Former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio admitted that Democratic lawmakers “should have been more critical” of former President Joe Biden ahead of the 2024 election, specifically over his initial reelection bid.
De Blasio echoed the Democrat’s ongoing soul-searching during President Donald Trump’s first 100 days, with the former mayor encouraging the party to “get back to our roots” and try not to “sound like the elite.” He also insisted the party could have won the 2024 election had Biden dropped his reelection bid earlier and if former Vice President Kamala Harris had been more clear she was taking the country in “a different direction.”
When pressed on whether Biden was up to do the job mentally, de Blasio acknowledged that he and many other Democrats “wanted to believe” that Biden was up to the task, and in the end was “wrong.”
“I don’t think I was lied to, I think it was magical thinking,” de Blasio argued on Fox News’s America’s Newsroom. “We wanted to believe what we wanted to believe. I think, sure, not everyone will agree, I think he did some very good things as president, but it was clear that he was not the same person towards the end of the term.”
De Blasio added that all Democrats “need to accept some responsibility” for losing the 2024 election, and should have done “an open process” ahead of the general election. When asked if he would have run for president in 2024 in this scenario, however, he claimed he would not.
“So I think we need to look at this and say ‘we blew it,’ let’s just say it out loud, we blew it,” de Blasio stated. “People did not feel we understood them and were empathizing enough. That is fixable.”
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The mayor also shared his thoughts on transgender athletes competing in women’s sports, to which he stated there is “legitimate concern” on this topic, namely for parents. His solution for this debate is to be “much more open” to allowing transgender athletes to compete before high school, and a “much more legitimate discussion” could be held for high school and college sports.
De Blasio is the latest Democratic lawmaker to shift on the party’s stance on transgender athletes, with Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) being the most notable when he said it is “deeply unfair” for these athletes to compete in women’s sports. Sens. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) and Andy Kim (D-NJ), meanwhile, have suggested the decision on including transgender athletes in women’s sports be up to local communities.