Former Mayor Bill de Blasio on Wednesday hit back at the New York Times Editorial Board’s assessment of his time as mayor, criticizing what he called “the elitism and the out-of-touch reality” of the board.
The editorial board posted an opinion piece on the upcoming mayor's race earlier this week that said de Blasio “bears significant responsibility for the city’s problems.”
“His main legacy is to have contributed to the city’s recent decline,” the board wrote, adding that they believe de Blasio “did not take disorder seriously enough.”
“These guys don’t know what the hell they’re talking about. I am so sick of the elitism and the out-of-touch reality of the Times. What city are they living in?” he told NY1’s Errol Louis on “Inside City Hall.”
“I had Bill Bratton as my police commissioner in the beginning,” he added. “We drove down crime six years in a row to levels we haven’t seen since the 1950s. Were they there for any of that?”
De Blasio said he cares deeply for public safety and order.
“I was also trying to create reform and get rid of stop-and-frisk and bring police and community closer together, and we, in many ways, succeeded pre-pandemic,” he added.
In response to the board’s claims that he “set back the city’s K-12 school system,” the former mayor touted his Pre-K for All and 3-K initiatives, as well as rising test scores in schools.
De Blasio also claimed the editorial board unjustly praised former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who is the frontrunner in the mayor’s race. While the editorial board said that they had “serious objections to (Cuomo’s) ethics and conduct,” they also said he “has the strongest policy record of the candidates.”
“But much worse than what they said about me is, they’re basically saying, ‘Vote for the corrupt guy, Andrew Cuomo. Vote for the guy we said was corrupt and should resign because he’s more the status quo. He’s more reliable.’ Yes, he’s more reliability corrupt. He’s reliably part of the problem that created the affordability crisis in New York City today,” he said.
De Blasio said Cuomo didn’t help the five boroughs but instead “took care of his rich friends.”
Cuomo and de Blasio had a tense relationship during the seven-and-a-half years they were in office at the same time.
De Blasio declined to endorse a candidate in the Democratic primary during the interview.
“I’m not going to endorse. Lightning might strike, but right now, I have no intention of endorsing,” he said.
The former mayor said he believes the big issue on the campaign trail is affordability.
“I’ve talked to every New Yorker who is just feeling it so deeply, Errol, that they cannot figure out between rent or mortgage, groceries, child care, how they could make this puzzle somehow fit,” he said, adding people are looking for change.