De Blasio colleague questions bid

Mayor says he can run New York while on trail

NEW YORK — With friends like these, Mayor Bill de Blasio doesn’t need enemies.

New York Attorney General Letitia James expressed exasperation on the “Pod Save America” podcast over her fellow Democrat’s decision to run for president. She told the audience that New Yorkers “need a mayor who is going to be on the job 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”

“Has the crisis in affordable housing been addressed? No. Has income inequality been addressed? Equal pay for equal work?” she asked, with the crowd responding “No!” after each question.

“So what is the legacy? What are you running on?” she asked.

Yes, de Blasio can run for president, she said, “but the question is why? Por qué? What’s up?”

Then she smiled and added, “But he’s a friend,” before slumping in her chair in mock exhaustion.

James was a de Blasio ally when they served together on the New York City Council.

The mayor was asked Friday on his weekly appearance on WNYC radio whether his absence from New York on the presidential campaign trail would hurt the city.

“I’m absolutely convinced that my administration and I can continue to serve this city very, very effectively,” he said.

De Blasio was campaigning in Iowa on Friday and was scheduled to be in South Carolina on Saturday. Elsewhere on the campaign trail:

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-VT., released an online video decrying the proposed nuclear-waste dump at Nevada’s Yucca Mountain as an environmental risk opposed by Native American communities.

Sanders was in North Carolina, where he held outdoor rallies Friday in Asheville and Charlotte. He talked about the need to restore voting rights, reform K-12 education, eliminate poverty and address environmental racism.

A weekend tour of the South will take Sanders to South Carolina, Georgia and Alabama.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-mass, called for a series of measures designed to safeguard abortion rights following a flurry of new state laws that restrict women’s ability to terminate pregnancies.

Warren’s abortion rights platform,

Charlie Neibergall The Associated Press Democratic presidential hopeful New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, left, talks with George Naylor during a meeting Friday with family farmers in Churdan, Iowa.