New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has not declared his intention to join the crowded Democratic 2020 presidential field but he is in Iowa this weekend where only a couple dozen people braved the cold weather to hear him speak.
“We’re not going to win by talking about Donald Trump,” de Blasio said in a New York Post report.
“I have deep respect for our previous nominee — I know her very well — but I think a lot of us would say that was one of the mistakes, the focus on Trump,” de Blasio said of failed 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
But de Blasio criticized Clinton for her inability to unify the Democratic Party.
“There was not a true effort to say, ‘Okay everyone come in together,’ ” he said, adding the rather than hearing trash talk about their opponent Americans want to hear about “kitchen table” issues, generally defined as middle-class concerns over jobs, health care, etc.
De Blasio, while not directly complimenting President Donald Trump, warned about discounting him.
“Don’t go to sleep on Donald Trump when it comes to strategy,” de Blasio said. “He should not be underestimated.”
The Post reported:
De Blasio is on a two-day jaunt through the Hawkeye State spreading his lefty message of free pre-kindergarten, community policing and raising wages while repeating, ‘I have not ruled out a run for president.’
The mayor defended his progressive bona fides during a question and answer session with reporters by saying that Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Elizabeth Warren are “kindred” spirits.
The Post reported de Blasio will be speaking at Des Moines union hall Sunday.
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