Mayor Bill de Blasio was furious when the Rev. Al Sharpton lectured and threatened him from the dais at last week’s City Hall meeting over the police chokehold death of Eric Garner, The Post has learned.
De Blasio thought the activist preacher publicly humiliated him by spouting off from a seat of honor directly to the mayor’s left, sources said Thursday.
“He was really pissed at what Sharpton did,” one source said.
“He felt [Sharpton] embarrassed him, and he regrets now that he let the press in and that he moved Sharpton up [to the dais].”
Sharpton was initially supposed to be seated away from de Blasio with other community leaders, the source said.
Sources also said some of de Blasio’s top aides are worried that Sharpton’s stunt damaged the mayor’s credibility as a leader as controversy continues to mount over Garner’s July 17 caught-on-video arrest. “It’s obvious it was a mistake. It makes him look weak,” a source said.
During statements to reporters before their closed-door, roundtable discussion July 31, Sharpton told de Blasio that if teenage offspring “Dante wasn’t your son, he’d be a candidate for a chokehold.”
Sharpton also demanded the mayor “go from hope to actuality” and warned: “If we’re going to play spin games, I’ll be your worst enemy.”
“He was really pissed at what Sharpton did … He felt [Sharpton] embarrassed him, and he regrets now that he let the press in and that he moved Sharpton up [to the dais].”
On Monday, Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association President Pat Lynch blasted the decision to seat Sharpton next to de Blasio, who was flanked on his other side by NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton.
Sharpton “shouldn’t have the right to sit at the lead table at City Hall and stir up the streets, where it becomes dangerous for police officers,” Lynch said.
Other cops who feel Sharpton has been empowered by the administration have created a mock NYPD ID with Sharpton’s photo and the title “Police Commissioner.”
Sharpton on Thursday told The Post he had personally spoken to de Blasio and administration officials since the event and that no one expressed any misgivings or ill will.
A de Blasio spokesman said, “While he doesn’t always agree with Reverend Sharpton, he certainly respects him as a community, faith and civil-rights leader. The mayor was pleased Reverend Sharpton came to City Hall to participate in this important roundtable on police-community relations.”