It was a horrific story. Fortunately, it’s not actually true.

Researchers have since uncovered major inaccuracies in the Times article, and police interviews revealed that some witnesses had attempted to contact authorities. In 1964, reporters at a competing news organization discovered that the Times article was inconsistent with the facts, but they were unwilling at the time to challenge Times editor Abe Rosenthal. In 2007, an article in the American Psychologist found “no evidence for the presence of 38 witnesses, or that witnesses observed the murder, or that witnesses remained inactive”.[7] In 2016, the Times called its own reporting “flawed”, stating that the original story “grossly exaggerated the number of witnesses and what they had perceived”

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Kitty_Genovese

Probably the best way to think about this is as stalling.

The administration can only get so much done before the mid terms provide a chance to block them. Just by fighting them on everything you reduce the amount they will do, even if you end up losing most of the initial battles.

This is something the Republicans have been really good at. Fight everything, prevent any progress, and play to your base. It would be nice if the Dems did the same for once.