He came out of the shadows.
Former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio on Friday made rare comments about the tragic day he dropped a beloved Staten Island pet on its head.
“Any event at 7 a.m. that features agitated live animals is not going to end well,” he said to Semafor reporter, Kadia Goba on Groundhogs Day, exactly a decade since Post saw him lose his grip and drop the rat, ultimately leading to his untimely death.
He previously described how his motor skills were “not at their best” when he arrived at the Staten Island Zoo to celebrate Groundhog Day on February 2, 2014, and zoo staff handed him Staten Island Chuck.
“I put on these gloves, and they’re like, ‘It’s a groundhog,’ I’m like, ‘What the f–k?,'” De Blasio said in an interview with New York Magazine first addressing the scandal last year.
Former Mayor Bill de Blasio talked about dropping Staten Island Chuck in 2014.
“I was like, ‘Don’t you have a little more guidance to go with this or whatever?’ It’s stupid. Why would you want an elected official to hold the ground? he scoffed, adding that he “100% regrets” holding the animal, which squirmed out of the 6’5″ mayor’s hands and fell to the ground.
A few months later, in September, The Post broke the news that Staten Island Chuck had died — and the zoo was trying to cover it up.
The scandal then deepened when The Post revealed that Staten Island Chuck was actually a woman named Charlotte.
The real Chuck was quietly switched after he famously bit the leather-gloved hand of then-mayor Michael Bloomberg at a 2009 Groundhog Day event, sources said.
The animal squirmed out of the 6’5” mayor’s hands and fell to the ground.
The Staten Island Zoo kept the baiting operation secret to preserve the purity of the “groundhog brand,” the source said.
Even Hizzoner himself swears he doesn’t know.
“I found out as you all know — I didn’t know before,” de Blasio insisted at the time.
After the scandal, the Staten Island Zoo announced in January 2015 that it had revised its Groundhog Day policy so that no one – mayor or otherwise – could handle the animal.
Friday’s celebration went well as the children chanted “Early Spring, Early Spring” before Chuck failed to see his shadow — meaning early spring is here. Chad Rachman/NYPost
The following month, de Blasio observed Groundhog Day from behind plexiglass.
Hizzoner later skipped Groundhog Day at the zoo in 2016 because he was campaigning in Iowa for Hillary Clinton’s presidential bid, the Staten Island Advocate reported.
No mayor has attended the annual event since then.
Fortunately, Friday’s celebration went well as the children chanted “Early Spring, Early Spring” before Chuck failed to see his shadow — meaning early spring was on its way.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
