DeSantis rips NY bail law on Staten Island

Mayor Eric Adams traded verbal blows Monday with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ right-hand woman after the Republican bashed New York’s controversial bail reform law and urged NYPD cops to consider a transfer to the Sunshine State during a visit to the Big Apple ahead of a widely expected 2024 presidential run.

Adams jabbed DeSantis over his culture war stances, tweeting: “Welcome to NYC, @GovRonDeSantis, a place where we don’t ban books, discriminate against our LGBTQ+ neighbors, use asylum seekers as props, or let the government stand between a woman and health care. We’re happy to teach you something about values while you’re here.”

“Nice rhetoric — but here’s reality: More Americans fled NYC than any other metro area last year,” answered Christina Pushaw, DeSantis’ former press secretary and current rapid response director. 

“More Americans moved to Florida than any other state,” she went on. “You know this, Mayor Adams, and you’ve talked (accurately) about crime pushing people out of NYC. Florida’s crime rate meanwhile is at a 50 year low. Maybe it’s you who can learn from @RonDeSantisFL?”

Adams had not responded as of Monday evening. 

DeSantis, who won a second term in a November landslide, told a restaurant full of supporters on Staten Island that “the foundation of Florida’s success has been a commitment to law and order and support for the men and women who wear the uniform.”

“I read that New York is the only state that doesn’t allow judges to consider — when they’re making a bail determination — whether someone’s a danger to the community,” the 44-year-old said.

“How does that make any sense? Is that making your community any safer, to be doing that? Of course not. So you need to do things like repeal these failed pieces of legislation.”

DeSantis also delivered a message directly to cops in the city and elsewhere: “If you’re disenchanted, if you don’t think things are going to turn around wherever you are — not just in New York, wherever — just know that there’s a state that’s doing it right.”

“There’s a state that will value your service,” he added.

DeSantis then invoked the controversial “Defund the police” movement that gained steam following the 2020 murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis cop.

“What you started to see — particularly in 2020, but really even before then — were just political attacks on the people that wear the uniform,” he said.

“It’s like, you go in, you risk your life, you do something and then you have to worry about all these feckless politicians out showboating to try to run you down. Nobody wants to have to put their life at risk and then have to face that nonsense.”

DeSantis was introduced by Lee Zeldin, the former Long Island congressman and 2022 Republican gubernatorial candidate, who told the crowd that “the state of Florida has an exceptional governor who has spent years now taking his state in the right direction.”

“And if you are a law enforcement officer in a state like New York, and you see elected officials tying your hands behind your backs, putting the handcuffs on the criminal justice system instead of putting the handcuffs on the bad guys, well, Gov. DeSantis will give you a bonus if you make that decision to move down to Florida,” Zeldin added.

Earlier this month, The Post exclusively revealed a divisive new effort by the City Council’s Progressive Caucus to “reduce the size and scope of the NYPD.”

The move came after anti-cop activists held a monthlong protest outside City Hall in 2020, spurring officials to slash $1 billion from the NYPD’s annual operating budget.

It also followed the retirements and resignations of more than 3,700 NYPD cops in 2022, the largest exodus since the year following the deadly Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks that destroyed the World Trade Center’s twin towers.

About 70 people turned out for DeSantis’ appearance at the Privé catering hall, with many sporting NYPD gear or red ties and pins that signaled their allegiance to the GOP, which dominates local politics on Staten Island.

In addition to the Staten Island event, DeSantis was scheduled to give similar talks to law enforcement outside Philadelphia and Chicago, Democrat-dominated cities that have experienced a surge in violence in recent years.

Meanwhile, Mayor Eric Adams attacked DeSantis on Monday in a sarcastic message posted on his official Twitter account.

“Welcome to NYC, @GovRonDeSantis, a place where we don’t ban books, discriminate against our LGBTQ+ neighbors, use asylum seekers as props, or let the government stand between a woman and health care,” Adams said. “We’re happy to teach you something about values while you’re here.”

DeSantis’s press secretary, Christina Pushaw, quickly fired back in a tweet, “Nice rhetoric — but here’s reality: More Americans fled NYC than any other metro area last year.

“More Americans moved to Florida than any other state. You know this, Mayor Adams, and you’ve talked (accurately) about crime pushing people out of NYC. Florida’s crime rate meanwhile is at a 50 year low. Maybe it’s you who can learn from @RonDeSantisFL?”

DeSantis reportedly is planning to jump into the Republican presidential primary race in the spring.

He would join former President Donald Trump, 76, who announced his third White House bid in November, and ex-United Nations Ambassador and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, 51, who launched her campaign last week.

Trump has repeatedly ridiculed DeSantis as “Ron DeSanctimonious” and called him a “RINO [Republican in name only] GLOBALIST” in posts on his social media website, Truth Social.

Early Saturday, Trump denied a New York Times report that he’s been privately using an apparent ethnic slur against DeSantis, who is of Italian descent.

“I will never call Ron DeSanctimonious ‘Meatball’ Ron, as the Fake News is insisting I will,” Trump wrote at 1 a.m.

Following Monday’s event, attendees told The Post that they were eager to vote for DeSantis for president.

“Absolutely I would give my vote to DeSantis based on what he did in Florida,” said Joe Martingano, 63. “He kept [Florida] open during COVID, crime is down, unemployment is down.”

Vincent Buttaro, 70, who was accompanied by a little boy wearing an NYPD ball cap, also said he “absolutely” would support DeSantis for president.

Buttaro, who said he moved from New York to Florida, praised the governor for his military service and also said he’s “a family man, he worries about the children and he doesn’t play no games.”

“He speaks very well. He’s got a great agenda. He’s worried about the woke-ism that is going on in this country,” Buttaro said. “I tell you, I was a Trump voter. I liked Trump’s agenda but I like DeSantis.”