the city … if someone [is] convicted, and they are undocumented, they are out of here. And we work with communities to make sure we find people who have done things that are inappropriate.”

Hannity pointed out that New York City essentially allows the undocumented to stay.

“I want to talk about facts,” de Blasio said abruptly.

“Here’s the facts,” said Hannity bluntly. “Bill de Blasio has nearly 500,000 illegal immigrants in his city. Those are the facts. Those are the census facts. And you said you want New York taxpayers to pay for their health care.”

“That’s another charade,” responded de Blasio. “And you have to decide how honest you want to be.”

“Everyone who lives here gets the health care they need so that everybody could be healthy,” said de Blasio.

“Whoa, whoa, is that not true?” replied Hannity.

“No —”

“Wait a minute … You just accused me of being dishonest,” said Hannity. “Are there 500,000 … Do you want free health care for everyone, for every New Yorker?”

“I’m answering a question,” said de Blasio. “I want every New Yorker—”

“Legal or illegal?”

“Everybody who’s here … to get health care.”

The two talked over each other frequently — so that following the exact wording wasn’t always easy. But look carefully at what the mayor said in this exchange.

“Let me finish my thought,” said Hannity. “Just to be clear, 500,000 illegal immigrants in New York City should get free health care. That’s what you just said.”

De Blasio responded, “Everyone who lives here gets the health care they need so that everybody could be healthy, not get each other sick and—”

“Even if they are illegal?” put in Hannity.

Replied de Blasio, “Even if they’re undocumented. I’ll tell you why. Because otherwise, what’s happening is — people go to the emergency room, the taxpayers pay anyway … People get sicker. So, these are human beings who are part of our economy, who are part of our neighborhood … Right? [In] every neighborhood in the city, there is not a sign that says who is undocumented.”

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The Fox News host tried to move on to other topics, but de Blasio cut in and said, “Wait a minute. Whoa, whoa. Two-way street. So, do you agree that people go to the emergency room when they are sick … and we end up paying for it anyway?”

Hannity replied, “We’re a constitutional republic. I revere our Constitution. I revere the rule of law. And I understand I think why 99 percent of people want to be here because they want what we all take for granted that God has given us. I want to have a wall to stop the heroin — let me finish. Stop the cartels … and I want criminal elements to be vetted and I want a big door that says welcome to our family, welcome to our country.”

To that, de Blasio responded, “So, you want comprehensive immigration reform. We got 11 million [undocumented] people here right now.”

Said Hannity, “After we build the wall … After we build the wall and secure our borders, my answer is absolutely, we give those highly coveted slots to the people that respect our laws.”

De Blasio then said, “Sean, this is why it’s such a charade … It is a charade, stop it. What you are doing and what your network does too often is try to distract people —”

“What are you talking about?” Hannity said to him. “We’re not monolithic [here] —”

“I agree you are not a monolith but too much of the time, what Fox and News Corp. is trying to do is … take people’s minds off the fact they are being screwed economically by the 1 percent,” said de Blasio, trying to finish with a flourish on that topic.

This piece originally appeared in LifeZette and is used by permission.

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