New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced in a Sunday interview that he would not rule out a run for the presidency in 2020.
“I never rule things out, because you never know what life brings,” de Blasio told CNN’s Jake Tapper on Sunday’s broadcast of State of the Union.
De Blasio told Tapper he was “focused” on being New York City’s mayor, but also revealed he was eager to leave New York City and take his political message nationwide.
“I’m focused on the job I have but I’ve also been really clear — I’m going to spread this message,” he said.
De Blasio said that the Democratic Party needed to move to the left, and that he needed to be the one to push the party in a more progressive direction.
“There are still a lot of moderate voices in the party that did not learn the lessons of 2016, that are not listening to what people need in this country,” he said. “So I want to push this whole party and I want to inform this debate in this country about the fact that we could go a lot farther, we could be a lot bolder than what we’re doing now.”
De Blasio’s Sunday CNN interview came days after he gave his sixth “State of the City” address on Thursday, where he dialed up the progressive rhetoric in his speech by pledging to take the money in the city out of “the wrong hands.”
“Brothers and sisters, there’s plenty of money in the world,” de Blasio said. “Plenty of money in this city. It’s just in the wrong hands. You deserve a city that gives you the share of prosperity that you’ve earned.”
The progressive New York City mayor, who was re-elected in 2017, once said in an August 2017 primary debate he would serve out all four years of his mayoral term— which ends in 2021.
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