New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio defended Hillary Clinton against criticism that she has taken money from members of the oil and gas industry in a press conference call hosted by her campaign on Friday afternoon. De Blasio touted his own reputation as a progressive leader and claimed the argument that Clinton is too cozy with the industry is false.
“I’m a progressive, and I tell you this one doesn’t hold water,” de Blasio said.
De Blasio, who worked as a political operative before running for office himself, managed Clinton’s U.S. Senate campaign in 2000. As a result of this relationship and the fact that the mayor has attempted to position himself as a national progressive voice, these are words political observers in New York and Washington, D.C., might have expected to hear from him far earlier in the primary campaign as Clinton weathered criticism that she’s insufficiently progressive from her rival, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. However, Friday’s conference call was the first time de Blasio headlined a public event as an official Clinton campaign surrogate,
Both Hillary and Bill Clinton attended de Blasio’s mayoral inauguration in 2014. At the ceremony, President Clinton swore de Blasio in on the steps of City Hall. Given de Blasio’s ties to the Clintons and his status as one of the more high-profile figures in the left wing of the Democratic Party, his role (or lack thereof) in Clinton’s campaign thus far has drawn substantial scrutiny.
It took more than six months for de Blasio to endorse Clinton after she entered the presidential race. During what the New York Times described as his “slow, awkward march” toward backing her, de Blasio repeatedly suggested he needed to see more details of her platform to ensure it was truly progressive. De Blasio finally endorsed Clinton late last October.
At the end of January, de Blasio traveled to Iowa to campaign for Clinton ahead of the caucuses in the Hawkeye State. However, he was not an official campaign surrogate and did not appear alongside Clinton.
De Blasio told the New York Times the Clinton campaign declined his initial offer to travel to the state on her behalf. Instead of acting as a surrogate, de Blasio knocked on doors and called voters unaccompanied by any member of Clinton’s team. Politico described the spectacle of the mayor doing what was essentially grunt work normally reserved for low-level volunteers as “awkward” and openly speculated whether he was paying “penance” for his slow endorsement of Clinton.
The Clinton campaign told Yahoo News that de Blasio’s first official public appearance with the campaign came when he spoke at a fundraiser for her at Radio City on March 2. It did not respond to a question about whether the press conference call on Friday indicated that the mayor will take on a greater public role in the campaign ahead of the New York primary on April 19.
On Friday’s call, Yahoo News asked de Blasio why he had not participated in public events with the Clinton campaign earlier in the race. De Blasio said that was a “question for them.” He also pointed out that he has regularly offered praise for Clinton since she “put out the fullness of her platform.
“I’ve been talking to the campaign since early 2015 on a very consistent basis, and I’ve constantly spoken up about what I thought was impressive about Hillary Clinton, why I thought she had more experience as a candidate and more qualifications as a candidate than anyone — almost anyone who’s run for president,” de Blasio said, adding, “I’ve been a campaign manager. A campaign has lots of decisions it has to make about how it’s approaching each state, who they’re working with in each place. That’s a question for them, but I can tell you I’ve been very comfortable speaking up for her.”
The conference call came together as a result of a conversation de Blasio had with the Clinton campaign staff on Friday morning. De Blasio said they discussed the attacks Clinton has faced for taking donations from employees of oil and gas companies, and he offered to “address it.”
Clinton’s contributions from members of the oil and gas industry were thrust into the spotlight on Thursday after she had a contentious exchange with a Greenpeace activist about the issue on the rope line following a campaign event. After the activist asked Clinton to “reject fossil-fuel money,” Clinton responded that she was “sick of the Sanders campaign lying about me.”
By Hunter Walker.
Culled from Yahoo News.
No comments:
Post a Comment