N.Y. MAYOR JOINS WHITE HOUSE RACE
It’s about putting working people first, says prospective Trump challenger
MAYOR Bill de Blasio jumped into the crowded White House race on Thursday, defying hostile media and dismal polling numbers to cast himself as the Democrats’ best chance of unseating “con artist” Donald Trump in 2020.
The 23rd prospective Democratic challenger to Trump, de Blasio kicked off with a frontal attack on the Republican president, dubbing him “Con Don” for claiming he is on the side of working Americans.
“Donald Trump must be stopped,” he declared in a video
announcing his candidacy. “I know how to take him on.” De Blasio doubled down at a press conference. “He’s a con man, and we New Yorkers know a con man when we see one,” he said, adding: “We’re going to go right at him.”
The campaign “is about putting working people first”, the mayor said, highlighting his record in America’s most populous and diverse city.
Trump, meanwhile, skewered de Blasio in an early-morning tweet as “the worst mayor in the US”.
“He is a joke, but if you like high taxes and crime, he’s your man. NYC hates him!”
De Blasio had been exploring a possible run for months, travelling to early voting states Iowa and South Carolina, both of which he said he would return to in the near future.
His campaign has so far been met with widespread derision, with polls giving former vicepresident Joe Biden a commanding lead among Democratic contenders, followed by liberal Senator Bernie Sanders.
Democratic polling for de Blasio has been particularly humbling at home.
An eye-popping 76 per cent of New York City voters said de Blasio should not enter the 2020 race, according to a Quinnipiac University poll last month.
Local papers have taunted him for a lack of charisma and Thursday’s front page of the New York
Post tabloid was particularly scathing: a photo montage of people laughing hysterically above the headline “De Blasio runs for president”.