Former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio says he stands out from a crowded Democratic presidential field because he knows how to take on President Trump, pointing to the city’s battle with the administration over its policy on illegal immigrants as a prime example.
“He tried to take away our security funding here in New York City early in his administration because we respected the immigrants who are part of the fabric of life in the city,” Mr. de Blasio said Tuesday on CNN’s “New Day.”
“He thought I [would] cower before that threat. I said, there’s no way we’re changing our approach - we’re going to fight you in court, we’re going to beat you. We did beat him in court and he backed off at that point,” he said.
New York City, along with a handful of states, sued the administration in July 2018 over the administration’s policy saying that certain federal funding would not be made available to jurisdictions unless they cooperated with federal immigration authorities.
They joined a number of other jurisdictions that had already taken to the courts before then to fight the policy and had won favorable rulings.
In November 2018, a federal judge ruled that the administration couldn’t block federal funding over “sanctuary city” policies in the case that involved New York City.
“You can’t shrink before Donald Trump - you have to be tough enough to take him on,” Mr. de Blasio said. “I understand this guy’s game plan - I [have] watched it for so long. And I understand there’s a way to confront him that’s unnerving to him, that throws him off his game - it’s fighting back every single time.”
He also said he stands out from the crowded field in that he’s already shepherded policies he’s advocating like expanded health care and universal pre-K.
“The voters who are looking at the situation want to know who’s for real, who can prove that they’re actually going to do the things they’re talking about,” he said. “It’s very different to talk about something as opposed to proving you can get it done.”
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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