Mayor de Blasio said on Friday that he’s not ready to release policy proposals for his 2020 presidential bid — even though he has been toying with the idea of a White House run for five months.
“Is there anything new that you would propose if you’re elected president to address affordability and gentrification at the national level that you can’t do as mayor?” WNYC radio host Brian Lehrer asked de Blasio, who called in from the campaign trail in Iowa Friday morning.
“I’m going to come out with position papers over time,” the notoriously tardy mayor told Lehrer.
“You’ll understand it’s going to take a little bit of time to formulate the formal proposals.”
When a caller asked about the scrapped deal to build an Amazon headquarters in Queens, de Blasio accused the e-tail giant of having pitted municipalities against one another as it sought out tax perks in exchange for the promise of bringing in jobs.
Lehrer asked if de Blasio had “the outlines of a national law that could stop this race to the bottom, city against city for tax incentives for jobs.”
The mayor punted.
“I have the outline only, and we’re going to make it another one of those formal policy positions,” he said.
De Blasio was touring Iowa, where he sported a more fashionable look Friday as the newest Democratic presidential hopeful.
“If anyone has never needed a makeover, it’s me,” he joked. “My hardworking staff did have a few suggestions.”
De Blasio was not only slow to join the presidential contest — officially entering as the 24th Democrat in race Thursday — he’s also apparently taking his time getting to the gym in the mornings.
In a New York Times piece Thursday, columnist and fellow Park Slope YMCA member Jennifer Senior said the mayor lately had been arriving there for his morning workout “after 10 a.m.”
“I don’t know her. I don’t know what time she’s been at the gym,” the mayor huffed on Friday.
“I’m at the gym all sorts of different times depending on the day.”