A Queens woman who made headlines last week for going after Mayor Bill de Blasio during a press conference in Whitestone has joined independent mayoral candidate Bo Dietl’s campaign staff.
Vickie Paladino, 63, claims she was just driving by at random when she saw the mayor and jumped out of her car to accuse de Blasio of letting his “police officers down” by leaving the city to attend the G-20 summit in Germany the day after NYPD Officer Miosotis Familia was fatally shot in the line of duty on July 5.
Paladino loudly complained that she “had it with the way he’s running this city” in an impromptu press conference.
Now she’s planning to do something about that, as she has since joined the campaign staff of Dietl, a former NYPD detective and fellow vocal de Blasio critic.
For those wondering if Paladino was planted by Dietl’s campaign at de Blasio’s press conference, the candidate shot those rumors down himself when reached on his cellphone by Metro Friday.
“I’m going to make this statement. I have never, ever met Vickie before watching her on TV that day in Whitestone,” he said. “She’s not a plant, but I’m telling you right now, I love her energy, and I think the mayor’s going to be seeing a lot more of Vickie.”
Paladino telling the Post she overheard de Blasio telling his security detail to “get me away from her” during their run-in in Whitestone did not sit well with Dietl.
“No, no, no. She’s a voter of New York City,” he said. “I’m very proud to have her by my side to fight for it. What’s he going to do? Lock her up?
“I think you’re going to come to see a lot more of Vickie. She’s a great pit bull, a mother from Queens and a typical New Yorker. She showed her frustration, and I really liked that about her,” he added.
De Blasio’s reelection campaign did not respond to Metro’s request for comment by press time.
According to Dietl’s campaign website, he and Paladino plan to host a weekly podcast in which they will discuss issues “near and dear to New Yorkers.”
