Things got super uncomfortable when Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson’s staff cut short a KOMO news interview she was performing after she got pressed on one of her exceedingly soft-on-crime policies, with the mayor refusing to answer a question about a surveillance camera expansion plan after a shooting happened near an event of hers.
For reference, Mayor Wilson, who is a self-described socialist and is generally known for her exceedingly far-left views, was interviewed by reporter Chris Daniels on Friday, May 1. He was pressing her on whether she would think her decision to pause an expansion of anti-crime surveillance cameras in the city, and that led to her staff freaking out and shutting the interview down ahead of time.
As background, his question came not just because she has pushed to halt the camera expansion, but because she was giving a speech at the Yesler Community Center just days beforehand and, shortly after she finished her speech, a shooting occurred, with gunfire erupting nearby and wreaking havoc on the event.
The mayor, who was present for a speech about expanding the public preschool program in the city, was rushed away by her security detail. Meanwhile, other leftists present for the event, like City Councilmember Maritza Rivera and the Seattle Public Schools superintendent, had to shelter in place in a lockdown inside the school.
Such is what led to the very awkward exchange with Daniels. She said, commenting on what had happened and blaming “gun violence” for the shooting rather than criminals, said, “I’m doing great. I’ve got a great team supporting me. I’ll just say we don’t have any indication that the shooting was targeted or anything like that. I think it’s a reminder of how much work we have to do as a city on gun violence. But I’m doing fine.”
That is what led to Daniels broaching the subject of the security cameras and her stance on crime in the city. He asked, “Last question… People are concerned there has been rising gun violence and should be more surveillance cameras.” He continued, on much the same point, “Does this change your perspective at all?”
Wilson didn’t respond. When it looked like she might do so, a staffer stepped in. Intervening directly, the staffer, who was clad in a red jacket, moved in to stop Wilson from answering the question, Meanwhile, an off-camera staffer could be heard demanding that Daniels keep the interview “on topic”. That, in turn, led to Wilson awkwardly mumbling, “We’re just trying to keep it in the scope and respect the event itself.”
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It got more awkward from there. Instead of staying for the end of the interview, Wilson started awkwardly moving off stage. As she did so, the second staffer interjected, “We just need to keep it within the constraints of the event itself.” Daniels was annoyed and dismayed at the premature end of the interview, and fired back at the staffer. “It looks worse when you jump in like that. The staffer, intransigent, kept giving total non-answer responses
Watch the awkward interview here:
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video