Metro

De Blasio asks Fox News to do town hall after bashing network for so long

Mayor Bill de Blasio — who once said “we would be a more unified country” without Fox News — is now courting the network to join one of its town halls to boost his floundering presidential campaign.

“We want to talk to all voters about why the mayor is the best candidate for working people — regardless of what news channel they watch,” de Blasio campaign spokeswoman Olivia Lapeyrolerie told The Post.

Five other 2020 Democratic contenders have either already participated in a town hall or plan to sit for one in the coming days: Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg, Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand and former Housing Secretary Julian Castro.

De Blasio is struggling to gain traction in a crowded field where fewer than 1 percent of voters in a recent poll said they would pick him as the Democrat to challenge President Trump.





The mayor’s eagerness for a Fox News platform clashes with his past remarks about the network.

Last summer he told The Guardian newspaper, “If you could remove News Corp from the last 25 years of American history, we would be in an entirely different place.”

News Corp is Fox’s parent company and also owns the New York Post.

De Blasio added in The Guardian interview, “We would be a more unified country. We would not be suffering a lot of the negativity and divisiveness we’re going through right now. I can’t ignore that.”

Then, a day after announcing his long-shot White House bid on May 16, de Blasio whined on MSNBC that “Rupert Murdoch’s New York Post has been attacking me.”

He was referencing the newspaper’s chairman and its front-page story headlined, “Everyone Hates Bill,” about how the announcement drew opposition from varied groups including the police union and Black Lives Matter.





Share this: