New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg Defends Aide's Jab at Sarah Palin Mosque Tweet

(July 20) -- New York City Michael Bloomberg says his aide had a right to use Twitter to hit back against Sarah Palin's criticism of a proposed mosque near ground zero.

"I will defend her right to speak her mind," the mayor said Monday.

The war of tweets began Sunday when Palin called the mosque an "unnecessary provocation" on her Twitter feed.

"Peace-seeking Muslims, pls understand, Ground Zero mosque is UNNECESSARY provocation; it stabs hearts," she wrote. "Pls reject it in interest of healing."

Ben Hider, Getty Images

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg defended his aide on Monday for using Twitter to reply to Sarah Palin's criticism of a proposed mosque near ground zero.

That didn't sit well with openly progressive Bloomberg aide Andrea Batista Schlesinger, who quickly issued this response from her Twitter feed: "@SarahPalinUSA whose hearts? Racist hearts?" she asked. "Mind your business."

When a reporter asked Bloomberg on Monday whether Schlesinger's tweet "seemed to suggest that Palin was being racist," the mayor responded that his aide "more than 'seemed to'" suggest it, according to The Wall Street Journal. But Bloomberg added that, just like the former governor of Alaska, Schlesinger is entitled to her opinions.

"I don't agree with Andrea on a lot of things," he said, "and I don't agree with Sarah Palin on a lot of things."

When it comes to the mosque, the mayor has made it clear he thinks Palin is on the wrong side of the debate. "Sarah Palin has a right to her opinions, but I could not disagree more," he told reporters Monday.

"Everything the United States stands for and New York stands for is tolerance and openness, and I think it's a great message for the world that unlike in other places where they might actually ban people from wearing a burqa or they might actually keep people from building a building, that's not what America was founded on, nor is it what America should become," he said.

Bloomberg further said he likes having a staff of people with different political views.

"If we kept people from being able to speak their mind, I think we'd be hard-pressed to attract good people," he said, according to the New York Daily News.