Hizzoner: By gum, it’s easy!
In Iowa, Bill brags he can chew, walk & run city
DES MOINES — Stumping for a national liberal agenda while also running the nation’s biggest city is just like walking while chewing gum, Mayor de Blasio insisted Tuesday — and then he showed how it’s done.
“I can demonstrate,” he offered while seeking to dazzle progressives in Iowa. “I have gum on me.”
Hizzoner then popped a piece of gum into his mouth and strutted for reporters in a Marriott conference room in Des Moines. A few hours later, he sought to demonstrate his ability to hold the national stage at the holiday party of grass-roots group Progress Iowa.
In a speech, he ripped Democrats for favoring donors and abandoning working people.
“Guess what we ended up doing as a party?” said de Blasio, who endorsed former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton over Sen. Bernie Sanders in the 2016 primaries.
“We were desiccated. Our meaning was lost.”
He also outlined his record — highlighting universal pre-K, mental health intiatives and police reform — saying it creates a path forward for other Democrats.
“We’ve got to show them a vision that’s going to change their lives,” he said to the crowd of about 150 people.
But even on his visit to the heartland, he was dogged by New York issues.
Outside the Progress Iowa party, officers from the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association stood beside a lightup mobile billboard that blasted “The Imperial March,” the theme song of “Star Wars” villain Darth Vader.
He was also followed by questions about his motivation for visiting Iowa — whose caucuses are the first contests of the presidential race.
“No, I’m not running for President,” he said, repeatedly noting he had four years and 13 days to serve as mayor.
But he sees no problem with serving those days while also pushing the national agenda of the Democratic Party to the left, bemoaning an “identity crisis” after losing the 2016 presidential election.
While Hizzoner was able to walk and chew gum safely, it remains unclear if he can hit the national stage without choking — particularly after his withholding a presidential endorsement from Hillary Clinton for months backfired and his 2016 plans for a progressive presidential forum collapsed.
“I think there were things we could have done better for sure,” he said of his flopped organization, The Progressive Agenda Committee, which was launched in May 2015 arguing that “moment in history” changed with the emergence of Sen. Bernie Sanders’ candidacy.
While that fund-raising organization was shuttered, he acknowledged he likely would set up some kind of “operational capacity” going forward to fund his travel and to support candidates.
De Blasio was an hour late to a gaggle with reporters in his hotel, blaming it on meetings that ran long.
He was spotted chatting with reporters from national outlets in one-on-one interviews and shared an early lunch with mayors from several cities in Iowa.
“It seemed to me like he, de Blasio, was truly just trying to figure out America,” said Mayor Bill Peard of Waukee, a suburb of about 22,000 people about 20 minutes west of downtown Des Moines.