The fight to replenish the 9/11 first responders' fund should not have become a fight, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said Tuesday.
"These were heroes by every measure," de Blasio, a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, told MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell. "Why on Earth, for whatever public relations or other reasons, the EP told thousands of our heroes it was safe to go someplace it wasn't. The least we can do as a nation is to be there for them and their families."
The mayor said first responder Lou Alvarez, who became nationally known for his fight for the benefits bill and died this summer, will be honored posthumously with a key to the city, as he "stood up for his brothers and sisters even as he was dying."
"We need to make sure we never have a situation where people serve us, put their lives on the line, and then are forgotten," de Blasio added.
The mayor also discussed his workers' rights platform, saying he's proposing legislation, that he would enact for president, requiring there be just cause for someone to be fired from their job.
"Right now in America, there's no guarantee of time off, no matter how much you work," he said."Every other industrialized country in the world guarantees paid vacation days but this one. I propose two weeks minimum vacation."
The plan also protects labor unions and the "gig economy," said de Blasio.
"I believe this is the platform of the Democratic Party," he said. "You're going to see a lot of people come back to the Democratic Party. A lot of people care about voting. This is about their lives."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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