Mayor Bill de Blasio on Thursday fired a broadside at front-runner Joe Biden, asserting that he was the better candidate to take on President Trump because the ex-veep was “out of touch” with today’s progressive Democrats.
“I respect him, but he’s out of touch with today’s Democratic Party,” the mayor told MSNBC the morning after the first Democratic primary debate in Miami.
“It has nothing to do with age,” he responded when asked if he meant that the 76-year-old longtime lawmaker was too old for the pressure-packed White House gig.
“Go over the issues. Until a few weeks ago, he was in favor of the Hyde Amendment, which is saying to millions of American women, ‘You don’t get to have choice if you don’t have enough money in your pocket,’” he said in some of his most critical comments about Biden to date.
The amendment barred federal funding for abortions unless the life of the mother was at stake or the pregnancy was caused by rape or incest.
Hizzoner, dead last or close to it in the polls, also ripped the former Delaware senator for citing his cordial relationship with racist, plantation-owning Mississippi Sen. James Eastland as an example of how he could work with people he disagreed with.
“His comments about Senator Eastland were worse than tone-deaf. He talked about having a civil conversation with a segregationist. For millions of Americans, that comment suggested the lack of understanding of our history,” de Blasio continued.
“And the problem is, again, I respect his public service, but Joe Biden is clearly the candidate of the status quo in a country that doesn’t want the status quo.”
De Blasio also said he has “what it takes” to challenge Trump because of their mutual history as New Yorkers — and because he was savvy to the commander-in-chief’s “tricks and games,” such as his penchant to peg his opponents with derogatory schoolyard nicknames.
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“He’s going to demonize the Democratic nominee under any circumstance, and the trick is — I learned this watching Donald Trump over decades. I really know his tricks and his games,” he said.
“He’s going to try that and the way to deal with it is to go back at him harder. One thing I was able to show on the debate stage is I know how to debate and I know how to mix it up. I’m not afraid to be aggressive,” he continued.
“When you think about who matches up against Trump, being able to take him on assertively, I feel like I have what it takes.”
And he explained his decision to mention his father Warren Wilhelm’s mental health issues after he was discharged from the military after serving in combat during World War II.
“It was PTSD, for sure. I watched his decline. He was an officer in the United States Army, a lieutenant, lost half his leg to a Japanese grenade. I remember I saw his physical struggles, but that paled in comparison to the emotional struggle,” he said about his father, an alcoholic who eventually committed suicide.
De Blasio said that experience galvanized his belief that health care, including mental health care, was a priority for Americans and especially for traumatized veterans.
“There’s no shame in the fact that a man served his country, came back and wasn’t the same man. We have to be here for our veterans. There’s people with mental health challenges all over the country that are not getting help. That’s the point, a health care system that’s missing so many of us,” he said.