New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio shrugged off the poor reception to his 2020 presidential campaign on Sunday morning, arguing that people “had to have liked me to have made me mayor of New York City twice.”
De Blasio appeared on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday, during which Dana Bash asked the mayor about polls showing that even most New Yorkers don’t want him to run for president.
“If I had believed the polls and listened to the polls in all my other elections, I might have just stayed home,” de Blasio said. “But it’s not where you start, it’s where you end. So much of the time, the polls don’t tell you the truth.”
“I’m going to ask you a question that is frankly often asked of women when they’re running,” Bash said later in the interview. “Do you have a likability problem?”
“I would argue, you know, when you’re talking about appealing to every kind of new Yorker and every kind of American, I’ve built those very broad coalitions,” de Blasio responded. “Folks had to have liked me to have made me mayor of New York City twice.”
Watch below:
De Blasio on the poor reception to his 2020 campaign: "Folks had to have liked me to have made me mayor of New York City twice.” pic.twitter.com/9iZq3jK5sS
— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) May 26, 2019
First, New Yorkers used to like Giuliani.
Second, there’re differences between wanting you as mayor and wanting you as president.
Having New Yorkers like you can’t make up for the general antipathy for New Yorkers in the rest of the country. New York is a tiny speck comparatively and the failure to get that is part of what we hate about New Yorkers.
Does his first election really count? De Blasio kind of won by default in that one.
Anthony Weiner would have been elected mayor if it wasn’t for his scandals. So Weiner’s downfall was to De Blasio’s benefit.
Further proof that nobody is more provincial than a self-appointed-important type who lives in NYC.
Um, not really. Weiner might have put in a good showing but he was not going to be Mayor. As for DeB, ignore him, this will be his last go round. He’ll have plenty of competition (if he bothers to run) next election from some really good Dems who’re smelling blood in the water.