“If it happened today there would have been a very different reaction. There’s no question,” de Blasio said. | Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office De Blasio says Bill Clinton 'would have to resign' today

Mayor Bill de Blasio followed Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand’s lead somewhat on Monday, saying that former President Bill Clinton would have to resign the presidency today if the Monica Lewinsky scandal had occurred in the current political climate.

“I don’t think you can rework history. I think if it happened today — if any president did that today — they would have to resign,” de Blasio told reporters during an unrelated press conference in Queens.


Gillibrand, a potential presidential candidate in 2020 and once a close ally of the Clintons, shocked national Democrats last week during an appearance on a New York Times podcast, when she conceded that Clinton resigning would have been “the appropriate response.”

De Blasio, like Gillibrand, pointed to the times and the cultural changes that have taken place since the Clinton era, saying circumstances would be different if the same thing happened in the White House today.

“If it happened today there would have been a very different reaction. There’s no question,” de Blasio said.

The mayor has been close to the Clintons for several years. He ran former Sen. Hillary Clinton's campaign in 2000 and endorsed her presidential bid last year. Both Clintons attended the mayor's inauguration ceremony in 2014 and Bill Clinton held the Bible as de Blasio took his oath of office.

CORRECTION: Due to an editing error, the original headline and some text of this story incorrectly stated de Blasio said Clinton should have resigned his presidency. De Blasio spoke in hypothetical terms, saying if Clinton were president today, he would have to resign over the Lewinsky scandal.