CLEAR LAKE, Iowa – New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio tried charming the audience at the Iowa Wing Ding by playing up the role of “proud papa” and telling the crowd his son, Dante, helped him prepare for battle with Fox host Sean Hannity.

“I want to introduce you to a recent college graduate, my son, Dante,” the mayor told the crowd at the Wing Ding, a traditional campaign trail cattle call at a lakeside town north of Des Moines.

“You don’t mind if I’m a proud papa for a moment, do you? Dante is also a New York State debate champion.”

De Blasio then spoke about trading jabs with Hannity during an hour-long TV interview on Wednesday night.

“I had a secret weapon a few weeks ago because he helped prepare me before I went on Sean Hannity’s show,” Hizzoner said.

“So I was able to put Sean in his place because I had a good coach.”

De Blasio gestured to Dante and his wife, Chirlane McCray, who were sitting in the front row to watch his mandated five-minute pitch.

Several seats down was former Vice President Joe Biden, who sat stone-faced through de Blasio’s speech.

De Blasio had attacked Biden hours earlier for a slip in which the ex-veep suggested that poor kids and white kids were two separate categories.

“‘Poor’ kids are just as bright and talented as white kids?” de Blasio tweeted. “To quickly dismiss @JoeBiden’s words as a mere ‘slip of the tongue’ is as concerning as what he said.

“We need to have a real conversation about the racism and sexism behind electability,” the mayor added.

During his appearance with Biden looking on, de Blasio didn’t go near the crop’s current frontrunner. Instead he stuck with his normal stump speech lines: including apologizing to the country as a New Yorker for unleashing Donald Trump.

At his conclusion he got a polite reception from the audience – better than some of the more obscure candidates like Rep. Joe Sestak, but less enthusiastic than how the audience responded to South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg.

Biden didn’t clap once. As de Blasio finished, Biden clenched Rep. Tim Ryan’s hand instead, as the Ohio congressman was sitting next to him and due onstage next.