Bill de Blasio reminded an irritated New York media how he got himself elected mayor of the nation’s largest city, and why he is likely to be a more formidable figure than they expected in the Democratic primary.

De Blasio set the tone of Wednesday night’s Democratic presidential debate: combative — he was the first to interrupt — and unabashedly ideological, electrifying what had been a sleepy round of introductions and repeatedly pulling the conversation to the left.

Early on, when debate moderators asked the candidates who among them would eliminate private insurance as president, only de Blasio and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren raised their hands.

De Blasio pulled attention, in part, with his blunt willingness to use his own story — his father’s suicide after World War II and his worries about his mixed-race son’s encounters with police — to make a political point.



But it was also his tendency to interrupt. The mayor’s first big moment came when he interrupted Beto O’Rourke as the former Texas member of Congress explained why he did not support eliminating private insurance.

“Wait wait wait, Congressman O’Rourke, private insurance is not working for tens of millions of Americans,” the mayor interjected when O’Rourke said he would not eliminate private plans. “When you talk about the co-pays, the deductibles, the premiums, the out-of-pocket expenses, it’s not working. How can you defend a system that’s not working? Congressman, you’ve got to start by acknowledging the system is not working for people. Why are you defending private insurance?”